our weekend

kirsten

well happy monday for many of you! (or i guess possibly tuesday, wednesday or even august, depending...) today (sunday still for me) begins my week of blogging. there are tons (i mean tons) of people i need to call and i have a good amount of work to do this week, but i will (or we will) be committed to the blog this week, so that everyday you all have something to read.

so now, about our weekend. i won't go into too many details, but we're "feeling optimistic" i'll say about some job situations here and so we decided to reward ourselves on friday night by going out to dinner, just the two of us. we really rarely do this (okay, I don't think we have since we got here) because we'll go if matt and kim are going or, for instance, when lb was in town, but it's too much to just go on our own. so this was a big treat.

and, to boot (i just wrote that), we went to a place we've been wanting to check out for a long time. oh! and we did more than just eat. we saw a movie too!!! alright. so we went to the kennedy school. when all of you come to visit us—which we know you will—we will definitely go here. it's a portland staple, i suppose. so here's the basics: there's a "chain" here, i guess, called mcmenamins that for the most part reclaims old buildings and turns them into these restaurants. they're all over oregon and aren't just restaurants—several of them have hotels, some have movie theaters, they brew their own beer, and some have like spas or golf courses. and they all have a ton of character and are really cool.

the coolest one, people say, is in portland in the northeast (now that all of the budding cartographers—dan—know the lay of the land). the kennedy school is a historic elementary school, built in 1915 and closed in 1975. alright, so, the hotel/restaurant/movie theater is pretty inventive. all of the hotel rooms are in the old classrooms and (we didn't see any) apparently have like chalkboards and "cloakrooms" and the restaurant is in the cafeteria and the movie theater in the auditorium. they also have a few bars throughout—in honors hall and detention. and the front office is the check in for the hotel. a ton of the stuff inside—including little water fountains and such, are preserved, and there are historic pictures and information throughout. it really looks like an old school and it's super cool.

we ate dinner—they're hamburgers and pizza are yummy—and then saw a movie (baby mama, they play "second showings," movies that just left the theater, but i think they're before the dollar theater. and they cost $3, which is really nice.) the auditorium is filled with sofas—loveseats and chairs and three or four-person couches, which makes everything really comfy—and little —end and coffee and such. anyway, it was really fun. like really, really fun. we couldn't stop smiling. and unfortunately we didn't get any pictures. but when ya'll come visit, we will definitely take pictures.

right, so then saturday we went to the big portland farmers market. they have several in portland throughout the week and then a lot of the neighborhoods and the suburbs each have their own, but this is the big one and i've been wanting to go since we got here (which, by the way, is three weeks today). it was amazing—all sorts of fruits, vegetables, flowers and such and then homemade breads, cheeses, and milk and eggs and stuff. people everywhere and lots of vendors (did you know that word can also be spelled venders? who knew??). we got some lettuce, bread and green beans (we don't need much these days) and then picked up some lunch (they also have hot-food vendors, entertainment and coffee/juice bars). and sat in the shade eating. it was a blast, seriously. and sorry this is the only picture that we actually took... (and if you can't tell, daniel's eating here)