Portland Express

I'll recap the awesome weekend quickly.

We left at 10:30 from Tacoma on the train and pulled in just before 2. We sat for about 45 minutes in front of Chambers Bay waiting for our "sister" train. I didn't know what that meant. But it's so much different than traveling by air. Three hours in an airline seat and three hours sitting at a table reading and playing Scrabble are two very different things.

We got in, walked to the hotel and then started exploring Portland's Pearl District (which is awesome!). Lots of wandering, lots of browsing, not much buying, but that's ok. We had a late dinner at a great Italian restaurant and then headed off to bed.

Sunday we had breakfast at Jake's and then spent the requisite few hours browsing Powell's. Because how could you not? And then wandered the town a bit more after that.

The train ride back made it all the worth it. It was dark, traffic looked heavy, but there we were, once again reading and playing Scrabble in the lounge car, when I could have been staring at the dark freeway feeling tired. The trip back was only 2:45, too, so not much longer than the drive would take.

It was a very cool weekend away!