The Portland Review, Part 1

The most exciting thing that has happened to me since moving back to Indiana is my birthday trip to Portland to visit Lindy and attend a Ray LaMontagne and David Gray concert. I flew into Portland last Thursday night and Lindy picked me up in Voldermort (her super cute silver Fit). After splitting fries with rosemary and truffle ketchup from a foodcart, we each got a crepe (mine was ligonberry jam and lemon curd with chevere) and headed to her apartment. I'm not sure the proper name for a Murphy bed that stores horizontally is, but that is what Lindy has in her apartment (essentially you pull the bed out instead of down). We talked for a couple hours and Lindy got a few maps for me to look at since she had to work on Friday. The next morning, Lindy treated to a delicious breakfast at Pine Street Biscuits and dropped me off at the her apartment and headed to work. I (like the giant nerd I am) planned out a little route to the shops that Lindy suggested. After walking to the first store, I realized that none of the stores opened until 10 so I stopped at Starbucks have drank some tea and read for about an hour before heading to Kathleen's Of Dublin. My final destination was this huge bookstore/used bookstore that is legendary in Portland called Powell's. It was a little overwhelming at first but then I decided to just browse in the mystery section and I limited myself to just 3 books (a collection of 3 Agatha Christie novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott, the debut mystery novel of Hugh Laurie, and a collection of short stories that are mashups of Charles Dickens and mystery). I stopped at food truck and had really good Korean tacos before heading to a ribbon store and then back to Lindy's apartment for a little rest. That night, Lindy and I went to Beauty Bar for Margaritas and Manicure before going to an Irish pub to enjoy a Guinness (on tap of course) and Shepard's Pie (Lindy) or curried chicken (me). And the last stop of the night was at another Portland landmark, Voodoo Doughnuts. Lindy got a Triple chocolate donut (complete with cocoa puffs) and I got a Raspberry Romeo. And I'll write all about the concert on Saturday (complete with a reenactment of a light saber fight using milk cartons) tomorrow.