Treks and Travels: 10/25/10 Day 22

Bob and Karen had to go to work early, so we got up and had breakfast with them before we left. We parked (for free) at the train station in Gresham and bought all day tickets for the train. It was only an hour-long ride to Portland, but it was interesting to watch the scenery slide by the windows. We got off at Pioneer Square, and walked into the Portland visitor’s center. We had one sight we wanted to see for sure, and we needed to know how to get there. Amber and Jenna had told us about a place called VooDoo Donuts. They are famous for having some very delicious, albeit very strange, creations.

Eric is eating their signature Voodoo Doll donut.

We got a Portland Crème donut, not to unusual; a donut with peanut butter and chocolate icing and topped with crumbled Oreos called “Old Dirty Bastard;” and their namesake donut, which is a raspberry jelly filled long john with arms and a face. It had a pretzel stick stabbed into it that you could use it to cast voodoo pain on someone. They were all delicious, but Old Dirty Bastard was our favorite.

After that we walked around Chinatown and back to Pioneer Square to sample the goods at the farmers market. On our way we stopped at a cool used bookstore, where I bought a book that by chance happened to be by a local author. Then we passed a block of food carts that all smelled delicious, but I couldn’t get anything because we had packed sandwiches.

On our way back to the heart of the city, we met a young man on a street corner working for Children International. He was very friendly, even though we were unable at the time to spare a donation from our meager travel budget. He had only been living in Portland for half a year, but he told us how great it was and what areas we should check out.

Following his suggestion we crossed the river to see what the other side of town had to offer. We tromped around for another hour or so before we got tired and decided to take the train back to the car.

A draw bridge we walked across

From there it was a long drive to the other end of the state where Virginia’s cousin, Gabe, lives in Talent, Oregon. He hadn’t had time to prepare his spare room for us, so we spent that night in the living room, Virginia on the couch and me in a recliner. The living room is probably the coolest room in Gabe’s house. It has plants growing everywhere and tanks for all his pets. Aside from his two dogs, Gabe also has a rabbit, a hedgehog, a gecko, two lizards, a hamster, and a boa constrictor. He proudly showed them all to us while we made ourselves comfortable.