The restaurant in the hotel looks out onto the Willamette River & a couple of the bridges are visible. This morning during breakfast, the bridge closest to us opened. The traffic was stopped for 10mins but nothing passed through the bridge. How annoying if you were in a stopped car.
We headed uptown this morning to check out a funky shop we had seen. It didn't open until 11am so we went into the Target opposite & wasted time in there. This Target also sold groceries which seems a bit weird for Target. But, they sell CDs so I bought plenty of Christmas CDs to play in the car which we pick up tomorrow. The funky shop had plenty of funky things but most were impossible to bring home. Around in the next street was a shop selling really nice art by American artists. I found a statue of a chicken I really liked. I talked to the lady about it & found they don't ship internationally but they come packaged in foam & boxed. I decided to think about it.
We found a shop selling 'ugly Christmas jumper' t-shirts. Just what we need for an Australian Christmas!
The power has now been fully restored to the downtown area so we headed for the Pioneer Place shopping centre which has been partly closed since we have been here. As we were walking down, we saw some new tents had been set up in the Courthouse Square so we went down to see what was there. There was a stand roasting nuts & as I took a photo of the roasting chestnuts, a policeman came up & started talking to me. He told us Santa was just moving into the newly erected Santa's House in the square & suggested we visit him. We chatted a bit more & he asked us where we were from. Suddenly a woman followed by a cameraman appeared. She introduced herself as being from the local tv station. The policeman moved away & she said that the police were down in the square making sure people were keeping their bags safe as it is the prime crime season. She asked me if the policeman had been giving me some tips about the best way to carry my bag. I said no, he said to visit Santa. Before I knew it she was asking me why I had my bag across my body & why I thought that was the best way to carry it. The cameraman was filming the whole time & it appeared on the 5pm local news. How embarrassing! If it hadn't been raining we would have been at the zoo to see the Christmas lights & I would never have seen it.
The rain made it a very expensive day. I bought a fabulous silver bag & a Tiffany bracelet. I also went back and bought the chicken. I totally underestimated the size of the box the chickens came in. It is massive. I checked the Qantas website & I can pre buy additional baggage online for $84. On the way back from dinner tonight we stopped at a Fed Ex place to get an estimate on sending the chicken home. The cheapest was $782. As if!
Tomorrow morning we have to go to the airport to pick up the car. We could get a cab but the light rail goes from just around the corner & it is $2.50 each. Trouble is I now have 2 additional shopping bags & a massive box of chicken. Good luck to us.
We are going to take the advice of the people in Leavenworth & go down the Oregon coast. It will add a bit of time to our drive but should be much nicer. The weather is still a bit dodgy & now some areas have an issue with freezing rain. This is where the rain freezes before it hits the ground & is coating everything in ice which is hard to see on the road. The weather is a bit better on the coast so it should be a good drive.