Warning: Very image-heavy post ahead.
Hilariously late because of adjusting to a new job and some general apartment renovations. Also mostly because transferring files from the phone to a computer wirelessly is still an unsolved QoL mystery in 2022. I'm sure ChatGPT will just say the usual Bluetooth or connect to USB wires. Bad ChatGPT.
I wasn't even supposed to go on this trip, but the new hire who went "yup yup no problem" to possibility of travel 3 months in advance decided to throw me under the bus and fucked over everyone else on the project. He waited until we were fucking booking tickets to go NO I WON'T TRAVEL FOR ANY REASON. I agreed to the trip without saying much because I was going to leave right after, and seeing my coworkers in Oregon would've been a nice goodbye. I regret saving his job by saving his sorry ass. He had a audacity and hypocrisy to be offended that he had to suffer the consequences of his own actions. On the other hand, I have shitlisted him for life and will make sure any recruiters I know well will put him in no-contact.
Business trips usually last 2 full weeks, but since the second week included Thanksgiving and day after, I stayed fewer days than normal. New hire screwed himself over by not coming for this rotation for a variety of reasons.
The first immediate reaction in Oregon is damn it is cold. I visited Vancouver during the winter and Oregon felt just as cold if not worse. The wind was bonechilling and I wore multiple layers at all times, including Canadian winter jackets.
The goal of this trip outside work was to eat at a different restaurant for every meal. This only included lunch and dinner because breakfast was included with the hotel rate. I arrived quite late at night and most restaurants were closed. Good thing a nearby Applebee's was open. I was cold and hungry, and my mac and cheese with chicken tenders tasted delicious.
The Hilton I stayed at was quite cushy with make-to-order breakfast from a fairly diverse menu. The only thing I disliked was needing to account for the extra wait time to receive my food because I don't like making phone calls in advance. I greatly enjoyed the pancakes, even though the omelettes were the best value. (When the new hire visited after me, omelettes were no longer free with breakfast rate and required an additional $3. That change happened right after I left LMAO. Even the hotel is punishing him for his actions.)
The company campus looked beautiful compared to the one I go to. I was also lucky that the weather only rained a handful of days I was there, so I didn't have to deal with rain too much.
One thing that surprised me was how many bodies of water surrounded the Portland area. I stayed in Lake Oswego (one of my college roomates grew up here) so yes I see a lake there, but I didn't expect anywhere near the number of scenic areas available. You definitely don't see lakes like these every day in the Bay Area. I picked a really nice area for dinner, Tualatin Lake at the Commons. The nighttime lighting, even on a rainy night, brought out the atmosphere of lakeside leisure.
I got takeout from a Hawaiian place, Roxy's Island Grill. The shoyu chicken house special tasted delicious. A lot of food I had on this trip was delicious.
French toast for brakfast! Strangely enough I didn't get any extra jams or syrups to go with it. Tastes decent while cold, though not as good as cold pancakes.
I arrived on Thursday night and showed up for one day of work on Friday before I could enjoy the weekend. There were a number of places I wanted to visit, but since weekend on-call was possible the week after, I prioritized the important places first. Of course it had to be Powell's Books, one of the big bookstores on my ever-growing bucket list. My suitcase barely had space left so I couldn't go on a huge buying spree, but I did walk away with a used copy of The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Loved watching his lectures when they came out, and I have no regrets buying the printed version.
I'd say downtown Portland is much cleaner than San Francisco, though I did have to avoid a couple homeless encampments along the walk from my parking area to Powell's. The walkability and abundance of public transportation impressed me. Much better than BART. The main attractions I noticed as I walked a mile and a half were the streetside food stands. Stands lined entire streets, all food of different ethnicities. A shame I felt full and couldn't bring any into the bookstore, or I would've bought some street food.
The angle in the picture isn't great, but the entire building in front that's not part of the high rises is part of Powell's. Whew.
The inside is huge. I didn't get much opportunity to take pictures that could illustrate just how large, but here are a few attempts. Sections in the store are divided into rooms. I got lost in each room, and I believe there are 6 rooms total.
