Thom R's Open Salon Blog

What To Do In Portland

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:08:00 -0400

There are many things to do in Portland and one of them is to take the "Epicurean Excursion", which is part of Portland Walking Tours. Basically, it's a fun "foodie" experience, walking from one local and unique place to another and, sampling great food and beverages that are very much Portland and Oregon.

This is the third post on my personal experience with the "Epicurean Excursion". So, if you want to go back to the beginning of the tour, here are the posts: Portland Tours | Cool Walking Tours and Portland Tours | Past The Orange Tomato Soup. In other words, you will probably get lost on the tour and, they will have to send out a rescue team if you don't go back and read the posts.

These posts are not meant to take you on the "tour". Maybe, just to get the juices running a tad and show you a few photos.

I live in Oregon City, which is a bit south of Portland and I visit Portland quite often. My wife and I were a little stunned on the tour. We had no idea that some of the places on the tour even existed.

Not to mention the caliber of the places we visited. And, places you just wouldn't necessarily visit on your own unless you knew about them.

We left off with The Tea Zone and Camellia Lounge on the previous post. We are in the Pearl District and heading toward Hot Lips Pizza and sample a delicious slice of gourmet veggie pizza.

Hot Lips is not one of those groaty pizza chains. They are in the business of preparing and serving gourmet pizza and, if they indeed served groaty pizza they wouldn't last five minutes in the Pearl.

Next, we board a trolley and head to the Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars Shop. We sample cool olive oils and balsamic vinegars. A really rare experience. Nobody in our tour group had a clue that there were so many varieties of oils and vinegars. A first-class establishment and an extremely helpful staff.

Our last stop is the TartBerry Yogurt Shop. It's back to the Hot Lips Pizza thing. It's not some groaty chain, it's unique and their yogurt was delicious. We had the privilege of making up our very dish of yogurt and, you couldn't believe the selection of things you could add to the yogurt.

Hot Lips Pizza In The Pearl
Hot Lips Pizza
Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars
Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars
Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars
TartBerry - Portland
TartBerry - Portland Thanks to Adam Sawyer, our exalted and benevolent tour guide, and Portland Walking Tours. We are going to go on other tours that they have and see more of Portland. You can bet on it!

If you are looking for something to do in Portland, do check them out!

You can purchase my photography in different forms, i.e., Greeting Cards & Post Cards, Posters, Prints and more on my secure sites: Thom Zehrfeld Photography Or TRDesigns

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All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Richards, Copyrighted 2012-2013. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!

Portland Tours | Past The Orange Tomato Soup

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:08:00 -0400

If you read the first post on Portland Tours (Epicurean Excursion part of Portland Walking Tours) you would know that we had chocolate at Cacoa - Portland, Orange Tomato Soup at Flying Elephant Delicatessen and a dessert waffle at one of the food carts. You did read the first post, right? Well, here's the link to the first post if you didn't: Portland Tours | Cool Walking Tours !

As we are walking down the street, there are cool places to take note of, namely the "Living Room Theater" and Powell's Book Store (the largest in the USA and second largest in the world). In between was a stop for gourmet coffee at the Courier Coffee Shop.

After the Courier stop we went to the Pearl Bakery in Portland's upscale Pearl District where Gus Van Sant and k.d. Lang have lofts. With the bakery being a pleasant and surprising stop on the tour. We donned hairnets and toured the back room of this huge bakery. They offered a variety of gourmet breads and special EVOO to dip them in.

We passed more landmarks on our way to The Tea Zone and Camellia Lounge. Namely, the Portland Armory and Vera Katz Park...a small park named aptly after one of Portland's cool Mayors.

A Portland Landmark
Courier Coffee Shop - Did you spot our exalted leader? (One with the beard, not the purse!)
Super Nice Gals (Cute, Too) Posing At The Pearl Bakery
Assortment Of Breads At The Pearl Bakery
Cool Folks Visiting From Alabama At The Pearl Bakery
One Of The Numerous Trolleys In Portland
Menu At The Tea Zone And Camellia Lounge
Tea And Crumpets At The Tea Zone And Camellia Lounge
Folks At The Tea Zone And Camellia Lounge It's another "time out" for Portland Tours...the "Epicurean Excursion", which is part of "Portland Walking Tours". I'll wrap it up in the next couple of days.

Our exalted, beloved and competent tour guide was Adam Sawyer and he has a website at: Adam Sawyer Professional Gentleman of Leisure. Click on his site! He was an excellent host on our Portland Walking Tour and it's worth taking a look at his personal page.

You can purchase my photography in different forms, i.e., Greeting Cards & Post Cards, Posters, Prints and more on my secure sites: Thom Zehrfeld Photography Or TRDesigns

You can also keep my site active by checking out my quality advertisers! Only reputable advertising is allowed on this blog.

All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Richards, Copyrighted 2012-2013. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!

Portland Tours | Cool Walking Tours

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:08:00 -0400

Walking tours are really the only way to see a place, especially a cool place like Portland Oregon..well, Portland, Maine, too. Yes, you can get around and take in a few things riding on a tour bus but, hey, not like a walking tour.

