Let’s wrap up the trip to Portland. No trip to Portland is complete without a visit to the Saturday Market! Actually, this was my very first Saturday Market, but it was so freaking awesome that I will never be able to resist it again. It’s a semipermanent craft fair–the largest in the US, with nearly 300 vendors all selling amazing handmade crafts and original art and photography every weekend for something like 2/3 of the year. *WOW* It’s overwhelming, inspiring, stunning, and exhilirating all at once. The entire market has this wonderful Neil Gaiman feel to it; even the lightrail stop before the market proper feels like some mysterious, shadowy portal to a world not quite like our own. I kept expecting to run across something truly Neil Gaiman, like the Marquis de Carabas slipping surreptitiously through a door in a wall…and somewhere between the street musicians and strangely dressed downtowners it became pretty clear that this is about as Neverwhere as I am likely to experience in my lifetime. Kind of surreal. Although maybe that’s only because my life is generally so quiet and uneventful, and I haven’t been to many craft shows/markets/miscellaneous strange and artsy events other than this. Maybe after I go another to another few dozen of said events, I will feel like I live in the same universe as Saturday Market. Then again, Spokane craft fairs are very tame in comparison, so maybe not. And let me I say that I really admire all these people–the vendors who come out every weekend and brave the wet weather to sell things that were created with such skill and passion; the street musicians who are really quite good but will never get a record deal; all the people who sell incredibly yummy food from all over the world (when was the last time you saw Himalayan food anywhere?!); and all the people who wander through the market in dreadlocks and improbable outfits. This is the kind of place where you can lose yourself indefinitely, rather like a Renaissance Faire. And like a Ren Faire, you want to come prepared with expendable cash, because it’s just about guaranteed that you will find more than one irresistible item along the way. Like a fuzzy hat, for instance. These things are fabulous–made out of lovely soft wool and very cute, kind of pixie-like, and they are marvelously warm and keep out snow and rain. And you can turn them into other things, like a spiffy satchel and a scarf and a cute hoody. I had to buy one, and it is absolutely fantastic. You can find out more about them here!

A few other things we did while in the Portland area…well, we took a couple of drives–one out Highway 14, where we discovered the apple orchard in addition to many scenic viewpoints that were absolutely breathtaking; and another drive out to the Pacific coast to Seaside and Astoria. Unfortunately, it was pouring when we got there, so we didn’t do much before heading back, but the drive itself was lovely, and I’m so glad we went. I could spend months doing nothing more than exploring all those backroads, hidden creeks, craggy cliffs, and silver waterfalls. I want to fling myself into all that luscious, incredible green, burrow into the soft moss beside a meandering creek and let the rain come down. I want to find a secret path on a mountainside and follow it over a carpet of fallen pine needles to a valley of birch and aspen and evergreens hidden away  from reality. Right now, I am missing my father so much because he would have loved all these discoveries as much as I do–but at the same time, I feel so lucky (again) that he taught me to appreciate these things and that I married a man who shares that love. My whole life, I have loved going on long drives–even when I was little, I wasn’t much trouble for my parents on vacations. My brother and I would stockpile books, games, and puzzles to entertain ourselves on the 9 hour trip between Austin and Amarillo, and then another 7 or more hours from Amarillo to Pueblo, but I rarely touched them. I spent most of the drive staring out the window watching everything go by, even the boring farms and oil fields, daydreaming or simply being content in the quiet of my mind. And now, I have someone to share that quiet joy with…