Found a few books I never expected to see on the shelves, quite the pleasant surprises.
A Nausicaa artbook!!! The only reason I didn't buy it to give to my sister is that it wouldn't fit in my luggage.
Borderlands artbook. Quite a few AAA game artbooks were on sale. BL1 will remain my favorite BL series, even if it lacked a few QoLs that BL2 implemented.
One of the bigger surprises, a Hamilton photobook/behind the scenes collection. I got 2 tickets for an SF viewing from work and attended with a friend. Amazing experience. Helpless remains one of my favorite songs from the musical.
Fun stuff from the toys/novelties section.
NSFW moment in the manga section. I went over to check it out FOR SCIENCE and the titles were disappointing, nothing I recognized. Once you've been on the internet long enough, you learn what hentai is famous or not, whether you want to know or not. Random volumes that had no rhyme or order to them. Also kind of weird, the hentai was shelved at the top. Judge Dredd and a bunch of western comic books shared the locked case, even though they didn't have any immediately obvious signs of overly sexual or violent content. Why were those locked up? 🤷
Then it hits me why there's seemingly no organization to the hentai titles. There's no way Powell's would be buying hentai directly from the publishers to stock inventory. All those one-off titles? THEY WERE BUYING SECONDHAND HENTAI. USED HENTAI. I have finally found a use case for used books that I would oppose. When your mother told you to "put that down, you don't know where it's been" we now have a "put that down, you know exactly where it's been" inverse. I originally planned to ask the cashier to unlock the case so I could peruse the hentai for the lulz but immediately changed my mind after that epiphany.
Last picture for Powell's, even though I had a lot more that don't add much to the narrative. The rare book room is located on the third floor, and a pass is required to go in. I believe one of the rarest books for sale in there is the original Lewis and Clark journal. I needed to leave for lunch before my parking time limit ran out, or I might've spent some time inside.
Overall, I left with The Last Lecture and a Totoro lunch bag for my sister. My sister thought the bag was cute but seeing how there weren't opportunities to carry lunch outside, it was a wasted buy. However, in a moment of genius from me, I suggested she wear it on her head. It fit perfectly, and the floppy ears on the side just adds to the hat feel. Someone on video chat complimented how cute the hat was, so that's how the bag will be used from now on.
There's a Thai place right next to Powell's called Thai Peacock. I ordered #19, House Seafood Curry. Delectably spicy, and one of the best Thai flavors I've ever had. Multiple diners let the waitresses know to give the chef their compliments, and I agree. This is most memorable meal in Oregon for me.
One thing I forgot to mention. There's no sale tax on dining here!! So the price on the menu is exactly what your total will be. Take notes, California ✊
By the time I got to my car, it was mid-afternoon and I wasn't quite ready to go back and veg in my hotel room. I bought tickets to Pittock Mansion because it was quite close to where I was, even though it wasn't high on my visit list. Proximity and convenience wins.
I have so many photos I took of the inside tours but I'd rather not make this post use a gigabyte of bandwidth. I'll just say the place was beautiful, and the sunset view alone makes the utter struggle of the drive up (and especially down) worth it.
Below is the view from one of the dining areas. I cannot imagine how much bigger of a flex you can give. Maybe if the view were from space?
What the entire grounds used to look like.
The family kitty?
The steward's house. Quite a nice but still modest house. The sign there was griping about "no good employees" that shouldn't sound different from modern clueless capitalist whining.
Now, for the original size photos. This is the view of one side of Portland. The photo sadly doesn't capture just how impressive this vantage point is.
A slightly different part of the grounds. If I remember, the mountain in the back is Mt. Hood. The Pittock family enjoyed hiking quite a lot.
An obscured view, but really makes you wonder just how breathtaking the view would've been a few decades ago. If you zoom into the water, that thing is a yacht.
A better view.
And, by far my most memorable photo from the trip, the sunset view.
