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jamesqDriving to Portland was uneventful. But once I was there, I was immersed in the dream of the 90's!
Upon arriving, I went immediately to Paxton Gate to buy a lamp. It was expensive, but given it's a hand-crafted piece of art, I think it was worth it. And I'll have it for the rest of my life.
So why did I buy it first thing (I hadn't even checked in yet)? Because I knew that if I hemmed and hawed over it, I'd convince myself not to do it. AND, I'd regret that decision. Some of the best times I've had were from counting to three and jumping in.
I kinda passive-aggressively bargained with the owner. This knocked $300 off the price. For that, I'm grateful.
Next stop was my hotel. The hotel was the McMenamins Kennedy School, a repurposed elementary school in NE Portland. Allison turned me onto this joint since she'd researched an earlier Portland trip and this was high on her wish-list of places to stay. Unfortunately, it had no vacancies on either of my two previous trips there. That didn't stop us from checking out the rest of the venue. Alas, there was nothing in the theatre. My room:
And how was the hotel? Very nice. I'd highly recommend it for a romantic weekend getaway. I basically just did hotel things for my one night there. Went to the rum bar they have, took a dip in the soaking pool, explored. I love it and I'm sure this won't be my last time there.
There was a blackboard, where I wrote some lines:
...And also drew a fish:
The rooms come with mason jars that you can take to any of the bars to fill with beer (for a small fee). Basically filling the mason jar cost the same as normal beer, except you get a lot more. They're subsidizing in-room nightcaps for the guests.
The next day I wandered around the Alberta district, then sat in a park for a few hours finishing a helluva book. Along the way, I found evidence that Portland is it's own weird little world. It's a good world though - I like it.
That day I went thrift shopping, picking up all sorts of weird junk to accompany the octolamp.
In the evening, I went to another McMenamins property, the Mission Theatre. There I participated in a Geeks Who Drink trivia contest. I managed to come in 5th out of twelve. By myself. Given I lost all my points on the music questions, I feel confident that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thebrucie's presence would have had us come in first. I did have a blast though, and won a package of Skittles.
Next day, there was more thrift shopping, and assorted other goodies. Among them, a real cool comic shop that showed that they could be friendly to women and children, and still geeky.
After that, getting out of the heat for a few hours (it was over 30C), a nap, and then off to the Oregon Brewers Festival. It's like Taste of Calgary, but with beer! Ok, Taste of Calgary has beer too, but not this much. Remember, Hipsters like artisan food and craft beer, and there's a lot of hipsters in Portland!
The view with the beer:
And speaking of artisan food, after my beery goodness, I walked to Chizu, the restaurant that serves cheese plates like they were sushi, so basically a place that could have been titled "James, eat here".
This was my cheese plate. Delicious and only $21.
I was expecting this place to be way more expensive than it ended up being. Like with Powell's Books, this joint is now on my must-list for Portland whenever I return.
Which reminds me, I had just enough time after Chizu closed (I was the last one there) to quickly get to Powells and have a look around before they closed too.
That was my last night there. Kennedy School, Geeks Who Drink, Beers and Cheese. That's what we call three very good nights. The only thing better would have been company to share it with. Alas, that's simply not my fate.
Anyway, here's a map of my journey to Portland:
Upon arriving, I went immediately to Paxton Gate to buy a lamp. It was expensive, but given it's a hand-crafted piece of art, I think it was worth it. And I'll have it for the rest of my life.
So why did I buy it first thing (I hadn't even checked in yet)? Because I knew that if I hemmed and hawed over it, I'd convince myself not to do it. AND, I'd regret that decision. Some of the best times I've had were from counting to three and jumping in.
I kinda passive-aggressively bargained with the owner. This knocked $300 off the price. For that, I'm grateful.
Next stop was my hotel. The hotel was the McMenamins Kennedy School, a repurposed elementary school in NE Portland. Allison turned me onto this joint since she'd researched an earlier Portland trip and this was high on her wish-list of places to stay. Unfortunately, it had no vacancies on either of my two previous trips there. That didn't stop us from checking out the rest of the venue. Alas, there was nothing in the theatre. My room:
And how was the hotel? Very nice. I'd highly recommend it for a romantic weekend getaway. I basically just did hotel things for my one night there. Went to the rum bar they have, took a dip in the soaking pool, explored. I love it and I'm sure this won't be my last time there.
There was a blackboard, where I wrote some lines:
...And also drew a fish:
The rooms come with mason jars that you can take to any of the bars to fill with beer (for a small fee). Basically filling the mason jar cost the same as normal beer, except you get a lot more. They're subsidizing in-room nightcaps for the guests.
The next day I wandered around the Alberta district, then sat in a park for a few hours finishing a helluva book. Along the way, I found evidence that Portland is it's own weird little world. It's a good world though - I like it.
That day I went thrift shopping, picking up all sorts of weird junk to accompany the octolamp.
In the evening, I went to another McMenamins property, the Mission Theatre. There I participated in a Geeks Who Drink trivia contest. I managed to come in 5th out of twelve. By myself. Given I lost all my points on the music questions, I feel confident that
thebrucie's presence would have had us come in first. I did have a blast though, and won a package of Skittles.Next day, there was more thrift shopping, and assorted other goodies. Among them, a real cool comic shop that showed that they could be friendly to women and children, and still geeky.
After that, getting out of the heat for a few hours (it was over 30C), a nap, and then off to the Oregon Brewers Festival. It's like Taste of Calgary, but with beer! Ok, Taste of Calgary has beer too, but not this much. Remember, Hipsters like artisan food and craft beer, and there's a lot of hipsters in Portland!
The view with the beer:
And speaking of artisan food, after my beery goodness, I walked to Chizu, the restaurant that serves cheese plates like they were sushi, so basically a place that could have been titled "James, eat here".
This was my cheese plate. Delicious and only $21.
I was expecting this place to be way more expensive than it ended up being. Like with Powell's Books, this joint is now on my must-list for Portland whenever I return.
Which reminds me, I had just enough time after Chizu closed (I was the last one there) to quickly get to Powells and have a look around before they closed too.
That was my last night there. Kennedy School, Geeks Who Drink, Beers and Cheese. That's what we call three very good nights. The only thing better would have been company to share it with. Alas, that's simply not my fate.
Anyway, here's a map of my journey to Portland:
