Showers in Portland

It's amazing to experience the change of social perspective as we travel north. People are getting more talkative, more eco-conscious, and less in their own worlds. It's a breath of fresh air. We just left Portland, heading for a couch-surfing spot in Seattle before night really sets in. It's amazing, sunset's not until around 9:30, so there's a lot of extra time to take in the sights. 

Portland was great. It's a beautiful city, and we had amazing hosts. We stayed with Dave's aunt and uncle, and they welcomed us in the warm way family does. We went to the huge Farmer's Market that Dave's Uncle Hank suggested this morning and picked up some candy cap mushrooms - got a tip from the vendor about a gorgeous route through North Dakota. He's from there, so maybe we'll take the advice. We had an amazing homemade mushroom ice cream back in Crescent City, and we're hoping to recreate the deliciousness. Imagine pralines and cream if it had a smooth texture, kind of a caramel-maple-vanilla flavor. It's not what you'd expect from a mushroom.

We ran into Paul Seif from the Gifford Pinchot Task Force who's fundraising to stop mining that will pollute the Green River in Washington (which feeds something like 4 other rivers). It'll totally destroy the water supply in Longview (yep, same one from the port shutdown) and the area around it. They stopped it the last time a corporation tried to rape the area, and hopefully will again. If you're down to help out, email him at paul@gptaskforce.org. Donations can be made through the website, and Paul said that's more of what they need. The Bureau of Land Management is only accepting public comment from people living in the directly-affected areas, so they need more donations than anything else unless you have an address that the BLM will accept.

We checked in with Occupy Portland last night and found out they have a 300-person classroom as their mainstay. Apparently it's helped them get a lot more work done. They've got it set up with all of the hardware you need to roll out whatever work you need to do, and are talking about an OccuFest and other fundraisers to buy a house or something to expand the possibilities. We ran into a few groups from OLA as we wandered around, and instantly we each recognized the other. This community runs deeper than even we know, and it's refreshing.

Most of today was spent in the ridiculously, awesomely huge wonder that is Powell's Books. That place is a mecca for geeking out. Dave got to get some work done in the cafe while Doc and I got lost in the racks of sustainability reference. Now we definitely have more books to read on this trip than we'll have time to read them. It's a good problem to have.

Tonight we'll hit up some local dive bar in Seattle to see some no-name band and crash at a collective house that Dave found. I know he promised pictures and videos while we were in Portland, but honestly we stayed out late with one of Doc's Marines at Deschutes Brewery. We all had locally-sourced elk burgers and some awesome brews, smoked too many cigarettes, and stayed out late in the streets of Portland having awesome conversations. 

Good times, Portland. You're a pretty chill place.