Downtown Frenzie

Freebie
The new REI over at Tanasbourne had a little publicized grand opening today. The opening time was 10am and they were to give out cash vouchers from $5 to $100 and nice REI water bottle to the first 300 customers that walk through the door. And so, attracted by this freebie, I make my way to the retail at 10am. To my surprise, the little publicized event was rather grand. There was a 30 meter ramp with snow brought in from the nearby Mt. Hood and x-treme snowboarders were enjoying their morning stunt. The queue to REI main door on the other hand was a mile long, zigzagging the narrow street and around the snowboarders. I was not fortunate enough to be the first 300 to get the cash vouchers and nice water bottle, however, they did give a nice carabineer keychain, as a supplement for those who weighted in line on this cold morning. There were some food served too, hot coffee and freshly baked cookies and donuts, but I already had my fill at the hotel and couldn’t care less. 30 minutes in and I decided to flee the scene and make my way to downtown.

Max
The plans for downtown almost didn’t happen as I was queuing at REI, my broken camera started to act up on me again. Out of frustration, I smack the camera on the car’s dashboard a few time to knock some sense into it and whoala, the camera decided to oblige. Driving downtown is rather expensive, and particularly due to the exorbitant parking fees. The city’s solution (and mine too) was Park and Ride with MAX, Portland’s electrical train service operated by Tri-Met. When I left Portland in 2000, Max was only a single line operating from Hillsboro to Gresham. Today, it has 3 lines, with one going to the Airport. Since I was going downtown, and all trains pass downtown, I just hop on the next one that came along. The ride to between 1 – 2 zones was $1.35 one way and the return trip cost is cheaper than the to park an hour downtown. Wanting to just walk the city and take photos, I got off the minute the train reached the heart of the city.

The City
The minute I got off the Max, I knew I had made a mistake in my choice of clothes. The temperature was in the 50’s and I was wearing just a sweatshirt. My neck was widely exposed and my face and chest took very little time to freeze. I manage to take a few shots in the few blocks that I walked and soon after, the cold took the better out of me and I decided to browse thorough the Pioneer Square Mall. This is a rather unique mall, made up from 3 buildings or was it 4, anyway, the buildings are connected underground and through sky bridges. Up to this time, I decided to have my lunch and went to the underground food court area. I was also tired and wanted to sit down and relax from all the walking. The food court is full of fast food franchised, and I wanted something quick and easy and landed with Pizza and Mountain Dew.

Novelty Shops
I pushed on after having my fill and made my way to the max station. I wanted to take some photos of a bicycle park at one of the Max station that I passed earlier and I started my gentle walk there. Not being able to withstand the piercing cold on my face and nose, I stopped by for a Grande Mocha at Starbuck ($3.25). I noticed some Starbucks Card on the counter and wonder what were the terms and conditions. I knew about the cards some time back through starbuck.com, but I did not read through how they works. Anyway, getting my Grande, I continue on my journey and came along this art theater. This month’s attraction was movies from Sweden and they were not very appealing, well, at least to me. Then I came to this Art Shop, it is like an artist paradise with everything that an artist ever needed can be found in this shop. As an engineer, who has high interest in arts, but never knew how, I went to the books section. There were some beginners books and mainly designed for children. Some of the books were very attractive, but they all start at $19.98 and so I decided to get them later, before I return back to Malaysia as this is currently not my priority.

Bubble Bath
Exhausted from the few hours of walking, I arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm and decided to warm up the bath for a relaxing dip. The warm bath not only relaxed me, it made me lazy and I stayed in for the rest of the