I’m back in Connecticut! Here’s what I miss from Portland.
Coffee everywhere.
The trips for coffee were really fun. It was like a constant social sunburn. Mochas galore, date bars, chocolate morsels of unmatchable deliciousness, and oh! what a social network! I swear there’s probably more youth traffic through a single Portland coffee shop than through all of Connecticut (Oregon has 22% more 25-35 yr olds than CT).
Fashion.
In addition to the rampant popularity of skirts, the colors of Portland were very Vivienne. Fun bright clothes and awesome fashion statements. Way to go Portland!
Constant adventure.
My days were so tightly packed with thrills. I don’t think there was a moment of my trip when I wasn’t excited about something awesome. Halfway through my Portland adventure I decided that I should really step it up in CT; bring more fun into my daily life. But then I realized that school is adding a pretty significant ‘c’ coefficient into my equation of fun-motion:
mx” + cx’ + kx = Fun(t)sin(wt)
So perhaps I’ll hold off a bit on any more fun packing until February. Come March though? Look the heck out. I’m going to ramp up the umph.
Walking
Portland is a walkable city. Most of our transportation for the week was via our feet. An unexpected bonus of this method of getting around is that it notably de-stresses you. Walking forces you to leave a little early and creates tiny spaces in your day to collect your thoughts and restart the proverbial servers. It’s so relaxing. I walked more in a single day in Portland than I did in a month here in CT.
Alicia, Dwane, and Sarah!
I love my sister. She is awesome. We made SICK garage band tunes together* and had crazy fun walking around the farmer’s market and making dinners. Portland $7 Pesto? Find it and eat it. Dwane and I went to watch Alicia perform with the Oregon Symphony. Daaaang Alicia was good. She and the other flute started with a little duet thing and it was freakin’ absurd. At the end of the piece the conductor came out and had Alicia and her flute playing counterpart stand in acknowledgment to their sweet performance. Wow.
Dwane, Alicia, and Sarah
It was neat to hang out with Dwane too. Despite my sister’s December ’07 marriage to the Dwanester, I hadn’t actually spent much solo time with him prior to this trip. We were able to talk about work and life quite a bit during our hike around multnomah falls and again as we waited for the Oregon symphony to get cranking. It was really chill. Dwane is wonderful. He has a really fantastic sense of humor and is extremely sharp. On a tour of a submarine he had a discussion with the officer about the method of propulsion for torpedos. Awesome? yes.
I’m very glad he’s part of the Family.
I also got to spend some time with Sarah and despite her ability to effortlessly outsmart me at every Mindbending puzzle at the OMSI**, she was a great addition to the Portland experience. We hit up Powell books, Forrest park, and Henry Weinhard’s brewery (home of my favorite rootbeer!). If you could somehow caffeinate a firecracker you’d get close to Sarah’s addictive personality. So much fun.
I will definitely be going back to Portland. It was too epic of a place to only visit once.
*Check out the garage band creation BIRTH OF SOLITUDE here:
birthofsolitude.mp3
**Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (thanks Michelle & Thor for the free tickets!!)