Arriving in Portland...

March 22, 2010

Well, Diane and I arrived in Portland without any major mishaps. Aside from Diane being a tad bit late at the airport this morning (Joe kept texting me: "Call her!") and me leaving my jacket on the plane (tried to get back on the plane and was stopped by a very "on-it" flight attendant who probably thought I was a terrorist...she had to go retrieve it for me) we made it here! We got to see Mt. Hood from the plane which was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Diane was like "Look!" and I was like "It's so high!" which was really a pretty dumb thing to say about a mountain that is over 2 miles tall.

We collected our luggage (my tiny toiletry bag and Diane's Godzilla bag) and made our way over to the greeting table where we were given free rail passes to travel on MAX, the light rail system here. Thank you PLA! Everyone was very friendly and helpful as we made our way to the rail and validated our passes (definitely got that done after being told literally a thousand times to do it). Our ride on the rail was about 30-40 minutes and we took in the sites of blooming flowers and glimpses of sun through the clouds as we chatted with other librarians from Michigan and Illinois who were also here for the conference.

We followed our maps, our directions, and the advice of the MAX rail attendant and walked the 5 short blocks to our hotel. Downtown Portland is indeed very walkable. We got checked in and discovered that our room only had one bed! I told Diane that it was cool! I grew up with sisters afterall, but we decided to try for some other solution and settled on a roll-away bed which Diane graciously decided to take leaving me with a giant king-sized bed and my Button Cat who always travels with me (see www.sasuzanne.blogspot.com).

We were starving by then, seeing as it was about 5:00 in the evening at home, even though it was only 2:00 here so we headed over to an Italian restaurant and had our fill of good pasta, tea, and sparkling blackberry flavored water. :) Over our meal we decided to see the Main Branch of the Portland next. When we asked the waiter how close we were he was like "um...it's right over there." And once we started walking it was very close.

So the Main Library was amazing. They had a rare books room, a balcony, a glassed in dome, many very nice librarians, an exhibit about China, and guess what famous Children's Author is from here? Thinking...thinking...

Beverly Clearly! They had a statue about her in the Children's section! The Children's section also had a very cool wrought iron tree as well as these neat miniature shadow boxes full of tiny little people...one was the alphabet and had little mini things for each letter. Too cool. The librarian also told us they have little statues of Ramona in a park somewhere in Portland.

The rest of the library was very traditional and grand with the old card catalogs still intact and globes of planets and wood paneling and big roses designed into the carpet. They had large curved windows that let in all kinds of light as well. Here are some things we learned about Portland while in the library:

1. Portland blocks are only 200 feet, so 10 of them roughly make a mile.
2. Portland is a city of many bridges and one nice librarian will show you a bridge book from the reference collection without you even having to leave your driver's licence!
3. Irvington is indeed a historical neighborhood here, which is really cool, since I grew up in Irvington, only my Irvington is in Indiana.

After the library we walked over to Powell's Books. OMG. Amazing. People, it was a mecca for librarians! Half-Priced Books can eat their hearts out because Powell's was like them a little bit but on major steroids. I bought a NOEL STREATFIELD book that I haven't even read yet called Party Shoes and I bought a journal to take notes in during my conference sessions so I don't forget any words of wisdom during our time here. I can't say enough about Powells. SO MUCH FUN!

After that we walked to "The Big Pink"...The US Bancorp Tower known for it's pink hue and had drinks and bruchetta at their happy hour (recommended by a fabulously fun librarian at the Main Branch). I got some pics of the view and we both had a drink and chatted about very important work related things like how much my niece looks like Ramona Quimby and how David, Diane's grandson should "give peas a chance."

It was getting dark so we walked back to the hotel (only getting turned around for just a block) stopped at Payless so Diane could get some new kicks, we both called our hubbies and now I'm writing a PLA blog (which you are reading! How cool is that) and Diane is reading about Brew Festivals and writing postcards. See you tomorrow!

PLA Conference
Portland's Libraries
Beverly Cleary
Mt. Hood
Powell's Books