Voodoo Doughnuts, Feminist Stripper, and a Very Sunny Portland

I was in Portland this past week for a national conference, visiting colleagues from all across the country, gleening new ideas to do my job better from the 30-some workshops offered. Portland is definitely a destination city - absolutely beautiful and fun. I didn't have much time to visit many places. Of course, I went to the World Famous Powell's Bookstore and picked up a couple of books. I walked by one of the city's glorious Chinese gardens. One of the places that stick out in my mind in the brief time I had to visit was Voodoo Doughnuts.

Voodoo Doughnuts sells these incredible tasting donuts (kind of like my very yummy cupcakes.) But there is one donut - the voodoo doughnut - that is just too much fun! It's a little man with a voodoo stick in him and you can stab him (and he bleeds because he's a jelly donut!). The first night we were there swarms of people passed the bar we were sitting at will boxes and buckets of donuts - we knew something was going on. One evening later, we were standing in line, munch on the tasty head of our own donut. (They even do wedding, at the donut shop, if you're interested.)

The other place that came to mind was Mary's Strip Club. When one of my colleagues found out I was going to be in Portland she was like "You must go to Mary's Strip Club! It's awesome! It's this total feminist strip club." "What is a feminist strip club?" I inquired. "Oh, you know, they yell at the patrons, they're totally in charge." Ok. Interesting. So our way back from dinner with some colleagues I pointed out Mary's Strip Club and proceeded to repeat my friend ver batum. Three of them decided to check it out as I had a late meeting to attend. The next morning my colleague came over to me "Have you seen Rachel?" No, why? "Um Mary's isn't a feminist strip club. It's just a strip club - a completely naked strip club - where they ask you for dollar bills to play music in the juke box." Oy. Oy. They thought it was pretty funny, but it was definitely the last time I will EVER recommend anything to anyone without trying it out first.

It was a warm and sunny week in Portland. And a place one should definitely get back to - and call their friends the next time to let them know she's there...