Sunday, May 16, 2010

Trip To Portland Part 2

It never hurts to say something twice, so here I go:

There were a ton of people at the train station.

The orange locomotive sat there, puffing steam, and Miki seemed to be too. Luckily they kept the massive crowds pressing against the orange engine far away from the train we disembarked from, and the door we used to get inside. Unfortunately the entire station was full of people up to our eyeballs. It was ridiculous, really. It took over 5 minutes at least to get from the platform to the doors to the outside, which was a little over 100 feet.

Mostly it was hard because Yuuki had a large suitcase he had to pull.

Last time I was in Portland we walked to the train station from Pioneer Square, and then down to the river where the Gay Pride festival was. I was under the assumption that was because the MAX was nowhere nearby. Imagine my surprise when I found out this Saturday that I could've ridden a MAX from right next to Pioneer Square to about a block from the train station.

I was not amused.

It's a long walk! And it was hot that day.

But I digress.

We got to the MAX stop, and luckily Miki knew which direction to go in. She knows the map better than I do. Which is good, because the one we looked at didn't even have the rose quarter on it and that was where we were going. The train pulled up right away, and we got on.

It was pretty empty, so we got a seat. I was surprised because It was Saturday and the MAX is hardly ever barren on a pretty day. Especially on the weekend.

We rode to the Rose Convention Center and crossed the tracks by accident (my fault) and then crossed back. Apparently Portland has yet another walking marathon for Breast Cancer. Which is interesting considering how huge their normal one is. But that's all right. I guess they walked over a bridge nearby, because the platform was nearly overtaken by women (why do men never walk these?) in bright blue green shirts with the most florescent pink color decorating them that I have ever seen.

The ride to the airport is super long.

I'm also extremely lucky that the company that owns my apartment complex delayed in depositing my rent check, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pay the fare for the MAX. Because I hadn't planned on goiing, I hadn't a chance to make sure I had enough money on my debit card, and I had a grand total of about 80 cents in my pocket.

Bravo.

And since I had in essence invited myself along, I wouldn't have asked Miki for help even if you had paid me.

I'm self sufficient. I have my pride.

There was this man watching me on the MAX. I didn't like how he looked at me. He looked at me in that mean way that some people do when they don't like your attitude or something. I was super excited to be traveling, especially in Portland. My heart was in my throat and I was bouncing in my seat and it was super warm outside.

It made me happy.

I'm not sure what bugged him, actually. It could've been the fact that I was obviously American and he wondered what the hell I was doing sitting next to two Asians that were obviously speaking in a language I didn't. Or the fact that I was sitting there with a shit eating grin on my face, bouncing up and down in the seat right next to Miki, but I was turned in my seat in the opposite direction like I was pretending I wasn't with her or something.

He could've been irritated because it did look like I wasn't with them, but I had sat right next to her when there were like 6 other seats in the section alone that I could've sat in.

Maybe he was angry because I refused to look at anyone on the train in particular, including him :D

But nothing was going to bring me down. Not nosy townies that possibly didn't like my Japanese style shirt. Not Yuuki refusing to speak English. Not my terrible sense of directions that had nearly sent us in the opposite direction several times already. And not even Miki's bad mood, which had been created by the Greyhound's fuck up and compounded by the massive crowds at the Union Station.

I was having a wonderful day, and no one could stop me.

I have never seen the airport so desolate in my entire life.

Not only was there about 10 people from our train going there (and it was the last stop) there was barely anyone inside at all. I realize that we took the door inside that is at the veeery end of the terminal, but we must have walked by 10 empty check in booths. You know, where you get your ticket and check your luggage? They were empty, like they used to host an airline and said airline had entirely cleared out.

I've never seen such a thing before.

So instead of doing things the easy way, Yuuki decided to do his ticket thing at an electronic terminal. And even changing it to Japanese didn't help much so I ignored their bickering over it for several minutes.

Everything was rubbing Miki the wrong way that day, I'm thinking. I think even my cheerfulness was. But I'm used to that. And I figured the rest of the day would get better for her. It wasn't even 1 p.m. yet!

