Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Back on this coast
What a trip! We got back from Portland, Oregon last night around 10:30. Somehow woke up and made it to work at my usual time, but I think an afternoon nap is in my future.
The wedding was interesting, an outdoor hippie event [not completely unlike our outdoor wedding, but the person presiding over the event was much more "new age"/Eastern philosphy/good vibes kind of person (ordained from the internet, I'd bet)].
Our flight leaving DC Thursday afternoon was delayed two hours due to weather somewhere in the middle of the country, but we were already on the plane, so we sat on the runway doing nothing. The good news was that since Laura had demanded we fly first class, we had comfortable seats and an attentive flight attendant. I also got to finally see Spiderman 3 on the personal screen in the seat, so that was fun.
Due to the delay in leaving, we arrived in Salt Lake City at 10:30pm. As we taxied to the gate, the pilot announced "The last flight has left for the night, and all the hotels are full due to a convention, but we have pillows and blankets for you." Yeah, you can imagine how Laura was going to take that, so we booked it out of there and started calling hotels. We found one with a vacancy on the third try, and their shuttle picked us up and took us there. It was a Raddison just on the other side of the airport. The next morning we were on a 9am flight for the short hop north to Portland. We got our rental car and found the hotel, then went out to explore the city. Had a good lunch at Henry's Tavern and walked a block further to Powell's books. Imagine if Amazon.com was all in one building and they let people come in to shop. It was like that. It's the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world, spread out over about a block and four stories high. Needless to say, I managed to go there three times over the entire four days of our visit!
Finally saw Fred Meyer, so I know what that is now. It's a grocery store that also sells big-screen TVs, basically. Enormous beer selection. There are a lot of microbreweries in the Portland area, and our hotel rooms had empty fridges in them, so we alternated rooms at the end of each evening for mini parties.
The wedding was Sunday afternoon, an outdoor affair. Nice ceremony. A little too hippie for us, which we (all the east coast folks) laughed about over beers later that night. We all had to join hands and dance in a circle (called the "spiral dance" by the woman leading it). So yeah, really touchy feely stuff.
Need to unpack and do some laundry later. And nap. Oh yes, a nap.
The wedding was interesting, an outdoor hippie event [not completely unlike our outdoor wedding, but the person presiding over the event was much more "new age"/Eastern philosphy/good vibes kind of person (ordained from the internet, I'd bet)].
Our flight leaving DC Thursday afternoon was delayed two hours due to weather somewhere in the middle of the country, but we were already on the plane, so we sat on the runway doing nothing. The good news was that since Laura had demanded we fly first class, we had comfortable seats and an attentive flight attendant. I also got to finally see Spiderman 3 on the personal screen in the seat, so that was fun.
Due to the delay in leaving, we arrived in Salt Lake City at 10:30pm. As we taxied to the gate, the pilot announced "The last flight has left for the night, and all the hotels are full due to a convention, but we have pillows and blankets for you." Yeah, you can imagine how Laura was going to take that, so we booked it out of there and started calling hotels. We found one with a vacancy on the third try, and their shuttle picked us up and took us there. It was a Raddison just on the other side of the airport. The next morning we were on a 9am flight for the short hop north to Portland. We got our rental car and found the hotel, then went out to explore the city. Had a good lunch at Henry's Tavern and walked a block further to Powell's books. Imagine if Amazon.com was all in one building and they let people come in to shop. It was like that. It's the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world, spread out over about a block and four stories high. Needless to say, I managed to go there three times over the entire four days of our visit!
Finally saw Fred Meyer, so I know what that is now. It's a grocery store that also sells big-screen TVs, basically. Enormous beer selection. There are a lot of microbreweries in the Portland area, and our hotel rooms had empty fridges in them, so we alternated rooms at the end of each evening for mini parties.
The wedding was Sunday afternoon, an outdoor affair. Nice ceremony. A little too hippie for us, which we (all the east coast folks) laughed about over beers later that night. We all had to join hands and dance in a circle (called the "spiral dance" by the woman leading it). So yeah, really touchy feely stuff.
Need to unpack and do some laundry later. And nap. Oh yes, a nap.
# posted by smacky @ 8:01 AM 
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Oh man... Girls with armpit hair, white guys with dreadlocks, we saw every hippie cliche in the book!
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