Josh and Rachel Take a Trip

Dad checking his paper map, while Josh checks the satellites’ maps.
With two great minds on the case, we got there super fast.

A cosmic monkey by Aaron Renier.

First stop: Cosmic Monkey Comics, located in the Hollywood part of Portland. Josh and I spent a lot of time overloaded by the awesome options. Initiate glee coma.

There was a yummy burger lunch at Blitz, plus a couple local beers: Mirror Pond and Total Domination. Both had a nice bite to them, but my MP had a delightful fruitiness.

It’s not my birthday. Silly wall.

After that, we headed downtown to meet one of Josh’s friends Ian, who teaches at PSU and has a sweet letterpress. Josh and my dad joined Ian at his evening class at PSU so Josh could repeat his FlashPitt presentation.

To Powell’s for books and Buffalo Exchange for some clothes shopping. Homeward bound for some yummy soup and grilled cheese and an exciting game of dice. Woo!

My rule while in Portland is to try and do my best not to get anything I could get at home. We do not have a Canby Pub & Grill. CHECK.

I do not know of a place in Pittsburgh that serves pickled onions on their Club Sandwich with a side of what my mom calls The Best Potato Salad, so: CHECK.

We totally have walls of beer in Pittsburgh, but they had a whole herd of local Oregonian beers in this here wall, so: CHICKITY-CHECK.

…and then mom and I shopped our brains out.

Today was Seth’s 18th birthday, and we celebrated after he got home from school with pie and ice cream. He requested pie over a birthday cake, under no influence from me I swear. He opened presents and we made a family pile to commemorate his rise into adulthood, and he played Halo until band practice. I hope it was everything he wanted it to be. His wish list included a mail order bride and a BMW, so I fear we may have fallen a bit short.

Josh then introduced Dad to the underground universe that is Craigslist. I’m pretty sure Dad thought they were driving to meet a shady man in a questionable part of town, but in reality they drove to posh suburb to a house that simply upgraded to a laptop and didn’t want their monitor anymore. It’s bigger than the one that was fried — mom expressed shock that their desktop background had a barn. Score!