Tonight I landed in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been here a couple times before, but never had a chance to feel the vibe of the city. All of my past trips were day trips, on the plane in the morning and back that evening. My days were spent in whichever agency’s natural wood infused, sushi laiden boardroom happen to be popular at the time. My excursions outside those 4 walls was never more than for a trip to the local Stumptown Coffee Roasters (which is delicious, by the way).

But tonight was different. Since I have an early start tomorrow, I’m actually in town the night before and planned to get the full Portland experience. And that I did.

I checked into the Ace Hotel, which is a combination hipster haven and deer lodge – not quite what to make of it. I elected for the “upgraded room” – which later I found out meant the bathtub was actually inside the room rather than down the hall. An upgrade an indeed!

The room was filled with irony – right down to the turntable used for spinning vinyl. Hysterically, the record player was hooked into an iPod dock. Steve Jobs is rolling with laughter from inside his aircraft grade titanium walled bedroom right now, I’m sure. After popping on the latest Shins album – I was ready to get my Portland on.

Suddenly I wondered why I had forgotten to buy any flannel in my life – and for the first time I also felt compelled to get tattoo sleeves. Ok, perhaps not.

Walking out of the very slow, pull cable, elevator I passed the basket-bicycle rental and head out the door. Walking amongst Portland people was an interesting experience. Before today, I’d swear Seattle would get top billing as the city which is most unlike New York. Today, Portland has stolen that title. Not only do people dress casually, they are downright ready to hit the bike trail. Women can’t be bothered with makeup or with a leg shave, they have mountains to climb and caves to explore. Get your spelunk on early, ladies, because this east coast guy is not going to take you out to dinner.

I ended up at a steak house for dinner, and did the classic single-guy business traveler thing and ate at the bar. Having a good rapport with the server at the bar is key. He always has an interesting story to tell. This guy came straight out of a western, or at least the way Back to the Future III depicted the old west. He had a ruffled tuxedo shirt, bow tie, vest, and the little garder arm band thing. I’m still wondering where that garder came from – my mind wandered to what this guy’s home life might be like until I realized there’s really no way for him to have one. This guy is a fixture. He knows everyone, and they know him. This is his social network.

Well it’s time for me to retire to my beaver lodge-inspired comforter. Actually I’m not even sure it is a comforter. Is this the right time to go down the hall to the common phone and ask the front desk what the thread count is?