Portland, Oregon

We left for Portland on Saturday afternoon and made it there in jig time. (The sunny weather was a godsend.) We arrived at the Ace Hotel at four o'clock, straight up.

The hotel was a little different than what I expected. Even though I had looked online at photos, I imagined it being more like the Opus Hotel in Vancouver. (Aaron reminded me that the Opus is $300 a night, though, and the Ace was only $100. So I did the math.) The decor at the Ace is rustic with a bit of vintage military mixed with pieces that might have come from a salvage store, like the Re-Store. Our room was all white with paintings of hands on one wall and the word "together" on the other wall.

The room had a bathroom with a claw foot bathtub and rectangular white tiles about the size of bricks on the floor.

The room had the sink and mirror in the bedroom itself.

There were two vintage suitcases for a bedside table and a wool military inspired blanket on the bed with the words "Ace Hotel" across the bottom in black. There was also a small flat screen tv, on which we watched "Bounty Hunter".(A very surreal show indeed...)

After settling in and resting, we called my friends and made arrangements to meet later. Aaron and I were starving, though, so we went across the street to a bar called The Red Cap Garage for a bite. I had fish n' chips and Aaron had a strange yet wonderful dish of mac and cheese chunks that were breaded and deep fried with fries on the side.

We met my friend (I'll call him Abe) in the lobby of the hotel and asked him if he'd ever been to the bar where we'd just had dinner. He informed us that is was a gay bar, which explains the great dance music and well groomed server.

We set off from the hotel and Abe asked us where we'd like to go. I had seen a bar up the street that had to try. It was called...wait for it....The Bettie Ford Clinic!

How awesome is that? It was a little too upscale for us, though, so we just had one drink and then headed to the Lowbrow. I thought the name sounded familiar and then remembered daisymayrobin had told me it was a cool bar. And it was! My friend (and, full disclosure, also an ex-boyfriend), who I'll call James, met us there and we stayed there for quite a few PBR's and a lot of "remember when?" stories.

We capped off the evening with a crepe at Le Happy. I had the Le Trash Blanc, which was a bacon and cheddar crepe with a PBR on the side. (Those Portlanders are so witty!) Aaron had a salmon crepe and James and Abe both had dessert crepes.

The next day, we met for breakfast at a restaurant called The Tin Shed. My friends were about an hour late. (Lack of punctuality had been a major source of conflict back in the day.)

And unfortunately, I wasn't feeling tip top as a result from all the debauchery of the previous evening, so my patience was thin. When they arrived and we finally got seated however, we had a filling breakfast and looked at some old pictures that I had brought along, which was fun for me (and lightened my mood), but probably kind of boring for Aaron. (But it was payback for the trip to Vegas where we met all his college chums.)

We parted company after breakfast on a positive note and started on our way back home. All in all it was a good weekend and it was great to catch up with my pals. Portland is like Seattle with a little bit of Bellingham mixed in, so I can definitely see the attraction.