Left Pittsburgh around 6:30pm. Finally got into Portland, OR around midnight Pacific time. Got to the Benson Hotel downtown and slept in late in our 2 beautiful rooms. Check out www.bensonhotel.com for info... A very old-fashioned feel.
The lobby is just gorgeous, a grand space - marble staircases up to the balcony, beautiful old wooden architecture, antique furniture in the lobby, crystal chandeleirs. Simply gorgeous. Four star hotel.
The breakfast was the best breakfast we have ever had in our life!! We all agreed. It seemed like we ate for hours. Our waiter Bobby was the best at his job - telling us stories of all the famous people who had been there. Esp. all the sports stars...since Nike was born in Portland...he has seen alot of their famous spokespeople in and out of The Benson. Every president since Nixon has stayed there, Shaquille O'Neal, David Bowie...I can't really remember all the rest...bit pretty cool!
He started us off with carafes of freshly squeezed OJ...Dave had his fave Bloody Mary and I of course had a Mimosa - ahhh... I am livin'. He also gave us lots of freshly baked sourdough toast and different jams. We had a ball and ate them all up in minutes. I had a wild mushroom and goat cheese crepe. OMG!! The most delicious thing in my life - I almost licked the plate! Dave, Rob and Sam had the Crab Benedicts. Oh did they look good! We were stuffed when we walked out of there. We felt good.
We took a walk to Chinatown and had a nice little walk. Went back to our hotel and packed, sat in the lobby waiting for our van to be delivered. Finally! Packed in and we were off...to Florence, OR - our first house.