We just spent a few days in Portland, Oregon. It was a last-minute trip; one of my colleagues has a great condo in the base of Portland's Pearl District...it's a penthouse unit at the top of The Henry (I think it's named after brewer Henry Weinhard). She offered us the unit, so we stayed in the lap of luxury...what more could you ask for, between stunning city views from every room, Whole Foods one block away, and Powell's, a remarkable independent bookstore, immediately across the street? Plus all manner of restaurants, galleries, bars, and stores within easy walking distance.

I had not been to Portland in about 30 years...the city has changed enormously. The Pearl used to be a bunch of breweries and industrial buildings. Now, you find Whole Foods and PF Chang's there. I won't use the g-word (gentrification) and under no circumstances would I even consider using the y-word, but bottom line, the Pearl is a better place than it was.

The highlight for me was the Japanese Gardens, an easy metro ride from The Henry. Talk about serenity. Talk about peace. The garden elevated to an art form; it was something to behold.

Here are some other items, in no special order:

--Mt. St. Helens. On the advice of a waiter, we took off for a day-trip to Mt. St. Helens. It was incredible...the "before" pictures compared to what is there now tell the story more eloquently than I ever could. Talk about "blowing your top." A very memorable trip, and highly educational as well. Before she blew, Mt. St. Helens had a giant bulge that was expanding at the rate of five feet per day...and then on May 18, 1980, she unleashed an epic eruption, the direction (lateral instead of up) of which was unprecedented in modern history.

--People. Unbelievably friendly. For example: We rented bikes and were up near the Rose Garden (spectacular) and the Veterans Memorial (a must see) in the hills above Portland. While pondering our map on the side of the road, two separate bikers pulled over in the course of five minutes to check on us, to see if we needed help finding anything.

--Dogs. Portland is a dog-friendly city, which we loved. We stopped at Kimpton's Monaco hotel for a drink and it was happy hour, which includes dogs. It is sort of a dog-themed hotel, and even in the very nice hotel lobby, dogs are more than welcome. I have never shared happy hour with dogs before, but was, in fact, a very happy hour.

--T-Shirts. I saw some t-shirts that stood out in my mind. Without implying any endorsement, here are two that caught my eye: On the metro, a man wearing a t-shirt with an old black and white picture of American Indians in battle garb. Above the picture: "Department of Homeland Security." Tagline: "Defending America from Terrorists since 1492." And separately: A clerk in Powell's with a t-shirt whose top line said: "Secret Map to WMD Sites Discovered!" Picture underneath: A map of the US, with several nuclear bomb storage and development sites and bunkers identified. And finally, one bizarre shirt that is #1 on the list of shirts you can wear that will reduce the chances of anyone standing next to you at a party: We saw an "angry young man" in the street with shirt that simply said, "He likes the cock." With an arrow pointing to any person on his left.

--Indigo Children. I seem to have experienced a gigantic drift from my roots as a hippie; I am hopelessly out of touch with the "latest" trends. At Powell's, I saw a book from the "Complete Idiots" series, this one on "Indigo Children." Having never heard of such children, I thumbed through the book. The introduction noted that "Indigo children have unusual spiritual intelligence," but yet on the same page it was noted that 95 percent of children born since 1999 are Indigos. Okay, Complete Idiot Author, I'll bite: If 95% of children since 1999 are Indigo, how can it possibly be unusual? Oh, I forgot: you are trying to sell books and you want every parent to think that their child is very special and needs your book to understand the indigo aura and spiritual intelligence of their one-in-a-billion child.