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Home after a 5-day, 4-night jaunt to Portland. We had an amazing time and were able to cram a lot into the time we were there.

Here is our trip in pictures:

Dreary most of the trip, but the rain was manageable. Funny how much the locals were complaining about the rain - makes me think most of the people there aren't long-time residents. Heck, if we can handle the rain, this should be nothing for you people.

Our room at Ace hotel was really a glamorous hostel. The bed was four inches thick, made mostly of concrete and unrealized dreams. Yes, the wallpaper was an Italian newspaper. Yes, it took Todd three days to notice. You could purchase their custom Ace Hotel Pendeltons for a mere $400-something for the King size.

Everywhere you look in Portland there is art. Folk art, corporate art, indie art, you name it, it's everywhere.


We ate A LOT but walked even more so luckily our WW leader won't have to scold us this week. This is me at Zeus' cafe at the Crystal Hotel, with my bear sweater on, deciding if eggs florentine is a good plan.

The zoo, which by the way costs $9 to get into if you take the light rail which drops you DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF the zoo, is amazing. Tons of animals up-close-and-personal, like this very angsty monkey.

In Portland you're aware you're in a city because of the sidewalks and the tall buildings and celebrity sightings (Matthew Fox stayed in our hotel, Zooey Deschanel was spotted at Clyde Common) but there is a lack of hustle-bustle. You walk right out of your building and there are beautiful flowering trees and greasy food carts greeting you with exotic morsels and you sort of forget to be stressed out.


Todd at Multnomah falls. Have you ever seen someone so happy to be wearing like 3 pairs of pants and coping with wet jeans? Seriously. The man loves the outside but only when it's below 55.



The Farmer's Market was incredible. We shared a little sandwich with mushrooms and pesto and I had the best SEA SALT CARAMEL macaroon I've ever eaten from Pearl Bakery's booth. Seeing the PSU campus made me rethink a few life choices too. Can you imagine awakening in your dorm room on Saturday to a table full of chard in front of a quaint Victorian mansion?


And then there's "weird" Portland. This is the 24-hour church of Elvis, a coin-operated museum that, from what I could discern, had little to do with Elvis. I think the most "Portland" thing we saw when we were there was a punk kid scrubbing his boots with a toothbrush in a public water fountain. Clean your boots, oy! oy! oy!

We also got to return to Equilibria for a couple's massage and here is my honey afterward looking quite "squishy" - his term for how massages make him feel.

I'm sick and back to a kick-ass week but the trip was worth it.