Portlandia

Traveling back in time: July 15-31
Portland, OR: land of bikes, bridges, boats, bars, (rose)buds, books, bands, and baseball. Plus mermaids and other plenty of other quirks.

A thousand thank yous to our lovely friends Bill and Poppy for once again sharing their spaces with us, and for squeezing some time with us in the midst of their busy summer schedule. Always wonderful to be with them, to chat, enjoy food & drink, and play music! Over these two weeks, we went back and forth between the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood on the south side of Portland and Bill & Poppy’s home in the hills further south of Portland near Sherwood. This gave us the opportunity to enjoy urban life a bit, plus we could leave the Bettiemobile and most of our stuff in a safe spot outside the city. It was fantastic to have some time to spread out, clean everything up a bit, and take a break from moving around so much.

We also had the chance to catch up briefly with some other terrific people – we’re grateful for every moment we spent with these folks:
+ Kayla’s cousin Jon (and Tenley!)
+ Kayla’s college pal Jamie (and John!)
+ an evening of darts with our piano-tuning, punk-rocker pal Spencer
+ a lovely lunch with sweet Sitka friends Dan & Karen.

Biking (plus bridges and boats):
+ all over the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood
+ along the Willamette River from Sellwood all the way to the steel bridge on the north side of downtown Portland
+ around the St Johns neighborhood in far north Portland

Bars/Restaurants/Etc (plus bands and books):
+ LOTS of McMenamins, full of whimsical art and good food/drink as always. Especially neat was going to the White Eagle Saloon, where our pal Bill used to play gigs – we got to hear great stories about the characters who ran the saloon and played in the bands. (Side note for those in the know: we’re happy to report that the only stamps now missing from our McM’s passports are from Bend and Tacoma!)
+ Favorite non-McM’s bars/restaurants: Muddy Rudder, Yukon Tavern, Gino’s, Tacovore, Bahn Mi Up, the Meating Place
+ Shopping for Matthew/Bill’s birthday dinner at Providore Fine Foods and Flying Fish Company – both are pretty fancy but very fun! We especially need to get back to the Flying Fish Company – they have a cool set-up for oysters and bubbly.

Botanical Gardens, Downtown Festivals, and Other Highlights:
+ Portland is the City of Roses – not as native plants, but through decades of cultivation.
+ Oregon City, south of Portland, is a really interesting town, complete with river rapids and an extensive abandoned industrial zone built up on the river that once produced a lot of lumber and shipped it out via boat and rail. Plus they have a “vertical street” downtown.
+ While biking around downtown Portland we happened upon the Saturday market, a big outdoor music festival, and the aftermath of the mermaid parade

And Baseball!
Turns out Portland has a quirky baseball team also! What a hoot. We went there on Mascot Olympics night. Looks like they took whatever mascot costumes they could find and set them up for goofy competitions – there was Smokey the Bear, an alligator, a germ, the world, and a wolf, plus the home team mascot Dillon T. Pickle (the T stands for “The”). But the one that stole the show was “Out of Work Mascot” (aka Geoffery Giraffe, formerly from Toys R Us). They also had food/drink specials: giant pickle on a stick and Pickle-tinis.