We went downstairs in the Hilton and hooked up with TravelWeary, Michael, mweiss and AnnaS and walked the few short blocks up to the bar at Higgins to await the arrival of the rest of our friends. Shortly thereafter shadow, Jackie, QuantumLeap, Marie, (all of whom we hadn't seen since the PIP) essxjay, and our new friend LarryU showed up to make us an even dozen.

Higgins is a very popular place on Saturday nights where they serve the dinner overload in the bar. It took us a bit of juggling from one table to another in the bar, only to be told that they were reserved until we finally found enough room for all of us at the bar and were served a drink just before being taken into the dining room.

The food was great and the service was even better. The company of course was outstanding and the convesation never slowed down for a second. I think maybe Jackie, TravelWeary and I could gossip forever and it was a joy for me to see them again.

Following dinner, we all walked back to the Hilton along Broadway. Portland is a very interesting city on a Saturday night. the streets were packed with people, mostly young people, and the local police were out in full force adding to the decor with flashing red and blue lights everywhere. There didn't really seem to be much of anything happening, just a lot of police perhaps making sure that it didn't.

Upstairs in the bar they had a piano player with a good mix of dance music and a little, tiny postage stamp sized dance floor. It was enough for us. Joe and I danced the night away while the rest of the crew drank until we closed the place down.

In the morning Joe and I went out to the elevator to go downstairs and when the door opened, lo and behold there were TravelWeary and Michael who had gotten on the elevator going the wrong direction. We walked down the street to the Westin and met mweiss and AnnaS for breakfast at the Oritalia. We did check behind the curtains in the booths to see if Quiet Lion was still hiding there, but there was no sign of him.

The Westin is a great hotel with great art (my favorite is by the elevators in the lobby) and the breakfast was fabulous. They were somewhat understaffed but they comped all of our drinks (coffee and juice) to make up for the delay in service. That was a nice gesture.

After breakfast mweiss drove AnnaS and her luggage back to the Hilton in his amazing little blue Mercedes boy toy car and the rest of us walked back, only resisting the urge to stop of at Nordstom along the way for fear we would miss our plane.

Back at the Hilton we packed up AnnaS, her luggage and all of the wonderful NorthWest wines she had acquired during her trip to the wine country with shadow, and headed out to the airport.

Check-in in the Premier lines was slower than usual but we had plenty of time to stop off for a bit at the RCC before saying goodbye to Anna and heading off for our flight. On our return there were a total of 6 revenue passengers and no non-revs so we were again able to get row 6 on the EMB which actually has more leg room that even Joe can use.

So ends another fabulous weekend with FlyerTalk friends.

[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 03-06-2000).]