The impossibility of getting my 18 year old son out of bed is going to make me lose my mind. I went out with Chrystal and family for breakfast and brought coffee and pastry back to the sleepers. Another lovely person working at the coffee shop recommended Powell’s City of Books, the Waterfront, and Portland City Grill’s 30th floor lounge for happy hour.
We opted to walk along the waterfront to a tram that takes people up to the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) campus. The waterfront is busy, lots of dogs, bikes and runners. And also more dogs.
The Morrison Bridge, which we drove over yesterday, has a center section that lifts straight up to allow passage for taller boats. We were lucky to see this in action. My Pixel has no time lapse option so I’ll spare you the lengthy video and just share a still shot of the bridge instead. You’re welcome.
The tram to OHSU turned out to be just, and only, that. We road it up, enjoyed the view from the landing platform, and took the very next tram back down. Still worth it!
Our next thrill ride was to take the street car back to the waterfront area where there were some restaurants where we could stop for lunch. We enjoyed our lunch in the company of a lot of dogs. This is a big dog town.
This lunch special looks appetizing!
On the advice of our morning coffee server, we went to Powell’s books. This is an insane place. It’s footprint is an entire city block and it’s full of floor-to-ceiling shelves of new and used books. You can seemingly find ANYTHING here, including about a thousand people and a line so long that one staff member stands with a sign that says “End Of Line” so you know where to line up. On one hand, it’s great to see so many people in a book-buying frenzy but on the other hand, holy crap! Fortunately for my wallet, the people become too much and we bailed (even though Mitchell had unearthed a Star Trek Settlers of Catan game!!). Instead we went for beer at the Independent Sports Bar.
We met Jan and Chrystal at Red Star at the Hotel Morocco for happy hour drinks and then made our way to our dinner reservation at the highly recommended Departure restaurant on the rooftop level of our hotel. Dinner was AMAZING. Tapas style, so everyone chose one dish for sharing. We had pork belly, prawns, brussel sprouts, beans, charcoal chicken, sushi, stone steak. I’m underselling it.
The restaurant itself was a funky place with lots of separate little areas – indoor eating, patio, and what seemed to be a singles bar. The ladies room was all stainless steel and mirrors … very space-age.
