Teri's Stuff

Hooray for Portland!
We took Amtrak to Portland, just to do something different. I've been on touristy type steam trains and the like -- but the last time I was on a REAL travel train -- I was a BROWNIE for god sakes!! We took the train from Los Angeles to the San Diego Zoo. Must’ve been nine years old.

This trip was a little different...LOL! Left the house at 6am to catch the Seattle ferry. Got to the Amtrak station at 7:55am. I then realized that our train didn't leave until 10. I had it in my head that it was 9 -- so we got there about an hour earlier than we needed to. We had time to kill, and we'd been told of a nearby restaurant that served great breakfast. We checked our bags and wandered out of the station in the general direction we'd been pointed. After 20 minutes of searching, we'd passed 6 Starbucks but not a single restaurant open for breakfast. We were starting to get cranky, so we gave up and went to -- YES -- Starbucks. After a nice strong espresso and a yummy breakfast bagel -- we decided we liked each other again. Back to the train station. (P.S. On the way back, we ended up passing the restaurant we had set out to find in the first place…DUH! LOL!)

The train was going all the way to L.A. -- so it was a BIG one with a dining car and bistro car, lounge, kids car and all that. It was fun, but uneventful. Did the normal "traveling" stuff -- reading, looking out the window, playing on the laptop, etc. -- until lunch. Then we went to the lounge and spent $26 freaking bucks on two sandwiches, a bottle of beer, and two teeny bottles of vodka. DAMN!!

Blah Blah Blah, Fast Forward. Train, Vodka, Arrive Portland (2pm), Taxi, Hotel.

Our room looked out at the onramp to a bridge. Eric decided to take the keys back down and con them into a better one. He ROCKS. New room was bigger and had a FAB view of the Willamette (wil-AM-it) River, the waterfront park the boats and three of the bridges. MUCH BETTER!

As soon as we put the bags down Eric left for 'Dan's Classic Auto Parts'. He's restoring his '63 Chev Pick Up. He can NOT pass through Portland without stopping at Dan's. I've nothing against Dan's, but to me, it's about as much fun as the Dr.'s office. I stayed behind to unpack and rearrange the stuff on every table in room (it's a weird thing I do - sometimes I even move furniture.) Eric came back all excited with bags of parts and stuff. I remember something about taillights.

Friday night: We ate at the Rock Bottom Brewery and then took a walk down the waterfront park. We watched a couple of drug sales (LOL) and looked at the water, and crossed the Steel Bridge and just talked. It was somewhat romantic, even with the drug dealing…haha!

Saturday: The hotel gave us free breakfast coupons. They mentioned breakfast when I made the reservation, and I assumed it was your basic continental job. Instead it was a KILLER breakfast buffet with pretty much anything you could want -- Eggs, French Toast, Bacon, Sausage, Taters, Croissants, Muffins, Cereal, Yogurt, 5 kinds of juice. We pigged OUT! We were so stuffed we didn't eat again until dinner. After breakfast, we spent the morning at the Saturday Market – a huge Public Market that they hold on weekends under the Burnside Bridge. It was a lot of fun, and we walked a TON, which made me feel better about the breakfast pork-out. Then we spent all afternoon “shopping and bar hopping” our way though downtown. A few stores, a martini. A few stores, a martini. LOL! Man it felt GOOD! Saturday night we went on a very romantic dinner cruise and watched the sun set over Portland while we wined and dined. It was so nice.

Sunday: We repeated our gluttonous breakfast buffet! Hell, we figured we’d chow down on all the great FREE food so we wouldn’t have to buy another ridiculously overpriced train meal. We appeased our guilt by walking to the train station. Back aboard Amtrak to head home. This time we shared a car with some super wound up kids (hopped up on Easter candy in a BIG way) They were screaming and fighting – so we spent the majority of our return trip in the quiet sanctuary that is the Lounge Car. LOL! It was lovely. We got home about 7PM and both agreed that Portland is where we are doing our Christmas shopping this year. A great time was had by all. Hooray for Portland!