I ♥ Portland

How I love Portland, I cannot count the ways! This trip was ambitious... and pretty successful. Take 8 people and try to get them to do more than one thing a day together: if you even get one thing done, it's pretty incredible.

DAY 1
We visited Bart. I've probably spent more time watching The Simpsons than doing anything else in my life (now that's unmotivating). So when I heard Matt Groening grew up in Portland - I just had to see all the Simpson's landmarks. We saw Bart outside of Matt's old high school and many of the characters, like Reverend Lovejoy and Ned Flanders are named after streets in Portland.

We also visited Knit-Purl (my first but not last time). They have so many lovely yarns. Even my brother, Kirk, was enchanted by them. He asked if I'd make him a spidy (spiderman) mask out of a cashmere/silk blend.

After missing our bus because Powell's book store puts drugs in the air vents that make you not want to leave (Ok not really), we made it to the Japanese Gardens and met up with Sharman (Todd's sister). I'd been before, but never in the rain. I'll let it speak for itself:

DAY 2
Todd and I went into the city by ourselves to ride on the Portland Spirit. It rained the whole time, but it wasn't too cold, so we stayed on the upper deck most of the time. The mist was rolling over the trees and it's a very slow moving river - it was really peaceful.

The Steamroller Rose passed us by

We went wandering around the city after that. There are so many cool little shops everywhere. We found a zine shop called Reading Frenzy. Seriously, they only carry zines! And we found the Museum of Contemporary Craft. They had a gallery show from Ken Shores, whose work combines ceramics and feathers. Even their gift shop was amazing - they had handspun there! And they support a bunch of online crafter's that I love, like Bellamuse and Sublime Stitching. Can I please live here!?

DAY 3
Today was our first sunny day! So perfect, since we planned to be out in Willamette Valley all day for the Memorial Day celebration. We met up with my friend Chelsea and her family and we all went to Cooper Mountain Winery. It was great to get a feel for the country in Oregon. And the winery had a musician and artisan cheeses to compliment our tastings, so it was a cool little party.

Then we all drove back out to Portland to go to the Saturday Market. Saturday Market is a craft market. Whether your favorite craft is homemade popcorn or screen printed t-shirts, you can find it here. I love Portland for this! They really support independent artists. I was surprised at the variety of crafts - and that everything was so inexpensive.

DAY 4
Driving, driving, driving. We got to our camp really late, so we barely had time to set up and then we cooked our food in the dark.

They didn't allow fires, so we had to act like hobos.

The campground was really crowded and huge. So when my brother and I walked away from camp looking for my sister, I should have know we'd get lost immediately. Todd came to find us and started yelling my name. The only problem was that every time he yelled my name, everyone in the campground would yell it too. Todd was a bit indignant about that, I kind of thought it was funny - only because I was found eventually. It was a very unique arrangement, though. Everybody was camped so close together that you can't help but be friends with each other. Everyone's sharing what they brought and helping each other out. Would life be like this everyday if we all just had to live in a big field together?

The Gorge Campground featuring Kimberly

DAY 5
Sasquatch!!! I didn't really know what to expect from this festival. I've been to the Gorge before, and it is by far the best venue I've ever visited, but it was a totally different scene from this. We went for The Flaming Lips, The Hives, Built to Spill, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Flight of the Concords, and we found two bands I'd never heard before: Kay Kay & his Weathered Underground and Siberian - both local Washington bands. The show represented a lot of different sounds. While the Hives were jumping around for an hour talking about how cool they are, Rodrigo y Gabriela got the entire crowd to sing Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" with them. Wow! ...is all I can express here.

The Main Stage

DAY 6
After all that, you'd expect us to be tired, huh? We were:

On the Red Line to the Airport

So we're sold. We love Portland. I think that we belong there. Now I just have to get through 2 more years of school. Or really, I should just concentrate on getting through Summer semester. I have 12 hours of classes every week, it's been a bit intense. But I must admit after this vacation, sitting in class isn't too hard.