Blogs from Portland, Oregon, United States, North America - page 43

Hello All! Well it has been a while since our last blog - but after an awesome xmas trip we thought we would share with you some of our photos and adventures. How could we refuse and invitation from a long lost uni friend of Mel's, Courtney and her husband Dave to join them for Xmas. We headed off at the crack of dawn taking the bus to Seattle (thankfully no rubber gloves were involved in crossing the border just a few questions and we were back on the bus and on our way) at Seattle we boarded a train to Portland. The train was great - lots of leg room, very relaxing with views of the water where we spotted some seals! We loved visiting Portland, Courtney and Dave showed us around including a trip ... read more

We woke up this morning in the Presidential Canopy Suite of Portland's White House. After receiving several birthday calls from friends and family, The Boy (and The Girl) went downstairs for a delicious birthday breakfast. Over French toast and bacon, we enjoyed the company of our fellow inn patrons. Across the table, sat a couple from Seattle, Matt and Amy, who were spending a few days in Portland on vacation. We told them about our West Coast Adventure and smiled as we discovered that Matt works at Adobe Macromedia in Seattle in the Sales and Support department. He explained that Adobe Macromedia was undergoing several exciting changes following their recent merger, and was hiring in many departments. We still do not know where our path will take us, but in honor of our West Coast Synchronicities, ... read more

...is meeting so many nice people. Everyone I've met here have been so nice and have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. Today was another very rainy one but still I walked virtually everywhere (except one short ride on the MAX). Among other things, I mailed a box of stuff back home, transferred more of my photos to CD, watched people at Pioneer Place, and had a great lunch at a Greek restaurant. I also explored Chinatown and nearby neighborhoods full of old buildings including several with promising apartments. When the drizzling rain turned into a torrential downpour, I ducked into a Fifth Avenue club to dry out. That was where I met Ali who sings and plays guitar in a local rock band called Destitute. We got into a very deep ... read more

Since the weather was still very bad this morning, I decided to spend it lounging in my hotel room. The temperature warmed to above freezing in the wee hours so the rain over downtown area helped to melt all the snow and ice from last night. It looked like the Columbia River Gorge got the worse of the storm with some areas east of Portland receiving a couple of inches of snow each hour this morning. I did some reading while flipping between the various local news programs - a few sections in my 'London At War' book and the first couple of chapters of 'Travelers' Tales Thailand'. I also dozed off for a while before jumping in the shower around 1:30. Hungry, I walked a couple of blocks north to Carl's Jr. A lunch of ... read more

I had the most enjoyable, unplanned, day yesterday spending some twelve hours participating in "Santa Con.". This is an annual gathering of people dressed as Santa Claus held in a number of cities throughout the U.S. I had never heard of it before stumbling across the very start of Portland's event shortly after 11a.m. Saturday. I'd started out from my hotel rather late in the morning, braving the piercing winds and bitter temperatures to walk north to Pioneer Place, a large undeground shopping canter in the heart of downtown. After discovering the location of the movie theater and that I'd missed the beginning of "King Kong" by ten minutes, I decided to eat an early lunch. I had a turkey sandwich at California Crisp, my favorite eatery from my September visit. However, they were out of ... read more