Land Of Fortified Wine, Harbors...Er, Left Side Of Boats

Portland! We just spent a fun couple of days there. I always love this city, and every time I go I enjoy it. There is a great feel to it, and I finally figured out what it is; it's a human sized city. It is scaled to exactly what I imagine a real city is. Maybe I formed my image of cities around this size, growing up near to Columbus and Pittsburgh. Portland is like if you took Pittsburgh and added good food, a ton of radical politics, and light rail. Namely, awesome.

Portland is built around people. It has great public transportation, every neighborhood is accessible enough. It has less vegan food than Seattle, but the people making and serving it seem less pretentious too. The farmer's markets are packed, and the girls are way cuter than Seattle girls. All around a great place.

I didn't get to do a ton of stuff I wanted to do, but that's just fine, because I'll be back in Portland in a few weeks. We did get to ride all over town on streetcars, and take the aerial tram thing over the city. So, Viri's checklist is done. I found out where the new Food Fight grocery is, no thanks to my stupid GPS. (Garmin: We'll Mislead You And Steal Your Car!)

I'll have more to say on Portland in a later post, but the highlight of the trip may have been on the car ride down. Viri put his water bottle down on top of his cupcake, and was talking to to cupcake about its fate. "Are you alright there, cupcake? Under the water bottle?" Jaime answered for the cupcake: "Cupcake says no."

I think Cupcake Says No will be my newest fun catch phrase when I face down super villains. And for once, it comes from Jaime and not Viri!

Stay tuned here, more fun Portland pics and stories to come, including, but not limited to, Arkaedi's first swim, Viri's sky train, and Pointing and saying 'car'!