VooDoo - Chinese Garden
Friday, August 25, 2017, 06:00 PM
We had breakfast in the condo and then ventured out onto the StreetCar and got off at Central Library. We then took a Max blue line train to the Skidmore Fountain stop and walked blocks to VooDoo Doughnut. The purple donut shop was a treat. There was a line as usual but it moved quickly. They had many many kinds of donut concoctions. I got a Portland Creme and the Bacon Maple donut which was something I read about years ago. it was great. We sat outside with a young couple from New Orleans and a young man from Birmingham, all visiting. We then had a nice walk the few blocks to the Chinese Garden. We opted for the docent led tour which was outstanding. We learned a lot about the architecture, the stones and plants. Chinese incorporate 4 elements. Plants, stone, water and architecture in designing a refuge from the outside world. After the tour we stopped into the tea house and had roasted peanuts and tea. I had the "8 Treasures" or Ba Bao Cha. The tea was outstanding with lots of types of leaves, stems and twigs that were supposed to be a Chinese elixir. The most interesting part of the tea was the interesting mug. I want a tea mug just like the one in the tea house. We looked in the garden shop and the tea house where tea and some mugs were for sale but not the ones they served us with. We next got onto the Max and then the streetcar and visited Powells for the rest of the afternoon. It is an amazing place. Four floors of a building that covers an entire city block is spectacular. I bought 3 used books. One was an Acadia publishing book of Death Valley history, one was a book of Hemingway Short stories and the last was an impulse purchase. I was attracted o the title which was "Tampa" which was a suspense/mystery book on a table advertised as new books at used prices. When done we hopped the streetcar and went back to the condo to drop our stuff off, wash our hands and do other bathroom functions. We sadly learned today that John Carter passed away. This was shocking although we knew that he wasn't doing very well. We got more wine at Safeway for wine and cheese then headed out on the streetcar up to the PSU campus. We got off at a station called PSU Center which was totally amazing. It was part of the campus with a brick quad but what was amazing was the number of intersecting light rail tracks with trains going every which way. The challenge was going to be finding which Streetcar to get back on to go back. We walked 3 blocks up to Hot Lips Pizza where we each had an Ashland Amber craft beer. I ordered 2 slices, a Pepperoni pizza and a Sicilian Veggie slice. The slices were huge and I should have only ordered one. We decided to walk all the way back since it was only 0.6 miles. On the way back we stopped at the Old Church since it was before the 7 PM concert start to find out about tickets. The place was only half full so we bought 2 tickets for $36. The concert started with local musicians, each playing 2 songs. This wasn't too bad but then our headliner, Haley Johnsen came up. Who is a very slim, sexy and pretty lady who was on American idol She has a great voice but the number of guitars in her band drowns her out. She is much better without all the noise such as when she sang solo strictly with an acoustic guitar. It was beautiful, I wish more of her music was like that. We left a little after 10 and then it was home and to bed.
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