City of Books
What a perfectly lovely weekend. windbourne had was going to be working at the Saturday Market down in Portland, and was going down by herself, so she invited me along. I had the time off work and her boss was willing to spring for my gas money, so I was so totally there. I could kill time at Powell's Books during the day and hang out with her in the evening.
Even the road-trip down was pretty relaxing, even though we were stuck in traffic for part of it. I like driving long distances, and it was nice to finally get to do it in a vehicle I didn't have to worry was going to break down in the middle of nowhere.
We found our hotel (Ahna thought she'd been there before, and so found it from memory, even though this turned out to be a different hotel; neat trick) and had dinner in the bar, and called it a night.
Ahna woke up before I did on Saturday, and when I finally crawled out of bed, I followed her instructions for how to take the tram to get to her location. The tram is really pretty nice, and it was free in the downtown area. So that's what a mass-transit system looks like.
I stopped by to say hello, and wandered off to find Powell's. This was an incredible treat. Every time I've ever been to Powell's before, it's been a stopover point on my way to somewhere else, and I've always been with other people, who had their own schedules and priorities; as a result, I've never had the chance to stay there as long as I wanted, relax in the coffee shop, actually stand and read for a while. It was good. I stayed for about four hours -- I left before I was completely ready to, I'll admit, but for the first time, I didn't feel rushed or frustrated or dissatisfied. And I had the heady knowledge that I could, if I wanted to, come back the next day. I made my purchases and left.
When Ahna got off work, her co-worker suggested we go over paperwork over at Mary's Place, a little hole-in-the-wall of a strip club. Since he's kind of, well, a schmuck, he made the suggestion and then immediately back-pedalled in an "I'm only joking, ha ha" kind of way, so of course we took him up on it. Charmingly, the place had no DJ -- the dancers had their own little jukebox up on the stage. I had to tip one girl just for dancing to a Placebo song.
From there we went to dinner, a little sushi place that sent stupidly cheap little plates of sushi out, buffet-style, on little trays on a model train. Really cute, and quite tasty.
We then went our own way, walked around for a while, and lounged back at the hotel until it was late enough to go back out to Voodoo Doughnut, a weird little must-be-seen-to-be-believed joint that's only open at night. I had their Mango Tango donut, a huge confection with mango-flavored sugar on creamy frosting and filled with a kind of mango jelly. Really good, but I wanted to brush my teeth immediately afterward.
Portland is very alive. Wandering the streets, I got the feeling that the whole city had the vibe of Capitol Hill, or Pioneer Square -- people everywhere, up late, listening to music, taking care of things. Very vibrant and noisy and fun. On the downside, it also seems that their homeless population is much larger than ours, or maybe just more visible.
Sunday, I stopped by Ahna's booth again, bought her some lunch, and then went back to Powell's again until I actually felt like I'd had enough. (About three hours, this time.) I then went to Ozone Records UK, and then wandered back to meet Ahna. She wasn't quite off yet when I expected her to be, so I went into another set of stores for a while, and found that they had a British food import store, so I went upstairs and bought some jelly babies.
We got back on the road and hit horrible traffic, taking almost an hour to go six miles, because of a big accident up ahead. We got back to Seattle for Allyson's party later than I would have liked, which meant I wasn't able to congratulate ulrich on his new job in-person.
Bottom line -- It was nice to get a little vacation. I feel very refreshed. I think I liked Portland, too. If someone ever put a gun to my head and told me to get the hell out of Seattle and not come back -- and you know, really, that could happen any day -- I think I could be perfectly happy living there. Hmmm, yep.
Oh, and also, time spent with Ahna continues to be perfectly wonderful. Can't not mention that.
Even the road-trip down was pretty relaxing, even though we were stuck in traffic for part of it. I like driving long distances, and it was nice to finally get to do it in a vehicle I didn't have to worry was going to break down in the middle of nowhere.
We found our hotel (Ahna thought she'd been there before, and so found it from memory, even though this turned out to be a different hotel; neat trick) and had dinner in the bar, and called it a night.
Ahna woke up before I did on Saturday, and when I finally crawled out of bed, I followed her instructions for how to take the tram to get to her location. The tram is really pretty nice, and it was free in the downtown area. So that's what a mass-transit system looks like.
I stopped by to say hello, and wandered off to find Powell's. This was an incredible treat. Every time I've ever been to Powell's before, it's been a stopover point on my way to somewhere else, and I've always been with other people, who had their own schedules and priorities; as a result, I've never had the chance to stay there as long as I wanted, relax in the coffee shop, actually stand and read for a while. It was good. I stayed for about four hours -- I left before I was completely ready to, I'll admit, but for the first time, I didn't feel rushed or frustrated or dissatisfied. And I had the heady knowledge that I could, if I wanted to, come back the next day. I made my purchases and left.
When Ahna got off work, her co-worker suggested we go over paperwork over at Mary's Place, a little hole-in-the-wall of a strip club. Since he's kind of, well, a schmuck, he made the suggestion and then immediately back-pedalled in an "I'm only joking, ha ha" kind of way, so of course we took him up on it. Charmingly, the place had no DJ -- the dancers had their own little jukebox up on the stage. I had to tip one girl just for dancing to a Placebo song.
From there we went to dinner, a little sushi place that sent stupidly cheap little plates of sushi out, buffet-style, on little trays on a model train. Really cute, and quite tasty.
We then went our own way, walked around for a while, and lounged back at the hotel until it was late enough to go back out to Voodoo Doughnut, a weird little must-be-seen-to-be-believed joint that's only open at night. I had their Mango Tango donut, a huge confection with mango-flavored sugar on creamy frosting and filled with a kind of mango jelly. Really good, but I wanted to brush my teeth immediately afterward.
Portland is very alive. Wandering the streets, I got the feeling that the whole city had the vibe of Capitol Hill, or Pioneer Square -- people everywhere, up late, listening to music, taking care of things. Very vibrant and noisy and fun. On the downside, it also seems that their homeless population is much larger than ours, or maybe just more visible.
Sunday, I stopped by Ahna's booth again, bought her some lunch, and then went back to Powell's again until I actually felt like I'd had enough. (About three hours, this time.) I then went to Ozone Records UK, and then wandered back to meet Ahna. She wasn't quite off yet when I expected her to be, so I went into another set of stores for a while, and found that they had a British food import store, so I went upstairs and bought some jelly babies.
We got back on the road and hit horrible traffic, taking almost an hour to go six miles, because of a big accident up ahead. We got back to Seattle for Allyson's party later than I would have liked, which meant I wasn't able to congratulate ulrich on his new job in-person.
Bottom line -- It was nice to get a little vacation. I feel very refreshed. I think I liked Portland, too. If someone ever put a gun to my head and told me to get the hell out of Seattle and not come back -- and you know, really, that could happen any day -- I think I could be perfectly happy living there. Hmmm, yep.
Oh, and also, time spent with Ahna continues to be perfectly wonderful. Can't not mention that.