Portland Part Deux

So I left off Monday night back at Ali's house. On Tuesday, I headed into the downtown area of Portland again this time to enjoy Powell's. Wow, this bookstore is absolutely incredible and I loved every minute of being there. It's like a maze- you practically need a map to get yourself through the shelves to find what it is you're looking for. I took it slow- only two floors on Tuesday so I had things to look at as well on Wednesday. I also was really good and didn't buy anything at all. I was pretty hungry by the time I left and because it was a gorgeous day, I got a Chipotle burrito and walked down to the riverfront to sit and read and eat my lunch. There was a gorgeous fountain that distracted me with the rainbow illusion and also this crazy biker that was doing all sorts of break dancing tricks on his cycle. I was pretty impressed.

The riverfront was absolutely beautiful- I walked down the path a little bit, enjoying the sunshine, the blue sky, the warmth and the beautiful river. Eventually, I walked up to the Hotel Modera to meet up with Jen and her brother John for happy hour before they had a show to see. If I had a lot of money, I'd spend a great deal of time going to swanky places and enjoy their drinks and appetizers- the pomegranate margarita I had was absolutely delicious, as was the fried calamari. I had a great time catching up with Jen- I don't think I had seen her since I graduated, even though we had talked over facebook a few times since. Her brother John was also a hoot to spend time with and I'd love to see them again sometime soon.

Jen and John were going to see Blue Man Group and had an extra ticket so even though I saw it a few weeks ago, I decided to go with them and see it again. I'll do a completely separate blog post about that momentarily but for now, know that it was pretty awesome, just as it had been the first time.

Wednesday morning, Ali was kind enough to take me downtown again and because it was a cloud day, I spent the whole morning wandering through the other two floors of Powell's. This time I wasn't as good and bought seven books- however, the cost was no more than $35. Good deals all around and when I'm done with my historiography, those will be the first that I read. I can't wait.

I hopped onto the MAX without any problems and took it all the way out to the airport. I miss public transportation so much and so love being able to take it when I have the opportunity. I checked in within two minutes, went through security just as quickly, passed the time waiting by watching a few TV shows, then boarded and got a seat with a free seat next to it. My bag was the fourth one off at Boise and Becky picked me up in about two minutes- again, all in all the fastest and easiest trip I've taken in a long time.

Thanks Ali and thanks Becky for making my fall break incredible!