Adventures in Oregon
Oct. 7th, 2009 02:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatMan, I wrote this hours ago, but I wanted to get my pictures up before posting it. That took much longer than I thought it would, so here it is, at long last.
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bethje and I are back home from Oregon now. If you've been following my tweets, you know a little bit of what went on, but I'm going to describe the whole trip in this post. Basically, the trip came about because therealtavie's parents were attending a Lovecraft convention in Oregon, so Tavie decided to take the opportunity to visit our mutual friend not_glimmer. Then Beth arranged for us to visit at the same time. Our original plan was to take the bus and train to the airport, but since we missed the bus (my fault, since I decided to wait in a long line at the bank when I really didn't have time to do so), I ended up driving there instead. That probably worked out better in the long run. Our flight included a layover in Salt Lake City, where I got a Cinnabon (the first I'd had in some time, and probably the last I WILL have in some time; they're good, but so sugary that I can pretty much feel my blood sugar getting messed up) and Beth got a coffee, which surprisingly IS available in Utah.
I know some of you reading this are frequent flyers and probably think nothing of air travel by this point, but I'm still not that comfortable with it. The thing is, I don't so much mind the parts where we're actually in the sky, but the loading and unloading parts make me feel very claustrophobic. Anyway, we got into Portland on Thursday night, and were met at the airport by Erin and her dog Goblazers. There was a time zone difference of three hours, but I guess the one advantage to being unemployed is that I'm used to going to bed and getting up at weird times, so adjusting wasn't particularly difficult. Tavie showed up the next morning, and we went to a few places together, including a store of vintage stuff (it looked like the kind of placeradiantwterror would have liked) where I purchased a few postcards. We had dinner at Andina, a place that served Peruvian food in the form of tapas, and I learned that I like octopus. Not that this is too surprising, considering that I already knew I liked squid. Our tentative plans to see a fire dancer that night didn't work out, but that's okay.
On Saturday, we spent a fair amount of time at Powell's City of Books, which is a pretty cool place. I like that they mix in both new and used books, so that there's an occasional bargain, but the inventory isn't limited to resold items. I was kind of impressed that they had two copies of the Del Rey edition of Grampa in Oz, and I ended up buying one to replace my old copy (which is also a Del Rey, but is falling apart). While we were there, a manager (I guess?) was giving a tour, and he seemed very proud of the small amount of power he had. Some of the questions he asked the tour group included whether they recognized a computer, and if they knew "who wrote Bart Simpson." The guy also told a story about how Stephen King's wife refused to let him sign the pillar at the store because there weren't enough of HER books there. Talk about coattail-riding! This was also the day we ate at Zell's for brunch (I had a really good Eggs Benedict), some place with outdoor seating for lunch, and the Davis Street Tavern for dinner.
Sunday included our trip to the shore with Erin's boyfriend. While there, we ate at a seafood place called Mo's, which had some really good seafood pasta. And it was the first time I'd ever been to the Pacific Ocean, so that was kind of a landmark for me. {g} Our dinner was at Burgerville, where they were featuring smoothies and other desserts made from blackberries. Pretty tasty, as was the fish and chips I had before that. Tavie left for the airport that night.
We spent most of Monday walking around the city, shopping at a few stores and eating at a few different restaurants, including one called Melt where I had a grinder, and a bar where I had appetizer portions of pizza and spaghetti. I bought a 1-Up Mushroom full of candy at one store (I probably won't eat the candy, any more than I did the stuff that came with my Mario Kart candy dispenser), a Ganesh figure at another (no, I'm not converting to Hinduism, but how can I help liking a guy who combines my interests in mythology AND elephants?), and copies of Cornelia Funke's Inkspell and L. Frank Baum's The Twinkle Tales at Daedalus Books. We caught the plane back home that night, and after a layover in Atlanta, it was back to Philadelphia and New Jersey for us. We were both pretty exhausted by that point, but we're up now. And, well, I guess that's about it. Be sure to check out my pictures!
Okay, I guess it's time for bed. Past time, really. Happy birthday togick, and happy belated birthday to obsessical and zimbra1006! Since I'm behind on my usual blogging schedule, I'll probably write an Oz post tomorrow (i.e., today) and a video game one on Thursday.
