I’m sorry, but I did not get the blog written in the morning. I decided to catch up with Deborah on her way back to Michigan on Saturday. Thursday and Friday were slower, with less sightseeing and more game playing.

Thursday

We got going later, as we had an easy day. Breakfast was coffee from the local store in Hillsboro, Costco cereal, and milk. We finally got out around noon and headed in Air Volvo to Hillsboro.

It was a short trip that barely moved the battery number below 98%. We found a helpful parking spot and then walked through the old town. We had no temptation to stop at the axe-throwing bar. Somehow, I never associated axe usage with alcohol consumption. And while I heard that axe-throwing bars were on near the top list of romantic activities for the recently passed Valentine’s Day, we went with the more traditional dinner of prime rib with champagne.

Later, we would return to the local coffee and other food supplies store: Bennett Urban Farm Store. We got some coffee there, India Karnataka Peaberry, which they ground for us. That was our coffee for the following day. We also got some hazelnuts in a set of chocolate and salted. Deborah found packets of the same to take home. She also got a pound of some excellent Hawaii coffee to take home.

Before this, we walked to the courthouse, where the sequoia redwoods grow. The giant trees were planted in 1880 and now are the tallest thing in Hillsboro. Deborah was amazed, and I always enjoyed visiting them. There are some sequoia plants here and there, including one in Portland I know about. They need not sun but rain; they grow on the wet coastal hills and mountains.

We went to lunch at Amelia’s Rustic Mexican Restaurant. We had drinks and excellent food. With lunch in our stomachs, we headed back home.

We headed to The 649 with Abducktion (plus expansion included) to play. Crystal and Stephen, the bartenders for The 649, were happy to meet Deborah. We also met Joan S and talked for a while there. We caught up on her adventures on her remodel and refreshes at her house. Joan, who lives Northwest of Beaverton and Hillsboro, and I are tempted by the new homes, but the price tag of the new construction conveniences us to update what we have. Instead, we live with the surprises that older homes have and do a few updates every few years.

Joan headed out, and Deborah and I got some food and focused on our game playing. Abducktion is a card management and pattern-matching game with plenty of options to mess with your opponents. You have tiny plastic ducks that can be rearranged/replaced based on the cards you get. There are also cards for points that are formation you need to create to get the card and the points. Deborah slipped in after messing with my ducks and got one. It is a fun game, but it may be too cutthroat for two players. I managed to win by getting the last card by about ten points.

We were ready to head home after the game, drinks, and food. We soon were sleeping.

Friday

We woke knowing Friday was our last full day together. We spent the morning together, enjoying coffee and cereal for breakfast. Air VW the Gray was fully charged, and soon we were amazing Deborah with the driving style found on our Portland-headed roads. We parked in a regular space as the charge was still over 90% for the EV. It was already past lunchtime and a Friday, so there was no wait at Deschutes Brewhouse in the Pearl District. Deborah was interested in the elk burger, and the pastrami on rye with sauerkraut also looked good. We ordered one each and then split them when they arrived. The elk, while good, was dry and needed the melted cheese and grilled mushrooms it came with, and Deborah added mayo. It was good.

We had done Powell’s before, but it is just down the street, and I wanted to look through the recently moved SciFi and Mystery section. Deborah had a call and then met me on the second floor. I looked for a Middle Earth map book, but there was only a full-priced second edition (I was looking for the old one). I considered another Christopher Tolkien book, likely the last one, but I passed.

I headed to the computer section and looked at some Python books, but I did not find anything new that interested me. Corwin was texting me as he had installed Python and wanted to write a game. He later sent me updates he had pygame running and liked the results. It is an interesting gaming system, and I have coded a few things for it. I will see about returning to coding. We will see about that later.

Deborah and I headed to the rare book room, where we ogled the $25,000 Lewis and Clark book. Then we saw the note that the $300,000 book was not on display. Wow! I found a few books for about $100 that interested me, but I resisted (a first-edition Hornblower book and a magic book). Deborah bought a Powell’s t-shirt to wear on the plane back on Saturday.

We next took Air VW the Gray from the parking garage to street parking by the Lucky Labrador in Hawthorn. There, we got drinks with Deborah, trying a currant cider and a bowl of peanuts. We played Panic: Star Trek with Deborah catching on after a couple missions. This is from a game from the Panic series, which includes visual damage to a fortress or spaceship, in our case, while cooperatively trying to complete missions. They are fun and very visual. We played four missions before quitting and finding some food.

(Deborah is playing Scotty and the Enterprise–TOS most shields are down, and almost every hull section is damaged).

We shared a Gobbler Sandwich (turkey, cheese, and other goodies) while I taught, and then we played Azure. Deborah caught on fast, and I taught the usual (not the Z and Michael preferred) scoring. Deborah soon pulled ahead and stayed there.

We returned home with the drinks gone (mostly), food inside us, and games done. Once home, I arranged the Date Night kit that Dondrea and Z gave me for Christmas. We had a fire pot, sticks, marshmallows, gram crackers, and chocolate to make smores. We lit it (did not quite wait twenty minutes) and soon had smores hot from the fire. I managed to burn mine twice. Deborah was able to toast hers.

We tried the sparkling wine, salmon, and cheese supplied. All was good. It was a good date night!

We watched two more episodes of Silo (only one left for season two). From what I read, Apple TV+ will complete the next two seasons and the story arc. It was hard to watch some of it. But the story was riveting.

We have to rise early to get Deborah on her way on Saturday, so we headed to bed.

Thanks for reading.