Trip Report: Portland
Ginger and I went to Portland this weekend, and it was great! And soggy.
We took a Friday morning afternoon train from Seattle. Amtrak uses the tracks of a freight line, and there was a two hour delay while a broken freight train was moved. We arrived and thought "the weather's not so bad". And then it started raining very steadily. That was the pattern that the weather followed most of the weekend. Tantalizing dry spells, followed by heavy rain.
We stayed at the Ace Hotel. It was painfully hipster. We walked into the lobby to find trendily apathetic folks lounging around not caring about anything. The staff all wore loosened neckties. Our room was sparsely furnished, with a futon mattress bed, vintage suitcases for a side table, and clip-on utility lamps for reading. The tub was the claw-foot variety. Still the price was not outrageous, and I found the hotel staff to be very friendly and helpful. I don't look for anything more in a hotel.
Dinner on Friday was at the Fish Grotto, which was great. I had seared tuna wrapped in seaweed. We finished the evening at the bar at the Living Room theater. (Sadly, we didn't get to watch any movies there.)
Saturday we hit the weekend market, had lunch with Ginger's friend Erica, ate an early dinner, then took the streetcar to Corteo. It was a wonderful show, and we both really enjoyed it. It's been a while since I've seen CdS, and I was able to get excited about it again. There was a period where I maybe saw too much of it and got a bit burned out on it.
Before bed, we had a couple drinks in the hotel bar. You've probably already seen the results of that.
Sunday we visited Powell's, then the Chinese Garden. Both of us had seen the garden before, but it was a nice, quiet place to sit and relax and wait for one of the heavier rain storms to pass. It was cool watching the heavy rain. Then it lightened and the sun came out. Then the rain stopped, but the plants were still dripping. We bussed to the Doug Fir for a late lunch. Another hipster hive, the building is in the style of a 1960s motel restaurant, and the inside has the decor of a hunting lodge and seedy lounge. Happy hour meant some cheap drinks and food, though.
A fantastic (although damp) weekend! We didn't get to do much touristy stuff, but it was a nice, relaxing getaway.