Portland, OR (Baby!)

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livlife

Tags:

vacation

elena

portland oregon

christian kane

Well, my fine friends, I am back to work today and figure that it must mean it is time to blog about my trip.

Portland was awesome.

End of blog.

Just kidding.

If you've EVER read my blog before you'd know I couldn't stop at so few words. The more the merrier seems to be my mantra.

Elena and I got to Portland Thursday morning. We figured out the light rail and headed into downtown to try and find the hotel.

Here we are on the light rail, playing with the camera. My camera has a "smile feature" on it and Elena wanted to see if it worked so I wasn't smiling. But the picture took anyway and so that's the documentation of our first few moments in Portland.

We then switched to a trolley which took us to the front door of our hotel. The hotel was very nice, friendly and helpful staff. We had a suite which was a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, and office area. It was really great.

After getting the lay of the land, we walked out the front door of the hotel to this view:

That would be the Willamette River, dividing the city of Portland. We walked a couple of blocks and found a restaurant, Stanford's (evidently a chain in the Pacific Northwest, but a very, very good one, IMO) where we ate our first lunch on the patio.

In order to not kill you with details, can I just say that this trip was the best food of my life? I won't go into detail, but each meal I had (save for the midnight pizza from Hammy's.....terrible) was better than the one before. We did American Grill, Steak, Mexican, Pizza, Thai, and hotel breakfast while we were there. All awesome. Love Portland food.

So lunch was good and then we stopped at a market to get some essentials (i.e. beer and pop) and then went back to the hotel for a nap. Truly, I had had very little sleep the night before and after drinking all day and then traveling, I was exhausted. Luckily for me, so was Elena. We relaxed for a bit and she napped. I went to the pool and swam for 2.5 hours. (What can I say....love the water!). Okay, actually only swam for about an hour, the rest of the time I sat in the jacuzzi and read my book. I was in heaven.

Eventually, we got all dolled up and headed back into town to find the Tugboat Brewing Company. This was a place I had researched where you could go for "a beer and a book". Does anything sound better? Not to me-nor Lane.

Tugboat was a hip, cool little place. Fantastic beer...I tried their IPA and Lane had a guest brew. It was pretty dark in there, so reading didn't seem a truly viable option, but the board games....we played Trivial Pursuit. The original edition. I'm such a dork that I thought that was some of the most fun we had.

The first one is the bar. You can see the books lining the walls. They're just there for anyone to use. The second pic is Elena at our table, right below the shelf with the board games.

After the game (which I barely won, btw) we headed back to the hotel (because it was getting late and we didn't want to miss the last trolley). We were hungry when we got in and learned that Hammy's delivered to the room and every day until 4 am. Good to know. So we had pizza delivered but it didn't get there until almost 1 am. No big deal except for the damn time difference which meant our bodies thought it was 3 am. No wonder we were so friggin' tired!

We finished our pizza, it was just okay. Not really terrible, but pizza around here is pretty damn awesome, so that's a lot to live up to. This was edible, just not inspired. Then we crashed.

I set my alarm to get up the next morning because I wanted breakfast. I know from experience (I work nights) that eating so late only makes you MORE hungry in the morning. Lane had little interest in being up, so I went down with a book and ate myself a nice hot breakfast.

That morning, we headed out to tour the downtown branch (Central Library) of the Portland library (aka Multnomah County library system). The library itself is beautiful, with a ton of interesting features. I could spend hours talking about the hours I spent inside the library, but I am trying not to bore anyone. So here's a couple highlights:

The first one is me outside the entrance (Vanna White-ing it up!) and then Lane at the interior doors. The quote above the door says, "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." and it is by Jose Luis Borges. This library is so busy we had to stand there for several minutes trying to get a picture where no one was going in or out of the doors. I had a nice talk with the information desk librarian who told me that this is the 2nd busiest library system in the country. 1st is Queens in NY. Judging by what I saw at just this one branch (one of 17 in the area), I have no trouble believing that. Way to go Oregonians! Way to use your library. I am so proud.

Those are just a few of the pics I took within the library. We got to visit the rare books room and I saw a 1613 ed. of the King James Bible and a cunieform tablet dated 2350 BC (yes, B.C.!) that was a carved receipt for oil. The tree is in the children's area and made entirely from bronze. Carved mostly with animals (see the bear I am cuddling) and some other odd artifacts. The black marble staircase is hand carved with words of inspiration ("hope" is visible, believe, dream, create, inspire, and transcend are the other ones I remember but are not pictured.) Alice In Wonderland was a treat carved into the wall (one of my fave books of all time). They no longer use the card catalog (does anyone?) but they still have it on display, still full of cards. And Lane was completely entranced by the stacks of sheet music. A true music lover, she was delighted to find herself wandering among some unusual gems.

