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Portland OR
Jun. 26th, 2017 11:17 pmOver the period from 25 May to 11 June, Wolfie and I headed over to the USA to attend Furlandia and BLFC, which were only a week apart from each other. We had spoken to our friend Tuxedo Kitty over the course of the preceding six months and he suggested we combine the cons with a road trip across the western US. Having not really seen this part of the country - and Wolfie having never seen any of America outside of Seattle - we decided to take him up on his offer and devised a route from Portland OR to Phoenix AZ, taking in a range of destinations along the way. It took a fair amount of time to arrange, and Brexit-related currency rates and Trump's immigration policies almost kyboshed the whole thing, but as we headed out on that Thursday morning, a rare warm and sunny British day, we were convinced we had made the right call. In the end, it was.
We arrived in Portland on the Thursday evening, although that was not without its dramas. We initially flew into San Franscisco, with Thomas Cook giving us a layover time there of two hours and 15 minutes. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but we didn't realise we had to go through custom formalities before getting our internal flight. With the line extensive, it took us over an hour and a half to proceed across the border, although the customs official did say we could get our flight if we ran. We grabbed our bags off the carousel and checked them in at the Transfer Gate. We still had to make it through another tranche of security and even though we were cutting it tight and the polite border guard said we could cut the queue, it didn't seem particularly British so we waited. After traversing through, we had a huge sprint right towards the end of the terminal, which was particularly difficult as this was the height of Wolfie's foot problem and he could barely walk let alone dash. So I made my way alone, hoping to tell the flight attendant we were coming, only to find that the plane was running 17 minutes late and we had plenty of time regardless. Had the flight not been delayed then we would definitely have missed it, but perhaps we were due a small element of luck.
The Alaska Airlines flight to Portland was very good, with Alaskan craft beer and delicious beef jerky welcoming us to America. The scenery we crossed was also breathtaking, the high mountain peaks, many of which were still snow-topped, making for a quite awesome view. We were a little jetlagged but excited to see Tuxedo again as we dropped down into Portland and my 21st state (and Wolfie's 2nd). Traversing the airport was easy and we were soon directed to Island Number Two outside, where we caught the shuttle bus service to the Sheraton Hotel, where Furlandia was taking place. It was early arrival day and Tuxedo was waiting in the lobby to greet us, introducing us to the reception and then guiding us to our room. We then went out for a delicious pizza at By Design, which is a bit like MOD back home where you can custom design your own pizza and they cook it in front of you. We were also taken aback by the sheer range of craft beers they had on draft, at least 10 which for a pizza restaurant is good going. The pizza was crisp and tasty, and it was an excellent introduction back into the US. However, with tiredness catching up with us, we decided we should probably head to bed, turning in just before 10pm.
We arose quite early the next morning and there was a treat in store as Tuxedo drove us over the Washington border and into Clark County, where we went to Carol's Corner Cafe between the two interstates. It's the sort of place that's real Americana and you would only know about it if you knew the area. Fortunately, Tux used to work around here and so had been coming to the place since 1994. This is a classic American diner, with breakfasts the speciality. Fantastically busy over the weekend - particularly Memorial Day Weekend which was coming up - on the Friday morning it was lively but not rammed, meaning we easily got a table. I got some tea, which was served in a beaker which wouldn't look out of place in a chemistry lab, while Wolfie and I ordered two specials of shredded potato, egg, ham and cheese similar to an omelette. The portion was humungous, and we ended up taking a third of it back in a doggy bag for Saturday breakfast, but the taste was exquisite, with the ham and thick American cheese complimenting each other so well. The service was typically friendly too, with offers of free coffee and tea refills quite regularly, and it was certainly an excellent way to start a sunny spring day. After this, we headed over to Fred Meyer to pick up some beer and supplies before driving back to the hotel, where people were starting to arrive for the con.
