Powell's Book Store And Downtown Portland (Friday, July 11)

Since we had arrived in Portland too early to check into our hotel, we decided to follow Mike and Andi's advice and headed to the Powell's Books in downtown Portland.  I didn't know until Mike mentioned it earlier in our discussion that this is considered one of the biggest bookstores in the world (they claim that in their marketing anyway.) It covers a city block and is four stories high.  It is quite overwhelming--you could spend a lot of time and money there wandering around.  Mike and Andi had already left the bookstore by the time we were arriving in Portland so didn't see them until the next day in Dallas, but it was fun to follow in their footsteps.

If you are a booklover, you will love their display windows on all four sides of their bottom floor.  Fun stuff.

The different genres are identified by colors on the map and throughout the store.  Here is Jena posing by the map on the main level. 

Gary and Jena went one direction and I took off to explore on my own.  Lots of fun things to see and to read....

I found Jena and Gary sitting in a niche between some book shelves in the children section of the store.

Jena and I bought books---she chose a drawing one and I got a non-fiction book about Astoria, the city at the end of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean.

Then we were off to our hotel near the Portland airport to wait the arrival of some of our family members coming in later in the day.

Always fun art to see in downtown--

And the bridges--this one is crossing the Willamette River as it flows toward the Columbia River---

Another bridge to the south which we crossed on the way to the bookstore....

We checked into the hotel and a few hours later met my sister, Lynette, at the airport as she flew in from Mesa.  We got her settled into her hotel room and then all headed to a local BBQ place that Gary found on the map nearby.

Not sure I would call it Sandwich heaven but it was good and you felt you were in Portland with the big life size pictures of the Trailblazers on the wall.

Scott and Robin arrived later that evening.  The only problem was that the elevators had stopped working so Robin couldn't access her room with Lynette on the second floor.  So Scott shared the room with Lynette and Robin took the 1st room floor meant for Scott. It was nice to start gathering.