Traveling the Oregon Trail to Find Vintage Treasures

Southwest Hills in Portland, Oregon

Every summer, my wife and I travel back home to Oregon, where I grew up. I have family in Medford & in Portland, so we make a big trip of driving our Kia Soul up the I-5, stop in Medford to visit my dad, who’s content living at the Twin Creeks Retirement community, and then onto Portland where my mom lives in the Terwilliger Plaza. She has a wonderful view of Mount Hood, which I really think gives her joy every day as she charts her elderly years. It always gives me peace knowing both my parents are both so well-cared for. They even seem happy at this stage in life, and give my wife and I encouragement in our own pursuits, my wife’s a teacher at Holy Name middle school in San Francisco, and I am a vintage seller at a collective shop, the Sunset Mercantile Emporium.

The Terwilliger Plaza is the ultimate in comfort and convenience located within walking distance of downtown Portland.

Going back to Oregon every summer does provide us with a vacation, we get to see my family, experience the beauty of Oregon, but also we get to carry-on some Vintage Adventures. I’m always in need of vintage camera & film supplies for my 35mm film kiosk, and another interest of mine is wearing & selling vintage fashion styles. This summer, I’ve begun a new popup, that I call Mansfield’s Millinery, that exists inside the Emporium Shop, near my other vintage popup, Franks Vintage Camera. Frank’s Vintage has been in business for one year and I’m excited that it has become a preferred local spot to get your 35mm film.

Since the Sunset Mercantile Emporium has been open for one year, I felt it was time for a new creative challenge. Something I’ve always wanted to do, since high school was to start my own clothing shop. I’ve always love vintage shopping, and recently I’ve picked up a new hobby of sewing, and I’ve been passionate about practicing the Japanese Arts.. so you put those three things together, and you have a cool channel for creating new products, like Kimono inspired Denim Levi Jackets, I’ve been experimenting with in my sewing studio.

Cambridge Golden Rule Store 1938-1951

Storytelling is a really fun things my family engages in, during our summer visits. My dad’s still a practicing attorney, although he mostly does pro-bono work. He’s actually the oldest living person who’s on the Oregon Bar. He’s quite a humorist and is good at capturing fun tidbits about everyone he meets. My mom has lived an amazingly varied life, lots of different career choices, but is most proud of her times spent growing up in small town Idaho, and working in the General store her dad, my grandfather. See the above photo, of the Cambridge Golden Rule Store, my grandfather is in the back of the store, right side. And my two brothers, are both passionate about their interests, Fred (leftside in photo) is quite the striving craftsman in woodworking, and John (rightside in photo), as well as being an attorney, is so knowledgeable in classic Hollywood cinema, and plays a big part in the historic Hollywood Theater, here in Portland, Oregon.

Purchasing 35mm film from Shutterbug 

One of my favorite things to do, when we travel to Oregon, is to visit my friends at the Shutterbug in downtown Portland. These guys have been open for like 54 years! I always drop in to talk to the helpful staff, pick their brain about some of the latest film stocks. This time, along with my standards of Fujifilm 400 color & Ilford Delta Pro 400 black and white, I picked up some Flic Film Aurora 400 Color Negative for my film kiosk back in SF. It’s supposed to have this redish pink tint to it. One of the funnest things to do is to shoot these mysterious color film stocks and see what you get.

Vintage shopping in the Hawthorne District

This shop Flower🌻 had a great sale going on of women’s garments

When in Portland, and you’re wanting to shop vintage, spending an afternoon in the Hawthorne District, located in Southeast, is a must. Not only are there some great deals on this street, but there are lots of cool eateries, coffee shops and the Bagdad Theater is located there too.

I went to so many shops, and found a lot of great hats, bags, pants, dresses, jackets, and I focused on bringing back a unique clothing line for the Inner Sunset customers who’d like to try out my new apparel popup, Mansfield’s Millinery, based on fabrics and dress styles, that are reminiscent of the Art Nouveau Era ( like Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss). This little shop called Flower really made an impression on me, the help was sweet and helpful, and the boutique knew what it wanted to be, and who their customer base were. I hope to bring this style and feeling back to my own little boutique newly formed what’s called the ‘Vintage Vault’ at the Sunset Mercantile Emporium. 

Dining at the Caro Amico Italian Cafe 

Caro Amico opened in 1949 and began selling pizza in 1953. It has been described as the oldest Italian restaurant in Oregon, and one of the first pizzerias in Portland.

So as our last evening sadly finally arrives, it’s a tradition for mom, Paula & I to get some take-out from Caro Amico Italian Restaurant. Which is located literally right around the corner from Terwilliger Plaza. This place is such a classic Italian eatery, right out of Goodfellas or any 1970’s Francis Ford Coppola Godfather type film, and really it’s a family run business, and we constistently get such good food there. I always make it a point to stop by the bar, and pick up a Martini, while I wait for the food to come out of the oven. This time we all agreed the Baked Tortellini with Prawns was the tastiest dish.

We weren’t the only one’s up to DIY & do it yourself creative projects, here my brother Fred cooks some Kalbi beef on the grill underneath his handmade Lanai with Paula.