Lloyd Center Mall

Lloyd Center Mall is really easy to get to from downtown Portland. It's right off of one of the MAX stations, the last stop in the ride free area. We weren't out specifically to shop, however after the market, cherry blossoms, brief sleet on Saturday and a lunch out, we found ourselves in that area. Before we hopped on a train to get home I said "Lets go check out what this big mall is like."

Not too long ago I overheard some people talking about an ice skating rink inside a mall, but I didn't know where it was. Apparently it's right there. There were lots of kids out (I can't remember the last time I was in a shopping mall this crowded) and the ice looked pretty rough. A girl on the rink grabbed onto the rail near us and complained her feet hurt. I don't know if this would be the best place to ice skate, but I really like skating & this is closer to us than the roller rink...I might give it a try if I can figure out when it is less busy. According to wikipedia, this is where the infamous Tanya Harding first started to skate.

I was surprised to learn that Lloyd Center has been there, in one form or another, since 1960. We left the place saying "the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland" because it reminded both of us ohio natives of some of the shopping malls that came and went in that decade. Who knew there were still suncoast video stores, for example. According to this article, the mall was enclosed in 1990 and a food court and theaters were added. The place is huge, but has a lot more natural light than many shopping malls.

 

I've heard tales of people being stopped by mall security for taking photos, since it is a private building. (also interesting to note, Lloyd Center has been involved in supreme court cases on that subject) but I noticed parents taking pictures of the kids on the ice, so I thought I could get away with it. Hopefully that gives you a better idea of the natural light and the scale. With something like 200 shops, this place is pretty huge!

Vegan Dining: Sizzle Pie

Sizzle Pie is a fairly new pizza place on Burnside, which just opened at the start of 2011. Chuck has something of a mental cell phone app that knows our proximity to vegan pizzas. I wanted to walk over the Burnside bridge to get yet another view of the Cherry Blossoms, which meant that Sizzle Pie wasn't out of the way for lunch.

  

This was essentially our breakfast and lunch. We ordered 2 slices each of the two vegan pizzas (which are in the top of the case in the photo on the left.) The brunch pizza (in the middle) is called Drugs Benedict and has tofu scramble, hash browns, vegan bacon bits and a really tasty bean sauce. We followed that immediately with our lunch, the Spiral Tap. Alternating stripes of caramelized onions and marinara sauce so it was pretty as well as really tasty. And of course we ordered beers. 

Giving their menu a glance, I am really eager to try anything with their Basil Cashew Spread. And I'm highly amused with the Caligula salad with vegan ranch dressing. One morning when we're not quite as hungry we definitely have to go for the brunch special.

There's a nice set of photos of the interior here, and it's a nice clean, modern design: very comfortable. They have a jukebox and while we were there there was metal playing. Not usually my kind of music, but for a restaurant with the slogan "death to false pizza" it just felt right.

Just a few more pictures of Cherry Blossoms

Okay I can't help myself I need to post a few more pictures of cherry blossoms. Of course we went back to the waterfront today to look at them more. It's too pretty to miss. Yesterday's post was mostly close ups, maybe I can change things up a bit by focusing on the trees and their context. I took tons of pictures, I know some of them should be like that. It probably helps that we did cross the river to take a look at the view today.

Even more in my waterfront set on flickr, and even more than that on my hard drive. By the way, it wasn't so sunny when these pictures were taken. Shortly after this we were hanging out in a stoop to avoid a bit of sleet. But it was sunny in the morning (for the market) and this passed quickly. It returned to a nice sunny afternoon, if just a little chilly.

Peak Cherry Blossom Day!

Some of my family members were going to be in D.C. this past Tuesday for the peak of the cherry blossoms. When I heard that I thought, well Portland has cherry blossoms, I should go out Tuesday and see if that's the peak. I didn't manage to get out there Tuesday, but via timberpress on twitter I saw today was close to the peak for the blossoms on the river. Yay! I've been excited about those trees blooming since I saw they lined the river on our apartment hunting trip. Anyway, I had to get over there for pictures today & will probably go back over the weekend. It even ended up being a perfectly clear, warm & sunny afternoon. I've typed enough. This post really needs to be about the pictures of the gorgeous cherry blossoms!

  
  

And then some, and we might, possibly, go back over there over the weekend if it's sunny again. Many Portlanders were out taking pictures, also saw a picnicking family, and a bride & groom having their photos done. Spring is here!