Artwork tonight from Martin L. Kennedy.
Julianne Ho was officially pinned as a nurse today. I mean, she still has to take her licensure boards, but she’s done with nursing school. No small feat, yo!
We got up early-ish and went down the street to this cafe called The Commissary which was delicious. We saw John and his parents there, and we ate a pretty big breakfast, which was a good idea because food was hit and miss for the rest of the day.
We all drove to the jewish community center where they were holding the ceremony and we tried as hard as we could to embarrass Julianne. We’d made a sign and we yelled really loudly. It was awesome. After that, we had some time to kill before the student potluck get-together at the park, so I got some shut-eye and Liz memorized her audition scene for this coming Tuesday back home. We ran it once I woke up, and then we had just enough time to walk down the street to the donut shop that everyone here raves about, Blue Star. Brought those back to the hotel and shared them with Liz’s parents, and then we were off to the bbq.
It was SOOOO smokey today. There’s a forest fire nearby somewhere, and it was really, really bad. BUT…the picnic area we were at was in the middle of this little grove of trees, and the trees kept out most of the smoke, so it was perfect. The Ho and I explored the park a bit, saw this totally neglected and run-down tennis court and pretended like it was a Walking Dead site…played some frisbee and some bag-o…it was a grand old time.
Once we wrapped that up and got back to the hotel, it was sundown, and we decided we wanted to check out this bookstore in the Pearl called Powell’s…it’s an entire city block, and it’s three stories tall. I mean, come on! Have to see that. And Liz’s parents came along, and it was super fun. Lin ended up finding these three car books that he says are *super* hard to find, so he was tickled pink…and Jenny found some reading glasses that she really liked, so it was a win all around.
On our way back, Liz realized that she had the hanger hard core, and so we decided to go to this bar that Julianne recommended that had good food all together, too, and it was genius. I had these beef kabobs with peanut sauce rice…they were insane. And an Old Speckled Hen beer, which is easily my new favorite beer. SO GOOD.
And, then we came home. It was a good day! A GREAT DAY! 🙂 Sad to be leaving portland tomorrow, but we have a few more places to explore, so the fun isn’t done yet!
More tomorrow 😉