The trip down was a fucking nightmare. I only had 12% left on my phone when I left, and in my infinite stupidity, I didn't bring a car USB charger. So it was a race against time to make it back to the hotel before I ran out of battery and stranded myself in a foreign land. THE DRIVE SUCKED. The road down the mansion is the rich people area, and navigating the one way streets was impossible. The worst part was the single tiny-ass road down the wealthy mountainside residences to get to the highway. Huge anti-shoutout to that one shitty turn that the GPS told me to go on, which looked so insane I missed it the first time. I wasted an extra 15 minutes trawling through the wealthy neighborhood to get back there.
I was travelling northward along SW Vista Ave, and you are supposed to FUCKING U-TURN ONTO SW MONTGOMERY DR. The GPS described this is a "right turn." I, for very sane reasons, was fucking confused and drove right past it. I would also like to point out that SW Montgomery is a 2-way street, and it's impossible to make the u-turn without enroaching into the opposing lane. SW Vista is also a 2 way, so cars going in the same direction have to compete with the u-turners. I unfortunately went face-to-face with a lady in the opposing lane during the turn, who had to reverse to give me enough room to go through. She didn't even seem mad, like this was completely normal. I cannot imagine how many accidents this piece of shit road gets. Not that I anticipate I'll ever be back, but I 100% will not go by car if the chance comes up.
I made it back to my hotel with 3% battery remaining and determined to never cut it this close again. After charging my phone, I chose a nice area called Lake View Village in Lake Oswego for dinner. I had a craving for milkshakes, and a Salt and Straw took up shop right here. I went to Pizzeria sul Lago and chose the seasonal pizza.
Delicious. Yes, I finished all that in one sitting.
Portland has some really nice village-style hubs for restaurants and shopping. The lighting just feels "right" in a way that the places in California don't.
It's fucking freezing right now, but Salt and Straw is packed. Hard to see with this picture, but the line extends wraps around the store and nearly to the entrance.
Very interesting flavors. I'm not adventurous enough to try the more inventive flavors. Pear and blue cheese???
I went for freckled mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip cookie dough. Very tasty. Good thing I had a minifridge in the hotel room so I stored one for the next day.
I decided to go dine in and get the omelettes for Sunday breakfast. I felt stuffed after this.
The struggle at Pittock Mansion the day before left me quite drained. One place I heard about and planned to visit on Sunday was the local cat lounge. However, in the saddest and funniest "fuck you" moment, I found that Purrington's was closing. That Sunday was the 12th. They closed on the 13th. 😭😭😭 I also wanted to ride the aerial tram, but in another funny "fuck you" moment, it was not really in service on Sunday and was closed for maintenance for the next 2 weeks for annual maintenance. So I just stayed in the hotel room and chilled.
Lunch was at an Indian place walking distance from my hotel. (That is the worst designed restaurant site I've seen.)
Dinner was at Jefe, a nearby Mexican place. Jefe wins best dine-in experience award. I sat at the shared roundtable with an indoor fireplace right in the middle. I loved not freezing my ass off. Never heard of camarones flaco so tried it out. Really good. Another diner at the roundtable even asked what it was.
I browsed the nearby Zupan's Market afterward. I thought it was some kind of mom and pop Whole Foods kind of high end store, because there was SO MUCH CHEESE.
Tasteful decorations lined the market entrance. Can't say I recall seeing stores with this kind of style at home.
On Monday I went for lunch with my group's Oregon coworkers. A nice place called Crazy Sushi. My jaw dropped from how cheap these sushi prices were. The food in general, really.
For dinner I went back to Tualatin Lake at the Commons and chose a Mexican place, Juan Colorado. I got tortilla soup and the (I'm pretty sure) the chimichanga del mar. The chips and salsa were complimentary. The chimichanga was stuffed with meat. And the guacamole, oh my god, I didn't realize how much I didn't like guacamole in large quantities. Guacamole enjoyers would probably be in heaven. I couldn't finish the entire thing and needed to box it.
