The first day there we went to Cannon Beach which is a couple hours outside of Portland. It's a beach. I had my boots on and was checking out a tide pool when the tide decided to surge in. My boots were soaked, but they're tough.
That night we ate, and drank, at Gustav's German Pub & Grill. They had Franziskaner "Hefeweizen" on tap so how bad could they be? Actually, they had really great food! The onion soup was excellent. They served the best bratwurst I've had since Switzerland. While you can probably get a good brat at your local supermarket, nothing beats a smoky brat smothered in onions. They also had a sausage made out of potato, beef, and pork that wasn't like anything I tasted before. I don't really know if I that was a good thing. I didn't have enough of it to decide. I'd avoid the red cabbage as it's too sweet and the bread. (Germans make far better bread than that.) All the desserts looked far too good, but we decided on the chocolate mousse. It was pretty good although my experience with chocolate mousse is extremely limited so I wouldn't take my word for it.
Saturday was our day to visit downtown Portland! (Downtown is a cool place to check out in most cities other than Phoenix.) We had lunch at Kells Irish pub.
Normally food takes priority with me, but after ordering I had to duck out and check out the record store next door, Platinum Records. They kick ass! They had the best record selection I've ever seen, which easily makes them the best record store I've ever seen. (Much love to London West Records for keeping me from going insane trying to find stuff and being the best record store in Phoenix.)
After purchasing a couple of records (Andy Jarrod - "The Fourth K" and Planet V - "The Remixes Part Two" [which has Krust - "Warhead 2000" on it]) I went back to Kells to eat. The food was excellent. I had the salmon cakes and some sausage thing that was baked in a pastry crust. I'd eat there again. (I really don't remember the details since record buying is addictive and suppresses my appetite. Hence my term for records, "vinyl crack".)
We drove around downtown and I got to see the some of the sites. It's a cool place to be. Riverside park and the Saturday market had lots of people wandering around, relaxing, and just generally having a good time. Something I noticed while downtown is how clean Portland is.
After downtown we headed off to McMenamins Kennedy School. I love McMenamins! They've got locations all over Oregon and Washington to sell the beer they brew. Most are just strip mall locations, but some of them are renovated historic locations which contain hotels, theaters, restaurants, and music venues. The Kennedy School used to be the Kennedy Elementary School. McMenamins purchased it, renovated it, and filled it with all sorts of interesting art work. It now has a restaurant, 3 bars (1 non smoking), a movie theater (where you can eat and drink), a gym where they have concerts, and 35 guest rooms. One of coolest things about the place, besides the art work, is that the gym and the pool are open to their community neighbors to use. Anyway, I had the beer sampler. It had 6 of their local brews. I didn't really like them that much, but they go for a hoppier taste than I like in my beer. I did like one of their seasonal beers though. An amber ale that was mellow.
Finally that night I settled down with a Coke and a Padron 1964 Anniversary "Principe" cigar. (You can read about my thoughts on the cigar on my cigars page.) Anyway, smoking a kick ass cigar was the best way to end my trip since I get reflective while smoking and think about the good experiences I've just had.
