Ahh, the last full day of our Oregon trip dawned, and it was bittersweet. Our breakfast was the second round of delicious Blue Star donuts we picked up the day before, along with fresh pears from Ruby's garden.
As Shveta worked on getting her words in for the day for her novel (she was so good about sticking to this on the trip! Very admirable) I went out and took some photos and video for Instagram stories showing the beautiful place we stayed. This is definitely my new home away from home in Portland for every forthcoming trip.
Here's another shot of the beautiful sauna in the back yard. We ended up utilizing this in the afternoon...outdoor shower, outdoor bathtub filled with cold water to jump into after sweating in the steamy sauna.
On our way to Hawthorne, we walked by this little fellow on the sidewalk. At first glance he was just sticks and moss, and I suppose one could still argue that's all he is, but I saw long moss antennae, a twisty tail, and I knew he wanted to be a faerie creature, commemorated in a photo.
We walked to Hawthorne to get Shveta a coffee since she was feeling a little shaky, and had a conversation with a guy in the shop that could have gone south, but ended up being quite pleasant. He asked us what we were dressed up for, and I gave my typical response. "For life!" He enjoyed that answer.
We took a Lyft from Hawthorne to the Rose Garden, where Shveta and I had a lovely conversation encouraging each other in creative pursuits we both felt unsure about. For me, it was telling her about the story ideas that wouldn't leave my mind, but I was also afraid to put on the page. She was a wonderful encouragement, and her words "write it for you then, not for anyone else. Pretend it's all just for you" really struck home.
Since the story I want to tell is a version of Beauty and the Beast, it was apt to discuss it among the roses. And what roses they were!
Didn't Shveta look magical this day? (and every day) We had a group of lovely older ladies stop to take our photo among the roses on their phones.
And another lovely person offered to take a photo of us together.
Shveta's beautiful bracelet looked lovely with the vivid roses.
After we got back to the AirBnB and ate our leftovers from the night before (even better, I think, rewarmed for lunch, or maybe I was just much more hungry on this day!) and then had our relaxing afternoon siesta with the sauna and cold outdoor bath combo, we stopped by the Brae again. (I mean, I'm sorry, if there's a place this amazing five blocks from your AirBnB, you go there as much as you can on your trip)
The Brae had their screen set up for the showing of the first episode of Dark Crystal the next night. Sadly, just hours after we would be leaving town.
And Sid sat in a cage near the screen. (Don't worry, the door was open, and besides, pirates are used to being behind bars)
I also remembered to take a photo of Grandfather wearing a gorgeous mask by Wing and Talon.
We walked to Belmont Street, where we'd heard there were more fun stores. Bryonie had told me about Movie Madness during my last trip, a video rental store with a huge collection of original props and costumes. I know Tom loves film, so I wanted to take some photos for him.
His favorite musical is West Side Story:
The soap from Fight Club!
The costume on the left was so small and delicate, but so lovely!
A dress Ginger Rogers wore in an old movie I really love, The Major and the Minor.
And my favorite item in the place: Danny Kaye's jester doublet from The Court Jester! (He's my all-time favorite actor)
We wanted to eat somewhere distinctly Portland for our final night, and suddenly realized that a food cart pod would be perfect, so we stopped by one on Belmont.
I wasn't very hungry, so I got the Troll Snack. I mean, how could I not?
After dinner, we meandered down Belmont. This was a charming little hole-in-the-wall used book store, where the proprietor was delightful and friendly.
And I discovered, too late for this trip, this amaaaaaazing bar!! It's called the Nerd Out, and the tables and walls are covered in comic book pages and covers, there are action figures everywhere for adults to play with, and there's a projection screen playing nerdy movies (Gremlins, while we were in there). There's also a brochure they have with a map of Portland, and all of the nerdy geeky stores in the area.
Totally coming back here next trip.
We were waiting for Bryonie to come pick us up so we could go get dessert at a "charming and quirky" place she recommended. As we stood at a grocery store waiting for her, I looked across the street and saw a scene straight out of a Charles de Lint novel. Two stunningly gorgeous old Victorian homes sat catty corner from each other, with what appeared like a patio between them strung with multicolored lights, and flickering with tiki torches. I had to know what this place was, so we crossed the street.
When Bryonie picked us up, we mentioned how amazing the place looked, and she admitted it was one of the two places she was considering taking us for dessert. It's a "bohemian cafe with an outdoor hookah garden," and we decided to go ahead and get our dessert there.
It was a perfect evening, gorgeous weather, not too many other people there were smoking the air up (at first), and we had a wonderful time.
I got a lavender steamer to drink, since my throat was starting to get a bit sore, (uh oh) and a slice of Marionberry pie a la mode, which was just (kisses fingers)
Next thing we knew, we looked at our phones and four hours had passed. The conversation flowed so intensely and blissfully, none of us had any idea. Bryonie dropped us off at Ruby's (we had her come inside to see our lovely home away from home) and we hugged and said what we thought was our final goodbye.
Tomorrow would be farewell Portland. Do I really have to leave?
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