On Saturday I experienced my first perk of “Non-Rev” flying. I had no idea it was called that until I went to the dentist and answered a question about Jesse’s new job. My hygienist said, “I’ve only flown non-rev once, we didn’t have any problems.” So that’s what it’s called…
(Perhaps I haven’t shared the good news…Jesse got a new job with an airline! Yay!)
We both had the weekend off so we decided to fly to Portland, OR for a few hours. We decided on Portland because the flights there & back gave us enough time to hang out, plus public transportation in PDX is fantastic. We were also attracted to Portland by two tourist-y locations to visit in our four hours on the ground: Voodoo Doughnut and Powell’s City of Books. (I’ve never seen Portlandia, but maybe I should watch an episode now?) We love food and books so it really worked out.
Q: You’re going to Portland for the day? Why?
A: Because we can.
(As ridiculous as it sounds, it was a lot like driving up to the Grand Canyon in a day — which I’ve done with my family ONCE. The difference though: the airplane has a bathroom, when it got dark I could turn on a light, and the view from a plane is better than that from a car.)
Mt. Hood & friends.
So we left PHX bright and early — I bought coffee, I packed a couple of reading options (Three Weissmanns of Westport, Shotgun Lovesongs, & many other prepubs from Edelweiss on my iPad), and we were off! I was incredibly distracted by the view from the window seat, there were real mountains and SNOW and big areas of NOTHING.
We took the MAX line downtown and headed straight to Voodoo Doughnut. (The ride into Portland really didn’t sell me on the city…lots of trash.) Of course we tried the Maple Bacon Bar because…well…bacon on a donut?! I thought it was delicious, Jesse didn’t love it.
Then we walked over to Powell’s City of Books and whoa. It is HUGE. Four stories of books AND a second location right across the street. I definitely got lost and bought books that I didn’t really need but felt the urge to purchase anyway. Plus I saw the Espresso Book Machine in action — pretty cool!
However, I also spotted prepubs FOR SALE for $15. First, it shouldn’t be for sale. Second, for the same price as a new book…umm…really? The other annoying thing about Powell’s — used books and new books were smushed together on the shelves. Annoying? Yes. I also question how much they were selling used books for and if some of those “new” books weren’t actually used. When I see a book with a broken spine selling for the same price as the new book, I’m gonna have a few questions.
