Portland

Today we went to Portland to meet Lui, a friend of ours from Nottingham. He had been at a conference in San Diego and then had flown to Portland University where he had had a meeting with some people he is collaborating with. We decided to meet up in Portland for a couple of days before Lui flies back on Saturday.

In the morning Andrea did another track session. In yesterdays scheduled session Andrea had felt bad and so we pulled her out after a couple of reps. With this time of year being pretty important for transferring base fitness to more specific racing fitness we thought it would be a good idea to give the session another go. Thankfully it went a lot better. However, doing the session meant we were a bit late for meeting Lui and so we had to rush to get our stuff together before hitting the road for Portland.

We then picked Lui up from his hotel on Portland campus and dropped off all of our stuff at where we would be staying for the next couple of nights. We then drove into downtown Portland where we visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was really interactive and a lot of fun. We later found out from the Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended for kids! Maybe that was why we liked it so much. We then went on a walk around the shopping district in search of the worlds largest independent bookstore - Powell’s. Of course we stopped at the Nike store on the way - after all Portland is the home of Nike!! We eventually found the bookstore and spent some time looking around and then a lot more time looking for each other! It really was that massive!


Lui playing with the water rockets


Andrea and Lui playing with boats


Me as a South Park character

In the evening we found a Hawaiian restaurant near to the hotel for dinner. The food was great and the staff really friendly. The only thing that spoilt it for me was that even though my food tasted great it was insanely hot! I ended up drinking 3 glasses of water with my meal and was still suffering. I think tomorrow we’ll find a proper American diner for Lui - he has to have a proper greasy American burger before he leaves doesn’t he!! Burgers aren’t going to be as hot as well surely?