Day 14: Portland, Powell's, Providence

Good morning from Portland! It's a bit gray and rainy here, but I suppose this is to be expected in this part of the country. We are creating our own sunshine though, and today is looking pretty bright! Travels yesterday took us to Portland where we quickly learned that all of our lodging plans no longer worked (even the last ditch effort to sleep in the station). While figuring things out, racking our brains, and calling hostels, we paid a visit to the Saturday Market - known as one of the longest running markets in the world - and had some great East African and Lebanese food from the street stands. The falafel was tasty!

Soon after, we headed to Powell's Bookstore, the biggest new & used independent bookstore in the world! The huge space packs in over a million books and I am pretty certain that I could spend most of my life satisfied to sit in its aisles. Overwhelming and glorious.

In the meantime, Doug remembered and connected with a cousin of a friend, Jonathan, who happened to live in Portland and was willing to let us crash on his couches for the night, pretty last minute. (Providence?) We raced back to the station to grab our toothbrushes and sleeping bags before it closed, but we were too late. We caught a bus to Jonathan's neighborhood and waited for him to get back from his gig (he is a pretty exceptional musician which you should probably check out) at Hopworks, voted Portland's best brewery.
After a short night, we are on the roll again today - breakfasted at a greasy spoon diner in downtown Portland with the locals, drank some average coffee to get the day going, and headed back to Powell's for one last perusal. In a bit, we are headed to Lan Su Classical Garden. Train at 2:25 - we're San Francisco bound!

des & doug

(I am temporarily without my camera, but should have it back when I am in San Francisco. Some disconnected observations: Coffee tastes better in Seattle than in Portland. I drink quality coffee generally from "McDonaldized" coffee shops and more sterile environments, but crappy coffee at greasy spoon diners tastes good (in a different way) because of the less-than-sterile charm and local flavor. I will take the good coffee on some days, and drink the muddy water on other days, and I will post the pictures of me with my traveling cup when I get my camera back.)