Julia Winter

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g52024-d3878569-Reviews-Blue_Star_Donuts-Portland_Oregon.html

I second PokPok.  I think Alberta Street in NE Portland, between 15th and 25th (roughly) is an excellent slice of Portland life.  Salt and Straw, near 21st on Alberta, is another big Portland thing - it's gourmet and unusual ice cream.

If you like planned city parks, Laurelhurst Park is a gorgeous place to spend some time.  You can take a stroll, have a picnic, watch people, watch dogs. . .  (from Wikipedia:)

Laurelhurst Park is a city park in the neighborhood of Laurelhurst in Portland, Oregon.[2] The 26.81-acre (10.85 ha) park was acquired in 1909 from the estate of former Portland mayor William S. Ladd. The City of Portland purchased the land in 1911, and the following year park superintendent Emanuel Mische designed the park in accordance with the Olmsted Plan.

In 1919, the Pacific Coast Parks Association named Laurelhurst Park the "most beautiful park" on the West Coast, and in February 2001 it was the first city park ever to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3]  

So, the trees planted for this park are now over a hundred years old.  If you like lovely old houses, the homes around and especially to the north of Laurelhurst Park are very nice.

One great thing about Portland is the bike system.  There are neighborhood greenways - city streets that are set up as bike "highways."  They get priority over cross streets (no stop signs) and when they cross busy car streets, there are special crosswalks and buttons you can push that STOP the cars pretty quickly.  



There's a bike share system, so you can rent a bike easily.  I do recommend some biking.

I like Duluth Trading Post.  I also like Lands End for clothes - they have many, many sales.  Their kids clothes are tough enough to last through multiple kiddos.

I see ads for t-shirts made of wool - expensive, but supposed to go for 100 days without needing to be washed.  I found this article:

https://merinowoolrocks.com/top-merino-tshirts-2019/

I don't think stripping the natural oils from your face helps.  There are people getting great results washing their face with water and oil.  Seriously.  You splash water on your face, then a few drops of oil onto your hands, then rub that all over to loosen up dirt and oil, then rinse with hot water.  

https://www.minimalistbeauty.com/oils-specifically-for-acne-prone-skin/

The woman who runs this site has had great success with DIY cleansers based on oils.

Powell's is still there, still huge, still awesome.

What do you like?  Portland is a great place to try unusual food.  It's a great place to find unusual clothes (if you like that sort of thing).  There are amazing ferny hikes.  You're not that far from the ocean and if you don't get to the ocean much, you should allow a day trip to the coast at least.  You could drive to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood and see snow and eat a nice meal in a gorgeous WPA project (if you're into 1930's timber framing and craftmanship).

What about measuring the amount of fuel required to bake a pizza, and compare to the amount of fuel needed to bake a pizza with a cob oven (if you can find a cob oven - where I live in Portland Oregon that wouldn't be hard).

It's really more accurate to call Ten O'Clock Acres "Eliot's Farm" instead of Julia's Farm.  He is there much more often than I am, given that I'm working full time as a pediatrician.

I'm sorry we didn't get to make a group recording with Eliot and Jocelyn and others, but it was very nice to sit down amongst the art at the Kennedy School and chat with Paul for almost three hours.  

I am eagerly looking forward to seeing pictures of that gorgeous pit garden (I think even the circular walls are beautiful) after there have been some rains!

I want to second the request for regular pictures taken from the same location.  Humans respond well to "before" and "after" pictures.  Taking the picture on the same calendar day every year, or like you said previously, every 6 months.

That's beautiful!  I'm so glad the artistic possibilities of cob are being explored (in addition to structural and thermal).

Probably 15 years ago I bought a VitaPrep, which was Vitamix's professional version.  It lasted maybe 12 years, which I guess is pretty good.  I hear that there are 20 and 30 yr old Vitamix blenders still going strong.

Now I have a Vitamix, purchased at Costco, and it's fine.  We bought a stainless steel container for it, for a plastic free experience.  This is an expensive route, though.

If you could find an old Vitamix in good shape, that would be an excellent purchase.  I think the best bet would be estate sales.