Day One - Monday

Ladies this is the life! Today is a first for this mama. Griffy came bursting into my room this morning at 5:30am "What are you doing still asleep? Get up or we are going to miss the plane". And thus another chapter in the Simon Family has begun.

How time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I was the one "in charge" dragging the kiddies outa bed and yelling "brush your teeth...Daddy is waiting in the car and even though it's 3 hours before the flight leaves he's hollering we're going to miss it!!!!"


Over the summer Griffy has been employed (that's right employed, as in earning a paycheck) at William E. Simon & Sons. Bill has kept him running from here to there doing stock research, having business lunches (one in Pasadena with
our high finance friend Suzanne Trepp), reading everything that's out there
on Warren Buffett and "value investing", and now taking his first business trip. Since the young man is only 17 and thus can't register for a hotel room on his own, I was permitted to join him on this excursion. And so here we are up in sunny Portland, Oregon. We met up with Christine Jenkins from our NJ office at the beautiful, light-filled, full of shops, cheery Portland airport where a musician entertains the passengers on his electric piano inside the terminal. After dropping me off at the Portland Downtown Marriott, the worker bees set off to check out some condos the company apparently own. I on the other hand, tossed my suitcase in the hotel room (which Griffy arranged to be on the concierge floor, natch) and headed directly to the front desk and asked "I've got the whole day ahead of me - what should I do?"


I boarded the nearby streetcar that makes a loop around the downtown area of the city. The streetcar is free, since each stop is "sponsored" by a local business, as in "The upcoming stop is NW 23rd and Lovejoy, sponsored by Whole Foods, open from 7am - 10pm".

Not a bad idea, as you can hop on & off at whim. Another idea that's not bad at all is the fact that Oregon is one of 5 states with NO SALES TAX. When the price tag says $5.00, it's $5.00!! During my short walk to find the streetcar, I passed by an adorable trio of pig statues, one of many displays of outdoor public art. Did I happen to say adorable??


Since it was a beautiful day with clear skies and a nice breeze, I brought along my camera (did you ever doubt I wouldn't?). First stop - Powell's Books, at 77,000 square feet "the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world!"

The store is organized by color: The children's books are in The Rose Room, and since I love beautifully illustrated children's books that was my first stop.



Incredibly as I was perusing through the "vintage books section" I came across one that I remembered from MY childhood. I immediately took a snapshot of the cover and emailed my brother & sister, and they emailed right back saying they too remember our mother reading this book to us, called "Scat Scat". It's about a little white kitty (oh Ellen, did your mom used to read this to you? Perhaps this is the key to unlock - ok never mind!) who no one wants but then finds a happy home in the end. Oh the memories it brought back - wonderful ones.




I hopped back on the streetcar (free!) and continued around the loop and jumped off at the beginning of 23rd Street Northwest,which is the Montana Blvd of Portland. Well, kinda...

It's very granola here and lots of Birkenstock folks, but there are also lots of cute boutiques, garden shops, and restaurants that go on for about 10 blocks until it ends in a collection of big stores like Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma and Anthropologie. One store had a beautiful collection of dishes that I marveled at.



There was also a year-round Christmas store called "Christmas at the Zoo" which sells stuffed animals, and the most exquisite and special handmade ornaments by artisian Patricia Breen. This woman used to live in Portland, took a trip to Poland (that's right) and loved Poland so much that she and her husband moved there fulltime! A small ornament can cost around $150, so I don't know how the shop stays in business, but maybe it's because of the wonderful lady behind the counter who was nice enough to call me a cab to take me back to the Marriott as the day was getting hotter by the second. As an aside, remind me to tell you about the little boy on the streetcar whose mother rushed him off yelling for all to hear "He's gotta go...He's gotta go! Run over here Charlie - aim for the wall not the people!!!"



For dinner we went to Veritable Quandary (known locally as VQ) and it was delicious. I had a salad of organic lettuces sprinkled with little purple flowers, and delicious grilled scallops. There were about 10 fabulous deserts that I easily could have ordered, but Griffy was like "No dessert please" so I demured and said "me too". grrrrr...

God was on my side though, as upon our return to the Marriott, what was the concierge floor serving but fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and cream cheese pie. Of course I had none of them and went direcly to the Fitness Center. Well, part of that is true - I did go to the Fitness Center, but then afterwards.... Good night!!