This past  weekend we decided to venture down to Portland, OR to both see the town and to of course check out the enormous Poweel’s Books store. While we were there, one of Patrick’s favorite authors (Lauren Beukes) was there giving a book signing and reading from her new book “The Shining Girls” which is a time travel serial killer novel that takes place in Chicago. I haven’t read it yet (I’m still reading the book from the last book signing we went to a couple weeks ago “NOS4A2” by Joe Hill) but definitely plan to as it is right up my alley. After the event, we actually got to go out for a drink with Lauren (Patrick actually has a little blurb review in the front of one of her first novels – right along with the New York Times. ;)) and then grabbed some dinner and delicious dessert that we ate while walking around downtown Portland. The Rose Festival was last weekend so they had a carnival set up along the river. Also, we may have seen a few more bums and boobs than we were anticipating, as the annual World Naked Bike Ride was happening that night as well (WARNING-the link contains nudity). Lucky for us, we only saw a few stragglers on their way to the starting line.

The next morning, we went to church then waited in line for doughnuts at the famous Voodoo Doughnuts in downtown Portland. (church then voodoo? eek! #paganpastries) They were definitely delicious and I definitely could have eaten more than I’d like to admit, before slipping into a sugar coma. To walk off our gluttony, we went on a Chinese Garden tour before filling our heads once again, with BBQ pulled pork over homemade french fries at a food truck. Overall, our trip was incredibly interesting to say the least. I think “Portlandia” said it best when it said that “the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland.”