Before leaving our Airbnb in Capitol Hill, we double checked the list of instructions we had been given - it was quite long and detailed! The house was filled with post-it notes of things NOT to do, so we wanted to make sure we hadn't done anything wrong. The house was big, beautiful and old. Although we had booked just a room, we didn't encounter anyone else in the house during our stay. It was all a bit strange really.
We started the morning by walking 10 minutes down the road to Glo's Diner, where we shared breakfast. Sean and I are continually amazed by how big meal portion sizes are. I wonder how long we can go, only ordering a meal to share?
After buying prepaid sim cards and plans for our phones when entering the USA, Sean discovered that his phone (which is the version older than mine) isn't supported in the USA, and consequently only works at dial-up speed. We made our way back to T-Mobile to see if we could downgrade his plan, from a plan with unlimited data to the cheapest one we could get. Unfortunately, we were unable to change it. But we did learn that we would be able to use the USA sim cards in Canada, for a fraction of the price we were paying for our Canadian plans! So, not all bad news.
I made a quick pit stop at Top Pot a doughnut and coffee shop, across the road from our Airbnb to see what all the fuss was about. I chose a Maple Old Fashioned doughnut. It was delicious (and incredibly sweet), and we nibbled on it all the way to Portland.
Just outside of Seattle, we stopped at an outlet mall. As soon as we stepped into the mall, I decided I actually didn't need the denim skirt I thought I wanted, and really didn't want to be spending hours in this gigantic mall! We quickly left, back on the I5 heading south.
We arrived in Portland and the sweltering heat a couple of hours earlier than arranged with our next Airbnb host. We filled the time with a late lunch and beer at The Rambler on Mississippi Ave, an area known for its excellent restaurants and brew houses. We shared a wrap (Sean's newly discovered favourite) and enjoyed some Oregon IPA's in the air conditioning. Did I mention it was hot?
We checked in with Linda and her dogs, our Airbnb stop for the next few nights, and had a quick nap before heading to the movies. This was a cinema like no other!
McMenamins Kennedy School was bought by the McMenamins hospitality group (who own about 40 restaurants, bars and cinemas in the Pacific Northwest) for $1 several years ago. The school is over 100 years old and was closed in mid-1970 as it was going to cost too much to repair. McMenamins have restored the building, converting the classrooms into hotel rooms, the gym into a conference venue, offices into meeting rooms as well as a restaurant in the old cafeteria and theatre in the hall. We bought cocktails from a bar in the boiler room and got lost in the school hallways before finding the theatre. We bought a small (i.e. gigantic) serving of cajun tater tots, which were delicious - although we only ate maybe 1/4 of the bowl we were given.
The theatre (school hall) was filled with rows and rows of couches, with little side tables. The movie was projected onto a screen that sat on the stage. The movie, Isle of Dogs, was fantastic. What an experience!