London Eye

The first time I've seen the London Eye was only through pictures, and I though ok, it's pretty cool.  But when I was in London and saw the London Eye in person, I thought to myself, "oh my goodness, who thought of making this giant bicycle wheel?"   Not that I didn't like it, but it was more of like an amazement, I couldn't believe how huge this thing was.  Just look at how small that person is in the picture below compared to the London Eye.  Truly amazing for me, I could watch this giant wheel spinning for hours, maybe even bring a sleeping bag next time and take a nap in the surrounding park like a bum.

Pearl Ops July

Every time I find a bicycle, I always try to practice to see if I can find more interesting ways of taking pictures of it.  After a while it gets boring taking pictures of the whole bicycle over and over again.  So here it goes. 

I love the natural layer of yellow stripes over the wood board.  Nice.

Some art in a dog park in the Pearl.

Empty field in the Pearl.

Enjoying the nice weather by riding. 

I love how the new building construction is based off the old industrial warehouses in the Pearl.  I would love to move here someday.

Hardware & Architectural

This store called Hardware & Architectural is by far one of the coolest and probably my most favorite store in Portland.  We found this store as a part of our phase of exploring the Richmond neighborhood in Division.  This type of store is what I've been looking for in Portland and I'm glad it's here.  It's not a new store but very cool indeed.  This place reminds me of a flea market in New York, all of the items they carry are exactly alike.  Some things they carry are vintage looking items like bottles, signs, clocks, furniture and even vintage cameras.  The moment I went into the place, I felt like I was a little chap going into a candy store, drooling, starring at items in awe and drooling again. Yeah, this place is that awesome!!!

I love this fender piece, they had it in front of the store.

There are some many unique and interesting items here.  My wife had to hold me from buying many items that were cool.

 Many of the light fixtures are custom made by a guy that works in the store.

The store is huge, there is a whole second section in the back of the store which carried the bigger items such as window frames, doors, and wooden sectionals like the picture above.  This is my all time current favorite store in Portland.  Check it out!!!

Division Ops

Division is such an awesome place to explore, we passed it by a couple times before just to see potential stores we can to by to and found that there were many thrift/vintage clothing stores all along Division.  This thrift store that we went to was called Bearly Worn.  They had some pretty good stuff here and the time we went there, they had a sale on top of their regular prices because they were going out of business.  It's unfortunate they had to close.  We found a couple cool items here.  Nana found a red vintage shirt and a G-Star shirt.  I found a G-Star jeans for $6.  Nice.

The woman and the dog exploring Division.

Shoes.

An awesome picture of meat. I was attracted to the sign.

There was this old sign/board of a bicycle shop, I wanted to take it but it was soaking wet. 

La Petite Provence

My wife and I are in this phase of exploring Portland and going to the places we've never been too.  One of the areas that we went to was Division.  We went along Division from about 60th avenue down towards downtown and stopped at every place that looks interesting; I find that this method is the best way of finding cool new places in Portland. 

What we found so far in Division is that there are many vintage/thrift stores, at least a couple food cart communities, cool home goods/furniture stores and some of the best restaurants in Portland.  For me Division is like one of Portland's best kept secret, maybe because I rarely go to this area.  Anyways, while we were exploring the street we passed by this European looking cafe, all black looking with yellow accents.  We walked pass the entrance a couple times to see what the place was and it turned out to be La Petite Provence.  We have heard of the place before and thought there was only one in the Alberta location, but here in Division also?  It turns out that they have four locations including this one, so we had to check it out.

The place is cozy, the atmosphere is very relaxing and the food looks very delicious.  All of their decor instantly reminded me of Europe, even the people working there had accents.  The place was packed with people enjoying the weekend and the food. 

Before going into Petite Provence, we had our lunch just up the street at Pizzicato Pizza because we were really hungry.  So going to eat a second lunch within an hour was really pushing it but we just had to try this place.  La Petite Provence is famous for their French Onion Soup so we ordered a cup of soup and for dessert we tried Monkey Love since it was highly recommended by the staff that was helping us.  

The French Onion Soup is probably one of the best soup I've had in my life.  The texture was smooth, the onion wasn't too funky that it makes you choke.  The best part of the soup was the cheese along the top because it was crispy.  I thought about this soup for the rest of the week and can't wait until I go there again.  The Monkey Love is also awesome,  it has a coconut cream in the inside with banana covered with chocolate goodness.  This was also another desert that will always forever be in my heart.   I highly recommend this place and my journey continues as I cross another place off from my official "Places To Eat in Portland" list.
I wish La Petite Provence would open in Beaverton, that would be great.

Field Guide

Next by where I live, there is this huge field and it hasn't been cut for a long time. So the whole lot is basically an overgrown field of vegetative flora. So I thought what a perfect time to let Keila go to paradise. As soon as I let her loose, she took off running, never to be seen again. Just kidding, she was just covered by tall grasses. 

Water Avenue

This year, we decided to try to go out to the parts of Portland that we usually never go to.  Just to see the side of the city that we've never seen before.  Plus when I was younger, driving all over Portland was my favorite thing to do.  So it's nice to this again.

We stopped by Water Avenue which is in the East side of the Willamette, right across from downtown Portland; technically this area is called Buckman, SE Portland.  This area has many old buildings and warehouses.  There's not too much commercial businesses here but there is a new movement inner-city development of turning areas like this into businesses like restaurants and coffee shops.  I'm pretty sure in a couple years, there will be more business showing up here.  Also, OMSI is there, who doesn't love OMSI

Some of my favorite places in the area are:
- Montage - an awesome eclectic restaurant.
- Produce Row Cafe - nice late night restaurant/bar hang out place
- Water Avenue Coffee - good coffee, cool place
- Coava Coffee Roasters - very cool place and atmosphere
- Clarklewis Restaurant - on my official "To Eat" list of restaurants this year.  I always hear good things about   this place

 The woman enjoying the area.


We finally decided to stop and try this place called Water Avenue Coffee.  It's been at least a year of passing by this coffee shop and every time we pass by it, I always say "we should try this place." 

The interior of the Water Avenue Coffee is awesome.  The place has a modern feel mixed with a retro accents, the perfect combination.   I love the shelving system they have behind the counter with many coffee memorabilia as decor.  Nice.  Unfortunately, at that time the staff wasn't too friendly.  But I would come here again. 

The menu is simple and the coffee is awesome, it's in my top list of good coffee in Portland.

Good dog!!!  He was watching us the whole time we were there.