Portland

We slept in this morning and then had a quick oatmeal/pastry breakfast from Starbucks. It was drizzly, but the smokers were taking up the covered outdoor space, so we found a random wall to sit on.

 

 We picked the hotel we're in for two reasons: #1 it has a swimming pool, and #2 it overlooks the river and is a less than five minute walk to the shore.

We spent part of the morning down by the river, enjoying the overcast day and gaggles of geese.

 A little family of baby geese.

We spent the rest of the morning in the pool playing. Luckily we had it all to ourselves. This was good because it was more fun, but also because I forgot a bathing suit and was wearing a tank-top and a horrible pair of sweat shorts that were so heavy when they got wet that it was all I could do to keep them from falling down the whole time. More white-trash moments at the Waterfront Marriott.

After we got back to the room and showered, we were ready to go out on the town.

Eating lunch at the Spicy Pickle:

 Calvin was mad the whole time because he just wanted to ride on the train. Also, he said his grilled cheese "tasted funny." I finally tried it and it was on sourdough, which does seem like an odd choice for a kid sandwich.

 He and I swapped--I ate his sandwich and he ate my soup, and then we were on our way to catch the "train" (city metro).

The train ride:

 Calvin was happy.

As we walked from the train stop to the bookstore, we saw this little park. It was a fun idea and the kids loved playing under the gigantic elephant.

But when you zoom out, you can kind of see that on all four sides of the little square park surrounding the elephant, the benches were packed with homeless people who just stared at the kids. It was slightly disconcerting, and we didn't stay long.

 

Next we went to Powell's. I'm sure most of you know what that is, but for those of you who don't, it's the biggest, best bookstore EVER. It has floors and floors and rooms and rooms packed with every book you can imagine. It's broken down by age and genre in different colored rooms, so everything is easy to find, but you could still spend days looking through each of the sections. Unfortunately, there's one book I've been looking for that's super hard to find, and they didn't have it, but otherwise it was magical to be there again. Andy and I traded off the kids, and during my alone time I wandered up to find the "rare book room" which said it was on a certain floor. When I got to the floor, the rare books was a tiny room in the corner, and the rest of the room was erotica, so that was my excitement for the day.

I'm sad I didn't take pictures at Powell's because it was so fun. We read in the children's section for an hour, and then we found the Dr. Seuss section, and Calvin was in heaven. He pulled book after book off the shelf and we sat on the floor and read them. We left with several books and a weird set of nesting doll robots for Calvin. Autumn picked a board set of princess books. They were both happy. 

When we were walking back to the train, we passed Seattle's Best Coffee and Andy wanted to stop because he apparently loves their parfaits. I got a hot chocolate, which they loaded with whipped cream, chocolate chips, and white chocolate shavings. Yeah, I'm a fan too.

After making it back to the hotel room, we rested for a bit while the kids watched a show, and then we headed out for dinner. I read this blog where they mentioned a Mexican restaurant that I wanted to try called por que no. We went early to beat the dinner rush, but it was packed when we got there. We realized we had come in the middle of happy hour and their half-price margaritas. By the time we left at dinner time, it was mostly empty.

Food. Was. Awesome.

 Andy had shrimp tacos.

 I had carnitas.

Kids had a quesadilla and rice and beans and a horchata. It was all divine.

Here are a few pics to capture the ambiance of the place:

Super good. I highly recommend it. Next we went to Target to get me a bathing suit, and then we went back to the hotel in time for the Gold Members' dessert bar. We spent the rest of the evening in the pool and with the strollers walking the path around the river, watching the rowing teams, and talking about which buildings we wanted to live in. It's a beautiful, quirky city, and I enjoyed it just as much as I remember.