PDX: Now With More Cosplay

This ended up being a massive post, seriously a Godzilla sized post so I'll be breaking it up into this group post, and then separate posts for the three of us.

Maura had this idea to take tons of pictures of Portland to show her students when she goes to Japan, she did a few in normal clothes, but cosplay is her hobby so we dressed up and did it again. The day ended up being just perfect for walking around Northeast, no rain, sunny, not too cold, by the end of that day my feet were killing me but I still wanted to stay out for as long as I could.

We parked by some food carts, and for those of you who don't know Portland food stalls were voted best in the nation. It was noon so lunch seemed like a good idea. Maura and Rose had greek style sandwiches, and I had a grilled cheese, ham, and tomato sandwich with a cup of tomato and fennel soup (I think there was a little lemon in the soup as well). I'm drooling just thinking about how good it was.

While we were sitting in the tables by the stalls a guy who runs a frozen yogurt stall was passing out samples and we managed to snag one each. The yogurt was fan-frickin-tastic, it tasted like sweet frozen sour cream, which I know doesn't sound good but trust me it was. I would have bought some but we had already made plan to go to Voodoo Doughnuts, and there's really only so much I can eat at a time.

Just a sign we found while walking, we thought it appropriate.

After lunch we went to Powells books, then took the MAX (our local public transit system) up to PGE Park because Maura wanted to take a bunch of pictures with these creepy face statues that are located on the front corners of the building. They're supposed to represent the happy people who come too and from the park....

...But mostly they're just terrifying.

We were lucky that several nice people walked by and offered to take our picture for us.

After that we took the MAX back down to Voodoo.

It was a nice day, so even though it was a Monday in the middle of the afternoon there was still a line going out the door.

But I guess it's not that big inside anyway, and pretty packed with all manner of kitsch.

On our way back to the car we spotted a big black truck with a few people crowded around it. As we got closer we noticed the truck had a big TV on the side and people were playing Rock Band! It was extraordinary and we had to get into the act!

This random PDX moment was brought to us by a company called Free Fun Downtown, they'll be doing stuff like this every Monday until May 12th. I'm looking forward to checking it out as the weeks go on. Rose usually has Mondays off so I'll take her with me.

Our last stop this day was at the Portland Rose Garden.

The roses weren't in bloom of course, it's only February, but even still the garden is beautiful and made for some lovely pictures that I'll share with you in the next few posts.

It was a really great day, one of those I'll look back on very fondly in the future.