Thurssday

Aug 23, 2001

peaceful day in Portland

We wake up early and refreshed from many hours of alcohol (and, in my case, decongestant) induced sleep.

We check messages and hook up to the high speed Internet in our room. (Free and worked first time. Good job, Heathman.) I wonder, though. Are we too connected???.

We eat in the Heathman restaurant. A huge breakfast that I can't finish in spite of the time difference that makes it after 10AM my body time.

We take off walking. Our goal? Powell's City of Books. We wander off walking and bump into the same guys from Austin we saw at the airport. Besides bumping into people we actually know, people in Portland look familiar to me. Not just people 'of a type' but actually familiar. People in New York don't look this way to me really.

We walk by some sleepy antique and junk shops and get to Powell's. I really enjoy looking around and almost buy a couple of things but decide that lugging books around is probably not a good idea. Especially when I can go on-line and order anything in the store. We go to the Technical bookstore and I marvel at the completeness of the collection. I buy a Too Much Coffee Man magazine but nothing else. (Apparently the TMCM action has moved from Austin to Portland and from comic book to magazine.)

We take a cab to see the folks in the office of FFP's biggest customer. FFP enjoys putting names and faces together. Some of the gals are planning some fun for us. We discuss that, call a cab and go back to downtown Portland.

We have a short nap and head out with umbrellas to the Portland Museum of Art. They had an exhibit of works by this guy Hansen who made casts of people so lifelike that you expect them to flinch. I walk right by a policeman who is really an art work. A couple of tourists sit on a bench and, I swear, you wouldn't think a thing about them if you just walked by them in the painting gallery. We look at some paintings and some native American stuff. It's a nice, small museum. And they gave FFP a senior discount for being 55.

shop window, Portland

shop window, Portland

adult beverages

JUST TYPING

Packing. Unpacking.
Double stuff when you have a companion.

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I'm leaving the high speed Internet access for a couple of days. So don't expect updates until next Tuesday.