For my birthday, Kim got me a trip by train to Portland to see the Decemberists. We left Friday afternoon on the Amtrack Cascades. We had a two for one pass from the Chinook Book, so it’s cheaper and a LOT more convenient than driving. We were both tired so slept most of the way, but the scenery I did see was pleasant.
Travis met us at the train station in Portland. We dropped our stuff off at his place and went to Chinatown for some Buddhist style Chinese food. Since it’s Buddhist, there’s no meat in the dishes, but you can order a lot of fake me stuff that they try to make taste like the real thing. General Tsao’s chicken is awesome! Then we walked to the theater to see the Decemberists (show details linked to in another post). Great show.
The next morning we went to the Saturday Market. Even though is was raining and cold, it was a lot of fun. It’s kind of like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, but the layout is different. Most of the vendor stalls are under a bridge, and they have a stage setup for performances. I got some really cool wooden carved puzzles and Kim got a necklace. We were starting to get really cold, so we walked over to Powell’s Books. I could spend all day in Powell’s. They have so many books and so many good ones just seem to pop out at you as you walk through the city block sized store.
In the evening we went to see the 40 Year Old Virgin at the Mission Theater. The theater is a church, turned into a movie theater/bar. Very cool. The movie was hilarious too. McMenamins owns the place, along with what seems like half of Portland. They have some really sweet bars, clubs, restaurants and hotels. After the movie we walked around and quickly found a bar in a victorian style house. It was a cool setting for a bar, but it was too smoky inside, so we just sat out on the porch to drink.
Travis and I talked a lot about Civ 4. We tried playing a multiplayer game for a few turns too, but didn’t get very far. Travis seems to like living in Portland a lot, and I can see why. He’s walking distance to everything he needs, and there’s a ton of cool stuff around. Kim really liked it too, and I don’t think she was expecting to. We walked around a little while Sunday morning and then caught the train back to Seattle around noon.