As a gift, had the privelege going on the "Epicurean Excursion", which is part of "Portland Walking Tours". I had lived in Portland for a number of years and I thought I knew where a lot of the cool spots were. I was in for a big surprise.

Portland is a very progressive city. You read about all the things that are new and happening, but you don't really get a grip on those things until you start looking around the city.

The Epicurean Excursion part of Portland Walking Tours is three hours long, almost to the minute. Like from ten in morning until one PM. I wouldn't recommend bringing small children.

OK! This is not a review of the tour. This is a photo tour of the places we visited, and some of the food and drink we sampled as we went. All I can say is that we had a ball and would do it again. Folks that have lived in Portland all their lives should take the tour...geez, what's keeping you?

The tour started at the Heathman Hotel at ten sharp. Our tour guide, Adam, gathered us up and off we went. I bet you can't tell that the Heathman is a first-class hotel.

Heathman Hotel Lobby After the Heathman we went to a chocolate shop, aptly named Cacoa Portland. We relished the opportunity to sample seventy percent dark chocolate. It was delicious to say the least! Adam, our beloved and, excellent tour guide is on the left. The Owner/Manager(?) is demonstrating a Cacoa Bean.
Cacao - Portand
Cacao - Portland
Park Across from the Guild Theater - A Yoga Meet!
Next, we sampled tomato "orange" soup at the "Flying Elephant Delicatessen". Not just a tomato soup, but a super delicious tomato soup!

Here's the recipe and links to Molly's Recipes and Flying Elephant Delicatessen site. I don't want to steal their thunder...please check out both links. This recipe comes directly form Molly's site.

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick) (less could be good, maybe)
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)

In a saucepan, melt butter; add onion and saute until translucent. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, baking soda and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Puree in a food processor or blender; strain through a sieve or food mill. Return to saucepan and stir in orange juice. At this point, the soup can be refrigerated until ready to serve.

At serving time, add the whipping cream if wanted and heat gently, stirring constantly, bringing to a simmer and adjust seasonings if necessary. Extra cream maybe drizzled on top of the soup immediately before serving for decorative effect.
Flying Elephant Delicatessen Next, arrived at "Food Cart Square"! Portland holds some type of a record for the number of food carts...like 700 of them in the city. We sampled a type of dessert waffle, with powered sugar which was very good.
Food Carts Portland
Food Carts Portland "Euro Trash" ...not really, with things like Escargot!
Euro Trash Food Cart Portland

It is time to cool it for this post but things will continue with more of the Epicurean Excursion part of Portland Walking Tours in Part Two. So, enjoy!

You can purchase my photography in different forms, i.e., Greeting Cards & Post Cards, Posters, Prints and more on my secure sites: Thom Zehrfeld Photography Or TRDesigns

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All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Richards, Copyrighted 2012-2013. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!

Gladiolus Flower Gardens | Shocking Colors

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:08:00 -0400

We planted a Gladiolus flower garden in the spring. Glad (no pun intended) we did!

It was an assorted packet of Gladiolus with no clue what they would look like when they finally bloomed. When the first gladiola bloomed it was a big shock to put it mildly.

Actually, a color we hadn't seen before in any other flower...green. Also, the green gladiola has been in bloom for weeks, and just now starting to lose its bloom. Actually, quite a long blooming period as opposed, let's say to an Iris.

Hopefully, you can catch the different and brilliant colors of these beautiful gladiolas by looking over the photos. Can't wait for these annuals to come up next year again.

Gladiolus Flower Gardens
Gladiolus Flower Gardens
Gladiolus Flower Gardens
Gladiolus Flower Gardens
Gladiolus Flower Gardens
Gladiolus Flower Gardens You can purchase my photography in different forms, i.e., Greeting Cards & Post Cards, Posters, Prints and more on my secure sites: Thom Zehrfeld Photography Or TRDesigns

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All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Richards, Copyrighted 2012-2013. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!

George Rogers Park

Sun, 5 Aug 2012 10:08:00 -0400

Oregon and many of the metropolitan areas in Oregon have wonderful parks. Lake Oswego, just south of Portland has more than its share.

I featured another Lake Oswego park, Foothills Park awhile back. They are close together. In fact, you can almost walk from one to the other, but some private property prevents the completion of a connecting trail.

It's located along the Willamette River and you can walk south for miles along the river. It is a great walk and one that I hope not too many folks catch on to.

The Park is tiered...meaning the ball fields are on one level as you enter the Park (Looks like any old park from the street and that's good!). The picnic area is on the next level down and, what I would call the main area, is down yet another level next to the river.

On the lower level part of the original blast furnace (circa 1866) still stands from the Oswego Iron Company. It has been restored, to a point, and you will see a couple of photos of it here. Both inside and out. It's a blast!

George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park
George Rogers Park You can purchase my photography in different forms, i.e., Greeting Cards & Post Cards, Posters, Prints and more on my secure sites: Thom Zehrfeld Photography Or TRDesigns

You can also keep my site active by checking out my quality advertisers! Only reputable advertising is allowed on this blog.

All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Richards, Copyrighted 2012-2013. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!