Vacation – Day 8!

Day 8 – Day out in Portland

Met up with Melissa this morning at the farmers’ market at Portland State University, and wow is that a huge market! We thought Hollywood was big, but this one had it beat both in size and spirit.

It helped that there was a spacious central area with a stage and lots of benches and tables, so people congregated there to eat and listen to the awesome band.

I had the best cream-biscuit strawberry shortcake ever:

There was so much wonderful food at the market, from herbed goat cheese to hazelnuts to black raspberries to morels. I do think California berries are better (we don’t have black raspberries or marionberries, but our other berries and cherries are sweeter and bigger), but there was so much at this market that I’ve never seen before, and so many delicious tastes and textures.

After the market, we headed out to the Mississippi Street Fair, where we melted in the sun but had a good time anyway seeing the sights and listening to all the musicians.

We cooled down a bit at Pause, where, over macaroni and cheese, crab-shrimp dip, and black bean burgers, we decided it was a fine day for Melissa to introduce us to rock climbing.

Off we went to her climbing gym, where I confronted my fears and Erik tested his strength.

There he is going up the wall:

And here I am trying my hand(s and feet) at bouldering:

Our hands and arms are so sore now, as are my toes, but it was so much fun.

Around this time Melissa realized that the last time we saw each other, we had a different set of teeth! We went to kindergarten together and by first grade or so we hardly ever saw each other because we’d both moved to different places. Craziness… it was great spending the day together after so many years of separate lives! Melissa is moving to SF in two weeks so I’m hoping we’ll see each other more after that. Maybe we can do some more climbing. 🙂

After Melissa dropped us off back at our hotel, we found some yummy Vietnamese food for dinner, and now we are collapsed back at the hotel. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow — going to try to get back to San Jose by evening, or early Monday morning at latest (I have a dentist appointment at 10 on Monday) — so wish us luck!

[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]