The Pandas are in Portland!
Man…today has been a loooonnngggg day. Holy bejesus. So, we woke up at 5am on the dot…and I mean I was swinging these old spindly legs out of bed at 5:02. I fed and took the pups out, and then our lyft driver was ready for us outside. Yes, it was dark outside. Completely dark. Gotta love winter times.
Our driver was this really sweet Ukranian dude who was suuuper talkative, but not in that weird uncomfortable way, rather in that endearing sociable kind of way. He was celebrating 30 years in Los Angeles, and was telling us about the very first cab ride that he ever did, actually driving to the Burbank airport which is where we were going.
The line at the airport was insaaaanneeee you guys, when we got there. Oh my god, I’ve never seen it like that before and we were sweating some bullets. We were reasonably afraid that we were going to miss our flight because we had to check a bag, the line was insane, and we were only at the airport 50 minutes before our flight was supposed to board. But…
…not only did Burbank airport come through like it always does and we ripped through that line in no time flat, but our plane was delayed an hour because it was iced over on the wings and because this is socal and we never have to deal with real cold weather, they had to wait for the sun to come out and thaw everything out naturally. So, we made our flight. And we were an hour late coming into Portland, but it wasn’t all that bad in the end.
Then we spent the day with Scott, Addie, and Julianne. We had some brunch at this cafe that had the most legitly amazing pastries. They were so friggin good. This was in Alberta, which is the area of the portland apparently where they filmed a lot of Portlandia and all the crazy hippies are…except that apparently it is the place to get food, yo, because hot damn. Those pastries were so friggin good, and then we went back there for dinner at an Indian place that was probably the best Indian food I’ve ever had.
We also got to see Scott and Addie’s place in person, which is so nice and spacious, and then we got to J’s place which is also so nice, so modern with a huge window and huge too, oh and then we got to go see the OHSU hospital campus where she works and it was HUGE. Her unit was actually shutting down for two weeks for a technology upgrade, which meant it was almost empty and was super easy therefore to go and check out. It’s an impressive hospital, all the way up on top of this hill that overlooks the whole valley. So pretty up there too.
Oh, and there’s snow on the ground everywhere. We came just after this huge snow storm that, like, shut the whole city down. But today it was clear, crisp, and beautiful. We finished the night by getting some drinks at this place in Alberta that Scott and Addie like to frequent, then we came back to our Air Bnb…which is a two-story monstrosity in the back yard of someone’s house and is amaaaaaazing. Seriously, it’s like a whole little house. We hit the jackpot on it. Kudos to the Ho for pulling that one out.
And now we’re all snuggled into bed with the heater on. Coco is currently buried into me with her head on my hip. Coops is underneath the comforter at the foot of the bed. It’s glorious. Glad to be here. It’s christmas feeling, finally.
Good night errbody. I’m exhausted. Tomorrow…I will have a bit of time to get some work done. I might just sleep…but we’ll see what happens, right? Right.
Artwork tonight is from Angus McKie.