bethje and I are back home from Oregon now. If you've been following my tweets, you know a little bit of what went on, but I'm going to describe the whole trip in this post. Basically, the trip came about because therealtavie's parents were attending a Lovecraft convention in Oregon, so Tavie decided to take the opportunity to visit our mutual friend not_glimmer. Then Beth arranged for us to visit at the same time. Our original plan was to take the bus and train to the airport, but since we missed the bus (my fault, since I decided to wait in a long line at the bank when I really didn't have time to do so), I ended up driving there instead. That probably worked out better in the long run. Our flight included a layover in Salt Lake City, where I got a Cinnabon (the first I'd had in some time, and probably the last I WILL have in some time; they're good, but so sugary that I can pretty much feel my blood sugar getting messed up) and Beth got a coffee, which surprisingly IS available in Utah.I know some of you reading this are frequent flyers and probably think nothing of air travel by this point, but I'm still not that comfortable with it. The thing is, I don't so much mind the parts where we're actually in the sky, but the loading and unloading parts make me feel very claustrophobic. Anyway, we got into Portland on Thursday night, and were met at the airport by Erin and her dog Goblazers. There was a time zone difference of three hours, but I guess the one advantage to being unemployed is that I'm used to going to bed and getting up at weird times, so adjusting wasn't particularly difficult. Tavie showed up the next morning, and we went to a few places together, including a store of vintage stuff (it looked like the kind of place
radiantwterror would have liked) where I purchased a few postcards. We had dinner at Andina, a place that served Peruvian food in the form of tapas, and I learned that I like octopus. Not that this is too surprising, considering that I already knew I liked squid. Our tentative plans to see a fire dancer that night didn't work out, but that's okay.On Saturday, we spent a fair amount of time at Powell's City of Books, which is a pretty cool place. I like that they mix in both new and used books, so that there's an occasional bargain, but the inventory isn't limited to resold items. I was kind of impressed that they had two copies of the Del Rey edition of Grampa in Oz, and I ended up buying one to replace my old copy (which is also a Del Rey, but is falling apart). While we were there, a manager (I guess?) was giving a tour, and he seemed very proud of the small amount of power he had. Some of the questions he asked the tour group included whether they recognized a computer, and if they knew "who wrote Bart Simpson." The guy also told a story about how Stephen King's wife refused to let him sign the pillar at the store because there weren't enough of HER books there. Talk about coattail-riding! This was also the day we ate at Zell's for brunch (I had a really good Eggs Benedict), some place with outdoor seating for lunch, and the Davis Street Tavern for dinner.
Sunday included our trip to the shore with Erin's boyfriend. While there, we ate at a seafood place called Mo's, which had some really good seafood pasta. And it was the first time I'd ever been to the Pacific Ocean, so that was kind of a landmark for me. {g} Our dinner was at Burgerville, where they were featuring smoothies and other desserts made from blackberries. Pretty tasty, as was the fish and chips I had before that. Tavie left for the airport that night.
We spent most of Monday walking around the city, shopping at a few stores and eating at a few different restaurants, including one called Melt where I had a grinder, and a bar where I had appetizer portions of pizza and spaghetti. I bought a 1-Up Mushroom full of candy at one store (I probably won't eat the candy, any more than I did the stuff that came with my Mario Kart candy dispenser), a Ganesh figure at another (no, I'm not converting to Hinduism, but how can I help liking a guy who combines my interests in mythology AND elephants?), and copies of Cornelia Funke's Inkspell and L. Frank Baum's The Twinkle Tales at Daedalus Books. We caught the plane back home that night, and after a layover in Atlanta, it was back to Philadelphia and New Jersey for us. We were both pretty exhausted by that point, but we're up now. And, well, I guess that's about it. Be sure to check out my pictures!
Okay, I guess it's time for bed. Past time, really. Happy birthday to
gick, and happy belated birthday to obsessical and zimbra1006! Since I'm behind on my usual blogging schedule, I'll probably write an Oz post tomorrow (i.e., today) and a video game one on Thursday.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 07:13 am (UTC)Whoa. I was also -- briefly -- in Powell's late Saturday afternoon; as a native Portlander, it's not the adventure for me that it is for pilgrims from afar, but it's nonetheless very cool indeed. And it sounds as if your native guides did an excellent job of native guiding.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 08:39 am (UTC)Yay! I'm sure I would like it.
Glad you're having a good time. So far we've actually only been to Portland to see Sloan but we definitely need to get back and explore more sometime, and I really really want to go to Powell's although oh god I'll have to put myself on a strict spending limit. Anyway Washington is still way better. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 05:10 pm (UTC)I probably will go to Seattle someday, even though I don't much care for coffee or grunge music.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-13 10:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 01:00 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about being claustrophobic during the loading and unloading portions of airplane travel. I get especially anxious during the unloading part, and I curse all the slow people in front of me - especially the ones that bring carry-on items and wait until the last second to get their items down and are slow doing it.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-07 10:53 pm (UTC)Oregon is where my Grandma lives
Date: 2009-10-07 03:31 pm (UTC)Powell's is always excellent. The last time I was there my mom and I managed to mostly find used copies of our books, so even though we got a huge stack of books between us it came in at a nice $99, plus the $1 I threw down for the re-usable Powell's shopping bag.
Re: Oregon is where my Grandma lives
Date: 2009-10-07 05:16 pm (UTC)Re: Oregon is where my Grandma lives
Date: 2009-10-07 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 07:11 pm (UTC)