Friday, July 2, 2010

Exploring Portland Neighborhoods

The rain was coming down in buckets this morning after breakfast (not what the forecast had said,) but instead of trying to tough it out in the hotel room, we borrowed a couple umbrellas and jumped on the MAX and Portland Streetcar up to the Pearl neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown, home of the mighty Powell's Books. Wynn figured out there had to be a kids' section and soon we were picking books to read while the rain kept up its beat.
By 10:30 our tummies (still not on Pacific time) were telling us to find food, so we hiked east about seven blocks to the Chinatown neighborhood.
And had lunch at Ping, where we had absolutely delicious pork bao, grilled chicken skewers, rice, and toast with coconut jelly. We ordered seconds on the bao...

Wynn getting her groove on to some old-school James Brown
After lunch we spent time at the Lan Su Chinese Garden, built 10 years ago in cooperation with artisans from Suzhou, China. It is said to be the most authentic Chinese garden overseas. It takes up an entire city block and is utterly gorgeous.
Can NOT get Wynn to pose for a nice, proper picture anymore.

We are taking a breather now before heading back out for some afternoon adventuring. The clouds are beginning to break up, and there's still much to see.

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