Weekend Away: Portland

Sunday, May 06, 2018

Last Friday we hopped up to PDX for a quick visit. It was only our second time there -- our last trip was nine years ago!

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It was super fun to see our Oregon friends, including sketchers Rita Sabler and Andrea Matthews. And of course we enjoyed ALL the delicious food.

Rita invited us to sit in on a workshop she was teaching on Saturday, featuring a talk by local historian John Doyle. It was fascinating to learn the stories of the bridges on the Willamette River.

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We spent the afternoon with other friends sampling coffee and tea at Coava and wandering the Mississippi/Williams neighborhood before dinner at Pok Pok Noi and soft serve at Pine Street Market's Salt & Straw WizBangBar.

Sunday I went to the Lan Su Chinese Garden with Sarah Gilbert, who runs Cordilleran Tours. Just before we left, we drew our fortunes from a cylinder of numbered sticks. I joked that my trip had a theme of 9s: we were staying at The Nines hotel, it had been nine years since I'd been to Portland, and my fortune was #29.

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We also loved viewing artist Jill Torberson's works, which were on display in the buildings as well as right in the grounds of the garden. Her mixed media wall pieces were particularly striking.

We chased our garden tour with brunch at Cheryl's on 12th, where Andrea met us. We sat outdoors in a drizzle, so we got the true PDX experience. And then M. and I went off to the Portland Art Museum, where we saw an amazing exhibit about LAIKA (the animation studio behind Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and more). It's there till May 20, so go if you can. The detail and creativity that goes into these sets and figures is astounding.

I have to say, I liked Portland more this time around. Perhaps we've both grown up a bit in those nine years.

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