Either my parents are way good at booking flights or we just got lucky because we had very little standing-around-at-the-airport time. However, we were held up on our flight from Minneapolis to Portland for about an extra hour because they had to run all the way across the airport to find a spare exit sign to put over one of the wings because some hooligan probably stole it, which is both awesome and annoying.
This is Jackie. I sat by her on the plane. She didn't seem to mind--sitting by me or the exit sign fiasco. She was headed to Honolulu which is where our plane was going directly after it dropped a few of us off in Portland. This is kind of a creepy picture of her, but she was really nice and she read some Nora Roberts romance novel while I sat next to her reading The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian.
Trent and Dad got a beer at just about every place we stopped regardless of time of day. The Chili's in the airport at noon was no exception.
One of the many bridges over the Willamette River which runs right through the middle of Portland. The picture was taken from the Historic Waterfront District which, from what I can tell, is insanely beautiful for at least 250 days a year.
I went to the Japanese Garden on Friday which is quoted as being, and I'm reading from the official brochure here, "the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan."
It rained and shined and rained and shined the whole I time I was there.
I did a whole lot of other stuff too, but it is hard to lug a camera around everywhere without feeling like a huge tourist.
Every morning and evening I mooched a meal off of the company that my parents and brother were having their all-day meetings with. They were all very well dressed and I usually rolled down with bed hair and my crappy clothes. Saturday was the best because it was the big last meal of the weekend for the company gathering, so they took everyone to this French restaurant downtown which only made me look more haggard and out-of-place. We ate most of a decent three course meal which included an endless wine glass. My mind was blown. All the people in this company are really young (like mid to late 20's) and drive ridiculous cars that are always shiny (though that is probably because it rains everyday).
Trent and I went to two shows while we were out there. On Friday night, we saw Acid Mother's Temple at Mississippi Studios. We saw High Places, Bear in Heaven, and Cymbals Eat Guitars at Berbati's Pan on Saturday night. Berbati's has a really weird website for it being a restaurant/venue.
http://www.berbati.com/
Other than that, I did a lot of wandering around and looking up and down and side to side.
The things I learned about Portland that are awesome:
1. It has one of the best public transportation systems in all of America
2. The whole city is incredibly bike friendly, and bikes even have their own lane (painted solid green) on most streets
3. There is no sales tax
4. You are not allowed to pump your own gas. Each station has people that do that for you
5. It typically snows less than half an inch a year
6. The city established a building height regulation in order to maintain the view of surrounding hills, bodies of water, and mountains
7. It is one of the top-ranked cities for public park concentration in the country
8. It has Powell's Books and Everyday Music which are probably the biggest book store and record store, respectively, I have ever seen
Yay, then I came home.
Still moving out there in August.
Portland rocks. I'm jealous that you're moving there. I thought it rocked even before you told me those fun facts... now it sounds even more desirable.
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