Relaxing on the coast

Now it is the part of my trip where I get to relax in my hotel with a nice ocean view:



Fortunately, I bought some books at Powell's yesterday. You could spend all day in that store. I am now reading: Historians in Trouble by Jon Weiner, which includes chapters on two of my professors at Emory (I was a research assistant for one and house/dog sat for another---I so should have been interviewed for this book, ask if you want the details!); The Quakers in America by Thomas Hamm (my new boss at Earlham College in Indiana, as I need to learn more about Quakers); and Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times by Neil Peart. This last one should be interesting since I've been thinking about road trip music a lot lately, for obvious reasons. Neil Peart is the drummer for the band Rush, by the way. One album I recommend not listening to, at least if you are a single female traveler, is Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. It is a brilliant album, but with stories of murder, especially of women, I cannot recommend it for female travelers. I can recommend Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Rush (good for any occasion), Snow Patrol, Eric Johnson, Tom Petty, Beth Orton, Tracy Chapman, and the Doors. For starters.

Also yesterday I visited the Portland Art Museum, which had a special exhibit on Degas, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec. I have to admit I'm not much of a Degas fan, but it was a nice exhibit nonetheless. From their website: "This landmark exhibition, appearing exclusively at the Portland Art Museum, explores the complex image of the dancer in the work of three artists intrigued by various manifestations of dance in fin-de-siècle Paris: Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). The Dancer presents an international roster of more than 110 works of art, including rarely seen paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculptures from collections in Europe and the United States. "

The rest of the museum was fine, especially the exhibit on Persian narrative painting. From the website: "Every Picture Tells a Story features 26 works, including a magnificently preserved complete manuscript of the Yusuf and Zulaikha of Jami (a tale of the Biblical Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, as retold by 15th-century poet Jami). The majority of the brilliantly colored and exquisitely detailed paintings in the exhibition are from Shāhnameh manuscripts, allowing visitors to trace historical changes in illustration from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Other works offer visual interpretations of Khalila wa Dimna, a collection of animal fables, the Khamsa (Five Tales) of the poet Nizami, and other literary classics." Actually I really enjoyed this exhibit.

I had a drink and lunch at Bridgeport Brewery, which might be the oldest microbrewery in Portland (I found conflicting information). The chipotle chicken and black bean burger and the Ropewalk Amber Ale were both delicious. I also bought some cd's in a used cd store--Band of Horses, The Dears, and The Chills. I hadn't visited a used cd shop in ages so this was nice. For dinner I found a nice little Italian spot and had tortellini. The neighborhood near my hotel had a lot of cute shops and restaurants--many Thai and sushi places, but I was in the mood for pasta last night.

I could spend another week in Portland, but the coast beckoned...so many neighborhoods to explore. I will definitely be coming back someday, maybe on a trip that would involve visiting Seattle as well (but probably flying out instead of driving though I love driving).

Today I drove to Salem and visited the historic district, but got annoyed at the traffic. I then made a stupid decision and took the less traveled road to Newport. This took forever as it was a winding road with a lot of logging trucks. On the one hand, it was pretty; on the other it was very frustrating. In the end I made to the Pacific Ocean, with my first stop being Seal Rock State Park, though there were no seals here:





I then drove into Newport and enjoyed a pleasant walk along the beach. Hopefully I will see a whale, but I somehow doubt it.





There is a nice restaurant attached to the hotel so I'll be dining there tonight and probably all weekend. Rogue Ale is in town somewhere so I will fit them in too. Other than the aquarium and a couple of lighthouses, I'm going to be chilling in the room reading and enjoying the view, which sounds great!