...and the adventure begins

Sitting on our beds in the La Quinta hotel, 2 blocks away from the Portland Convention Center, trying to stay awake, we realize it's been a LONG day. Monica and I left for the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska at 10:30pm ADT. Our flight left on schedule at 1:10am and arrived early to Seattle at 5:30am. From the airport, we hoofed it with our bags from the terminal to the light rail station on the other side of the airport.

From there we took the light rail to the Amtrack station, downtown. With a couple of hours to kill we checked our bags, and started off on a search for a breakfast bigger than a Starbucks croissant. On our way we came across an excellent example of "Yarn Bombing," except it's too bad all of these trees are going to die.

Yarn Bombing in Pioneer Square.

We asked a kind young street cleaner for his suggestion for a "good breakfast" and led us to the Planet Java Diner, a hole in the wall of 50's kitsch.

Planet Java Diner... goooood coffee.

After a deliciously filling breakfast, we headed back to the Amtrack Station to catch our train to Porland, Oregon. We commandeered prime seats in the observation car just as soon as the train started to roll along it's tracks. From there, Monica and I knit the 4 hours away and in what seemed like only minutes we arrived at our final destination.

Monica and I knitting in the Observation Car.

Monica's "Effervesce" & Ginny's "Pomatomous"

After a brief debate we got on the trail going the right direction toward our hotel. We checked in, freshened up (i.e. washed 48 hours of blood, sweat and travel grime from our bodies), and hit the town. First stop: POWELL's Bookstore.

Powell's Bookstore

This was, by far, the mecca of bookstores for anyone book lover. I found at least 10 books that I couldn't leave without, but did. We spent barely an hour there before our stomachs were eating itself, so we decided to head off in search of dinner, with the intention of making it back here at some point on the trip. Thanks to Liz's suggestions, we stumbled upon the Deschute's Brewery where we each had a 6 pack of tasters to sample some of their renowned beer, and washed it down with BBQ pork loin, baked beans and Jalapeno corn bread.

Dinner at Deschutes Brewry

Feeling full and exhausted (with less than 3 hours of sleep on the flight from Fairbanks to Seattle), we headed back to our luxury suite, only to find that the heater is in fact different and the air conditioner. Good thing the window works. Falling asleep tonight shouldn't be too hard. Looking forward to cashmere slumbers and merino dreams. Tomorrow is another day...

Sock Summit starts on Thursday!