Travels of THB

Day 5: Portland

What happens when the lights go out at night:

Sweet dreams, girls. Instead, the parental units are gone so it's time for a chat

Quote of the Day: Should we dine in or go out?

Both

Weather: Blistering hot by mid-afternoon

Elliptical TV

THB and DB hit the fitness center. THB cannot get the TV to work (no surprise).

DA and THB head out to get some excellent pastries from Nuvrei ($14 for lemon scone, blueberry “cupcake” like thing and an almond croissant). We take Shin-aid, the chick magnet. Two young women stop us to oooooh and aaaaah over the dog. Dog also has a successful walk: one pee and two poops.

Back to condo for breakfast of machine made café au laits (very good), pastries (very good), a very nice fruit salad of berries and peaches, and great local yogurt. Off to a good start!

The view from our boyfriend table and chairs

The neighborhood disaster preparation plan appears to be run by a very enlightened board

We’ve all got different plans for lunch and, hey, there’s still time to fit in some shopping and dog-walking. We get a tour of the neighborhood areas on Mississippi and Alberta streets, then park and DA and THB find a boyfriend table and chairs while SA and DB peruse the local establishments shopping for various grandchildren and a couple of specialty bars of chocolate for their forlorn dog watchers.

Tilt

Napkins

THB and DB are meeting up with B&P, friends made while hiking the Kumano Kodo in Japan. They are also world travelers, taking major hiking and biking trips. Retired in Portland, they reached out to us last week because they were celebrating a family b’day in the Bay Area and staying at a Berkeley Marina hotel, less than 2 miles from the loft in E-ville. HAH!! That’s when we were in Seattle. They made it back to Portland in time for us to arrange a last minute lunch at Tilt.

B&P are sharing a salad and Reuben sandwich; P gets his own local brewski

THB and DB are sharing a brisket sandwich and fries

Reuben and salad

Tilt is a burger and sandwich spot in the middle of the Pearl. Good food, a chance to catch up in a quiet and cool spot. THB split a brisket sandwich and fries combo, with a couple of ice teas. P&B treat!!! We’ll have to reciprocate when they return to the Bay Area or we meet up in some random spot.

A short visit to the Pearl Bakery, near Tilt, for some rolls for the plane flight home tomorrow and a couple of cookies to share as we walk ever so slowly back to the condo as the temp is in the low 90s now.

More schmoozing as we reconvene around 2:30, even watching streaming of Paul McCartney and Michelle Obama as guests on the Late Late Show hosted by James Cordon (separate shows, Michelle and Paul not appearing together though that would be fascinating). Basically, as best THB can figure out, they are doing “Caraoke” and lip-synching to songs played on a car radio (as opposed to lip-synching to songs patched into the videos shown on the TV broadcast in front of a “live studio audience” while faking driving around (except some of Paul’s clips are from real places in Liverpool)…THB knows the Beatles songs and has no clue about the Michelle Obama songs. And, THB has no clue about the Late Late Show. And THB has no clue about so many things: Late, Early, Mid-afternoon, Extra Early, Extra Late TV, Faked on TV, On a bus, With a mop, Without a Map. Totally clueless on so many things.

Hey Jude is THB's least liked song of all time. Of course that's one Paul and James sing along to in the car.

Or, rather, back to drinking

Tuna imported from our trip together in Spain and Portugal

Sorry, back to blogging: since THB and DA are going to reprise our G&Ts in the early evening, shades of Rio, we decide that it made sense to continue schmoozing and dining in on snacks that SA and DA keep on hand for just these moments, including breaking out a jar of tuna purchased during our trip to Spain and Portugal. Much reminiscing about some of the highlights of that trip, including a day with Gabriela as our the guide in San Sebastian that makes the top 5 of THB’s travel experiences (we "see" Gabriela again when she appears on an Anthony Bourdain show giving Tony the almost identical tour she took us on…except ours was better!).

Around 8:15 it’s time to head out for ice cream at Fifty Licks. THB goes for tried and true combo: extra chocolate chocolate and espresso coffee. DB and DA have some chocolate coconut concoction and SA has strawberry. DA and SA treat.

Shots from here, there, from a car, from a faked car, in a bar, in the air, on a TV, in an elevator, on the street, and getting ready to tweet: