Hawthorne District

My mom wakes me up at 7:37 am and we wander over to our coffee shop, and then to Byways Cafe (a travel-themed restaurant featuring collectible dinner plates from each of the fifty states). I order a feta, spinach, and tomato omelet with homefries and toast (although I never eat the toast...how can anyone eat that much food?) After eating, we head farther into the Pearl District and walk around one city block waiting for North Face to open its doors. When I enter, I immediately find a handful of pullovers, tank tops, shirts, and a jacket to try on. After trying on about 15 items of clothing, I purchase a $48 black and white tank top and a $60 button down white shirt. After we leave the store, the shopping doesn't end, and we look through a kitchen/bath/lighting store, stationary stores, little boutiques, and a shoe store. We stop by the Apple Store, because I am looking for discount airfare prices. I have this random want in my head to fly to Hawaii while I am here on the west coast...but the flights are still $278 roundtrip...and I need to tighten my budget after all these purchases. If I want to fly to Salt Lake City it is only $70 each way, but I want to go to Hawaii right now, Utah later. My urge for discount airfare is also brought on by the news that all hostels are booked full for a while throughout the Northwest due to spring break. I don't find any flights to purchase. After leaving the Apple Store, we take the #14 bus to the Hawthorne District. I pay both my mother and my bus fares with quarters and dollar coins and the bus driver (having seen no bills) accuses me of not paying for both fares...as if!) I hate false accusations of dishonesty. We get off at 37th street and walk around Hawthorne Boulevard. We look at shoe stores, Powells' Home and Garden store, and then we take a look at stationary and one-of-a-kind shops. We eat at Dingo's Restaurant, because I remembered it being good. I get a quesadilla with sundried tomatoes, feta, beans, and spinach. It comes with the most incredible honey chipolte dipping sauce. We walk down the street in the rain and check out other shops. We decide to walk all the way back without the bus, so we can walk across the Hawthorne Bridge, through downtown to Oba for happy hour. We order the same potato chips with gorgonzola appetizer and the pitas with black bean hummus dip. We walk back to the hostel and I attempt to find a new book to read, but I find nothing of interest on the shelves, and decide to take back the one I donated yesterday. On my way back to the front desk I ask "is there any chance someone called and cancelled, and I can be moved off the waiting list Friday night?" Actually, they had been trying to call me, but my phone had run out of battery. I reserve the room for Friday and Saturday night. Yay...now what will I do with all these extra days here? I sort of just want to fly east now. The rain is dreadful.

I am so excited to find I can stay in this rainy city a few more days. How odd am I?