One thing that immediately jumped out at me, riding in to town in my F-150, and was reinforced throughout the weekend is that downtown Portland is not made for motor vehicles. Unlike some places that are just now making room for bicyclists and public transit, Portland has been designed from the ground up for those forms of transportation. The bicycle lanes downtown are just as big as the normal car lane, and the side walks are big and wide for pedestrians,and the natives that are driving cars seem very...submissive to the walking/riding population.
This was nice though, as we were able to leave my truck in the hotels lot the whole time and walk/ride the bus everywhere we wanted to go.
The first place we wanted to go was Powell's City of Books, a 68,000 SF new/used bookstore. It was almost too big...overwhelming in the same way I find Cabella's to be...a great place to go if you are searching for something special, but tough to just browse when presented with that many choices. Very neat experience...next time we go to Portland I will make sure to bring a list of books to look for.
After getting all prettified at our hotel room, we went and had a very enjoyable evening at the Portland City Grill. The only negative I really can say about the whole meal was that we had to wait 15 minutes for a seat, even though we had reservations...plus, that mean I had time to drink a whole beer in the bar before being seated. Wait...maybe that wasn't a bad thing. From a company and gastronomical viewpoint, it was a very pleasant meal. I was a little concerned because my New England Clam Chowder was a little brownish when it came out, and not the creamy white I am used to...but it tasted excellent. My duck was good, but SWMBO ordered a goat cheese and prosciutto stuffed chicken that was the best poultry I have ever had a taste of. I was very jealous...usually I am happier with what I order than what the wife orders. Oh well...have to let her win occasionally.
We didn't go out partying or anything...dinner didn't get over until 9:45, so we just headed back to the room, and snuggled in. It was pleasant, and allowed us to get a decently early start on our Saturday activities...which involved a lot of standing in line.
We decided that for breakfast on Saturday, we would give in to the hype, and check out Voodoo Doughnut's.
A sane person might question standing in line for 45 minutes just for doughnut's...but that person would be insane not to make that sacrifice. Not just for the tasty doughnuts, which WERE as good as they advertise, but to experience Portland going on around you...what a town of weirdo's...sweet people...but weirdo's. And they seem so very proud of their weirdness.
Back to doughnuts...I had one of the bacon maple bars, and also tried to split a Memphis Mafia(banana fritter with chocolate and peanut butter on it) with my wife...but she was already full of her own doughnuts. We also bought a present for my mom there, as a thank you for watching the girls...they call the doughnut a 'cock-n-balls' because, well, it's shaped like one, covered in chocolate, and filled with Bavarian Cream. You can even get them to write stuff like 'Best Nana' on it. It was a big success.
Saturday afternoon we played around on Portland's fine bus system, and ended up at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was a nice time..very enjoyable, and we will have to go back sometime with our girls. One thing we passed on the museum was the Submarine Tour. Moored outside the museum is the SS-581, the USS Blueback, our last non-nuclear attack submarine, and you can go on tours of the boat. However, since I spent over 5 years stationed on a submarine, and several more working on them, I didn't feel the need to pay cash to get us on a tour of one.
Saturday dinner was less fancy than dinner the night before, and not quite as full of win. We went to a place called the Thai Peacock, and we both had curry. I really enjoyed mine, but for the wife, she found that even the mild curry was a bit too spicy. Kind of a bummer, but...we can't win all the times. Plus, it gave us an excuse to order a plate of cheese and bacon covered tots at the bar later on that evening.
Our final stop of the evening was a dueling piano bar named the Barrel Roll. I love dueling piano places...you can just sit there with a beer and sing along with the crowd, with absolutely no expectations of getting up and pretending I can dance. It was a nice evening, and our attempts at embarressing ourselves has been previously documented.
Sunday, we woke up, and headed home..I had planned on hitting someplace up for a little breakfast(well, a lot of chicken fried steaks or biscuits and gravy) ...but, my tummy was not very interested...so, instead we got a earlier than planned start on heading home..which was nice. At one point, our plan had been to split the drive in half, and spend Sunday night at my moms house, before driving the last three hours Monday morning. For this reason, I had taken Monday off...and instead, we were able to get home by 7:00 Sunday night.
Theoretically, I could have gone in to work today...but why? I already had the time off approved, and I had spent a few days off without getting a chance to have a lazy morning with my kids, making them oatmeal, and getting their first hugs of the day. There are also things to be done...like snuggling, and laundry...and worst of all, putting together a new bunk bed for the girls room. Ugg...I'm good at romantic weekends...no so much at putting together bunk beds...but, the girls are all for it to have a bit more floor space in their rooms.
There are a lot of things I respect about Portland's weirdness, but as a bit of a recluse, I don't think I could handle all that "connectedness"
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a good time!
Sounds fabulous! You are setting a high bar for the other husbands in the blogosphere. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I spent a year and a half in Hawaii and never went down onto the Bowfin. But I was in Groton for about the same amount of time & went to the Nautilus fairly often. (Of course, the Nautilus didn't cost $16 to tour, either, & I wasn't pregnant half the time I was there.)