Well, Leigh and I had the weekend off at the last minute and so we decided to get out of Seattle. We've been finding ourselves spending a lot of money on our days off here and doing the same things over and over again. Then Leigh found out one of my favorite bands, The Cliks, were playing at Portland Pride this weekend AND that it's a nice walking city with good shopping, no sales tax and home to Powell's Books, the biggest used book store in the world. With these things in mind this little trip just had to happen.
First we tried to get a free place to stay from my cousin who lives near Portland but he and his family were out of town this weekend. Then we tried for a cheap hotel, but it was too last minute. Not to be outdone by fate, we just got in the car and started driving. In the end we spent about 8 hours in Portland and 6 hours driving in total. It was a loooonnngg day, but really fun.
We got a late start, so we didn't even get to Portland until after 3pm but we found a parking garage pretty easily and the city was very easy to maneuver on foot after that. Some things we noted pretty quickly included how cheap parking is all over the downtown area, how close things are to one another in spite of the addresses suggesting otherwise, that retail stores have GREAT sales (as opposed to Seattle where people buy stuff at full price more often, so the price conscious shopper must wait until more typical sale seasons like August and January). Plus there are any number of affordable eateries, local breweries, and community events. In all a great little city, like a smaller Seattle or bigger Missoula.
We did a little shopping (I now own entirely too many shirts from the GAP), walked around a bit, perused the vendors at the Pride festival and then got some dinner at a local pub called The Life of Riley (yummy and not overcrowded). Around 8:30pm we went back to the Pride festival for the evening music. I thought there would be a few good bands but it turns out there was a serious lull in entertainment right before the Cliks too the stage at 9pm. Oh well. Leigh and I bought a drink and then listened to the The Cliks play their set until 10pm. This was the 3rd time I'd seen them play live and in the past year they haven't written anything new but have changed band members in a serious way, so the show was good but not overwhelming by any means.
After the concert we walked up to Powells to check out this giant bookstore. We were not disappointed! In fact, it was worth the drive just to bask in the glow of this book mecca. The books, both new and used, are arranged by color-coded rooms and on the shelves are further divided into very logical categories. In the French section I browsed not only language learning books but also books written in French under categories as varied as classic literature, children's books, young adults, nonfiction, history, art, philosophy and religion. I did not find a Bible written in French, however, which was sad because I have been wanting one for some time now. I did, however, find the entire Harry Potter series in French but to have purchased them all at once would have set me back about $200. Maybe next time. Leigh enjoyed the fiction section and picked out a few things while I bought a French pocket vocabulary book and a travel memoir.
We got home to West Seattle around 2am, tired and happy. Juneau the Cat was pretty irritated with us for leaving her alone all day without hugs or entertainment. So spoiled... Today the weather is total crap, cold and rainy. Where's our summer? When we lived here 6 years ago it was already roasting hot everyday by the end of June. This year it still feels more like a rainy autumn.
Well, back to work on Wednesday. Hopefully Summer will show her face pretty soon...
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