6-25-10

ARE WE HUMAN, OR ARE WE DANCER?

COLUMBIA GORGE

ARMS ARE FOR HUGGING

VISTA POINT

JEN IS ONE LUCKY GIRL

UTTHITA HASTA PADANGUSTASANA

MULTNOMAH FALLS

THIRSTYYY!

FREE FALLIN'

BEER ME

POWELL'S BOOKS = THE STRAND

Porland offers so much in the city and surrounding areas and we wanted to take as much advantage of everything in our short visit here as possible. This morning we headed off for the scenic drive through the basalt-lined Columbia Gorge towards Mt. Hood. En route we passed several waterfalls, with Multnomah being the largest. At 620 feet, this waterfall is one of the tallest in the world. Standing hundreds of feet from the falls, we still felt the mist of the water spraying on us. We hiked up to the bridge and caught a different view before heading off. We wanted to explore Mt. Hood further and hike there, but feeling pressed for time we returned to the city instead.

In town, we spent a good chunk of the afternoon at Powell's Books, which also came highly recommended. This enormous book store reminded us of being at The Strand back in NYC. Both are bookstores we have now spent hours in, and could spend countless more. Sadly, we were disappointed not to find two books at Powell's we've been on the hunt for, for months: Tofu Tollbooth, and Agriculture Course. Tofu Tollbooth is a travel book written by musician Dar Williams, and chronicles vegetarian restaurants all over America. Agriculture Course is written by Rudolf Steiner and is the Biodynamic Bible. We can find them online, but somehow there is something thrilling in locating books in person. Holding one in your hands and getting the feel of the pages and being able to pick the edition that best suits you is a very personal and pleasing experience. Despite not having these books in stock, we managed to purchase seven others and we're keen to get reading.

Feeling like we haven't enjoyed live music in forever, we made it our quest to listen to some this evening. We scanned the local Mercury, similar to the Village Voice, and searched venues online to find what we thought would be best. Three folksy bands were playing at Ella's Stone in the NW, and we went hoping for the best. We stopped for food along the way at Melt, a sandwich/cupcake/bar on 21st place, where the parmesan fries were excellent. Wish we could say the same about the music back at Ella's. The atmosphere was good, the crowd down to earth, but the first band, Michael Hurley, was just ok. The second band, Armadillo Speedtrap, sounded great from their description: guitars, banjo, and a mix between bluegrass/folk/rock, but in practice they incorporated the worst elements of each. We were left wanting so much more, but we left the bar because they went on late and we were too tired to stay for the last band. Maybe they were better, but not starting until after 1am, we can't know for sure.