But while pretending I had other things to do, I meandered over to the X Ray machine for Delta Airlines, and pretended not to watch them. Apparently I was successful because not a single worker noticed me.

There were at least 5 just lounging around. 2 or 3 unloading the bags, and one that was tearing into them.

Literally.

No pause.

Pick it up, toss it on the table, open it, and start littering things on the table and the floor.

I was horrified.

I felt especially bad for these two men I met that were traveling around the world. Because when their top loaded knapsacks went through, the security un-cinched one, turned it over and dumped it out.

*winces* Ouch.

I turned the other way when Yuuki's bag went through. I didn't want to see the damage.

I don't remember there being so many shops on the visitor side of the airport. But I suppose they've all been put in since they decided to only let people with tickets through the check point. Which makes sense, I suppose.

I had never flown before 9/11. But the first couple of times I did they hadn't put up the new security yet. Which meant that when they had, I pitched an utter fit in the middle of the airport when they tried to confiscate my shampoo from my carry on.

My mother has never forgiven me for mentioning the word 'bomb', by the way.

And after seeing how ruthlessly they rip apart bags, I think I have finally figured out what happened to my favorite body wash that I never saw again after that trip.

Stupid Heads.

Yuuki decided last minute that he needed to get souvenirs for his family. This was something that I couldn't smile and nod about, or turn the other cheek.

"You wanna get what at the airport?! Are you nuts?"

Case and point: A turkey sandwich with Cranberry sauce cost $7.50 at a small cafe.

Of course, this was another thing for Miki to be upset about. Luckily she saved it for after we said goodbye to him. But between him not being able to decide on souvenirs (we went to several shops before we went back to the first one and bought one of the first items he had looked at) and waffling between lunch foods none of us got anything to eat.

It didn't help that the check-in lady informed Yuuki that he had to get his tickets at the actual gate, and he wanted to go get them right away before we got lunch. It took us several minutes to convince him that once he went through, he couldn't come back. And when we finally decided on lunch and he said "I guess I'll have to get something and take it with me" Miki and I looked at each other askance and commented "Can you even take food through the checkpoint?"

And then he rushed through without any money so couldn't eat anything on the other side of the checkpoint, and when Miki went to go help him out he decided to be manly.

"I have a Snickers bar, I'll be fine. In fact, I have two."

Well.

And after we spotted that horrendously overpriced sandwich, Miki and I just said, at the same time no less, "Let's go."

On the Max back to Pioneer square we got a hold of Ai and Kody. They said they'd meet us at Skidmore Fountain.

I'd never been there, that I'd known of, so I let Miki direct us. She is much better at finding names on maps than I am :)

Turns out Kody and Ai were in Vancouver and didn't want to park in town, so drove all the way to Beaverton to park at Fred Meyers or something and ride the MAX to meet us.

We got to the Fountain at quarter to 2. They didn't get there until after 3. But no worries!

We didn't realize until we got off the train in the middle of the humongous crowd, that we had agreed to meet Kody and Ai at the Saturday Market....

Which was cool. We had bypassed one of those in Salem whilst on our trek to the Amtrak station and I hadn't been to the Portland Market in years, and it looked fun.

It's pretty darn huge, nowadays. I mean, seriously. I remember when my Mum took me when I was 13, give or take, and I thought it was big and confusing then. Now it sprawls everywhere.

I want to take my mum there with me sometime soon.

Maybe she can come down to visit, and we can take the train to Portland for the day?

That'd be AWESOME!

It only takes 25 minutes give or take to get to Salem from here, and we could park, and take public transport for the day. For some odd reason it's cheaper to ride the train at night than in the morning (I paid $18 to get to Portland whereas Yuuki and Miki paid $21 each, but to get back I only paid $12...)....But we could take the train (which I officially love!) and then the max to the market. Both the Station and the market are in the free zone, so we'd only be paying for a train ticket. How cool is that?

Kody had something pretty neat for Miki. A piggy cutting board! It was pretty big. I still wonder where we're going to put it. But since Ai carried it around all day, we accidentally left it with her...>.<

But the market was pretty cool. We saw about 2 thirds of it while waiting for our friends. Miki was all worried that I would have a terrible time. I guess the only reason why she didn't invite me was because Kody would be there, but although I don't want him in my house, and I won't go out of my way to visit him, I don't hate him. So I don't mind spending time with him as long as he's not a total ass.

