I’m at PDX on my way back to Honolulu. The conference was excellent, but there’s not much more I can say about it here. Suffice it to say I learned a lot, met a lot of great folks, and can’t wait for Anchorage next year. If you can figure out what it is from that, more power to you.
Here’s me at the airport…
I had a great time yesterday after the conference closed heading into Portland proper and checking out the coffee shops on NW 23rd Ave. and Burnside (I think). It’s a funky part of town and a lot of fun. Boy do folks have dogs in Portland and they seem to be allowed in a lot more places than in Honolulu (where everyone seems to have decided their dog is a service dog even though it’s clearly not – and I’m willing to give folks the benefit of the doubt most of the time on this one).
Then it was off to Powell’s Books. The big one. My gosh, I could spend weeks in there and never see the half of it. I bought a couple of books, some souvenir tees and a book bag for a friend. I also got a box of Band-Aids for a friend in a bacon and eggs design. She was the one I was hanging out with so I thought she’d better have a souvenir of our day – Band-Aids seemed appropriate. 🙂 [Nothing requiring them came up, but still, better safe than sorry. She can put them over her vampire bites.]
I did get a parking ticket in a lot whose money taking apparatus was broken. I’m pretty sure it was a scam. The rate on Sunday was $4.00, the ticket $24.00. If you shut down the money box people are going to park anyway, but then you ticket them. If one in six pay, you’ve broken even, if more than one in six pay, you’ve made a dandy little profit. I’m going to pay, I’m just going to complain about it here. I wonder if all of Portland is like that? I may write the city fathers (and moms) a letter about that.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’ve got to find some coffee and crack open my new book!
Aloha!
Slower, cheaper, less useful…