Furlandia is about 800 people strong, and most are from the local area, meaning they typically arrive after work on the Friday. With an afternoon to kill therefore, we decided to go into downtown Portland using the fantastically convenient MAX line. We walked to the nearest station, about ten minutes away (or 20 if you are Mr Wolfie Limpalot), and were soon on a tram being whisked into the city. We were fortunate as three hours later, on the same tram route, two men were fatally stabbed and a third injured after they tried to protect two teenage girls who were being racially abused by a white supremicist. The incident made global news and was quite a sobering reminder of how things can turn nasty very quickly. We were downtown by then though, having observed that Portland truly is a city full of bridges. Many were quite wonderous pieces of architecutre, including one which looked very similar to the Newport Bridge in my hometown of Middlesbrough, albeit more rusted. We didn't get much time to look at the bridges though as we were guided through the gentrified Chinatown area before getting off at Mall 4th/5th as we spotted a bar we thought we would try. Portland has more microbreweries downtown than any major city in America so it was clearly going to be our kind of place, meaning we were always going to take the opportunity to try some tasty tipples. This is what we did at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where we had a taster tray of six of their core range while watching an advert involving a box sat on the toilet pooing to check for prostate cancer. American commercials are weird. Anyway, the bartender was really friendly and told us about a range of places to see, not least a bar further down the street which was on the 17th floor of a building, affording an excellent look over Pioneer Square. We went up there, but the bar was hideously trendy, so we just drank in the view before heading back down.
Pioneer Square is the centre of the city and is currently being renovated. Named after the rather imposing Victorian era building on its eastern flank, the main sight is the clock tower dominating the middle of the square. There's a signpost detailing all of the distances from this spot to a number of major cities, but the arrows were not pointing in the right directions, which was a bit strange. Underneath the square is where the tourist information place is currently held and not having a guidebook of the city, we thought we would take a look. In the end, we spent over an hour in here chatting with a gentleman behind the counter who had made it his life's aim to visit every single Anglican cathedral in England. Indeed he had already planned a trip to Bradford this forthcoming September and suggested that we should meet up. He was very interesting though and told us an awful lot about the city's history, along with a range of different beer tours we could go on. This was to prove invaluable when we returned two weeks later and we thanked him as we left, blinking into the sharp light of the hot sunny day.
There's a bank not far from Pioneer Square which was built in the 1930s and was one of the first buildings of its architecutral type in the world. It has glorious marble pillars and flooring, along with a golden ceiling, and it's very much a case of stepping back in time. As it was a working bank, and it was closing, we didn't want to stay there too long while we also looked at a neighbouring building which I believe was part of the same project. By this stage, even though we had only done a modest amount of walking, Wolfie's foot was really starting to play up so we decided to head to the Pearl District in Portland's North-East to sample some more beers. We could have stopped at the Deschutes Bar but it was busy and we were scheduled to visit their brewery in Bend, OR, later in the week so we decided to go to Fat Head's Brewery instead, which was further down NW Davis Street. As was the case everywhere we went, we were ID'ed, which made we feel quite young (we were even ID'ed in Fred Meyer buying bottles for the room) and soon we settled in to taste their massive range of excellent beers. Many of the ones here were quite new to us, with some interesting flavours, so stopping by was definitely a positive, while we also got a huge soft and salty pretzel with sweet mustard dip to tide us over.
Not eating proved to be a slight error, as Taneli dropped us a message on Telegram telling us he was out with a local fur friend of his called Tawn. They were in a bar called Tugboat on SW 7th, not too far from where we were. We supped our drinks and headed over there, with Wolfie's ankle still causing him pain. We managed to get there though, and it was quite a nice place, albeit a little darker and perhaps more dive-like than the bright airy places we had just experienced. They did have some homebrews on tap though including an exquisite 11% stout which I ordered for Wolfie and I. In this bar, I got chatting to a rather friendly girl called Jennifer and her boyfriend for the best part of half an hour. She was from California and in the end she invited me to stay with her at her home, which was very nice. It was great speaking to them and while Tawn perhaps felt a little awkward dealing with a drunk Wolfie, the evening itself went rather well. However, after the 11% beer, we definitely needed food so we ordered a burrito from the Mexican place next door and retired to Bailey's Taproom across the road. Tawn's boyfriend and one of his friends had come out by this point, but we had been promised a lift back, and we were feeling a little worse for wear so we did insist we had back to the hotel shortly afterwards. I think I did try another beer in Bailey's but I can't really remember, the only thing that struck me was the sheer range of beer they had on offer there.
So we headed back at about 10pm and we just crashed, with the jetlag and the booze really catching up with us. Still, it was an excellent first day in the US and Portland was definitely a city close to our hearts, which boded well for the remainder of our weekend.
