The Proof is in the People

Today wasn't as jam packed with activity, but we took time to enjoy the people - and amazing weather - of Portland.

The day started with brunch at Mother's. I had a vanilla (Oregon?) chai and a strawberry Belgian waffle that I ended up sharing with the rest of the table. It was yummy, but sweet and filling.

Before breakfast was over we had experienced at least three random acts of kindness. First, one of my host's friends went out of his way to try to get us Wicked tickets for tonight. Without us asking. He stood in line outside the theater. It didn't work out, but it was a good effort on his part. Then at the restaurant, somehow things got screwed up and our name didn't end up on the list. We didn't discover this until we had been waiting slightly longer than our estimated time. Once we (and the host) discovered the error, they sat us at the very next available table. No questions asked. No bad feelings. Our waitress (who we had seemed disgruntled with the crowd when we first arrived) was amazingly fun at our service. She also kept winking at us.

After we ate, we walked along the riverfront again. SO many people were out enjoying the day. Kids playing in fountains...I was like, it's sunny, it's not 80 degrees, people! But it was refreshing to see the excitement the sun gave everyone. We saw babies who had probably never SEEN the sun before. We joked about the parents being like, "this is the outdoors" and "that is called sunshine, yes, it kind of hurts your eyes."

There was a protest of bicyclists. But they weren't marching down any streets so it was kinda boring...just speeches mainly. Yawn.

We spent much of the rest of the day walking around looking at shops. Everyone was in crazy good moods. I can't think of a single incident today with a stranger that was anything less than super nice. We discussed life with an antiques shop owner, we perused condos in the Pearl District. The contractor showed us the super fancy million dollar ones (just for fun) and then offered me all these incentives on the more relatively affordable ones. (He will match the $8k stimulus, give me a 3% interest rate, and let me spend a night in it to try it out.)

At one point we just sat on a corner, writing a song about all the Subarus we were seeing, and cracked up like schoolgirls.

It was just like everywhere we went, people were nothing but awesome and accommodating.

I head to Powell's tomorrow...I've already got that Christmas morning feeling.

Also on the docket for tomorrow is VooDoo Doughnuts, maybe a looksie at the food trucks, and more perusing of NW 23rd...then the plan is to leave Tuesday to mosey on up to Seattle. It looks like there are a couple of chances for rain there this week...I'm hoping the sunshine keeps following me.