Missed you all a ton, you know that dontya?! And thanks to Bill and Tony for filling in, it's great to be back, BUT...
I have to say that the missus found the bomb place to stay in Portland. The Hotel is called The Jupiter and is decked out with designer furniture from a TC's firm called Blue Dot. It has cool music piped all round its patios and balconey, but the best part is that is attached to one of the best live venues in town, The Doug Fir, which has a groovy restaurant attached to it aswell, everything you need really!?!?
It was our first trip and I must say we were very impressed. Their warehouse district is full of condos and art galleries and cafes; they have two alternative weeklies too, one run by an ex-TCer, highlighting how much is going on;an amazing coastline an hour away and the best coffee I've ever tasted, Stumptown! The cities have a lot of simularities and there seems to be a lot of cross-polination. So now we have teased you with how cool Austin AND Portland is, but with the beautiful 6 inches of snow that welcomed us, it is still very hard to beat our home town. MSP Rox 2!