Firestations and Donuts

Back from Portland... it was a good trip although I was pretty sick for most of it. However, I did manage to have some fun inbetween trips to Fred Meyer for cough syrup and Kleenex. I'll break it up over the next few days.

(I did get to meet Kate, which was awesome! We got a photo of us together so when she sends it I'll post it... all I can say is, two bookworms in Powell's together is a dangerous thing...)

Got to visit my brother, which is always fun. I watched him play softball and then he took me and a friend over to his station for a tour.

We got the full tour of the engine. It's amazing how many tools they can pack onto those things. We got to sit up front in the driver's seat. It's very high. I liked turning on the flashing lights.
Then I got to try on Matt's gear (turnouts?). Um, they were big and heavy.

And then after all that, we got to watch the crew rush out to a call! I felt about five years old, waving to the guys as they piled into the truck and pulled out. It was kind of exciting. I'm so proud of Matt for going through all the training and achieving this fantastic career which he loves.

I got to visit him for two nights -- the second night, after dodgeball, we went over to downtown to check out Voodoo Doughnuts.



I especially wanted to try the Bacon and Maple Bar. We got one of those and a Portland Creme. It was very hard to choose... if I could have, I would have gotten a selection. But that would have been a lot of doughnuts.

Um, they were really good. Really, really good. Especially the Bacon/Maple bar. The Creme was a perfect foil to the salty-sweet bacon bar. Who thinks of these things? I don't know, but whoever it was, bless them.

After that, we had to go run around Portland for an hour or two on foot to burn off the sudden infusion of sugar. I love Portland. It was about 78 degrees (at 10 pm!), perfect and beautiful.

The next morning on my way to work I happened to drive by the donut shop again on my way to Stumptown for coffee. I was tempted to get another donut but I thought that would be way too much sugar to start the day. However, I did manage to snap this photo of a little kid sitting out front with a head-size donut. Seriously. See the little kid, circled in red? And that thing he's holding? It's as big as his head.

Voodoo Doughnuts, you have my heart.