Brian: Ahhh, the oh so familiar fog of war after a hard fought night. At least I had a comfortable futon to sleep on, and Nick had a broken-in couch. Wait, where did Tyler sleep? Oh that's right, the porch.
Tyler: The porch was amazing and their couch out there was incredibly comfortable.
Brian: Maybe there is something to be said for that though, because while Nick and I were being intermittently roused by the comings and goings of the other house members preparing for work, Tyler simply had to contend with the soothing patter of raindrops on the street. And the nearby construction. We sipped tea and discussed our plans for the day. First stop? A photo shoot at an awesome park beneath one of Portland's bridges on the north side of town.
Nick: Yeah, that was a great idea. We decided to chase a big flock of geese in order to get a dramatic picture aflutter with wings and feathers as the birds gracefully departed for the river. What we got was mud up to our ankles which then splattered on our clothes and soaked through to our socks. This was especially annoying when one considers that laundry is something of a luxury on this trip, and that having all of one's vestments soiled so early on our sojourn is really quite a loss.
Tyler: and we didn't really get any pictures of us with the birds...
Nick: Ah well. After some more snappy photos, we headed over to an eatery called McMenamins which has since become one of my favorite places in Portland. The walls and ceilings were all covered with interesting artifacts from across the globe, the adjoining theatre showed second-run films for a few paltry dollars, and the food was really outstanding. Once there, we met my friend from Broad Street, Peter, and had lunch. We caught up. It was good to see him.
Tyler: Brian Sara and I all got drinks to go with our 11 am breakfast. I know what you're thinking but we're on vacation. After breakfast/lunch we headed over to one of Sara's favorite breweries, Amnesia, which by the way I think is an amazing name for a place that serves alcohol. The place had a fairly familiar brewery look to it, chalk board menus, funny signs on the walls and large metal brewing tanks in the back. We got our beers and sat down to plan the rest of the day. Sara had only gotten about three hours of sleep the previous night thanks to a combination of hanging out with us and a 7:00 am job as a sign language interpreter. So she decided to exercise her cartography skills and create a brewery crawl map for us so she could head back to her house and catch some sleep. Thus the famous Mapkin came into existence.
Brian: We headed over to a brewery/bar called Roots that had a beer called Epic. What was epic about it? Well it is 12.75% abv, so the only serve it in 10 ounce glasses, to start. The bartender was a cute girl name Paige I believe, and she recommended that we check out Portland's reggae scene. We also handed out a couple of our new business cards which have our blog address on them. You can tell we are road tripping pros at this point. So after a drink there we consulted the Mapkin and found another bar nearby. Shortly after arriving we noticed a remarkably cute girl with J.R.R. Tolkien's personal name symbol tattooed on her forearm. Naturally we called her out on it. She introduced herself as Mercedes, chatted with us for a while, and we met a cute hipster friend of hers named Tokyo that was more than willing to talk about video games. Where have these girls been all my life!
Nick: Portland continues to impress. We left the bar then met up with Sara at an interpreter's gathering at (brace yourself) another bar.
Official disclaimer: We are not alcoholics. We're simply aware of the fact that one day, our bodies will be old and worn, and unable to bear the burden of partying of this magnitude. In the meantime, we're going to live it up. Do not press us on this issue.
Anyway, the Green Dragon, which is where Sara and her compatriots were was fine. We all hung out for a while, ate some left over french fries and taters, then headed over to a nearby dance club which was initially lame and empty but which over the course of a few hours filled up and erupted into a full blown party. I enjoyed the live band playing on the dance floor amidst a swarming cloud of dry ice fog. And the crazy techno lights.
Tyler: Yeah, alternating sets of amazing live DJs and electronic style bands, made for a crazy time with lots of amazing dancing.
Nick: And also the Dino Tarot station set up on the way to the bathroom. Pardon? You've not heard of Dino Tarot before? Choose a couple dinosaurs from a tray, arrange them in a manner pleasing to your aesthetic disposition, and a trained Dino Tarot professional will tell you a bit about your present, past, and future. Definitely not dark-sided. The last stop of the evening was a small gathering of food carts offering a wide assortment of late night eatables sure to please even the most discerning drunken fried-food connoisseurs.
Brian: Everything was going fine until a homeless guy and his girlfriend showed up and started spitting some gibberish. We were all kind of talking to the dude and for some reason it struck us as funny when we learned his name was Brian (because my name is also Brian). Sara started laughing and then all of a sudden the girlfriend charged up on her like a rhino, wrenched the pork pie from Sara's grip, and threw it to the ground with such force that it shattered into a million little pork and dough pieces. I can't remember whether Tyler still ate it or not.
Tyler: I didn't....but I thought about it.
Brian: Well they were escorted away by the security dude and the pie guy fried another one for her free of charge. Sara shared it with us but I think she was a little scarred by the experience because she wouldn't let any of us hold the pie while we took bites. Another great night, my only regret is that I did not sit for a Dino Tarot reading of my own.
Tyler: After a second long night and possibly a third tonight we're all looking forward to a little r&r from our r&r, can't wait to get to the coast and start camping. Nick, Brian and Tyler out.
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Nick, McMenamins is awesome. Glad you liked it so much... which one did you go to though? Each one has a different theme, unless you visited one of the "boring" ones, which still aren't boring. They have a ton of locations, but the original ones are old buildings converted into their restaurants or hotels. My favorite in Portland is the Kennedy School, an old elementary school that was converted into a hotel, a restaurant and 4 or 5 bars all with school themes. Since you saw a movie there, or nearby, I'm guessing you might have been at Kennedy. Enjoy Oregon!
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