Even though she's younger than our kids, Cielle is Grandad's first cousin. Her mom and Grandad's Mom are sisters. Cielle is recently married to Jerome and they live in Portland. Getting to spend a little time with them was an unexpected bonus for our trip. They live in the Hollywood District of Portland and we had them choose a place for brunch. They met us at The Screen Door, one of Portland's most popular brunch sites.
To paraphrase Paul Gerald, The Breakfast Guy, who blogs at Breakfast in Bridgetown, in Portland they don't go to church, they go to brunch and The Screen Door is considered the holy of holies. The wait for a table is more than an hour, but we didn't mind. The wait gave us time to chat with Cielle and Jerome, which was the main thing we wanted to do anyway. Cielle is a grad student working on her certification as an K-12 art teacher. Jerome is following in his father's footsteps as an appliance repairman.
The food was wonderful. In the photo is the pimento cheese and bacon grilled cheese sandwich which was served with two eggs and seasoned fried potatoes. It was the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever tasted. Both Cielle and Jerome had fried chicken with waffles. I wish I had taken a photo of the stack of food they got, but I didn't. Take a minute and click over the The Breakfast Guy's review of The Screen Door. Then scroll down the page and look at the chicken and waffles. They looked just like that ... three chicken breasts with sweet potato waffles, served with maple syrup. We lingered over brunch and enjoyed the company as well as some hot apple cider with spiced rum. They gave us some advice about things we should see and do while we're in the area.
After lunch we drove up to Washington Park to take a look at the International Rose Test Garden. It had been drizzling all day, but by the time we got to Washington Park the drizzle had progressed to full out rain. In the spirit of Oregonians, we were not deterred. Grabbing our umbrella which was furnished by our condominium, we ventured out into the gardens. The rose gardens are spectacular, acres and acres of rose bushes of every type in various stages of bloom. But the weather got progressively worse with wind, rain, and temperatures in the mid 40s. We only lasted about 20 minutes before we headed back to the car. But we did see some beautiful blossoms and I feel inspired to plant some new additions to my rose bed this winter.
This Texas girl is definitely not used to this much rain. We've been in a huge drought for several years now. Rain is an event in South Texas. We've been told that Oregonians can identify the tourists by their umbrellas. The locals just ignore the rain and go right on with life. We've seen people skateboarding, walking, and bicycling in the ever-present rain. The rain continues, and we're just getting on with our vacation.
On the agenda for tomorrow is a trip to Astoria for a visit to the Oregon Film Museum.
