Portland! ..and the end of my trip

I was surprised to see that Steve looks pretty much just like he did freshman year at Tech when he picked me up outside Powell's. It was a pretty great reminder of all the silly times we had in Wads.. It was great to hear that he's still super into plants and had finished his degree in botany. He's looking to get an internship at some botanical garden in HI (maybe Ho'omaluhia will have an opening!)!

We stopped to drop off all my crap (my bag is now super weighed down by all the delicious jam I got from Erin and Elly... I can't wait to open it!!!) and then we headed out for a sunset game of frisbee golf. It had been at LEAST 5 years since I'd last played (which was maybe my 2nd time playing) behind TJ and Ira's house in Hancock, but I surprised not only myself, but also Steve by how much I'd improved by the end of the course! I had a ton of fun! We were also surprised that we managed to finish the whole course before it was too dark to play... AND we didn't lose any discs (though they did try and escape a few times).

We went back to Steve's, loaded up my flash drive with new music for me, and then headed out on the town for the best burger ever and some beers around 10pm. It was good to get a feel for Portland nightlife and to have a long walk around some part of town that I'd probably be able to find on a map, but wouldn't be able to tell you the name of. =) We saw some crazy band play at a place called Valentine's, walked past another place that was ridiculously bust for a Tuesday, and ended up at another place that had a fireplace (I was pretty happy about that cause I'd gotten a bit chilly in the wind... poor me) until they gave us the boot and we headed back to Steve's.

We got back and hung out with Steve's roommate Matt who'd accomplished painting half of his room.. while drinking a good bit of beer! Needless to say we were all very entertaining to each other. Next thing I knew I was being filmed giving drunken acupuncture (there goes my career in acupuncture politics..)! We laughed a lot and all passed out to Blue Planet.

Now it's almost time for me to head to the airport.. and I have to say I'm not super excited to get back to HI, although I do have a lot of new ideas to get myself excited about for school. I'm hoping all of my old and new friends come to visit soon! I don't know that I've ever had so much fun on a vacation as I have on this one.. although Anne and I did laugh more than I'd ever thought possible while we were road tripping around MI.. and the gas war with Brian, Dave, and Jesse through the desert was pretty great too... hmm... I guess it's all about the freshness of the memories!