Here's where an awkward problem came up. I took it out the next day, but I didn't have any proper container to use for the microwave (the takeout box was styrofoam), nor did I have utensils. We will ignore the part that getting utensils in the lobby is trivial because I hate interacting with people. My mega jank solution was so wrap the leftovers with a couple layers of napkins and microwave it with a cup of water. I know, I know, don't judge 💀
If I didn't plan to go home to eat the leftovers that night, I could've done something more creative. I had lunch in the company cafeteria the next day, and the to-go box was cardboard and microwavable. If it weren't soaked from the beans and salsa, it would've been perfect to take back for microwaving the chimichanga.
Dinner was a walking-distance Mediterranean place, same hub as the Indian restaurant I went to earlier. Got chicken kebob plate and a mango lassi. The bottle says mango nectar. Same thing, I suppose. It was delicious.
Work the next day was hectic because I only had lunchtime to apply some software patches. The sad part was that the update failed because the patch was made for another configuration. I had to wait until the end of lunch before my manager responded to my messages, explain the situation, screen share to show him the problem, then revert the patch. What should've been 15 minutes and applied on the tool because a 2.5 hour struggle and fix wasn't even applied. It was mid afternoon by the time I left the cleanroom, so I decided for a fast late lunch nearby.
I went to a Texmex place called La Industria. Foruntately, they had a happy hour. I got two mini burgers from the happy hour menu. That was funny because the 2 of the mini burgers cost less than a single main menu burger, but was missing ketchup. Which the waiter asked me if I wanted separately in a little cup. I don't understand the point of omitting it from the food if it's available separately. Still delicious.
I visited Bridgeport Village for dinner. Mostly because it had a Happy Lemon shop and I wanted to see if Oregon's tasted any different. This place is really nice after dark, all the lights and decorations. I still felt stuffed from La Industria so I walked around the complex before getting dinner. I stepped inside Barnes & Noble.
I was way more impressed by Barnes & Noble's manga collection. No hentai btw. The verdict is, Barnes & Noble's yuri selection destroyed most other bookstores' that I've gone to. Even Kinokuniya.
They stocked Bloom into You!!! I followed the creator, Nakatani, before the series started. Most of her works were Touhou doujins, and they were always meaningful and required a level of philosophical appreciation. The original works before Bloom into You were nice, but didn't have too much depth. Highly recommend Bloom into You, definitely on my top 5 yuri works. And I've read a ton of yuri, so I think my recommendation holds significant weight.
A meme yuri is Citrus. Nicknamed "Shitrus" by the community. I'm tempted to describe it as "lovingly nicknamed" but really, nobody likes how it turned out. Citrus+ is a direct sequel, even though the original didn't even have a conclusion to base a sequel on. No one takes this series seriously anymore, even though it was viral at the beginning with the good art.
Final shoutout to Claymore. Not actually yuri, but the subtext is so heavy it's hard to not put on yuri goggles. There's only one important male character and his only significance is to be a shoehorned plot device. Fantastic series, wish more of the younger folks had opportunities to read these older works. I would even go so far as to rank it above Fullmetal Alchemist.
Another picture of the high-end shopping area.
This Barnes & Noble had 3 floors, and I spent my sweet time browsing through everything. The business really turned itself around to not end up like Borders or Fry's. Tons of board games and toys were stocked, and a Starbucks cafe was tucked inside.
I went to Pastini after leaving. Pastini had a line the entire time I was there, and I can see why. Fairly high end Italian dining, with a great atmosphere. I chose a simple pasta.
Afterward, Happy Lemon! I immediately noticed the menu doesn't have my favorite drink, the Okinawa fresh milk with boba. It was also missing the dragonfruit flavor yakult. Guess it's a regional thing. On the other hand, the Ube flavor I have not seen anymore in a California store. I got a simple honey green tea since the store was near closing time and didn't have most of the flavors anymore.
