Portland: Powell's City of Books

I spent all of last week in Portland, Oregon, with Josh and his parents, and it was lovely. I'll give various accounts of my visit and will start with the best one: Powell's Books. First of all, this bookstore (which also sells used books) is one-of-a-kind Portland treat: four floors, nine rooms, endless opportunities for bibliophile dream fulfillment. Whoa.

This photo is merely a drop in the Powell's bucket.


As you can clearly see, Powell's houses enough magic on its own; trust Josh to increase that magic exponentially.

We had drifted to a corner surrounded by windows that looked out on downtown Portland. I was casually flipping through a book and turned around to see Josh on one knee. He proposed right here:

We were in a quieter area of the store (the Purple Room), so there wasn't anybody around, and I liked it that way. Then I could kiss him all I wanted without anyone watching. Funny side note: Josh seriously contemplated popping the question in the gay and lesbian aisle and probably would have were it not for a patron in that section. He settled for the political section, and while not too romantic, to me it's a romantic section now.

It was a good thing I had a list of books I wanted to check out, because otherwise the book browsing would have been thoroughly unsuccessful for being unable to look away from the sparkle on my finger.

Afterward we went out to this really nice restaurant for lunch and had the most delicious chipotle rotisserie chicken sandwiches.

For my first trip (first of very, very many) to Powell's City of Books I came out with six books, one wedding magazine, and an official, unhypothetical fiance.

Josh Wilson proposed to me, Charlotte Wood, in a bookstore. It was absolutely perfect. Perfect.