🌙 12:10am
Written by Matt in Portland, OR
Today was a super long day & we got to live it twice!!
It started pretty early for me, with some final preparations for the trip.
Final morning for a while here 😢
So pretty 🥺
After getting everything together, it was off to the airport with Vi & Tien.
Once we got there, we had some time to kill before Jay arrived, so we perused the food options and realised paying $13 for a croissant wasn’t the best idea…
And so, we waited.
When Jay arrived, we briefly met his family, checked our bags in, and headed through security & customs.
It was all getting exciting now — we even got the typical photo at the departures sign!
Once we were through, Jay and I waited at the GST refund queue for ages and got our things through, although it seems Jay needs to pay his back, which is dumb…
And finally, we grabbed some breakfast from the Coffee Club, which was somehow a ‘cheap’ option comparatively.
🌙 12:10am
Today was a super long day & we got to live it twice!!
First up — it started pretty early for me, with some final preparations for the trip.
After getting everything together, it was off to the airport with Vi & Tien.Once we got there, we had some time to kill before Jay arrived, so we perused the food options and realised paying $13 for a croissant wasn’t the best idea…
And so, we waited.
When Jay arrived, we briefly met his family, checked our bags in, and headed through security & customs.
It was all getting exciting now — we even got the typical photo at the departures sign…
Once we were through, Jay and I waited at the GST refund queue for ages and got our things through, although it seems Jay needs to pay his back, which is dumb…
And finally, we grabbed some breakfast from the Coffee Club, which was somehow a ‘cheap’ option comparatively.
Shortly afterwards, it was time for the big thing… Air Canada AC36: Brisbane to Vancouver — the flight we’d all been waiting for!
The flight went really smoothly with no big issues and the food was alright…
I also got a decent amount of rest here and there, although the mid-flight snack was a bit strange and ruined my sleep momentum.
Once we landed in Vancouver, we had a pretty tight transfer through Vancouver airport & onto Air Canada AC8652: Vancouver to Portland including a pretty strange customs officer who literally asked if we knew Corey through “drugs” and who told us to go to Portland.
We got through but lol.
We also got to see a jellyfish!!
The flight down to Portland was quite pretty once the clouds passed and otherwise went really quickly!
And, finally, we were here in Portland!!!!!!
Jay met up with his friend Amy & we all grabbed our bags from the baggage collection (after customs rustled through them…) and we were in!
First stop: the MAX train to The Society Hotel Portland.
Then I grabbed some film from a local store and we had lunch at Killer Burgers Portland.
After lunch, we headed over to Powell’s Books which was so cool — it was big and full of books 🙂 The books were separated out into multiple rooms and storeys: for example, there was the green room for general fiction and literature. You could go upstairs to the purple room for business and self-help (yuck) and then upstairs again to the pearl room for art and design. I (Vi) bought two books which amounted to like 61AUD. It was an expensive first day 😔
Next up: off to Mill End Park — the smallest park in the world 🌐
It certainly was small!
Then we headed on over to Washington Park on the MAX and had a lovely walk through the Hoyt Arboretum — including a lovely encounter with the volunteer, Linda there.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel.
Check-in to the hotel was nice and it seems like a lovely place, despite the location being in a bit of a run-down part of Portland.
And finally, we MET UP WITH COREY and he took us to his place for dinner 🥰
Vi here. Dinner was AMAZING, Corey literally cooked the entire thing from scratch. Thankfully he let us help him, which was really fun. He made us Southern soul food which I’ve actually never had before. I was especially excited to try collard greens, which ended up being my favourite dish.
He also made fried chicken which was INCREDIBLE, and mac and cheese which was also really delicious (borderline too much for my lactose intolerant ass). It was much cheesier than we have it in Australia — I feel like we aim for more of a bechamel cheese sauce? Whereas theirs has much higher cheese content.
Back near the hotel, we grabbed some donuts from Voodoo Donuts…
… and ate it with Corey in the hotel’s common area. It was lovely 🍩
And… that was the end of the day — a huge double day.
Excited for more!!