Sunday in the City

Awesome as Forest Grove is, with the nearby field, playground and pool, Portland is a wonderful place to spend a summer afternoon.

Unfortunately, the boys left the market
with splitting head aches.

So on a bright sunny Sunday we headed out to the "Saturday" market (what's in a name, after all) to see what was on offer. Those of you who live in Del Ray know the annual "Art on the Avenue" festival. Well, multiply it by 10 and have it run every weekend from March to December, and you'll get a rough idea.

Fun Portland fact....they love their fountains! The drinking fountains are plentiful, and always running. Why so many? They were set up so that the loggers coming into town would be able to slake their thirst on something other than beer. Then there are the many decorative water fountains...most of them, such as the one at the Saturday market is set up for kids (and kids at heart) to walk in and play.

Powell's Books on Burnside includes the 3-story white bldg.

But you can only have 3 kids look at kitchy art stalls for so long before the insurrection (no matter how fun the fountain!). So after a couple hours it was off to Powell's Books. It's like a cross between Ikea and Amazon - with new and used books grouped into color-coded rooms. It's huge!

This should last us for the week.

Like Ikea, there are maps for patrons to use and plenty of signage. And, like Ikea, it's hard to go in without finding just a few things you can't live without.

On the way to Powell's we passed a Portland landmark - Voodoo Doughnut. Everywhere we went that day we saw people walking around with the eye-catching purple box of awesomeness. One look at the line outside the place, and it is instantly clear why you see people with boxes (after that wait, you can't just buy one), and why we would be giving it a miss this time around.