The McMenamin brothers started buying up old cool properties years ago and converted them into hippie-style restaurant/breweries. Remy and I went to the Edgefield which is like the Meca of McMenamins with a few restaurants, movie theater, golf course, hotel, wine tasting rooms and a cozy little scotch tasting room. My favorite beer is Ruby. Rasberrylicious.
2. Cat love - I thought Long Beach was eclectic but Portland is eclectic in an artsy funky sort of way, not so much the socio-economic way. I've seen more blue and pink hair in the last week than I have in years. Also saw a girl getting off the Max with her black cat tied to a leash and standing comfortably on her shoulders.
3. Politeness - People are polite here. Not that they aren't in other places, but if I'm pulling onto a main street teeming with cars, someone will actually stop right away and let me go! Then they see my California license plate beaming in the shred of lighting fighting through they clouds and they curse the god forsaken state I came from because Californians are single handedly ruining Oregon, aka Gods Country. haha. Another example? I was trying to put twelve mylar balloons into my car (I'm working on a clown act, ok?) the other day and a lady was walking by with her son and offered to help me get them in. At that point, I wasn't sweating or crying or even struggling (this all came later) to get them in the car, she just wanted to see if I needed help.
4. Fancy mylar balloons are a $1!! ONE DOLLAR PEOPLE! That's nothing to laugh at unless you're trying to get twelve of them into a car.
5. Just about everything is cheaper than in California - food, gas, housing, the air you breathe.
6. Trees - There are trees everywhere and where there isn't a tree in the ground there is surely some sort of foliage rustling out of the ground.
7. The air I breathe
I can actually see all the way to Mt. Hood. This is an enormous mountain, so what's the big deal right? However, coming from a place that was surrounded by hills that I rarely saw due to smog, it makes me smile widely to see that mountain in the distance.
8. Haberdashers - It's freakin cold here. Yesterday morning it was 34 degrees! And guess what..it's only 60 degrees in my mom's house so my cats, my fish and I are all trying to acclamate whatever way possible. Tapwater is also a tad bit COLDER than ice water. So, this means I have every reason to wear cute hats whenever I'm outside or even out of my bed. Yesterday, I went into a haberdashery to look for hats for Remy and myself. What an assortment. I'm definately going to rock the hat/knee high boot look as long as possible. Bring on the cold!
9. Growing old gracefully - Older women look like, you know, natural older women. The graying hair (or not, who knows), fine lines, relaxed contented look of someone who knows how to bake a marion berry pie or enjoy reading the Sunday paper over coffee, the sensible shoes and warm fuzzy sweaters. Living in Socal, you find that growing older is not acceptable unless you're a rich man and even if you are a rich older man, you've probabely considered botax and a variety of pills to keep up with your 25 year old girlfriend. Older women sometimes look scary - like they were trapped in a wind tunnel for years with only their makeup, tanning cremes, hair bleach and size 2 true religion jeans to substain themselves.
10. Bumperstickers! I forgot how much Portlanders love to slap a sticker on their car. I would wager that about 50% of the cards bumbling around Portland have bumper stickers. They could be political. On the day after Edwards pulled out, I saw one that said "Edwards 2008!" on a maroon minivan. That sucks, huh? Other popular ones are for University of Oregon (GO DUCKS!). Glad to see more of those than Oregon State, our rival. Another polite school one said "Every child is a winner at" such and such school. You know Portlanders, got to be nice! They are also often just funny. My friend got one that said "More wagging, less barking".
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