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downtown portland
picto-rama ∙
stumptown ∙
it's a living ∙
jet setting
july 2006
We celebrated our tenth
wedding anniversary this year. Ten years. That's pretty amazing
considering I hate coffee and he thinks scalloped corn is of the devil.
But somehow we've seen past those differences and made it work.
We had big plans to make
our much-talked-about trip to Vancouver, B.C. to celebrate our
anniversary, since we've both wanted to go there almost as long as we
wanted to live in Portland. But by mid-July, we realized we just couldn't
make it work, mainly because of the cats. No, I'm serious this time -- the
cost of hiring a pet sitter to either coming out twice a day to feed them
or just stay with them was prohibitively expensive. So even though we'd
saved enough money for the trip itself, getting someone to care for the
cats was another story entirely.
Of course by that point,
we had less than a month to plan a trip and we were still limited by not
being able to leave the cats for long. We figured we could set food out
for them overnight, maybe even push that to two days alone, but we knew if
we did anything more, we'd pay a big price later with vet bills and health
problems -- both theirs and ours. There are some great places to visit
even within those limitations, of course, but everything we could think of
was already booked solid or something we'd already done for an
anniversary. Which isn't a bad thing, but this was a big one, and we
really wanted it to be special.
I don't know who first
came up with the idea to vacation in Portland itself, but we both knew
right away it was perfect. For as long as we'd dreamed and planned to live
here, we never got to experience the city -- especially downtown -- as
tourists. What better way to mark such an important anniversary than to
stay in a nice hotel and walk the streets of this city we love so much as
if we were exploring it for the first time, making the pilgrimage to
Powell's and wandering the streets
of the Pearl? Instead of
staying in a modest hotel in Vancouver and eating at mid-price restaurants
to save money, not buying anything because of the cost of gas, we'd be
able to splurge on a really nice hotel and go on a shopping spree if we
wanted.
Sal got us reservations at
the Hotel Vintage Plaza, a great renovated old hotel that's smack in the
center of downtown. He booked us one of their Garden Spa Rooms, which has
a balcony on the top corner of the building with its own private hot tub.
Best. Husband. Ever.
We checked in and then
immediately set off downtown, checking out shops and having a snack at
The Pearl Bakery, browsing for
hours at Powell's and then moving on to Everyday Music, indulging in a
book and music spree of epic proportions. We wandered around
Pioneer Courthouse
Square and then up to Kathleen's of Dublin, where we bought matching
Celtic knot necklaces for our anniversary gifts. Oh, and we found an
Adirondack rocking chair that we fell in love with and bought for our
front porch. (Of course, I forgot the
camera for all of that, so there aren't any pics from all of that. Oh
well.)
We'd planned to go out to
a nice dinner that night, but after all the fun of being tourists for a
day, we were wiped! The hotel restaurant is the fabulous
Pazzo Ristorante and, AND!
they totally do room service. We were soooo up for that! We splurged on a
big dinner (our eyes were definitely bigger than our tummies) and they
brought it all up, with two waiters to set it all up and then serve and
seat us. Niiiiice.
After dinner, we relaxed
and each cracked open one of the books we'd gotten that day. Later that
night, around midnight, we fired up the hot tub and then, then...we
had the amazing experience of soaking in deliciously warm water out under
the stars, ten stories above one of the busiest intersections downtown,
with the lights of the city all around us. We finally crawled out of the
tub about two hours(!) later and slept in the next morning, and then
enjoyed coffee/chai and pastries from a nearby bakery out on our little
balcony.
Best. Anniversary. Ever.
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