Inspired by the inventories Liz posts on Flickr, Karen and I decided to take a photo of everything we accumulated on our trip to Portland and then Seattle. We set physical we took from America on the floor and then stood on a chair to take the photo with our DSLR. Below is the photo plus a list of the items with some links, taken from the annotations Karen and I added to the Flickr photo.
On my trip to Portland last week, while my girlfriend went to the People's Farmer's Market, I took a jaunt over to the airport from downtown. To travel from the airport from downtown, I had to get a zone upgrade, because the 7-day pass we bought (see below) afforded us 2 zones.
From Alex's bookmarks I found Robby Russel's two-part series on Portland coffee shops and cafes: part 1 covers Costellos Travel Caffe, Urban Grind, Fireside Coffee Lodge, Redwing Coffee & Baking; part 2 reviews Pier Coffee, Backspace and Three L
Chris: “There were fire engines and police and smoke and everything. I had my Nikon on my back. But I just couldn't bring myself to get it out and shoot. It felt like such an invasion of privacy to photograph the house on fire that I paid attention to the sinking feeling in my stomach as I imagined these people's reaction to getting home to a burned out shell that used to be their refuge.”
Joel Kotkin: “what about the amenity-rich places, the ones capable of appealing to part-time urbanites and sojourning young people? They need to ask an even more basic question about what kind of city they want to become.
Got back from the Portland Coffee House and dropped $7 on a $3 coffee ($4 tip, since the couple hours I spent there while drinking fancy coffee with free wi-fi watching indie girls go in and out was worth that much), having snuck away from my group to hang out there for a couple hours. I'm going to try to sneak out a few more times, probably late at night.
Currently in Portland, after a longer than expected drive down. Some border weirdness: Roland took a photos each of my work visa (not really a work visa, but I'm here for work and receipt for said "visa"). Hanging out at Eastside Club Tavern and Clubside in Olympia was really cool: really cool atmosphere with cute indie girls, some middle class, some poor people, and even the bartender's pet dog.