Portland (Alaska Cruise Day 1)

 After some discussion about someone else's travel blog I decided to restart the blogging adventures and capture Suzanne and my travels.   So this post doesn't cover the week in Seattle I spent with Matthew (2 soccer games, working remotely, etc.)

Anyway - Matthew and I took the train down from Seattle to Portland Friday afternoon.   Met up with Suzanne at the hotel around 6 pm.  She had thoughtfully purchased some Voodoo Doughnuts so that was a nice treat to find as we made it to the room.    Didn't really do much that evening (we miscommunicated about dinner plans - a common feature of our relationship!); ordered in pizza and Suzanne was....fascinated(?)....enthralled(?)...by the Olympic Women's golf final.   

Saturday morning was an early start - we headed out to the Sellwood neighborhood and met my high school friend Jim and his wife Guin for breakfast

(we sat at one of those picnic tables)

Had a nice breakfast; I hadn't seen Jim in 30+ years although he is one of the 2 friends I correspond/interact the most with on Facebook.   We Uber'd out there and Jim offered to drive us back - that worked out great because Jim provided a guided tour of Portland; certainly saw more of the city than we would have otherwise!

In the afternoon Matthew and Suzanne made their way out to Washington Park and the Japanese Garden (in a theme for this vacation....I had work to do).   I met up with Matthew and Suzanne afterwards; we had dinner at Deschutes Brewery and walked through Powell's City of Books before heading back to the hotel.   

Matthew and I completed our Pacific Northwest soccer tour by heading over to Providence Park to watch the Timbers -vs- Real Salt Lake.   I didn't realize the seats I purchased were on the old-timey wooden bleachers...they were pretty uncomfortable after a while.   Timbers won 3-2; glad that as a 'neutral' that at least the two teams scored a bunch of goals.


After the game was the rush to get Matthew to the airport.....left a little early from the game, walked back to the hotel, grabbed his stuff, headed to the light rail station.   I really should have looked at the train schedule; the 2 minute bathroom stop cost us a 20+ minute wait for the next train.    But, alls well that ends well I guess - we made it to the airport at 10:50 for his 11:50 flight and he breezed through security and headed home.


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