November 27, 2016. Our new home?

LOCATION:  House-sitting in Portland, Oregon

WEATHER:  Partly cloudy.  High about 50

  Note  - this is really November 28

We played with Lola, fed the fish, tidied up the house,  then were off to explore another part of Portland.  We bought our trusty Day Pass, grabbed the bus near our house, then transferred to another one that took us to Division Street.

 

We had read about an Hawaiian rice ball shop in that area and that was our destination for a pre-lunch.  

When we lived in Japan, onigiri (honorable rice ball) was one of my favorite foods.  They are commonly used in lunch boxes.  The Hawaiians have adopted, then adapted onigiri, adding their twist....SPAM!  They call them Musubi in Hawaii.  Some guys who lived there have now set up Musubi shop. They serve these triangles of rice with different stuffing ingredients.  

We stuck with the more traditional kind.  I had umeboshi which is a rice ball with a pickled, salted Japanese plum inside.  George had his stuffed with smoked salmon.  Both were wrapped with nori seaweed

We strolled down Division Street which is really funky.  Interesting shops, modular apartment complexes, old houses, restaurants.  It has a cool neighborhood vibe.  We found a food truck area, each with a unique offering.....ramen, sushi, wood-fired pizza, organic vegan deli food, and......beer.    

We continued our walk until we found this cute little restaurant, obviously an old house that has been renovated.

They feature beers from this brewery.

We sat on the front porch and watched people go by.  We were also interested in this condo being built in front of the restaurant.

  As we sat there, we realized that we could really see ourselves living here.  It has great public transportation....would be easy to get to the airport from this area.  Wonderful neighborhood vibe.  No need for a car with all shops either nearby or within an easy bus ride.  We moved inside to have a cup of chili, and talked with another couple  who had moved here from San Francisco.  They love the area.  We are going to look into the prices of some of the small apartments.   Who knows? 

 

We walked some more on a side street and ran across this brewery.  The sun came out and everyone sat in the open garage door area soaking it up. 

Two bus rides later, we were back home.  Another great day!

 

DINNER:  The leftovers from Thanksgiving are almost gone.  I bought a rotisserie chicken to go with the leftover stuffing and leftover cranberry relish.  The only thing still in the refrigerator are some mashed potatoes.  

After dinner, we watched the show "Grace and Frankie" on Netflix.  We had watched season one last year when we were here, and are now finishing up season two.