Portland Part 3

The next day we slept in and got a move on around 11. We started walking around looking for the Pearl District. First on my list was Powell's of course. We walked up and down Broadway 3 times trying to get our bearings. Dennis got a little peeved because he couldn't figure out where he was, and had a slight tantrum, but luckily, Portland is set on a grid downtown so I was able to navigate us around and he cheered up. Powell's was 7 floors of heavenly book goodness, I was a little overwhelmed at first and got stuck at the section for Japanese stickers, erasers and stationary, I bought some little monkey stickers, so cute! I went upstairs and stopped in the travel section to pick up some pointers of things to see in Portland. I came across a book by Chuck Palahniuk called Fugitives and Refugees, a Walk in Portland. He mentioned that Katherine Dunn got the idea for Geek Love because her son would not go walking with her in the Portland Rose Garden, and she thought about what it would be like if she could create her child to be what she wanted him to be. I bought a book called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, great read for those looking for some summer reading. We left Powells and walked around a bit, checking out the area, saw Wieden + Kennedy's downtown office, which had a giant cardboard beaver in its lobby, too bad it was the weekend, I wanted to go inside and take a look. Then we went to Fuller's Coffee Shop on 9th Ave. for some lunch. It reminded me of Austin's with its counter style communal eating, and on the same uncomfortable stools. Our waitress had a Sedona t-shirt on from the 1970's which made me smile.

Fuller's

We walked around for quite a while, watched some hippies with dreads play hackeysack, witnessed some urban moms in the park with their kids, or hanging out at the Sip n Kranz, which is a kid friendly coffee shop. We later went out for dinner at a McMinamins at the Crystal Ballroom. This place looked like the underbelly of a pirate ship, so why not have Goths dressed up in Victorian clothing floating around? They were in town for a Goth Convention. I guess there is a convention for everything. Didn't get any pictures of them, but you can just imagine. I enjoyed one of the best burgers I have ever had there, appropriately named the Dungeon Burger, and the ale was divine.

Sunny Day at the Park

We were seeing Bad Brains that eve, so we headed over to Berbati's Pan, and next door to Rogue for some libations. We met this cool couple Mike and Mary, she was photographing the show, and he knew as much about music as Dennis. They told us all about Portland and why we should move there. They were from Cleveland. We always meet the nicest people from Ohio. Maybe we should move to Cleveland, ha ha. The show was so great, reminded me of shows D and I used to go to in our younger days, lots of punk rock and jumping around. I tried to stay in the back, but Dennis insisted I get in the fray, which was much more thrilling, so I got my arms ready, followed him into the sweaty bunch and took the stance. Punk shows require arms up boxer style to protect the chest area and give you a way to push off the rowdy kids, otherwise you will get knocked on your ass. I held my own and was happy and sweaty afterwards, yaay!

Bad Brains

After the show we passed up the Voodoo donuts for a couple of carne asada tacos. I put too much hot sauce on them and my mouth burned something fierce. I wanted to go back to the donut shop but thought that it might make my stomach upset - beer, burger, beer, tacos, and then donuts. So alas, I never made it to the infamous Voodoo Donuts.