Portland, OR

Got up early and had breakfast with the other guests, and then on to Portland. Another 3 hour drive but not too bad.

We’re staying at the ‘Kennedy School Hotel’. It’s a converted elementary school, and you get to stay in the old classrooms, and they’ve converted the gym into a restaurant and the teacher’s lounge into a soaking pool, added a movie theater in the auditorium, etc. The rooms are nice, normal hotel rooms except with chalkboards on the walls (I was half expecting desks all around and a cot in the back, but it’s actually quite nice). So you feel like you’re in a hotel when you’re in your room, but start walking the halls and you’re very much in a school. Very unique.

Of course, they managed to lose our reservation. The first time something’s gone wrong on our trip. They’re quite nice about it though. They said they would take care of it, although they said they were booked up tomorrow night so I’m not exactly sure -how- they’ll manage, but we’ll see. They gave us a complimentary bottle of wine as an ‘oops, we screwed up’ gift, which was a nice gesture.

Took a bus into downtown Portland. Nice city. They’re having a street carnival, but Katy wasn’t too interested, so we walked around for a while. Found a huge bookstore (with both new and used books…apparently it’s famous), and picked up a few books again (Including a used copy of Shoeless Joe by WP Kansella (he’s a funny fella)). Then found some Thai food for dinner, sat in a park for a while, and wondered on home to have a drink in the school courtyard and then off to bed. It’ll be nice not having to get up at a particular time tomorrow, but they’re calling for rain later in the day so we’ll probably be up early anyway.

Another day in Portland tomorrow.