We entered the bookstore and wanted to get rid of our backpacks for the browsing time. We asked the gal at info and she said, "Right over there." She wasn't in a good mood. We walked over to the bag check and that man was not friendly. This was the beginning of the trend. We walked around Powell's and looked at more books than I have ever seen. Around 10, we were hungry and tired. We went back to the bag check to ask about a diner for breakfast. They didn't even know of anything in the area. Really??!! How can you not know what businesses are around you? Finally, someone suggested a little dinner a few blocks away. We went and had good breakfast with a friendly server. We thought we were blending in well, but we were always pegged as people from out of town. Michelle hoped we looked like students, but we didn't! When we finished, we walked back to the store and checked our bags in at a different bag check. That person was slightly friendlier.
We continued to walk around the store for another two hours. Our eyes were glazed over and our minds were slightly numb from reading title after title. I did find out some things. In the cooking section, all the chocolate books have brown covers. In the political section, the covers were blue, red, or white. Coincidence? I don't think so. I found Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers. When we left we decided to go down to the waterfront. We missed the bus/light rail, (this will be a recurring theme in our trip) so we went into the toy store and wandered around. Then we caught the next bus. (Stay tuned for the theme to continue.)
We took the bus to go see the Rose Festival. We got off the bus too early--yep, again!-- and walked the rest of the way. When we got down to the carnival, it was closed. Something about a blackout day. :-( So, we walked several blocks uptown and parked ourselves on a windowsill to look at our map and eat a snack. We must have looked quite cute since so many people walked by and smiled at the sight of our huge map. We asked a guy that sitting on the next windowsill for directions. He came over looking helpful, but we found out he was from out of town as well. He, however; was blending in. We finally decided to go to the North Face store. It was so tiny, we were slightly disappointed.
The info center was looking good because we needed to find our hotel and other things to do. [I'm so glad we decided to go without a plan. :-) Katie's the organized one; I thought she would have it all planned out. I was just there for comic relief.] Fining the info center took some doing on our part. We finally found the bus to get to the info center and when we got off, we realized we had been right there on our way to the waterfront.
The women in the info center were slightly helpful, but it took awhile to find our hotel on the map. We should have known we were in trouble at this point. We did pick up some great brochures on where to eat. Voodoo Doughnuts! We also learned that the red & blue line traveled East/West and the green & yellow line traveled North/South. That would have been good to know, but I never could figure out where North was. At this point our feet hurt! We sat down outside to plan out what we would/could do next. At this point it was only 1:00, and we were hungry. Seeing that we were in Portland, fish & chips sounded like a reasonable option. No such luck. We walked and walked around the blocks trying to find seafood place with reasonable prices. We didn't even find a seafood place. The Nordstrom's cafe was near, but it looked fancy; and we were not! So, we decided to eat at Flying Elephants Delicatessen. When we went in, it didn't look very appealing. Plan L, was looking great because there was a Subway that we had passed a few blocks away. Good old Subway saved the day.
Walking back the info center to catch the lightrail was a better option than walking to the hotel. We got off at the baseball stadium, which happened to be one stop too early. [Good thing we are training for the 1/2 marathon. Have I mentioned what is in our backpacks? Michelle had clothes and 2 bananas, M&M's, and a bag of Kisses. I had clothes, a water bottle, 4 apples, chocolate goldfish, homemade granola bars, and two new books. Notice how Katie brings the healthy stuff!] We had to walk uphill to get to the hotel and when we walked passed a hotel we were grateful it wasn't ours. As we were waiting to check in, we looked at our confirmation to see why we weren't closer to downtown and at the bottom in small print it said: The airport is 6.9 miles and distances are calculated in a straight line and may not reflect actual travel distance. In other words it is calculated by way the crow flies. Michelle and I decided we could make up math problems for the 7th graders based on all our walking. We checked into the hotel across the street and was told our room was the one that looked like a dump. We were quickly assured that our rooms has just been redone. We got to the room and it was nice. A nap was in order. After the nap, we decided to go to China Town to eat at a haunted pizza place. We got on the light rail and transferred to the other color light rail and watched our stop go by. By now we were so used to this happening that we didn't even blink.This meant that when we got off we had to walk 7 blocks to dinner. I have to say the pizza was great. We wondered where all the people were, though. It was a empty place and we couldn't figure out where everyone was. Deja vu from our previous visit there at 8 in the morning. As we were waiting for our food and planning the next day, we looked out the window and saw a man standing with a white towel around his waist. He had a mic, so he was in a play? Michelle very much hoped the towel would fall to the ground and make her trip. After dinner comes dessert. Have I mentioned we like chocolate? Although the towel man was pretty sweet!
