I've started taking the tram up to the main OHSU campus (what we call Pill Hill) on my morning commute. I get off the bus right after crossing the Ross Island Bridge, and walk down and around to the lower station, next to the hospital's new building in the South Waterfront. That keeps me from having to take a winding detour into the south end of downtown, and gets me to my office earlier. I'm also, honestly, trying to get used to the tram, knowing that the tram car swings when crossing the lower tower and bumps slightly when entering its dock, so that these moments no longer catch me off guard. (Hey, I've never regularly commuted through the air before.) So I'm using it. Well, today, after putting a good dent in my morning duties and starting to think towards lunch, I thought ...why not? And smiled an enigmatically amused smile. This is easy to do, in my little corner of the office where people can't see my face. ;-)
It only took a few minutes to walk from my office to the upper tram station two buildings over. And with Mt. St. Helens venting a plume to the north that morning 'round 10:40-ish, I rode the tram back down to where I'd been earlier.
There's a nice little cafe on the first floor of the new South Waterfront building. OHSU (whose cafeteria offerings are decent, not the stereotype of bad Hospital Food, though the portions are a little too large for my tastes) decided to have a somewhat more upscale feedery down there, and the result is The Daily Cafe, and (I love this) it pulls off being both more upscale and funkier. The crewmembers (some tattooed and hair-dyed in ways I appreciated) looked to be enjoying themselves as they made panini this and crab-soup that, and were patient with me as I was my usual take-several-minutes-to-choose-from-a-me
I headed back up to the hill and my office after that, resolving to go back to the eatery occasionally (maybe stop there for breakfast some morning). I already know two people working in the South Waterfront building, so I have those two reasons to visit already, and now there's this other one...
* 7/1/07 edit: I decided I'd really meant "indulgent" and not "decadent." Yes, I'm never done revising...