Portland, OR

[thatguy]

I went on a whirlwind road trip last week. Friday morning I drove up to Arcata. Visited my daughter and her boyfriend. Then, after an awesome breakfast at Renata's Creperie I headed up the coast to Crescent City, caught 199 across to I-5 and headed up north to Portland. 199 was beautiful, but a really long drive. Then, from Grant's Pass to Portland was a whole nuther trip.



I got into Portland around 6pm. I was staying at a co-worker's house right above Washington Park. I'm not sure if this is his vacation house, or what the deal is, but it was empty. It's a beautiful, 3 level. Very fancy. He was having some work done recently because his pipes froze/burst last year. It's been fixed, but there are still holes in the drywall everywhere. When I got there I had to follow this procedure to shut off the outside drain, route the water to the house, then check around for leaks. After I got that working, I tried to get the heater going, but I couldn't read the LCD on the thermostat, or figure out how to get it off of vacation mode. The house was freezing. I finally figured it out, and by the time I left on Monday morning, I had the house up to 64°.

So, it was around 8pm when I felt somewhat settled and decided to go see Portland. I figured I'd go see a show, so I looked up online to see what was playing. I didn't recognize anything except Kepi Ghoulie (from the Groovie Ghoulies). I'd seen him open once for Shonen Knife, so I figured I'd give it a try. Not knowing Portland, and trying to find my way around in the dark, I got really lost, but I figured it out eventually and ended up in a little neighborhood at what appeared to be a house on the corner. This was some art collective called "the Artistery". It was an all-ages/no alcohol show. It was a single band that included: Kepi, Greg Attonito (Bouncing Souls), Shanti Wintergate, and Vic Ruggiero (Slackers). It was crowded with young hipsters. I was burnt out from driving, so I sat on a shamble of a couch and watched. It was ok. Vic was the stand out. He sat behind a drum kit, playing with his feet while he played slide guitar and sang. He also played piano. During intermission, I got a veggie (seitan) taco for $1.50 which was right within my budget. Don't remember much of the show except that they played VU's Waiting for My Man, with Shanti on the ukelele.



Sunday (Easter), I spent the morning looking for things to do that day (and trying to find out in advance what was going to be closed for the holiday). I had to kick myself when I found out that there are 5-6 distilleries within a few blocks of each other and they do tours on Saturday mornings. I'll have to go back for that. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.distilleryrowpdx.com">http://www.distilleryrowpdx.com</a><!-- m -->. I found on Meetup.com that there was a group getting together for a beer tasting, so I figured I give that a try, but that was much later in the afternoon. So I walked through the neighborhoods, down the hill a couple miles to the Portland Japanese Gardens. It kept threatening to rain, but didn't (which is the best weather). It was really beautiful and I took some interesting (ie: arty) pictures.









I had to truck back up the hill so I could get to the beer tasting on time. Again, I had to find my way around and got a little lost, but I ended up arriving early, so I took a side trip down a street called "Hawthorne" which seems to be a cool part of town. Got back for the beer tasting. This was at a specialty beer store called "Beer Mongers". About 6 people showed up. Our "guide" for the evening was a guy who graduated from America's top brewing school (forgot the name), then went to Europe for a few years to study/practice. In honor of Easter, this was "Brewed by Monks" - a night of tasting Abbey ales. He did a little PowerPoint presentation about trappist monks, the 6 official trappist abbey, and general history while we started with an Orval (really light, dry and bubbly, like champagne. I didn't like it at all). We jumped right into the "dubbels" with Chimay Premier (rouge). This was my fave of the night. Really yummy. Next was Affilgem Dubbel which seemed like a dessert beer. Smelled a little of banana or banana bread. We then had "Abbey Ale" which is from an American brewery. Again, it had that banana-bread aroma. We moved to the "tripels" with Westmalle Tripel. This was similar to the Orval. Not my fave at all, but we started to talk food pairings and had it with some dark chocolate (which was tasty). Next up: Tripel Kemeliet. This had a citrusy aroma (almost like dish soap). I think we had this with some prosciutto. We finished the tripels with Allagash Tripel. I didn't take very good notes, so either this wasn't very memorable, or the alcohol was kicking in...For the quads (aka: extras, or ESBs), we started with a Rochefort 10. We paired this with some really nice blue cheese. It was really good. Perfect for entertaining. (warning, over 11% alcohol!). After that it was Val-Dieu Grand Cru followed by "The Reverend" from American brewery Avery. My only note was that Avery filters its Abbey-style ale. They follow the same process, but they have more control over the final fermentation before they put it in the bottle.

After two hours of sampling beers of stronger and stronger ales, my palette was shot and I didn't think I should be driving. I asked for a food recommendation in the area and they sent me off to "Bar Avingon" about 10 blocks away. I had a really nice pork loin with some kind of apricot glaze. The side was kale with some kind of really large grain (not rice). It was really good. Very nice, low-key place to relax. About an hour later, I walked back, got my car and headed off to my next destination: a club across town for more live music. I didn't get lost this time, found parking and on my way to the club, found snapped this pic and an unopened pizzeria (sorry for the double post, I couldn't figure out how to link to the existing post):



The club, "Rontoms", was a huge, empty, old warehouse-like space with a bar at one end, trendy enclaves of lounge chairs, and a recessed stage area in the middle. They didn't charge a cover which was nice. Again, lots of college-age hipsters. Alcohol was being served thank goodness...The bands on the line up were Experimental Dental School, Nucular Aminals, and a third group that I didn't catch. The opener was a band called "Brainstorm" that wasn't even on the bill. They were really good. A two piece. The drummer also played a little keyboard. The guitar player alternated with a tuba. Really tight, interesting syncopated stuff, harmonies too. I'd go check them out again. Next up: Nucular Aminals. a four piece with a couple of old keyboards that weren't put to much use and vocals that you couldn't hear. Yawn. XDS (formerly Experimental Dental School) set up for a long time. Another two piece. This guitar player had four different amps. He had several outputs on his guitar. The bass string signal went bass amp and I assume the rest went to the other amps. He played melody, rhythm, and bass lines all at once, while singing. I thought it would be impressive, but not so much. Mostly noise. He had a good drummer though. I decided I wasn't going to wait for the next band, so I headed out around 11:30p.

Monday morning, I left Portland and made my way down I-5 to Rogue River to visit a friend. This let me split the trip home up. It was still drizzly and overcast. Not much more to say. Hung out. Watched TV. Had a nice dinner. Played a little music. General hanging out.

Tuesday morning, the sun tried to come out. I got on the road and headed south. By the time I crossed the border, the sun had won and was taking over the sky. I drove all day. I got to Tracy around 7:30pm, cut across Altamont pass to my mom's house. Picked up some things and headed over to Santa Cruz, stopping off at the Crepe Place for a much needed beer.

All in all, a nice jaunt. I'd love to go back to Portland for a more extended visit. I think I'd skip the solo driving. I listened to a lot of music on my iPod, but driving got pretty tedious at times. Kudos to Oregon for pumping my gas and still being cheaper then here in CA. Their roads seem to be in better condition than ours. I guess our fuel taxes must go to cutting pollution. Curses to AT&T for crappy coverage. Also, I discovered that my older iPhone's triangulation-based location services really suck at times making it nearly impossible to use it for directions at times.

--tg

[thatguy]

PS: lots of girls in boots. How come the Beach Boys didn't sing about "the Portland girls in their wellies"? I guess the next line would have been "...really make me feel so wet".

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I [heart] Portland.