Today I fell in love with Portland

Aaron told me before we left that I would fall in love with Portland. What i did fall in love with is Erin and Jill, their son Andrew and daughter Mariana.  But to be honest with you I wasn't impressed with the city. We have spent the week in Vancouver WA, just a hop across the bridge and have driven around the city most of the week.  Its not overly pretty from a distance, sprawling and industrial.  The  grey sky and rain probably do not help with my perception of the city.

Today however I fell in love with the city of Portland.


We visited the Hawthorn neighborhood.  It s a funky, arty neighborhood, with thrift stores, music shops, local designer and arts run shops, restaurants, coffee shops and books stores.

We walked into a guitar store that had little theater in the back and the owner got Aaron up on stage to play the piano, it was so cool to see him up there.  3 times a week in the evening, they open the back room theater and musicians names are put in a hat and pulled at random, you only to play one song becuase there is such a demand.   Then we got an impromptu concert by a local musician. She played a piece based on a bird she heard on a while on a hike, then she gave a cd of her music. It was such a great experience. They were so friendly
 

We then popped in to a clothing store were all the clothes are made and designed by local designers.  Up stairs was a community sewing room run my Bree. She runs classes and you can use all her equipment for $8 an hour.  She even has Becky from project runway coming to teach a class in the New Year.  There are so many resources for artists here in Portland.
 
 

Our friends Erin and Jill have told us about similair places in Portland for video editing and artists. They also have lots of sports complexes with in door running tracks, swimming pools etc. This is because of all the rain.


We also went to Cinetopia. Cinetopia is a privately run movie theatre that has living room theatres. They are small movie screens with huge leather seats, with trays attached where you can order food to your chair. They also have pits thats are full of throw cushions so you can lay down and watch the movie.  We saw Tin Tin which was very good.

 We then went into a vintage store and found a old style photo booth.

I also brought a hat the pink one. The other one was from Urban Outfitters for $5. That's 4 hats on this trip, and  I thought I wasn't a hat person.






























 


We have made a pro and con list about moving to Portland.


Tomorrow is out last day here. We are going out for breakfast and i am doing laundry and packing as we are leaving about 5am Sunday morning. We have a 12 hour drive home.