Portland Trip
I went up to Portland for a job interview, to which the company encouraged me to come up the day before, and then stay through the weekend to check out the area. Sounds good to me, I thought! So I took the opportunity to see some friends, and Kate also decided to come up for a couple of days and crash with me, having decided she wanted to see Portland for the first time.
top of multnomah falls. you know. water tumbling.
So, Thursday morning I headed out to LAX, got into line, and…saw someone I knew! Turns out Nate was heading up to the Pacific NW to go backpacking with his brother, so we had a fun early morning hangout at the airport. He treated me to a month-belated birthday/graduation shot at the airport, which we proceeded to have along with a tasty cinnamon bun. Shush your mouth. Super early in the morning is 4 PM *somewhere*.
Sorry for the fuzzy, but…bottoms up!
I made it up to Portland, and got my rental car and all that, and then headed out to Fort Vancouver NHS, which I had wanted to see on my road trip, but my car troubles then had made it so that I didn’t have time to do so. At the entry, I spent some time talking to people who work the community gardens out front, and then wandered around the inside of the fort. Some of the historical exhibits are pretty cool, and walking around the big area inside the palisade really is such an odd feeling, given that I generally do not equate “outdoors” with “wooden wall”.
Gotta prove you were there, right?
The gardens tended in front of the fort walls
A display of apothecary bottles.
Display of baled up furs. Big fur center! I believe the hanging furs are actually all real.
Friday was mostly taken up with my interview, which I think was mostly fine, honestly, though it never turned into a job offer (speaking from the future). Friday night, however, Kate flew in. We went and grabbed some food at one of the McMenamins, but I think mostly just turned in for the night. Saturday day we headed out to the Columbia River Gorge and set out to see some waterfalls. We drove back and forth a bit, and saw Bridal Veil Fall (which had a pretty big bit of walk down to it), Wahkeena Falls, and Ponytail Falls before heading over to Multnomah Falls, where we met up with Amanda, Garrett, and Ian.
Full fantail at the base of Wahkeena Falls
Kate trying to shoot here.
Playing around with exposure times at Ponytail Falls
We had a really nice brunch there, and had a good time looking at Multnomah Falls, and looking at all of the people looking at Multnomah Falls. We took the chance to hit up the gift shop, because, you know, gift shop. It was some really spectacular weather out, and was…just a most excellent place to be.
Kate and Amanda, all sunny
All of us, loitering shamelessly
Ian making some valiant walking efforts, and watching people, watching water.
At that point Kate and I headed back to Portland. We wandered through downtown and Chinatown a bit, and then headed over to the Portland Saturday Market. We walked around and I really enjoyed all the stalls, though my general lack of employment at the time counterindicated, you know, buying much. But I really enjoyed a lot of the stalls. There was one artist who basically does wire weaving on small pieces of plastic, and then turns these awesome patterned pieces into jewelry : Pterylae Designs Walking around these places, much as I love handmade soap, carved spoons, and jewelry, after enough time, it all starts to look like more of the same, and it’s always awesome to run into a stall that really stands out from everyone else.
Even if you’re not a gentleman (or your (sic))
From there we wandered along the water and noticed that there was a giant fenced in tent area, which turned out to be the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. Well then. We spent some time there, and bought some tokens, and got some beer, and I would say it was generally succesful, though the amount of crowding and general density of other humans was making me a little twitchy. But…it’s good to be out.
So many people! So many flags…
After that, we wandered around pretty aimlessly for a bit. Well, perhaps not aimlessly. I *think* it was around this time that we went to Powell’s, and Reading Frenzy so Kate could try to buy some gifts for her sister, and the Ground Kontrol arcade/bar to play some pinball. But it was also kind of aimless, since I really can’t recall the exact order of events. But we did some things! Anyway, we eventually managed to meet up with Matt and Lisa for dinner. It was really great to see them, and as I believe we had Thai food, it is also always good to eat Thai food! After dinner we walked around some more, aiming eventually for that most Portland of destinations, Voodoo Doughnut.
The evening eventually petered out
If I don’t take photos, clearly I didn’t see my friends
They say they are open late! This is a true thing.
You know, because you have to take a photo.
