Before the bulk of that walking, I was bussing and Max'ing instead. Turns out I completely avoided the Max during a couple of weeks where service was disrupted at the Rose Quarter Transit Center, a part of the system where three of the five lines go through; now stuff there is fixed and un-disrupted, so getting through was a breeze. (Though my first train today had an issue:)
I got to Bridge City Comics, not to shop today but to order books — future shopping! — and say hi to the owner and staffers, who are good people. Nice to have a more personal connection with the people at a shop (come to think of it, I follow three of them on Facebook). And because it was good walking weather and I didn't have anything else pressing to do, the great en-walk-ening began:
Around the Mississippi neighborhood, across Skidmore and over I-5 to the old-school Portland along Interstate Ave. — old-school except for the Max Yellow Line and the more recent apartment buildings, but where booth-y dive diners and neon-infused motels from before I-5 was built are still around — then 40-some blocks just along Alberta St. I people-watched and shop-watched, and the watching was good: Alberta from about NE 13th to NE 31st is a hopping area, one I don't get to enough. I found one place I'd been looking for, the breakfast-lunch place The Big Egg, a former food cart-turned-brick-and-mortar. Lisa and Brian Wood of the late, great Big-Ass Sandwiches are not just friends with the Big Egg's owners: Brian officiated at their wedding. THAT IS GOOD VOUCHING. And now I know where to find them for breakfast one of these days.
I rested my feet at the Concordia neighborhood New Seasons supermarket, mainly because I knew I could sit there plus get wifi, and that I was near where I could get on the 72 bus back to my neighborhood. Since then? It's been nice to be barefoot. (Plus no one has to smell my feet.)