Day Eleven - Portland Oregon

According to Schuyler, today was Record Store Day, an International phenomena in which Record Stores around the world get supplied with records from Artists in very limited runs and these are sold at cheap prices. Schuyler had asked if we could visit Record Stores at whichever location we were at during our holiday and so it was, we were in Portland, Oregon.

We visited a bunch of independent Record Stores and Schuyler managed to obtain his Holy Grail, a vinyl single of Coldplay's - Up with the birds/UFO of which only 2000 copies were released Worldwide. He also picked up some other vinyl for his collection, but from my perspective, I was flabbergast at the amount of people attending these stores. In fact, in one store Jackpot Records, we were on a queue for around 45 minutes, but the atmosphere was really great. The things we do for our kids. Here's Schuyler at Jackpot Records:

We actually spent most of the day in and around the city. We took in the Portland Saturday Markets which have only restarted recently following Winter. We also visited a giant Bookstore called Powell's City of Books. This Bookstore takes up an entire city block, and then some. I believe it is the largest Independent Bookstore in the World. We ended up getting a lot of heavy books which won't bode well for our baggage allowance when we head home.

The one thing I notice about Portland is just how beautiful it is, it has some beautiful old buildings mixed with some new, a picturesque river with a collection of wonderful bridges. The morning was cold and fogged-in until around midday and glorious blue skies made for a great afternoon. We all agreed that we could live here. I managed also to take a bunch of photos around town.

This is Mount Hood, not too far from Portland.

Oh, I nearly forgot, outside Jackpot Records, some guy in a VW Combie had a VW Combie painted in the same colours. The guy said that the gocart could travel up to 70 miles per hour. Here's what she looks like;

Maureen the 'Rev-Head'