Portland 2012 Part 2

view of downtown Portland from I-5 collector bridge

Aside from my attendance at the Bob Mould concert, I also was able to vist more of Portland a week ago Thursday. A big part of this visit was to have lunch with Vahid and Sarah, who I hadn’t seen in some years. We met at Bluefin Sushi, just across the from Portland State University. $1.50 a plate sushi FTW!

Vahid and a Sarah make a great couple

The last time I saw these two together was at TequilaCon 2009 in New Mexico, which is where they met. Hard to believe they have been together over three years. Also hard to believe that in my many trips to Vancouver, WA [where my wife’s sister and brother-in-law live] that I’ve not managed to take a trip across the Columbia for a meet up. Let’s hope that much time doesn’t go before another visit with them.

Me With Vahid and Sarah

Hoodlums and Rough Dudes Unite!

Marty and Sarah

Powell’s

my first visit to Powell’s

After lunch, we decided to feed more money into our collective parking spots [$4 an hour is a fucking rip off, IMO], we walked around downtown and ended up at Powell’s Bookstore. I had never been here before and I really wanted to explore this gigantic bookstore and it’s many, many levels, which are broken up into rooms of different colors. We ended up being here for a good 90 mins before we had to venture back to our cars before the parking tickets got applied.

part of the sci-fi wall signed by Neil Gaiman

One of the levels is the Gold room, which is the sci-fi book area. Shelves and shelves of books all for anyone to peruse. Also, there were places where authors left their mark, which I find this Neil Gaiman gem from 1999.

I ended up getting a few books [including a Neil Gaiman title “The Graveyard Book”] and had a wonderful time visiting as many rooms that I could. I must plan another visit to not only have more time at Powell’s, but also to visit with Vahid and Sarah without years of time passing.