July 2, 2008

• The inaugural entry - Portland

  We arrived at the Portland City Center Marriott on Monday.  It was clear this was a slightly older hotel.

  

  This is the lobby area.  It was a very nice hotel - there's another Marriott downtown that Rick has stayed in, and he said this one was much nicer.  All the rooms had been upgraded, and in the grand scheme of things - a relatively small hotel.  Each floor had maybe 15 rooms.  I'd forgotten that I am a Gold Member in the Marriott Reward system, so we were provided access to the Concierge Lounge on the 20th floor (meaning we got breakfast and hors d'oeuvres every night.  We never made it up for hors d'oeuvres, but took advantage of breakfast every day).  Unfortunately, those kinds of perks will be going away as my travel time has decreased significantly over the past couple years.

  After settling in the hotel, we went to the convention center to pick up my registration stuff.  No pictures of that, but I do have pictures of the conference center.

  

  

  

  One of the nice things about Portland is that while the hotels were right downtown and the conference center was well over a mile away, they have a public transit system that is very efficient.  Best of all, to travel within the core downtown area is free.  The train stops were about a block and a half from the hotel and stopped right at the convention center.  You couldn't ask for a better way to get around.

  After exploring the convention center, we did a little walking around downtown.

  

  

  

  

  

  For dinner that night, we went to Veritable Quandary.

  

  Where we had wonderful food.

  

  

  I think it was the first meal where I've voluntarily eaten whole roasted garlic cloves.  Fortunately, Rick still didn't mind kissing me afterwards.  However, I forgot to take a picture of the most memorable part of the meal - dessert!!  Rick had been to the restaurant before, and had told me we absolutely, positively, had to have the chocolate souffle.  When they brought it out, it was twice the size of the serving dish, and then the server sliced the top and poured a verrrrrry rich chocolate sauce inside the souffle.  It was chocolate overload - so much so that we almost couldn't eat it all (but we managed).  It was almost too rich, and I rarely say that (especially about dessert).

  I took this next picture on one of the following days when we had some free time and were wandering around the city - it's Skidmore Fountain.  It's the one area of downtown Portland where the homeless population was more evident than others.  That's the only negative thing I took away from Portland - the panhandling.  I don't have issues with the homeless, particularly those who are trying to sell newspapers and the like.  But there was an amazing amount of panhandling.  In the block and half distance from the hotel to the train station, it was not unusual for Rick or I to be approached three or four times, in addition to the times on the train station on the way to/from the convention center.   But what really amazed me about the panhandlers in Portland was their age.  I doubt if any of them were over 25, or maybe 30 at the most.  I've walked around downtown Seattle, and the homeless population seems much older (I've also had fewer panhandling incidents).  It was startling to see the groups of young people literally drifting around the downtown area.

  

  Of course, we had to go to the Portland book mecca.  Both Rick and I came away with just one book.

  

  Another evening, we had the opportunity to meet Rick's daughter and her boyfriend for dinner at this restaurant.  The food was excellent.  It had been billed as having the best calamari in Portland, and it was very good (we even coaxed Jenna into trying some for the first time).  Again, I remembered to take pictures of entrees but not of dessert (which this time was still-warm shortbread sandwiched around gelato and raspberry coulis).

  

  

  All in all, a very good trip.  The restaurants in Portland are wonderful, and I hope we get to go back there soon to try out some more.

  • 4:27 pm
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