Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - Day 2
First full day in Portland - I gotta say it's really great. After breakfast, I went with Dwight and his dad to Powell's City of Books, which is by far the largest bookstore I've ever seen. Picked up Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines and I actually found a copy of Mr. Rogers' Moving, which I need to get Andy to autograph. The store is really impressive - 4 floors on one whole city block, full of books.
After that, we went up to Vancouver, Washington, just across the mighty Columbia, and did some extreme go-karting. It was really a lot of fun to tear up the track in some really high-powered karts. My lap times were only a second or two off Dwight's, also...so I guess I was really getting the hang of it by the end, although I had my share of spin-outs.
Lunch was at a place called Michael's - a local Italian dive that prides itself on Chicago-style "Italian Beef" subs - delicious. And for dinner, we had filet steaks grilled on the Bussmans' own barbecue grill with some baked potatoes - simple but excellent - just the way I like it.
Dwight and I went in the evening to southeast Portland, on a stretch of Belmont St. that appears to be the hub of the hippie/pothead culture in Portland. We had desserts and drinks at this coffee shop called the Pied Cow, which is an old Victorian house and garden with all kinds of very strange art and decorations, Christmas lights everywhere, and one of the best mochas I've ever had. My dessert was a "Try This If You Dare" - triple chocolate cake with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, and a double shot of espresso poured all over the whole thing. It was an excellent way to pass the evening.