Two weeks ago, Marcia, Kyle, and I drove up to my old home of Portland, Oregon and spent a few days there. Kyle went to a Linux conference and Marcia and I hung out. Here are 10 things we did:

1. Went to Powell’s Bookstore. My favorite bookstore, ever. It is the biggest used-and-new bookstore in the world. I brought some books to sell with me and ended up with $50 in credit for the store, which I was happy to use.

2. Stayed in a very noisy hotel. We stayed at the Ace Hotel. I do not recommend it. While it has a nice atmosphere and good location, the rooms are so stripped down, it feels like you are camping, what with the sink in the main part of the room and the mattress as hard as a rock. More importantly, it is the noisiest hotel I have ever stayed at. Not only can you hear everything your neighbors are doing, every morning at 5 a.m., some men come in front of the hotel and empty garbage for about an hour into their trucks. So you are awakened to engines roaring, bottles crashing, and men shouting. We couldn’t figure out what they were doing every morning, but it was loud!

3. Drank awesome coffee. Stumptown Coffee, man. Why can’t Petaluma have a coffee shop like that?

4. Went wine tasting. Marcia needed to do a little work while we were in Portland, and since she writes for a liquor site, she wanted to check out wine tasting in Oregon. Verdict: Grape vines look pretty anywhere.

5. Went shopping. Three words: No sales tax.

6. Ate fancy food. The best place we ate at was Paley’s Place. Among other things, they introduced me to properly cooked escargot. Turns out the other time I had escargot, it was badly done, i.e. rubbery. It turns out that snail protein is very delicate and turns rubbery when overcooked. In the hands of a good chef, escargot is pretty darn delicious.

7. Saw the tip of Mt Hood.

(I like the shadows in this picture)

8. Ate flaming cheese. We had a big lunch at a Greek place and had lemon-drenched cheese that was lit on fire. Hurrah!

9. Visited Lewis and Clark and Reed Colleges. Marcia had heard a lot about these schools, where I spent a lot of time when I lived in Portland, so I showed them to her. They are very different from Sonoma State University.

10. Went on an awesome hike. After seeing the tip of Mt. Hood, Marcia and I went on a hike to a lake. Along the way, we passed butterflies, berry bushes,

wild rhododendrons, and views of Mt. Hood. The lake at the end was very pretty:

The water was incredibly clear and there were butterflies and dragonflies all over the place. And then we saw a crawdad.

On the way back, we also saw a chipmunk.

It was a good trip.

(More pictures in the gallery.)