And that--pretty much--was our trip to the library. For the rest of the day, we wandered around the city for some shopping, drinking, sightseeing, drinking, food, drinking, and photo ops. And did I mention drinking?

Portland at night, in the rain. Pretty, hmm?

See?

Kelly thought this was funny....anyone else?

City street scene. I just liked it.

Random sculpture on the side of the road. No signage....

There was a whole series of bronze animal sculptures on one street. This is the bear eating a fish. We also saw beavers, ducks in a pond, and a deer. And my personal favorite:

Umbrella Man!!!

Friday night, we went to the Crystal Ballroom. Elena had been here before, and she said it is awesome. We were there on 80s Video Night, so the music was videos from the 80s and tons of people dressed accordingly and then it was just dancing. Their floor is wood, but it sits on millions (literally) of ball bearings, so it moves when you walk (or dance or jump) on it. It is a bit disorienting, but you adjust quickly. Except for the jumping. That was hard on my senses.

This sculpture of bicycles was just sitting on the corner. Random. No explanation.

Saturday morning, we headed out to pay homage to Powell's City of Books. Any true bibliophile could tell you about Powell's. It is the world's (yes WORLD'S) largest independent bookseller. The main location in downtown Portland (I think there are 6 total, not counting their web presence) is 77,000 square feet on one city block. 4 floors and over 1,000,000 pieces of inventory. At just the one store! It was amazing. We were in there for hours and there were still rooms I didn't even go into. I'd go back to Portland just to pay another visit to Powell's. I feel like I missed out and didn't get to see it all. Which is crazy since I am not exaggerating when I say hours. I think three, but I lost track of time and am not really sure how long we were in there for. I do know that Lane eventually gave up on me and went outside to read some of her purchases while waiting for me.

Powell's main entrance, by day and night.

The sign at the entry way, giving an overview of how it works and how to find what you need.
Yeesh, I might quit being a librarian to go and work for Powell's. I love, love, loved it there.

And lastly, yet another strange bronze sculpture with no signage. Two elephants in a park. We saw this randomly as we headed back to the hotel.

We were going back to get all dolled up for that evening's entertainment and the whole point of the trip, the Christian Kane concert.

I know that you're all dying to hear about it (that means you lovespirit) but you're going to have to wait ONE. MORE. POST.

This one is just too, too, long as it is.

But obviously we had fun, yes? It was great and my many thanks to Elena for going with me (and for that other thing.)

Vacation is so good. I miss it already.

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lovespirit on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

In the sincerest tone I can muster, I want you to know that I truly think this was a wonderful blog. I honestly enjoyed every word and every picture immensely. The two of you will be reminiscing about this vacation for months to come...I just know it!

NOW, FOR THE FINALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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livlife on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

Well, thank you. I am glad to know that you liked it. It was a labor of love (pics and links take a long time.....).

I enjoyed every moment so it is nice to hear that the retelling resonates with everything that I felt.

Your patience will be rewarded.....

I am at work right now and the vids are on my home computer so I can't do the post from here. Tonight, immediately after I watch the season finale of Leverage......CK rules!

But for your patience, another brief teaser:

Yeah...this will totally be worth the wait!!!!!

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livlife on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

EEK! Don't hate me. I know I promised but I want to blog about something and I am not at home and able to do the CK blog (as promised). Hopefully the photo will earn me forgiveness points.

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livlife on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

Okaaaay--its up and ready for comments.

Please give me lots of feedback because that took HOURS to do!

Details!

Hope you find it worth the wait.

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kjhump on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

Great blog Liv! I had previously seen all the pics except for the one with the elephants. I love sculptures like that! I'm looking forward to the next one today!

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livlife on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

Thanks Kel....and you obviously know how much I cut out!

It was an amazingly fun trip.

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mommydearest on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

This was a fantastic post Livi ! I haven't seen the pictures of actual Portland . Great pics and narration. I'm so very happy that you had such a wonderful vacation! Love you...

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livlife on

Re: Portland, OR (Baby!)

I did have a wonderful vacation. Next year....you're going with me!