So this is a little late, but I thought I would fill you in dear blogspotters about my trip to Portland. It was alot of fun to travel by myself. I know you would think that a well-traveled young 22 year old would have done all sorts of traveling by herself…but nope. This was the first time. I just spent my plane rides reading and listening to music. The best 3 hours of my week so far. Even though the trip was a good three weeks ago, I am still processing through my time there. However, it was great to hang out with my big brother. I don’t think we have had some good quality time since before he started law school!

Anyways, as much fun as Portland was, I notice several things. People are packed into tiny apartments and small shops (downtown Portland anyway). There is this excitement about life, but always searching for the next best thing. To me that leaves me a taste of emptiness in my mouth. There is no way that I could even experience a 100th of what Portland is like in the small time that I spent there. It does make me want to go back and explore some more.

However, I did get to browse around the largest independent bookstore in the country, Powell’s City of Books. Which was awesome and a little like heaven might be :).

I don’t think that I could state all that I am thinking about my time in another part of the country, except that I appreciate Kansas’ wide open spaces, the slow pace of life in the midwest, and the sense of home I feel as I drive over the Flint Hills into Manhattan. It does make me think about the fact though, that this isn’t really home, and I shouldn’t get too comfortable.

But for now here are a few artistic pics that I snapped, when I wanted to disrupt the moment by taking pictures.

A sweet hotel turned coffee shop, my kind of hangout.

The historic highway.

Some water falling

The Japanese Rose Garden

Some sweet old stairs…I have always liked stairs that led to somewhere.