Monday morning I left my worries all behind in San Francisco and traveled to the beautiful state of Oregon. I have never rented a car before so that was an adventure and from the get go, everyone was SO nice! The lady at the counter chatted me up for awhile before I went on my way. There were no intermediate cars left, so I picked up a free upgrade on a full size car; now I'm rolling in an Impala, holla!
Thanks to my handy dandy GPS, I drove over to Biscuit's pretty quick and I got my first real hug from him in almost 6 months. His house is amazing and I won't even tell you people what he pays in rent for 4 bedroom house.
Anyway, we went and ran errands for him and had lunch at this amazing cafe downtown called the Blue Plate Cafe. They make their own sodas and I haven't had a grilled cheese like that in years. Biscuit apologized, saying that it was a little more on the pricey side but it was only $6 for a sandwich/soup, score! The guy that runs the place was funny and they make their own sodas. What hippies! I liked Portland already.
Downtown is super nice and we did a whole walking tour. I saw Powell's (hi, I could live there and be happy), the hip funky part of town (where we had a beer), and then had to pee really bad as we headed back downtown to the car.
That night we were invited to Biscuit's friend's house because the weekend before they had "put up with" Amy's sister. HA! They were all very nice and Biscuit's roommate Cody's girlfriend Melina (wow that was a mouthful) is from San Jose! Small world. For some reason I wasn't hella chatty but it's a little bit difficult in such a tight group of friends. They were booking their tickets to Mexico that night and I was a bit jealous I have to say. I miss having friends like that.
I was starting to fade because I'd be up pretty early at that point. I'm old, sorry. We just headed home, hung out in the living room and fell asleep watching Short Circuit 2 (don't ask). Somehow I crawled into bed and slept in until I had my weekly phone meeting with Boss #2. I KNOW, I had to work, so lame. In fact, someone from work has called me every single day since I've been gone.
The next morning we had some coffee and breakfast at another rad cafe. Portland knows how to do their coffee shops. Probably because they have to spend so much time inside due to the rain, ha ha. I have to say, it was such a treat just sitting there across from Biscuit and just talking to him (more later).
We headed over to Nat's restaurant shortly thereafter. She cancelled her cell phone so I haven't been able to get a hold of her. I asked someone to pass along a message via myspace but to no avail so I figured I'd just drop in. The girl working there is from Santa Cruz it turns out and it also turns out that Natalie was on vacation! Of course we're on vacation at the same time. At least I got to see the restaurant and it's beautiful, I'm so proud of her. She's always talked about wanting her own place to match the principles she feels about food so it was quite inspiring to see it come to fruition. Next time I will actually get to eat there!
After that stop, we headed to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). They had an exhibit on Chinese dinosaurs! At first we felt a little bit awkward I think but then we started getting into all the hands on things. Think the Exploratorium but in nicer facilities (like Tech Museum in SJ). There was this "inventor's ball room" where there were a bunch of machines with compressed air and you could shoot balls up into a basket (or at little kids). We started getting really into it and connecting like three tubes together to make the balls go farther. Then we met a crazy 12 year old who joined in with us which was funny. Then we had a race to see who could build the more stable building (I lost but I think I had a disadvantage being that there were only small square LEGOs left), then some paper airplane racing, then some tornado fun. Good times.
We went back home and just chilled in Biscuit's room listening to music; him fixing some computers and me reading. That's the kind of vibe I needed for this trip so I was grateful for that time. Then we went to a bar for food and drink. In Oregon it's state law that you have to serve food with drink. And apparently all the bars in Portland have pretty great food. Wow, this place rocks! We had HELLA fries sprinkled with crack and just bitched / moaned / talked / laughed. Seriously, what a treat. Biscuit and I have a pretty unique friendship. We met over three years ago but this was only the 5th time we'd really hung out plus numerous phone conversations. We just bonded super quick and like I told him, if someone had told me 3 years ago that I'd be sitting in Portland at that very moment having dinner with Biscuit, I wouldn't have been surprised. He's always going to be one of those people at least on my periphery and I'm so glad I was able to have this time to just sit and enjoy being friends with him. The other times, there's always been other people around and it was good to be able to let our guards down and be friends. I heart that kid.
That night I passed out while reading my book and I woke up to Biscuit saying, "You're passed out already?!" because I think I had just gotten into bed like 5 minutes earlier. My book was still open in my hand.
The next morning we planned on going to b-fast but Biscuit slept poorly so I let him sleep in. I headed out on my own and I was sad to be leaving Portland! I think it was sad I was leaving too because it started crying (aka raining) on my way out.
Don't worry Portland, I'll be back :)
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