We walked 3 blocks to a place called Voodoo Doughnuts. This is the sign for ordering the doughnuts. Michelle knew what she wanted, but I took my time and by then the place was packed. Katie, Katie, Katie. We had to stand in line and wait for everyone to order. When I got to the front they were out of the flavor I had chosen, so I got what Michelle did. We chose a doughnut topped with chocolate sauce, Oreos, and drizzled with peanut butter. We were quite full, so we decided to go back to the hotel. After riding the bus back to the info center, we got off and walked through the mall at Pioneer Courthouse Square. It was a cute mall that was getting ready to close for the night. So, we got on another bus and rode it up as far as we could. It was starting to drizzle, so we were grateful to be at the hotel. Unfortunately, the key didn't work. So, we walked down the stairs, across the street, and into the lobby to get help. The night person fixed it and we walked back. The key still did not work. So, Michelle stayed with the stuff, (and the doughnuts!) and I walked back and got a brand new key. We decided we had earned a night of TV. At 9:00, when it's free minute time, I called Southwest to explain our predicament. The person on the other end was not amused. You mean most people don't fly into cities with no idea when their flight home leaves, without their tickets, or confirmation numbers? She finally gave me the conformation code for me and I hung up. Michelle wanted to know why I hadn't handed the phone to her. I explained she wasn't amused and Michelle decided to call home and have her husband look up the info. Explaining the situation to him was harder than the agent. He loves me anyway. I was laughing so hard. We finally both got what we needed and settled down for sleep.
In the morning, we got ready and headed across the street for our breakfast. It was yogurt, fruit, drinks, and bagels. I am so glad we had our doughnuts. So, we went back to our room with some yogurt and hot chocolate and sat on the floor eating our little breakfast. We decided to walk uphill to see the rose garden. At this point we have checked out of the hotel and have our backpacks again. Before we got to the rose garden, there was a Holocaust Memorial that was absolutely beatiful. It had a concise synopsis of the entire concentration camp event.
From there, we walked up to the rose garden. That was so cool to see that many different types of roses. The day was cloudy and it had been drizzling on and off, but it wasn't uncomfortable. The roses had little rain droplets on them and that was so cool. We went up to the gift shop and looked around. We asked the gal when the bus would come so we didn't have to walk all the way into town. She said it would be there in 7 min. Perfect, I had time to go to the restroom. Did I mention that Katie has a bladder the size of a peanut? As I came out, there went the bus. The next one would come in 20 min. Being the walkers that we are, we decided to walk down the hill and catch the next bus at the next bus stop. It couldn't be that far, right? As we got to the park, Michelle said she had to use the restroom. It was Katie's fault; she got me thinking about restrooms. I told her she should have gone when I went, but she said she didn't have to then. At that point, it started pouring. We ran down to the shelter, which at originally been part of the zoo and housed the elephants. Michelle used the restroom and we were going to wait out the rain.
After a few minutes, we asked a bunch of mom's where the next bus stop was. We were told it was down around the corner. Yeah, like a half mile away. So, we walked. And then, we ran because the bus was coming and we certainly didn't want to miss it. We got to the bus stop as it pulled up. We told the driver we needed to buy tickets. He wanted to know where ours were and we said we didn't have any. Then he wanted to know how we had gotten up the hill and we said that we had walked. I don't think he believed us.
When we got to town we went to the library so we could check in for our flight. From there we went to the Lloyed center which is a huge mall that has an ice skating rink. Unfortunately, the rink was closed, but we saw a lot of cool shops and had lunch. We went outside and watched the bus we needed go by us. Go figure. We had 20 min. to buy a ticket and people watch. IKEA is a great store and we definitely could have spent more time there. The airport had fun stores that we wandered into and then we got on the plane. We flew to Reno and had 2 1/2 hours to kill. That airport is tiny with nothing to do. Good thing, we had books and cards. And chocolate!
By the time we got home, we were tired and sore. Portland has been crossed off our bucket list.
Here is the shirt I got at the airport after our trip.P.S. the bananas didn't make it because Michelle kept putting her feet on the backpack as a foot rest.
[Michelle's comments are in purple.]
