Saturday, January 12, 2013
Floating Around NW Portland
Portland, Day 2: In which I float in a space ship, taste a tree, and get "lost" in one of the most well-manicured arboretum trail systems and end up walking down a small mountain at dusk (don't worry, Mom - I had things well under control).
Friday, January 11, 2013
Walking on Ice, Covered in Moss
I walked out the door this morning and promptly almost fell on my ass. Thin black ice was coating every surface, including and especially the surfaces used for walking. It's like we're skating out here, and all I can say is I'm thankful that Portland drivers don't seem to be particularly eager to score pedestrian points in the crosswalks, or I'd be toast.
Another thing I learned about Portland today while walking to breakfast in my cousin's super-cute neighborhood: It's covered in moss. I'm pretty sure the only things not covered in moss must move around. Like cars, well-used bicycles, and bus stop benches. Everything else - furry and green.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Welcome to Portland
The last time I was in Portland, OR, I spent a few days in the downtown Westin on the company dime, commuted to a work site outside the city, and hardly had a chance to really say that I had been to the city at all. This time, this time is going to be different. Grab the local light rail from the airport, eat locally, drink locally, and people-watch my heart out. And stay with my cousin and his partner in a super-cute neighborhood.
Step 1: Get a ticket for the MAX. Seems simple enough, but in a show of what I hope is not illustrative of my technical karma, the power went out at the airport just as I was contemplating which ticketing machine to use. Yeah. The power went out. At the airport. A noticeable number of seconds later, it flickered back on, but we all know how Windows-based kiosks love to be hard-rebooted like that. They hung on the boot screen for long enough that the Transit Security guy said, "Hey, just get on the train if you've gotta go. I'd get on the train." Yep. Free ride. And no one was going to stop us; the MAX is kind of an honor-system. Trust but validate. Have a validated ticket for your trip, just in case someone asks you, otherwise you'll get a ticket of another kind. In this particular case, we all got away with it. A whole $2.50 of a free ride. That I ended up paying anyway when I got downtown and bought a day pass for $5 to continue my adventures.
Step 2: Get a welcome beer (and some lunch!). Conveniently in the Pearl District: Rogue Distillery and Public House. Now, I know most of you are familiar with Rogue as an ale house (and they are), but they also have these nifty locations all around Oregon (and one in San Francisco) where you can eat good food and sample/drink their beers. And some of these locations also feature spirits distilled under the same brand. Sounds like a horrible idea, right? Well, after getting a burger recommendation and a sampling of about 8 or so beers with the guidance of Tyler from Philadelphia, I settled on the Saint Rogue Dry-Hopped Red to pair with the Kobe Beef Burger with Blue Cheese and Bacon. They're pretty big on Kobe beef on this menu. And while the cheese wasn't from Wisconsin, it was tasty and made from the milk of cows in the Rogue River valley who are fed the spent mash from the brewery. Incidentally the bacon was from Wisconsin (Nueske's).
Step 3: Watch (and meet) some people. So, at Rogue, I had a good chat with the bartender Tyler, also another staff member who was off the clock and bought me a shot of the Hazelnut-something Rum, and I was seated next to a guy named Matt who just moved out from New Jersey and talked indie movies, inappropriate jokes, beer, and bad surfer slang (right, bra?). He also very helpfully translated the bathroom labels. "Hops" = Men, "Barley" = Women. Not sure I was ever going to figure that one out... maybe Demeter, goddess of grain and harvest, but hops? I'll think about that one. And then at the MAX stop, I met a local Latino guy who was feeding the only pigeon in Portland bread pieces and chocolate. Juan loves chocolate. The guy named the pigeon Juan. Apparently, he's always alone and has one foot that is smaller than the other. Juan, that is.
Step 1: Get a ticket for the MAX. Seems simple enough, but in a show of what I hope is not illustrative of my technical karma, the power went out at the airport just as I was contemplating which ticketing machine to use. Yeah. The power went out. At the airport. A noticeable number of seconds later, it flickered back on, but we all know how Windows-based kiosks love to be hard-rebooted like that. They hung on the boot screen for long enough that the Transit Security guy said, "Hey, just get on the train if you've gotta go. I'd get on the train." Yep. Free ride. And no one was going to stop us; the MAX is kind of an honor-system. Trust but validate. Have a validated ticket for your trip, just in case someone asks you, otherwise you'll get a ticket of another kind. In this particular case, we all got away with it. A whole $2.50 of a free ride. That I ended up paying anyway when I got downtown and bought a day pass for $5 to continue my adventures.
Step 2: Get a welcome beer (and some lunch!). Conveniently in the Pearl District: Rogue Distillery and Public House. Now, I know most of you are familiar with Rogue as an ale house (and they are), but they also have these nifty locations all around Oregon (and one in San Francisco) where you can eat good food and sample/drink their beers. And some of these locations also feature spirits distilled under the same brand. Sounds like a horrible idea, right? Well, after getting a burger recommendation and a sampling of about 8 or so beers with the guidance of Tyler from Philadelphia, I settled on the Saint Rogue Dry-Hopped Red to pair with the Kobe Beef Burger with Blue Cheese and Bacon. They're pretty big on Kobe beef on this menu. And while the cheese wasn't from Wisconsin, it was tasty and made from the milk of cows in the Rogue River valley who are fed the spent mash from the brewery. Incidentally the bacon was from Wisconsin (Nueske's).
Step 3: Watch (and meet) some people. So, at Rogue, I had a good chat with the bartender Tyler, also another staff member who was off the clock and bought me a shot of the Hazelnut-something Rum, and I was seated next to a guy named Matt who just moved out from New Jersey and talked indie movies, inappropriate jokes, beer, and bad surfer slang (right, bra?). He also very helpfully translated the bathroom labels. "Hops" = Men, "Barley" = Women. Not sure I was ever going to figure that one out... maybe Demeter, goddess of grain and harvest, but hops? I'll think about that one. And then at the MAX stop, I met a local Latino guy who was feeding the only pigeon in Portland bread pieces and chocolate. Juan loves chocolate. The guy named the pigeon Juan. Apparently, he's always alone and has one foot that is smaller than the other. Juan, that is.
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