Nun & son do Portland, OR.
Jan. 21st, 2022 10:37 amThe background: back in the summer, my son & I went to the Hoh Valley rain forest. It was a lovely trip, but it involved about eight hours of driving on a lot of lonely roads. For our next road trip, my son requested something closer and less wild.
What better than Portland? I think the destination was my idea, but what to do there definitely was his: Powell's City of Books, the largest bookstore west of the Mississippi. I feel as if I'm not a complete failure as a parent.
On the way there, we stopped at the Tickler-recommended cluster of food trucks at 4th and Plum in Olympia, WA. For those of you who've never been there, Olympia, aside from being the state capital is a small city with more than its fair share of hippies. This means the food's pretty good. I don't remember ever having a felafel with pickled vegetables on it, and the Wendling loved his burrito.
On to Powell's! I got:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
audrey_eee in her part of Portland. For those who don't know, she's a native of Portland who got mixed up with the MOO kroo* up here in Seattle many years ago, then moved back to her hometown. It had been way too long since I saw her, and I'm glad to say she's doing well; at least until quite recently she was having a really hard pandemic. I told stories that embarrassed my son and made Audrey laugh. Mission accomplished. My son and I swapped drinks because he meant to order a Margarita, not a tequila shot.
At Audrey's recommendation we went to an Ethiopian place** not far away. The Wendling grumbled, saying that the first time he tried Ethiopian he didn't like it. But when I learned that that was when he was ten years old, I insisted. He likes it. To tell you the truth, I've had Ethiopian that I liked better here***, but it wasn't bad. The waiter and probably co-owner is a wise guy. That's right, an Ethiopian wise guy. Oh, Portland.
Our rule with the car is that my son pays for gas, and I pay for everything else. We weren't critically low on gas, but the Wendling's anxiety got the better of him so he insisted on buying gas in Portland. That's when he (re-)learned about Oregon's no-self-service law, and that he was paying for that by not buying gas in Washington, which was of course just a few minutes away. Lesson learned.
Was this trip as good as the latex dinner I skipped for it? In its own way, yes, it was.
*Once a MOOer, always a MOOer.
**Bete-Lukas.
***Meskel, on Cherry St. Also a favorite of Comfy Lady's.
What better than Portland? I think the destination was my idea, but what to do there definitely was his: Powell's City of Books, the largest bookstore west of the Mississippi. I feel as if I'm not a complete failure as a parent.
On the way there, we stopped at the Tickler-recommended cluster of food trucks at 4th and Plum in Olympia, WA. For those of you who've never been there, Olympia, aside from being the state capital is a small city with more than its fair share of hippies. This means the food's pretty good. I don't remember ever having a felafel with pickled vegetables on it, and the Wendling loved his burrito.
On to Powell's! I got:
- Arundhati Roy, The God Of Small Things - I may have read this already. If so, and I don't like reading it again, it'll go to the nearest Little Free Library sooner rather than later.
- Ellen Forney, Marbles - Forney is a noted queer Seattle artist whose graphic memoir of her struggle with bipolar disorder was recommended to me in the strongest possible terms by Comfy Lady.
- Alison Bechdel, Fun Home - Another graphic memoir. It's gay lit, and it's a hit. I kinda hafta, right?
- Wole Soyinka, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth - Another kinda hafta. I'd heard the buzz. Now I'll read what it's about.
- Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads - Ditto, really.
- S.L. Huang, Zero Sum Game - I expect this to be a fun read. I got it from a Twitter thread that I have bookmarked of sci fi & fantasy recommendations.
- Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow - Ditto.
- Natalie Zina Walschots, Hench - Ditto, except that this one a) was blurbed by Seanan McGuire, whom I know and trust, and b) seems as if it might have a similar feel to the Murderbot Diaries, which I loved.
audrey_eee in her part of Portland. For those who don't know, she's a native of Portland who got mixed up with the MOO kroo* up here in Seattle many years ago, then moved back to her hometown. It had been way too long since I saw her, and I'm glad to say she's doing well; at least until quite recently she was having a really hard pandemic. I told stories that embarrassed my son and made Audrey laugh. Mission accomplished. My son and I swapped drinks because he meant to order a Margarita, not a tequila shot.At Audrey's recommendation we went to an Ethiopian place** not far away. The Wendling grumbled, saying that the first time he tried Ethiopian he didn't like it. But when I learned that that was when he was ten years old, I insisted. He likes it. To tell you the truth, I've had Ethiopian that I liked better here***, but it wasn't bad. The waiter and probably co-owner is a wise guy. That's right, an Ethiopian wise guy. Oh, Portland.
Our rule with the car is that my son pays for gas, and I pay for everything else. We weren't critically low on gas, but the Wendling's anxiety got the better of him so he insisted on buying gas in Portland. That's when he (re-)learned about Oregon's no-self-service law, and that he was paying for that by not buying gas in Washington, which was of course just a few minutes away. Lesson learned.
Was this trip as good as the latex dinner I skipped for it? In its own way, yes, it was.
*Once a MOOer, always a MOOer.
**Bete-Lukas.
***Meskel, on Cherry St. Also a favorite of Comfy Lady's.
