Friday

Eric, Eli's stepdad drove us from Corvallis to Portland Friday afternoon at great expense of his time. After ~3 hours in the car we went straight to the Baghdad Theater on Hawthorne to grab dinner and see the new Jungle Book. It was a solidly C+ movie: visually beautiful, conceptually just like the original, as an adult not especially satisfying. But also a good time with good people, and excellent food (hunger is the best sauce). After that we went back to the house to have cake + presents, and DRINK BEER (like one beer each). Because Eli and I are actually 80 year olds we went to our fancy-schmancy HOTEL at ~10 and immediately fell asleep. Typical friday night.

Saturday

Saturday we woke up late, found breakfast at a non-descript chain (don't judge us, food in Portland is mad expensive), then wandered over to Powell's. I bought a huge bag of cashews and two donuts at Whole Foods which was hands-down the best purchase I made in all of April, Eli tooled around the book store and bought a book of Dilbert comics, then we decided to go to Ground Kontrol. After $10 of pinball and one totally bullshit round of Tetris, we ran out of cash money so headed out. With nothing else to do, we decided to take an urban hike to Eli's parents house, hoping we would arrive around 5pm when we had agreed to meet them. This ended up being about 8 miles, which sounds like a lot but really wasn't that bad. It was also a beautiful day, and we got to see some cool parts of Portland we don't typically frequent such as the Tillikum pedestrian bridge and Waterfront. It also timed out well, as we got to the house around 16:30 and got to eat + hang out for a bit before heading out.

Eli's mom and stepdad are both artists who work from home, and as such are really cool and get to rub elbows with a lot of really cool people. Like, it's actually a little intimidatingly cool. They have a friend who recently travelled to Paris + Tokyo and spent a few months meeting little-known artists in those areas through word-of-mouth. He then compiled his experiences and interviews with these artists into a series and sold it. For money. That's how cool these people are. We talked to him about places we should visit while in Paris this summer, then got a back-stage tour of Gigantic brewery. It was very exciting. They print unique art from local artists on each beer they brew, and we got to see the wall of labels, hear about how they choose the artist, learn a little about how the brewery started, and see their super high-tech bottling process.

After grabing some brews and buying some souvenirs (a copy of the book and a v cute hoodie), we headed up to Mississippi st. to have dinner and go to the concert. Most of the super cute shops Mississippi is know for had closed for the night by the time we got there, but we were able to dart into a few just before 7, then found a thai place accross the street from the venue. Unfortunately the food there was super spicy and ended up making everyone but me either cry, or get a little sick. Keep in mind this is not because I am impervious to spiciness but because I know I'm weak and ordered the most mild dish. After dinner we went to the venue, got our tickets, and played Heads up for half an hour.

Sunday

Sunday morning we woke up late (like, 9am. #students), and went to Fancy Brunch at The Original. Then we wandered down the waterfront, listened to a few episodes of The Myths and Legends Podcast, then headed to the bus stop. It was one of those beautiful days where you just do nothing, enjoy the sunshine and the passers by and good company, the kind of day Sundays are perfect for. And then, all too soon we were home.

Overall it was a very fun and relaxing trip. It's always nice to get outside The Cultural Bubble that is University, remember that life isn't all deadlines and exams, and experience a little art and outdoors. 10/10 would recommend.