Friends know I dearly miss the Pacific Northwest. One of my favorite destinations: Powell's City of Books. What isn't to love about a bookstore that's 68,000 square feet big, with over a million new-and-used books, shelved side-by-side? Even better, they've outgrown the one city block of their birth, and opened specialized outlets around Portland. And mere blocks away, you have to love their Technical Bookstore, if only for its resident cat.