We love to visit Powell’s Bookstore when we come down to Portland. In fact, we look forward to it at least as much as we do visiting our own family 
We stopped there last night on our way in to town, mainly because the traffic from I84 to the I205 was so backed up we could drive to Powell’s in the same time it would take us to get on the 205. We got in to town around 6:30pm, and I was sure we’d miss the worst of the traffic. So we took the crazy freeway journey (I84 to I5 to I405) and drove through downtown until we could find a way to get on to Couch (Portlanders pronounce it coo-ch, not cow-ch like you sit on) so we could make the trip around the block that lets us park in Powell’s parking lot.
We typically visit Powell’s about twice a year, and spend over $300 every time. They validate 1 hour of parking for this. We complained at their comment box. Come on, it takes more than an hour to pick out that many books! It would be nice if they had free parking when you spend that much money there…