(Ed. Note- The Christmasbaby Blog is going to be a play by play of our trip to Portland last week. What you'll be reading, matey's, is my observances/experiences of the trip for your amusement. Links to applicable restaurants/sites will be included in case you're planning a trip any time soon. Dates listed are from Saturday, June 12th through Friday the 18th.)
The Right Reverend and I rolled out of bed reasonably early and strangely ambulatory (read: Not hungover) on our final day at the Sheraton Airport. While I packed and collected Moda hit the fitness center while I mulled over brefkist ideas from the bride and groo- Scratch that. Husband and wife's list. We opted for the the Cricket Cafe' in SE Portland as a hot ticket after perusing the menu and hearing that their Bloody Mary's are par excellence'. (Peruse, please. I'll wait. http://cricketcafepdx.com/)
On our way there we got to experience our first real Portland rain. You get a lot of preconceived notions of OR/NW seaboard weather from stories and residents. How it's gloomy, on par with-say-London. High suicide rates. Blah. It wasn't so bad IMO, just strange. The sun cracked through patches of clouds and the rain comes down in a fine drizzly mist. Not proper rain at all. Non-committal. Enough to maybe kibosh that day in the park you had planned but not enough to get your hopes up that it'd clear later on. Antagonistic rain.
Pulling up to the Cricket I saw the weirdest thing- A big ol' frassy raven was drinking out of a tiny creamer pitcher @ a recently vacated table, and every time it lifted it's head the beak was shock white where it'd been drinking. Nothing major here, folks. Just a weird image.
Oh, and breakfast? Made of awesome. The BM's were my favorite on the trip so far.
We decided to kill some time waiting for Shade and Krump down at the Sound Grounds coffee house (http://www.soundgroundscoffee.com/) when the real rain hit. And I mean, a persistent dump. My previous comments about noncommittal precipitation? Erroneous. We all tried to come up with a plan B (today was going to be hikes etc.) but after being unable to agree on a movie we all split up, with Krump/Moda/Myself deciding after an optimistic break in the rain that we'd try checking out Multnomah Falls. http://trips.stateoforegon.com/multnomah_falls/
Located about 1/2 hour out of Portland, the falls were a breathtaking spectacle to see first hand up close. We managed to get our tourist on and snap some pics on the bridge before deciding to hike the 1.5 miles up to the tippy-top. From here (and the lower points of the trail) everything was hunky dory...until we reached the 1st market that stated "Switchback 1 of 11".
Fudge.
See, Moda likes to make fun of my dislike of hills but it is a very real aggravation. Switchbacks are the hill equivalent of the annoying little brother who puts their hand an inch in front of your face and says "I'm not touching yooooou". The most direct way up may be arduous, but switchbacks make you act like you're in a live action version of a game of Donkey Kong. Crap, I hadn't even thought about them since '89 when we were in Scouts and hoofed it through the Teton's humping 40+ lbs worth of gear. And here I was in a sweatshirt at "Switchback 1 of 11"...("This one goes to 11...") already frassin.
Well, except the trail was about as wide as a phone book, slick from condensation from the falls, and right next to a sheer drop. Fun. We made it, took touristy pics, headed back down (by this time I was sweating then getting chilled. My dumb hands were turning icy-blue) and back to Portland proper. Enough with nature...let's bring on the sushi and beer. (Technically, we swung into a nice little Cuban bistro "Pambiche" for some snick snacks first. THERE WAS SO MUCH TO TRY! http://www.pambiche.com/ I should also add, that nary an evening went by w/o my eating black beans in one form or another)
We met up again with Shade at the Laurelthirst Pub where we took in some free bluegrass and toodled our way through the beer list. http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/res8u18i/laurelthirstpublichouse/id4.html
Fromt there, we started to head to our next overnight destination which was where S and L were staying in Lake Oswego (a fancy pants manor) but Shade was adamant we try this great sushi house ("There's usually a wait, but it's my favorite sushi place in the area") called Saburo. The wait was in fact prohibitive, but not bad enough that we didn't tough it out and boy howdy was it worth it. We gorged on these enormous rolls (almost too much so. You could barely get a grip w/your chopsticks and it was an even bigger struggle to get them in your mouth.) and for the 2nd time on the trip I had to ogle the bill and say "This can't be right..." Wow. http://saburos.com/Sushi/Saburos.html
We navigated through the Lake Oswego tangle town (passing a Ninjutsu school. For real. Ninjutsu) before settling in for our last chill night in Portland.
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