El trip-o to Portland-o was all business. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.* Even if driving wasn't an issue I reluctantly admit beer goggles would have hindered our search for mind blowing apartments in the City of Roses.
*which in our non-Monopoly-world meant Do not drink your weight in microbrews, do not slip the strippers ten dollars through your ass cleavage WHICH IN talking-to-our-parents-world meant we didn't have to censor what we actually did in Portland dot dot dot it just feels weird/wrong when you don't have to white lie to your parents. Is this what "growing up" feels like?
We needed a feel for the city and its neighborhoods. We were looking for someplace "hip" and "young," not a complex, 2 bedrooms, somewhere under (hopefully much under!) $1200/month, and allows our fur kids. We might trade in "hip" and "young" for "s'alright" and "under 35" if it has a 6 month or month-to-month lease since our favorite hoods on our 1 day visits might not be our favorite hoods when we are actual Portlanders.
This real estate map did nothing for us and made me feel like a newlywed Stepford just for looking at it. Yarf! (Yawn + Barf!) The Sunday Oregonian may have been more helpful :^/ Oh wellsies!
Probably the best parts of the day were how Marc and I agreed about almost everything we wanted in a neighborhood and apartment. We both got panic attacks in neighborhoods that felt too family oriented and fell in love with Belmont and Hawthorne which felt urban, friendly and very alive and I'm sure the brew pubs on every corner made Marc's eyes turn into pulsating hearts. Yeah, I can't describe it better than I think we just fell in love with the Belmont and Hawthorne districts. We were speechless and bumbling just driving through their streets. (Yay!)
For lunch we drove back toward downtown Portland.
Street food in Portland is the Indian Arts in Albuquerque.
I kept my eyes wide open (not difficult because I already look like I have some sort of wide eyes disease) for classic Portland scenes* like bicyclists who have more power than motorists, geeks who are millionaires from their start-up companies but who still eat $2 calzones on the sidewalk, girls sunbathing in parks on the one sunny day of the year, bookstore owners with fluffy blond hair, Tom Hanks, adults dressed as wizards, someone walking 12 dogs and roller derby girls.
*Honestly I do not know Portland very well and am making up these stereotypes which I may or may not have taken from Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.
We took a quick trip over the bridge to Vancouver, Washington. It felt like cupcakes and good neighbors and Main Street, USA but I could be totally wrong. There's no fucking way I'm living near a cupcake store.
Back in Portland.
This lady has a living plant and Christmas tinsel tied to her helmet and bicycle.
Oh, right... before we found Hawthorne District and were hopelessly driving about, Marc had the idea to find someone who looked like they could be our "friend" and quietly pursue them to see where they lived. It was a complete disaster for three reasons: 1) People are perceptive to strange cars following them down the sidewalk. 2) People don't like stalkers. 3) Not everyone goes home in the middle of the day. Damn.
The baseball game in Salem that afternoon meant we needed to leave Portland early. Sat in traffic for two hours and played games, imagined our future in the Northwest and complained about all the beers and strippers we didn't get to experience while in the city. Next time though!
The next day, before going to the airport we stopped at Portland's Saturday Market.
And I did see an adult dressed as a wizard. In fact, I saw many. I saw several distinct groups of adults dressed as wizards which makes me a little worried for moving there.
You'll visit me though, right?
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