Primetime - and Playtime - in Portland

Today I was left to my own devices to entertain myself in Bridgetown aka The City of Roses aka Portland aka *cough* send my things I'm not leaving, wait what?

First stop: Powells.

As a lover of not only books but bookSTORES, I've been dreaming about Powells for a while now. I was not disappointed. Not only did I feel at home, but I found everything I was looking for even though I didn't know the title or author of the book. In one case I found the book myself just by perusing shelves. In the other case I described random details of the book to one of Powell's info peeps and she found the book for me in literally less than two minutes. I was in heaven. (PS those random details were "it's a memoir of a girl who when she was 4 her dad switched places - and families - with another dad because they fell in love with each other's wives.")

So after she found it, she was like, that is crazy, I'm totally gonna read that book and I'm like, right?! I read about in People Mag...I was kind of embarrassed to mention that I read People Magazine there. They don't even carry it.

I of course hung out for a bit in the children's section. I listened in as a dad sat on a bench reading kid books to his little boy. I look forward to those days.

Because the weather was still so amazing, I felt guilty to sit in the store and read books (which is definitely what I would do on a rainy day) and since I had already picked out two, I didn't wanna spend any more money, so I headed back out into the sun.

From there I went to meet Elena for lunch. We ate at a great Italian place. I can't remember the name which super sucks. But I had radicchio salad for the first time there. Wait, I found it! Nostrana! (all by searching "radicchio salad Portland" I heart google!) When I dropped Elena off, I toured the station, met the news director, and got my personal roadtrip forecast from Rod the weather guy. He said it will be smooth sailing winter weather wise, so that's good news.

After that I visited the elephant statue, which excited my dad because he remembers it from his visit. It excited me because I love elephants, so I think of it as another sign. I walked from the statue to the infamous Voo Doo Doughnut. I do love bacon but I couldn't stomach the idea of it on a donut, so I went with Froot Loops and icing instead. It was good. Super sweet, but good.

I finished my donut and drove up to NW 23rd. I walked the length of the shop-studded street and then sat at a table on the sidewalk for - LITERALLY - two hours. People watching. Pregnant girls, Subarus, and weiner dogs were the most frequent spottings.

It was then almost time to meet Elena for dinner, so I drove over to the area where the condo the contractor told me about. It's across the street from PGE Park, which is where the new major league soccer team will play. It's also like three blocks from the NBC affiliate.

Dinner: 50 Plates. Oh so yummy. Elena and I are good meal partners because we both like little plates. Most of our meals we've been able to get a variety of things and share. I also very much enjoyed (maybe too much!) the Oregon Pinot Gris. It went down like water. Even Elena was like, you must really like that I've never seen you drink wine so fast. (as I downed the second glass...) It was super good. Then with the check they gave us the equivalent of a spoonful of chocolate frosting. Literally. on a spoon. Big ups 50 plates.

So I've applied to both the ABC and NBC affiliates here. Neither have openings but, you never know. Who knows what will happen, but I'm interested to find out. Tomorrow I head north to Seattle. Got several people to see, and I'm excited to see them.