Portland, OR Day 3: We take the Max downtown, see some sights, and eat more doughnuts (after a healthy vegan lunch!)

Our third and last full day in Portland dawned drizzly, gray, and chilly.  Just the kind of weather Portland is famous for, I guess!  We decided to take a well-earned day off the bikes and see the sights another way. 

Barry had figured out that one of the Max (metro) stations was within easy walking distance of our hotel, so once the rain stopped, we headed out on foot and actually figured out how to use the automated ticket machines to buy a day pass for each of us.  

After a short wait, our driver "Max" arrived.  "He" provided an easy and comfortable ride to downtown.  So much more relaxing than driving and allowed us to see more Portland sights along the way.

We got out at the Union Station stop to look around some.  

I'm still not sure I understand all the plaques and references to "The Green Man of Portland" (I know, I could google it, right?) but to me it's just another part of what "keeps Portland weird".  I like it!

Here are a few things we saw just strolling around downtown.  It's an eclectic and interesting place, and we especially appreciated all the trees growing everywhere.  It's a far greener downtown than we've experienced in most big cities.

Before too long, we were feeling a bit peckish, and a natural choice was the food trucks that grace downtown.  Good food at good prices!

Although there are plenty of good choices, we were both drawn to "Sonny Bowl" and their nutritious vegan food.  You have to love a place with a hand-written note on the menu board stating "No ripe avocados today...sorry to bum you out."  Portlandia, anyone?!

We both went for the "Blackbean Bowl", consisting of black beans, cilantro-lemon sauce, kale tossed in tahini dressing, topped with jicama-carrot-radish slaw in cumin-lime dressing and walnut faux-rizo, served over brown basmati rice.  At $7 for a large, it was a DEAL.  I would have been fine with the $4 small size, as it turned out.  It was absolutely delicious but was a lot of food and quite filling.  Who says vegan has to be bland and boring?  
 
Barry also got a Kale-Mango smoothie, at $4 for the small size.  It was delicious (I had a sip).  

We enjoyed our lunch right by the Willamette River.

A little something sweet after lunch sounded good, and although I never thought I'd eat another doughnut after our first day in Portland gorging on Voodoo Doughnuts, somehow we ended up there again!  

It's gotta be the voodoo.

We learned that every Thursday they offer a special doughnut filled with one of "Kelly's Jellys".  This week just happened to be Habanero Jelly, so of course Barry had to try that.  He's showing it off in the photo above.  I tried a small bite and found that it really wasn't as hot as I expected.  The Mexican Hot Chocolate doughnut coated with sugar and cayenne that we tried on our first visit was hotter.  But it was tasty!

Here were today's selections.  Oh so yummy.  There's nothing like eating a virtuous vegan lunch and following it with a doughnut, right?

Of course we took most of these back to the hotel.  We were stuffed!

As we were walking around trying to burn off a few doughnut calories, this sign on the side of a building caught our eye.  I can't imagine why....  ;-)

We rounded the corner and came upon this bike shop.  We wanted a couple of Portland souvenirs, so this was our kind of place to find some.  We also enjoyed talking to the friendly guy working there about cycling in Portland.

Our Portland swag!  A magnet, sticker, and a t-shirt for each of us.  

We were pretty tuckered out by this time so caught the Max back up north to our hotel.  A rare selfie!

We had a great few days checking out Portland, but it was time to move on to the Oregon coast the next morning.  Stay tuned as this was one of the most beautiful places we've ever visited!