Day 1 - Sep 2, 2006 Last updated: 9/13/06 1:30pm PT
For this year’s anniversary trip, Denise wanted to go to Powell’s Bookstore, one of the biggest bookstores around. They sell new and used books, have 6 locations, one is just technical books. The main store is 4 floors. Powell’s Books was first opened in 1970 in Chicago by a University of Chicago grad student. His father thought it was a great idea and opened the first Powell’s in Portland in 1971.
It was VERY sunny when I snapped this picture. I’m surprised Denise could open her eyes at all! This is in front of the main Powell’s bookstore after dinner.
We stayed at the Marriott City Center hotel. (Pictured is the view from the 15th floor). It was centrally located, clean and mostly quiet (heard the neighbor’s water running sometimes, hardly a complaint). It took a little over 3 hours to drive there. We parked and took the light rail to the Saturday Market to browse the arts, crafts, jewelry, and food stalls. We could have walked to the market (6 blocks), but it was so HOTTTTT. We rode the train because it was air conditioned. It was 95F in Portland.
Dinner was at Michael’s Italian Beef. We were looking forward to having a good Italian Beef sandwich, which you can’t get outside of Chicago. This restaurant is owned by an ex-Chicagoan, so we had high hopes. Unfortunately, the sandwich was not good. The beef was sliced too thick and the juice had no flavor. This was no better than a French Dip at Arby’s, but at least Arby’s slices the beef thinner.