We headed back to Portland and the conference site - the Red Lion Hotel at Jantzen Beach. I went to my room, looked at myself in the mirror (a day walking along a misty, windy shore does wonders for hair), quickly did what I could and went down to the registration desk.
Immediately, I was in work mode. Standing around the desk were some representatives from Wycliffe who had been Awana leaders. We got in a good discussion about ministry.
Workshops began the next morning.
I started out, thinking I would be attending a workshop by the Christian writers market guru, but alas, stuff had been switched around.
I found myself in a workshop about developing a creative idea by P. Baloche who wrote "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord." This was a good way to start the conference - inspirational.
I continued with a workshop on e-mail marketing, another on writing and one that was so bad, I just want to forget it. Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz spoke at lunch. The evening was free - they gave us each a transit pass and sent us to downtown Portland.
We all wanted to see Powell's bookstore. Powell's claims to be the world's largest independent bookstore with both new and used books. The store is open 365 days a year and has about 1.6 acres of books. They are actually planning on adding about 10,000 more feet of space.
But before we went to Powell's, we wanted to eat. We were in the Pearl District and went around and around without finding anything. Everything was "sushish" or same old, same old like Noodles and Co. We wanted to eat at a place indigenous to Portland, but a place not to expensive - since this meal (unlike our vacation time) was actually a conference expense. We didn't want to misuse the money. Mary Alice gave up and went off to the bookstore.
Roger, Jamie and I kept searching. Jamie went in a shoe store and asked and the clerk told her we should get on the trolley and go down to 23rd Street. The trolley stop was right there, so we waited and then traveled for many stops through a residential area until we did indeed hit 23rd. But we saw no restaurants.
A young man started talking to us about taxes in Oregon (no sales tax and no pumping your own gas) and so I asked him if there were restaurants around the area. He told us to walk about four blocks and we'd find several. He listed the best. We finally found one of the places called Seratto and decided to try it.
Well, our first impression when we walked inside was being underdressed - we had changed from our conference clothes, assuming we would be wandering around downtown Portland. Everyone was dressed for an "evening out" and every table had one twenty-something blonde in a black dress - at that instant, it looked as if they had cloned their customers.
But at this point we were tired and hungry and so we sat. Soon the manager walked over with a plate of free appetizers that they were testing - raw tuna/garlic on homemade potato chips. Actually, they weren't bad.
Jamie ordered pizza. Roger and I order macaroni and cheese. Very good. So if you're ever in Portland - go to Seratto's on Kearney Street. We were glad we stopped.
We then headed back to the bookstore and wandered around for a little while. Each of us bought something, but not much. You get several books at the conference and we only had so much room in our suitcases. But it was interesting to see Powell's.
Then back to the hotel.
more do more birdwatching. Then Mary Alice and I drove back to town to get gas. To show you how BRIGHT OUR CAR really was, I am now borrowing one of Roger's picture to show you how far away he could identify us.)
The day was fun, but the Brewers won.
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