Last Saturday, after our visit to VooDoo Doughnut, Too!, we went to Portland’s Saturday Market. It was interesting – artisans, food vendors, and plenty of people watching. The closet thing I can compare it to would be the Columbus Flea Market or Rice’s Flea Market back home but with the artisan offerings and people watching dialed up big time.
The kids had fun walking around. Not as much as my mom, though. She couldn’t get enough of the people watching and was brazenly snapping photos of those folks she found most intriguing. I am more of a shy type (ok, scared type) and worry about what a guy holding a sign that says “Punch a punk in the junk for a buck” will do to me if I stand in his face with my camera. I mean, he’s a self-stated punk who’s already inviting ME to punch him – if I make him mad do I risk HIM punching me and then dropping a dollar on my stomach as I’m laid out on the street? Yea, my mom doesn’t share that same fear. She told me she’s fine because she has street smarts. Hilarious! I told her, “Yea, so do I and that’s why I am not taking a picture of him.” I wrapped up the fun about five minutes after I was solicited for $5 in return for incense to help stop gang violence. Not that I don’t want to help, but I am notorious for not carrying cash – ever – and I had two pre-schoolers in tow who would have questioned me about the exchange for the rest of my life. (They’re good like that. We let them drop a dollar in a guitar case of a street musician a few weeks back and Gavin still asks why he did that. Haha.)