Day Three: How to get Lost in Beaverton without really trying…

After our trek all over Portland, Beaverton, Aloha, and who the hell knows where else, Todd and I determined that it was time to relax in the hotel. The previous day’s activities had really worn us out, what with all the driving and Dance Dance Revolution, along with visiting OMSI and watching Episode II on the dome screen like that. It was a lot of fun, but also very taxing on our aging bodies. *old-sounding grunt* I didn’t wake up until lunch, and luckily arrived in time to pick up from work to go back to the IHOP and sit and chat. On my way back, I was to have picked up some lunch for Todd, since he was still sleeping. But I got lost trying to find this one burger place called Burgerville that promised me was the best place on Earth to get burgers. So, in getting lost, I called for directions, but I must have misunderstood him or something because I ended up over near Aloha.

Seeing the same sights as we did last night, without the company in the car, it was simply not the same. Knowing Todd as well as I do, I knew that if I did not bring back something to eat, we would have to go out and get something anyway. We had had McDonald’s last night and so when I swung back around the corner of 158th and Walker, I noticed that there were only two or three other places to grab something to eat. There was a Snapper’s (I think), which appeared to only serve fried seafood and other seafood-like things. I went up to the drive-through window, only to be turned away because they did not take any ATM/Debit cards. The Fred Meyer’s was just right there, so I drove over and got out and walked to the ATM machine inside the huge store. It was temporarily out of service, so I just said, “Fuck it.” I bought a couple Hungry Man dinners from the grocery store side of the place and a two-liter bottle of Cherry Coke and drove back to the hotel room, where he was very ravenous. He ate both dinners in a matter of a half hour (wait time included), and so for the rest of the day we watched movies on the in-room entertainment system.

The first movie we watched was “Mister Deeds” with Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder. It was pretty funny, and we enjoyed ourselves. Right about then, we encountered a small dilemma about the fact that neither of us had planned on bringing clothes for one more day. An incredibly shortsighted move on our part, I know, but we pack as light as possible. I went in search of a laundromat, but after talking with the front desk, they remarked that they had guest laundry facilities on-site. “Great! Then, I just go over to the store and get detergent?” I had asked. “Well, no,” she had said. “I think you have to buy laundry products from us. But let me check with my manager, can you wait for a moment?” Not a problem, as I had figured on it not being long. Imagine my surprise, twenty minutes later when I finally got my answer. Turns out the manager was at another Hilton (in Portland) and this was like the front desk girl’s first week or something like that. Not daunted, I went back to the room where Todd had already started watching “Signs” with Mel Gibson, and gave him the news. For all of that wait, we did not do laundry. Bleh.

By that time, dropped off and Jaxom at our room, and we decided to just relax. We did not want to go out, but since we had some topic to discuss that did not require an audience, I decided to opt for pizza. Now, this is a little bit of Cochrane-trivia, but whenever I visit another location, it’s something of an imperative for me to have some of the local version of pizza. This has worked for me in other cities, like Anaheim, Los Angeles, Tuscon, Phoenix, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, St. Louis, Washington D. C…. and so on and so forth. It’s kind of like determining the worth of the city you’re in by seeing if they know how to cut up a decent pizza for you. Luckily for Beaverton, Round Table Pizza has made it that far north and of course, the pizza was exquisite. Though we have different tastes in what goes on a pizza, I think, since we had a large that had to be dressed up in different methods right down the middle. Extra cheese, ham, extra sauce on my side, while she had the vegetarian on hers. The cool thing about ordering pizza and having it in the restaurant is the wait time. Pizza requires between 20 to 25 minutes of bake time in order for it to be ready and not “raw.” I’ve tried my hand at cooking pizza from time to time and I know that fifteen minutes is woefully inadequate to the task. Thirty minutes and you’re talking about eating carbon or incredibly dry dough. Before the pizza is done, you’ve got time to talk. Unlike the show they put on at Benihana’s, where your attention is pretty much toward the chef at your table, you can just sit and relax and enjoy some pleasant conversation with a good friend you’re getting to know a little better. Of course, once the pizza arrives, it’s every man (or woman) for him/herself and… heh… never get in between a Cochrane and his pizza.

With the pizza nearly gone, we had to hurry up and go back to get Jaxom. It was already getting close to his bedtime. On the way back, though, I did want to check out the Fred Meyer’s electronics section. See, the first night I was there, I had to go to “Freddie’s” for some toiletries. I ran out of deodorant and I needed toothpaste, as well as some snacks for the hotel room. While there, mentioned that they had an electronics section and that never left Freddie’s without visiting it. So far, I had managed two visits to the store without going over there, only because I knew that it would add on an hour to my visit. I was pretty impressed with the selection of toys and goodies they had over there and I was very tempted at buying another GameBoy Advance for the purposes of doing co-operative play on some of the games that I own. I checked out the televisions, the dvd selection… it was a lot of fun. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was already well-past bedtime, so we picked up Jaxom (who was left in Todd’s very capable care, watching Stuart Little 2, Lilo & Stitch, and Spiderman) and dropped them off. We said our goodbyes and I had to get back to the room to get a good night’s sleep before we shoved off from Beaverton the next day.

Day Four soonish!

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