A couple of years ago, I had, I thought, a great idea: Buy one slim wallet for money, credit cards and keys all in one. But the wallet/key-chain I found was too small, and became more and more annoying.

Then, a couple of months ago, I noticed a really neat wallet used by a client of mine. He told me it was a Freitag wallet, made of recycled tarps used on delivery trucks in Europe. I went to the Freitag site, but wanted to look through a selection of real wallets before settling on one.

Problem was, Seattle doesn’t have any stores that carry Freitag (but Vancouver and Portland do). So I’ve been nagging my wife to take a day trip to Portland with me for a couple of weeks. Today, finally, she acquiesced, so long as she could make fun of me all the way down for my wallet choice. After perusing the website she declared that I was neither young enough or metrosexual enough to pull off such a wallet. Still, we went, with kids, nanny, and mother in law in tow.

We finally made it to the store, Lizard Lounge, in Portland’s Pearl District, a clothing store that actually has a nice ping-pong table for customers to play, complete with paddles and balls. Within two minutes we actually found a wallet that both my wife and I loved. Sure, it was eighty bucks, but should prove to be reliable for years to come. Freitag declares:

This wallet is unique because it is made from: bicycle inner tubes and used truck tarpaulins.

Trucks are tough. That’s why your FREITAG product is tough. It used to be one….

Be nice to your FREITAG and it will be like a true Swiss friend: modest, reliable, and always there when you need it.

What’s not to love?

The irony of driving 315 or so miles round trip just to find the perfect eco-friendly wallet was not lost on me. So to round out the experience, we ate at a restaurant just a block from Lizard Lounge called Paragon. And let me tell you, it was absolutely worth the trip. The savory Gorgonzola Cheesecake is itself, worth the trip.

All that, and it turns out that Seahawks won their season opener.

Not a bad Sunday, over all.