Portland visit!

OK, this Saturday David and I traveled up to Portland to see his family. But before I totally 'dragged' him to the city to see some of what Portland has to offer. Being a small time, but ambitious foodie our first stop was the famous Voodoo Doughnuts. But man when we got there I was surprised to see a line of patrons streaming around the corner of the block in the rain (OK well it was mist mostly) just for a pink box of doughnuts. I knew Texans liked their doughnuts but I had no idea Oregonians would! So after paying the meter to park David and I waited in line, for about 30 minutes before it was our time to order. Choices, choices, choices. They had a ton of doughnuts to pick from, so David and I decided to get a dozen for variety. They included the voodoo doll, maple bacon bar (David's choice), a few cake doughnuts, including what they called Mexican hot chocolate (is was sweet and spicy and my personal favorite from the trip), and of course, how could I refuse, the Tex-ass doughnut! The doughnuts were great and worth the wait in the rain.

After we consumed way too much sugar we headed off to the largest new and used bookstore in the world! Talk about a bookworms dream. We stumble around the multiple floors and rooms of book categories in our sugar coma, and managed to buy relatively few books considering the options available. Unfortunately we were running low on time to browse so we will have to go back sometime to conquer that bookstore, but don't be surprised if that becomes a quest along the same magnitude of the quest for the Holy Grail! OK, well at least a Monty Python's sized quest for the Holy Grail, although hopefully no one will run into 'the rabbit!!". Huh, I bet you could find all kinds of movies and books about the Grail and Monty Python there.... but sorry I digress.

After we dragged ourselves away from the mountains of books we ran some errands and eventually met up with David's family, to run only more errands with them. But hey this errand was to IKEA and trips to IKEA are in my genes. I have spend many hours wandering around the depths of IKEAs in all my home states, its almost like a required trip in my family, kinda like an Olson tradition. Maybe its because of the whole Swedish heritage thing, its probably one of the closest times I have come to experiencing Swedish culture in America, beyond Christmas cookies with my family, the American Doll book from my childhood about a girl from Sweden (I think?) and the Swedish chef on the Muppet's. After all there are not a lot of Swedish restaurants in Illinois or Texas. However, I have heard there is more of that culture to be found here in the Pacific Northwest and I will definitely have to seek out some cultural events while I'm here.

But now I'm back in Corvallis with my nose in many books (unfortunately all the textbook kind) and completing multiple homework assignments. But don't worry I will make it back to Portland someday to further explore the city!