Having been exiled to the suburbs for my job the last two years I haven’t been able to spend much time just meandering around downtown – usually when I head down it’s in the evening for a particular show, event, restaurant or bar. Well yesterday I jumped on MAX and headed downtown to meet a couple friends at the Saturday Market. We wandered for awhile admiring the coolest purses ever, contemplating why there were so many spinning things, and wondering which of the silly hats I should buy my husband to replace the All Blacks cap he thinks was stolen from the car along with his stereo.

We then wandered across through Pioneer Square to admire the tree without the haze of the beer tent in the way, did some serious people watching, then stepped into the Virginia Caf√© for a bite to eat and a cocktail. After a discussion about the new Living Room Theaters that we got our waiter involved in as well, we cruised past there peering in the windows at the folks having drinks in the lobby – and the friendly staff who waved at us as we did so. Crossing Burnside we ended up at the old Jimmy Mack’s location – Life of Riley – we really wanted to go downstairs, but t wasn’t open quite yet, so we had a drink up top before heading down. A group of former frat boys came in to watch the Ducks game – but luckily they weren’t too annoying since their team was losing right off the bat.

The next stop was The Tube – I’d never been there before – everything I had heard about it made me never want to step foot inside – basically that it was full of super pretentious “I’m prettier than you” and “You’re not nearly cool enough to come in here” types – but one friend convinced us that when he’d been there it was pretty laid back and that they played great music – so off we went. Tube being my favorite word in the English language – it did make me a bit happy that I could go there. And indeed it was chill. A couple more friends joined us there and we had a great night.

Eventually we needed food – so we abandoned our walking route and jumped in the nearby car of one of the newcomers and rounded back to the Marathon for the always cheap and good late night bar menu.

By 11pm or so we done and headed back home to rest our weary heads.

While I realize that a day of shopping and bar hopping isn’t an everyday occurrence – days like that remind me how much I really do love downtown Portland – and hope that after the first of the year I do end up back there on a daily basis!