And he wasn't.

We actually got along pretty well, to both Miki's and Ai's surprise.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.

Kody and Ai said they were on the next MAX, so we pushed and shoved our way through the crowds to get on the other side of the tracks. I had just seen a MAX go by so I thought they would be there soon. We had stood there, lost, for about 20 seconds when they spotted us.

Poor Kody, hadn't realized that I've grown my hair out!

I keep insisting that I'm going to cut it soon, but even I am starting to have doubts on that. I look terrible and not so girly no matter what I do with it. So it's not like it will effect my modeling too much either way.

Hugs, cheek kisses, 'wow you're looking good's all around. It was nice. I haven't missed him, but it was nice to see him again. And Ai was looking great. I miss her. Specially now that she's got a full time job and is busy all the time!

I don't even get 6 page emails anymore :(

We got rather distracted at the fair, actually. Miki and Kody spent a bit of time at a Henna booth (she's still absurdly proud of the two pawprints on her arm) and Kody got...I have no idea what.

He told the artist to "be creative."

I think there were even lightning bolts worked into the design!

Then, instead of exploring the mysterious back portion of the market that's under the bridge, we took off away from the market to a famous donut shop called Voodoo Donuts.

I guess that Kody loves it. Not entirely certain why, almost the entire menu changes week by week. But they do a few regular donuts too.

The line went out the door, down the street, and across the intersection.

I've still yet to figure out why it didn't go round the corner instead of across the crosswalk.

Not too surprising that it went out the door, though. Even for a donuts shop the front portion was pretty small.

It was the weirdest place I've been to ever. While we were waiting a kid came out with a regular donut (not a cake one. Or old fashioned. A fluffy one) with white icing and Captain Crunch all over it.

No joke.

Captain Crunch.

And his father had a Maple Bar with two slices of bacon on top.

It's a wonder that so many people wanted these things, it was like 85 degrees outside! My sweater was tied around my waist, and I was wearing my first no sleeved shirt of the season (at home in Monmouth it was still pretty regularly 50 degrees) I was even wearing flipflops.

Who eats Maple Bars when it's this bloody hot? With bacon?!

Ai was jealous of my flip flops. She was wearing boots. Poor thing.

So we stood in line for 20 minutes to get some crazy donuts. I wanted a GrapeApe, but the person in front of Ai took the last batch. It was a fluffy donut with purple icing. One half had purple sprinkles, the other half had purple crystals. I was going to get one of those and an Orangutang, an orange one that was just the same as it.

So I just got the Orangutang and a soda. Which I promptly knocked over after I bit into the donut in a parking lot where we finally found some shade.

WHOA!

I've just figured it out, I didn't then, but I think the powder was like, tang or something. I took a bite, and my mouth went wild. I literally shouted "Shazaaam! That's amazing." And shared it with all of my friends. It was like a punch to the mouth.

I saved half and ate it for breakfast the next day :)

Miki wasn't brave enough to get something, but she doesn't like sweet stuff too much either. Too bad they didn't have buttermilk bars. I think she had one of those at the Cottage Bakery in Long Beach, even non sweet lovers like those. They are pretty mild.

Ai got the Cock and Balls.

No joke.

It was a gigantic chocolate bar that looked like a fully equipped penis. It was bigger than a Texas donut!

She even paid the extra dollar to get written on it "Not to size" :D

I had to explain to Miki what that meant....

So like teenagers having a blast we kicked back in a nearby lot under a tree in the middle of the pavement with the sign "Keep Portland Weird" looming over our heads and giggled like children over our snacks.

It was amazing.

The really fun bit, was that while we were in line Kody looked up and said "Does that sign say what I think it does?"

There was a local *ahem* adult theater, that played hentai. As in, Porno Cartoons made by the Japanese.

Priceless.

We took a picture.

:D

*waves* Love you gramma!

continued in part three :)

Regards from Purgatory,
Monica

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