A great view of Mt. St. Helens from our 19th floor hotel room in Portland.

We arrived early on Wednesday afternoon after smooth flights from Honolulu to San Francisco, then connecting to Portland. We were early, so decided to ride Portland Max light rail from the airport to downtown. Cost—$2.50 per person, luggage welcome. We could have paid $35 more and shaved 15-20 minutes off of the time, but the bargain is difficult to pass up.

We got to the hotel, just a short block from where we exited the Max train, and came directly to the room using the digital key that arrived via the Marriott app and was waiting when we landed. [Note: The app didn’t work when we used it on Thursday after walking around. At the front desk: “Oh, sometimes the app doesn’t work.” Great.]

We ended up eating in the hotel because it was too convenient to pass up, slept well, and wandered around downtown for a couple of hours gawking at all the boarded up and empty storefronts through the downtown area. One of our favorite spots, the Friends of the Library bookstore in the main Multnomah County Library, was closed “until further notice.” That was a disappointment. But on the way there, we passed several smaller restaurants, Indian and middle-eastern, that appear to be open for dinner, at least.

We did find our wine store, a Target right downtown that has prices well below the Rite Aid around the corner from this notel, which used to be our wine store of choice. Yes, we try to avoid the snazzier wine stores in the hotel district, that don’t try to compete on price with these other stores.

One thing of note. Security is now very visible almost everywhere downtown. The guard at the front door of the Target was outfitted like he was going to be parachuting into Ukraine, as was the one greeting patrons at the Goodwill Store just a block away. Signs of the times.

We haven’t been to Powell’s Bookstore yet, but it’s on our agenda. We are saving energy for our meetup for Happy Hour at Jake’s Grill. We’re meeting a friend I went through elementary school with in Kahala, who used to split her time between Portland and Denver. She flew in from Denver at the beginning of the week, and is cleaning up after deciding to vacate the apartment she has rented here for several years. Anyway, we’ll meet up for happy hour this afternoon, and then they’ll join us for the Rivera-Kahlo exhibit on Sunday morning.

Photos of our walk around downtown will be posted a bit later.