Franz Bread Tour and Giving Portland a Second Chance

We just love a good factory tour, and we have found another great one! We have been buying Franz bread since we discovered this brand several weeks ago. So when we saw they sometimes hosted factory tours, we called them. The very personable tour guide worked us into her schedule, adding us with a group of first and second graders that had ridden in a bus for almost three hours that morning to see how bread was made. We arrived at the factory early, where the giant loaf of bread is spinning at the top of the building.

We wish there was a feature for smell-a-blog, because as soon as we got out of the car we were greeted with the smell of fresh-baked bread. There are few smells that Mark likes more than this, so he has already deemed this the best factory tour ever. The triple-trailer Franz bread truck is out front, waiting to take some of that fresh bread to hungry customers.

We couldn't take pictures on the tour, so we had to put away the camera as soon as we donned our pretty red hairnets. It's a good thing that Denisa wore something to match it.

We went on the tour with the grade school children, and Mary handled them like a champion. She had them marching like soldiers and standing shoulder-to-shoulder while she explained what we were seeing. We got to see them unload a mixer full of dough "that was as big as a baby elephant" (or over 1,600 pounds). They were making hamburger buns today, and we watched as they were formed, then allowed to rise on their way to the oven, then baked, and finally popped out of their pans. We wish we could have taken pictures of the half-mile long conveyor belt that allowed the hot-out-of-the-oven buns to cool while they were transported to packaging. Mary called it the bun highway, and it did look like some interstates we have seen. It was such a good tour!

Back at the visitor center, we watched a video about Franz Bakery. Back in the 1920's, they were the company that invented the hamburger bun as we know it. They make the buns for Chick-fil-a, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Arby's, Carl's Jr., and Wendy's. Today they were putting them into large packages for Costco, but they also show up in all the grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest as well. Mary fed us snacks of Franz Raspberry donuts and apple juice, with fresh strawberries and mandarin oranges. It was great to be going on a field trip with the first and second graders. One little boy told Mark, "This was my best day ever! The tour was awesome!" We couldn't agree with him more!

To finish up a great morning, Mary sent the students and their sponsors home with goody bags of bread. But she totally out-did herself with the gift bag for the travelers from Oklahoma. She gave us sour dough buns, peach cobbler bread, multi-grain bread, and English muffins inside a bright yellow Franz bread bag. What a day!

We could have left Portland right then and been happy with our day. But we had a couple other stops planned. When we visited several days ago, we were underwhelmed with the traffic and parking situation in this city. But we decided to give it another chance. We found a parking place next to the McCall River Front Park. From here we walked to see more of the bridges that span the Willamette River.

These bridges give this urban population another place to get some good exercise, because many of the bridges have pedestrian lanes.

We took this picture from one bridge, looking out over two more bridges in the distance. All the bridges have their own personality. The one closest has two levels, with the vehicles going opposite directions on the different levels. In the distance we can also see the beautiful Tilikum Crossing bridge, with its spans that are lit up at night.

We stopped back by the car to pay for more time for our parking space. Then we headed in the opposite direction to another Portland icon--Voodoo Doughnut.

They are famous for their unusual doughnuts, and we took a few pictures of some of them as they rotated by on the display carousel.

If you feel like you should eat some nice healthy breakfast cereal before you indulge in a doughnut, at Voodoo you can do both at the same time. Well, maybe the cereals can't be classified as "healthy." Another breakfast option is a doughnut topped with bacon.

We ended up purchasing the Portland Cream--"a raised yeast shell filled with bavarian cream, topped with chocolate and two eye balls (representing the vision of the great city of Portland)." We have to use the display case picture, with the Portland Cream beside the McMinnville Cream with its maple frosting and signature mustache.

We didn't take a picture of our donut, because it got squished in Denisa's pocket when we went into our next stop--Powell's Bookstore. This was the place that we drove by in the rain a couple days ago because there was no parking. So today we walked there from the river front instead. A city block in size, this is the largest independent book store west of the Mississippi. Is it fitting that Denisa is holding up a book about bread since we just came from Franz's?

Our long urban walk today helped us to get more of a feel for Portland. One of the mass transit vehicles passed as we waited for a light at one of the crossings. It was an interesting walk, as we had a couple encounters with the many homeless people that also roam these streets.

We read that Keen shoes has their headquarters in Portland. Their offices are in the Pearl District of the city, with their flag ship store on the first floor. Mark has three pairs of Keens, and Denisa has (ahem) even more. We stopped in at the store, but our parking meter didn't allow us to stay long. Incidentally, when you turn those silver wheels, more shoes rotate into the display for your viewing pleasure.

We thought it was interesting that outside, in front of the store, there was a Keen shoe vending machine. It was complete with a foot measuring scale to determine the best size.

You put in your money, and out pops a new pair of Keens!

We were getting some good urban exercise, as we were walking fast to get back before our parking time expired. It looks like Portland has several gatherings of temporary food vendors, and we love eating at these places. 

We ordered a chicken shawarma meal with hummus, tzatziki, stuffed grape leaf, and long rice for only $7. It was big enough to share and made a great lunch! We arrived back to the car one minute before our parking time expired. Whew!

Our last stop was on the north side of Portland--somewhere we hadn't seen. The Portland bridges are beautiful, and Mark had read that the St. Johns Bridge was the best. We stopped in at Cathedral Park long enough to take some pictures of the bridge.

We also got a little more urban exercise as we made a lap around the park and checked out the views from the pier that goes into the Willamette River.

We were trying to get out of the city before rush hour, but we didn't make it. Traffic came to a crawl at one point and we were reminded again that we could never live in a large city. We also saw many homeless people around town, and that made Denisa uncomfortable. But we really enjoyed our day and we didn't get rained on even once! We'll count that as a success!