Well, my trip is just about at a close and as much as I tried not to have expectations of it, any that I had were superseded and the past week has been nothing short of a blast. Let's see, I'll start with yesterday:
Day 6- try as I might, I just couldn't sleep in later than 08:00 on any day, and yesterday was no different. I woke up around 8 and just took it easy in bed before F and I walked over to H and A's house for brunch- just the perfect way to usher in a Sunday on the west coast. I wish I could have stayed longer, but the Brewvana microbrewery tour beckoned and so I set off, not quite sure what to expect. Maybe it was better that way. Finally arriving at the River Place Hotel (I only got mildly disoriented this time and managed to find my way there no problem), I hopped on the bus and met a couple from LA and two couples from North Carolina (only one had a strong Southern accent). We all started off sober- except for one- and by the end of it, after three microbreweries and Lord knows how many little glasses of beer later, we were all besties. I got the Facebooks of three of them, but it was super cool being able to talk serious hockey with the guy from LA.
After that, I decided against taking the bus to the Mt. Tabor Theater and cabbed it there instead- I don't think I would have had the patience or wherewithal for taking public transit at that point, even though the nice guy at the hotel printed me Google Map instructions that said it'd only take half an hour. In the state I was in, doubling that time would have probably been more appropriate, and I'd already missed more of the comedy festival than I'd've liked.
However, after arriving at the theater to pick up my media pass, I did end up taking the bus to the Hollywood Theater on NE Sandy Boulevard and caught the last two shows of the festival. I also interviewed three more comics and each was interesting to talk to in their own right, although I kinda wish the beer tour had taken place before the comedy shows. Hours later, and head and mouth both incredibly fuzzy and waiting half an hour for the MAX that I had missed by literally four seconds, I finally arrived home and pretty much went straight to bed. Oh! I did win a trucker hat on the beer tour when we had a trivia contest at the end, and proudly wore it for the rest of the evening, only partly because it would have been too much hassle to stuff it into an already full bag.
Today, my last day in the city, I'm just taking it really easy from the morning on. Again not being able to sleep in too late, I just did a little bit of Netflixing and now I'm at a Mexican restaurant at SW 10th and Morrison before I check out Powell's City of Books, the largest bookstore in the world (or maybe N. America, I can't remember, but either way it's supposed to take up a whole city block.) I'd actually already been to a Powell's today before I Googled it and found out I was just at one of their subsidiaries and not the actual biggest one. My weather app says it's 17C out but it feels at least a couple of degrees warmer, and with the sun shining brightly in the cloudless sky, I don't really want to leave my perch. But...I've got a flight in about 5h so like Nelly Furtado sings, all good things come to an end.
Now that I'm blogging about my last couple of days, I'm at a bit of a loss for words right now. I've experienced so much and talked to so many interesting people that I thought I'd have thousands of words to write...but I don't! As I'm sitting at this picnic table outside of Maya's and feeling the sun on my bare arms, I'm having a little trouble thinking of everything I've done. Pretty much my only thought is, Do I get a taco or some nachos? And if I do, should I ask someone to watch my laptop for me, or just bring it inside to order and then back outside to eat? Yup, that's all that's going on in my head right about now.
Oh, and the thought that I'm going to get a lousy night's sleep tonight, if that at all. I land in my first city in the middle of the night and have just enough time to eat something- if anything's open- but not enough to fall asleep and make it through security for my connecting flight. Meh. I'll sleep when I'm dead :D
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