Friday was a bit rough quite frankly. My idea of traveling insanely early in the morning to get there early meant that both of us were rather tired. The hour layover in Denver wasn't so bad, from the air anyway. When we finally got to Portland (which has a fantastic airport by the way) our first visit was with a cab driver who was a rather nice fellow but ....well...either daft or deliberately daft. We gave him an address and then, 40 minutes later, we arrived at the wrong spot and he said, "ooooooooooh. I thought you meant Southwest because you said downtown. There are four sections of the city." Yeah. After a week there, NOT asking that is....not that bright. He wasn't a native english speaker but he knew about quadrants and just assumed. And in the process got an extra 30 bucks. The return trip was half the price of the trip in. Having said that our first impression of the Lion and the Rose was that it was gorgeous. It is also very homey. If you are going to stay in Portland, I can't recommend it enough. It is *THE* best Bed and Breakfast we have been too so far.
Saturday was 'sun storm' day as the locals referred to it; bright sun, warm temperatures etc. Once we had done a bit of school work, we headed out to see the sites. The public transportation system there is *AWESOME* and that's generally awesome, not just kind of awesome as anything compared to Atlanta or or worse Houston is just anemic. We went to a weekend market with all kinds of fabulous performers. Then we walked along the river front park. We ended up eating at a seafood place near the inn. Wandering around downtown, I showed Julia Powell's books and she was very pleased. We found the ballet section and her eyes were wide as saucers as she found two books she had wanted to own since she was a little girl and had serially checked out from the library. That alone made the trip worth it. Also made a minor stop in a russian art store and got her a tiny ballerina ornament. It was quite nice.
Sunday was a bit more relaxed. Breakfast was FANTASTIC, and we got into a fascinating discussion with a couple from Washington state and another from Ohio. Some political things were brought up, but I somewhat politely side stepped the land mines and we focused more on international politics. The elder gentleman from Ohio had spent some time in Saudi Arabia and, though not a co-reality inhabitant, still had some rather interesting insights into their culture, to the point that I want to learn more about it. Afterwards, I read and Julia got a bit more school work done and then we headed out. A second trip to Powell's got me the mother load of sci fi hardbacks, including the missing Dresden files volumes as well as the first six Xanth books (the ones I consider worth reading at this point.) We ate at a wonderful Itallian place. Strangely, *ALL* of the coffee joints were closed as of 8pm on Sunday night so we ended up having to go to Applebee's, where the bartender was kind of nice.
Monday we slept in. Late. Very late. It was awesome. Then we went downtown. We went to a Chinese garden in the entertainment district called the Lan Su garden, which is an authentic chinese garden that was build by their sister city in China with over 65 chinese artisians. We had tea in the tea house. Afterwords, we went to Voodoo Donuts which as fantastic donuts...and fantastic decoration. There was a line out the door in the middle of the afternoon! That night, we ate at a very nice restraurant called Veritable Quandry which had fantastic food. We both had the Steelhead (fish) and enjoyed every minute of it.
Tuesday, we made a final trip to Powell's books and retrieved a few more books. By the time we returned, we had doubled the weight of our bags. Afterwards, we saw Argo at Living Room theater and enjoyed it quite a bit. It makes our own "fork and screen" or "movie taverns" pale in comparison, and had a real kitchen with real food and alcholic beverages. Good movie, good food, fun date.
Wednesday we deliberately took rather light. We walked all over the historic district and saw several fantastic houses. We watched several episodes of Dr. Who. We read. I got some writing done. We relaxed and enjoyed our inn. We also ate at McManniman's brew pub which had fanastic food and beer.
Thursday we came home. The flight was even crazier...hey...5AM SEEMED like a good idea at the time...I mean its 8AM our time, right? We got back, exhausted and had a brief meal at Raging Burrito before walking back to our cars. A fantastic trip all around.
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