'Twas only a few days until my departure, and I got another lunch with my Oregon coworkers. This lunch was also missing a person. Not sharing the group photos, but you can instead look at the delicious fish and chips I ordered from Ancestry Brewing. Would you believe if this is the first time I've had fish and chips? I never visit American places with my family, and I usually don't frequent places that offer fish and chips with friends either. I learned that this kind of fried fish is delicious, extra points for tartar sauce.
For dinner I picked another local location, Hunan Pearl. (Part of this also had to do with a big brained idea to use their takeout containers for heating leftovers. I learned my lesson with the chimichanga incident. Which is actually the second chimichanga incident I've ever had. The first chimichanga incident had to do with TSA.)
I sat right in front of an antique-looking medicine drawer. Funny coincidence, I wouldn't have paid any mind to this drawer if it weren't for the bottommost right drawer. It's 桑枝, or mulberry. There's nothing special about mulberry, but it was the name of the main character in a JJWXC story I read and finished right before I went on the business trip. Very triggered, what are the chances it popped up again?
Got a hot and sour soup with a combo platter.
My next purchase the next day is by far the most tragic but funniest decision. I heard all about crumbl cookies, and one store was quite close to me. First question though, why does this store close at midnight?? Do enough people make midnight cookie runs to justify the extra business hours??
I will also explain a hilarious failure on my part, the calorie part. Definitely "I've troughed" moment. The calorie count is the most deceptive thing ever, though I clearly turned off my brain when I looked at this. Sub-200 calories per cookie????? A friend finally shit on me for my stupidity, as these absolutely units of cookies are sub-200 calories per serving. One serving is not one cookie, it is ONE FOURTH OF A COOKIE. WHO ONLY EATS ONE FOURTH OF A COOKIE???? Someone tells me these cookies are huge so fractional servings make sense, but I refuse to believe that cookies are not atomic units.
This was a mistake because I leave soon and how I'd pack these without crushing them into literal crumbl I hadn't figured out. Therefore, the solution was to eat as many as possible. That was very clearly a mistake, because I don't even like sweets that much, and these were way too sweet even by American standards. I felt like gagging after eating 2. In the end, I managed to stuff the entire box in my luggage, and the remaining 2 cookies arrived unscathed. Don't think too much about how many calories I ate from these cookies alone. This was my dinner per diem, I would like to point that out. I decided to have cookies for dinner and made the company pay for it.
The next day I was so busy that I skipped lunch. I made up for it with a large dinner. I went back to Bridgeport Village and checked out a highly-rated fast food stand. I was really hoping to eat cheesesteaks but those places closed too early. Joe's Burgers had chili cheese dogs, the next best thing. I miss the old stand near elementary school, that place had legendary chili cheese dogs, and I haven't had any good ones since high school. I also bought 2 milk teas from Happy Lemon now that I came long before closing time.
More pictures of the place.
If you thought my crumbl spree was bad, wait until you saw what I bought from Joe's Burgers.
I also forgot that I was padding out my corporate-paid per diem with a fuckton of Snapple and Pellegrino drinks from the company cafeteria. Look at my decadent stash. This picture singlehandedly summarizes my bewilderment at why anyone would hate going on business trips on the company's dime.
Second to last day I had lunch in the company cafeteria. For dinner I went to Oswego Grill, which had a late night happy hour. I wasn't too hungry so the small happy hour portions worked out. I had tomato basil soup and quesadillas with lemonade.
Finally, last day I was at work, all my Oregon coworkers made it for lunch! We went to Claim Jumpers, the go-to place for the Oregon team whenever the department paid for lunch and dinner. Can't share the group photo, but my sandwiches were delicious.
For dinner I went to Killer Burger, right next to Oswego Grill. I had a triple patty bacon and cheese burger with double fries. Great choice to finish my business trip.
You probably gained 20 pounds just by looking at all the calories I consumed on this trip.
I'll end this way too long post by sharing a picture of the Portland airport's bathroom. One of these things is not like the others.
I will probably write more posts about my new job and a bunch of other topics in the backburner when I have time.
Like last month, when my desktop's PSU died and how that turned out to more than just a PSU replacement struggle.