We arrived in Portland on the Thursday evening, although that was not without its dramas. We initially flew into San Franscisco, with Thomas Cook giving us a layover time there of two hours and 15 minutes. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem but we didn't realise we had to go through custom formalities before getting our internal flight. With the line extensive, it took us over an hour and a half to proceed across the border, although the customs official did say we could get our flight if we ran. We grabbed our bags off the carousel and checked them in at the Transfer Gate. We still had to make it through another tranche of security and even though we were cutting it tight and the polite border guard said we could cut the queue, it didn't seem particularly British so we waited. After traversing through, we had a huge sprint right towards the end of the terminal, which was particularly difficult as this was the height of Wolfie's foot problem and he could barely walk let alone dash. So I made my way alone, hoping to tell the flight attendant we were coming, only to find that the plane was running 17 minutes late and we had plenty of time regardless. Had the flight not been delayed then we would definitely have missed it, but perhaps we were due a small element of luck.
The Alaska Airlines flight to Portland was very good, with Alaskan craft beer and delicious beef jerky welcoming us to America. The scenery we crossed was also breathtaking, the high mountain peaks, many of which were still snow-topped, making for a quite awesome view. We were a little jetlagged but excited to see Tuxedo again as we dropped down into Portland and my 21st state (and Wolfie's 2nd). Traversing the airport was easy and we were soon directed to Island Number Two outside, where we caught the shuttle bus service to the Sheraton Hotel, where Furlandia was taking place. It was early arrival day and Tuxedo was waiting in the lobby to greet us, introducing us to the reception and then guiding us to our room. We then went out for a delicious pizza at By Design, which is a bit like MOD back home where you can custom design your own pizza and they cook it in front of you. We were also taken aback by the sheer range of craft beers they had on draft, at least 10 which for a pizza restaurant is good going. The pizza was crisp and tasty, and it was an excellent introduction back into the US. However, with tiredness catching up with us, we decided we should probably head to bed, turning in just before 10pm.
We arose quite early the next morning and there was a treat in store as Tuxedo drove us over the Washington border and into Clark County, where we went to Carol's Corner Cafe between the two interstates. It's the sort of place that's real Americana and you would only know about it if you knew the area. Fortunately, Tux used to work around here and so had been coming to the place since 1994. This is a classic American diner, with breakfasts the speciality. Fantastically busy over the weekend - particularly Memorial Day Weekend which was coming up - on the Friday morning it was lively but not rammed, meaning we easily got a table. I got some tea, which was served in a beaker which wouldn't look out of place in a chemistry lab, while Wolfie and I ordered two specials of shredded potato, egg, ham and cheese similar to an omelette. The portion was humungous, and we ended up taking a third of it back in a doggy bag for Saturday breakfast, but the taste was exquisite, with the ham and thick American cheese complimenting each other so well. The service was typically friendly too, with offers of free coffee and tea refills quite regularly, and it was certainly an excellent way to start a sunny spring day. After this, we headed over to Fred Meyer to pick up some beer and supplies before driving back to the hotel, where people were starting to arrive for the con.
Furlandia is about 800 people strong, and most are from the local area, meaning they typically arrive after work on the Friday. With an afternoon to kill therefore, we decided to go into downtown Portland using the fantastically convenient MAX line. We walked to the nearest station, about ten minutes away (or 20 if you are Mr Wolfie Limpalot), and were soon on a tram being whisked into the city. We were fortunate as three hours later, on the same tram route, two men were fatally stabbed and a third injured after they tried to protect two teenage girls who were being racially abused by a white supremicist. The incident made global news and was quite a sobering reminder of how things can turn nasty very quickly. We were downtown by then though, having observed that Portland truly is a city full of bridges. Many were quite wonderous pieces of architecutre, including one which looked very similar to the Newport Bridge in my hometown of Middlesbrough, albeit more rusted. We didn't get much time to look at the bridges though as we were guided through the gentrified Chinatown area before getting off at Mall 4th/5th as we spotted a bar we thought we would try. Portland has more microbreweries downtown than any major city in America so it was clearly going to be our kind of place, meaning we were always going to take the opportunity to try some tasty tipples. This is what we did at the Rock Bottom Brewery, where we had a taster tray of six of their core range while watching an advert involving a box sat on the toilet pooing to check for prostate cancer. American commercials are weird. Anyway, the bartender was really friendly and told us about a range of places to see, not least a bar further down the street which was on the 17th floor of a building, affording an excellent look over Pioneer Square. We went up there, but the bar was hideously trendy, so we just drank in the view before heading back down.
Pioneer Square is the centre of the city and is currently being renovated. Named after the rather imposing Victorian era building on its eastern flank, the main sight is the clock tower dominating the middle of the square. There's a signpost detailing all of the distances from this spot to a number of major cities, but the arrows were not pointing in the right directions, which was a bit strange. Underneath the square is where the tourist information place is currently held and not having a guidebook of the city, we thought we would take a look. In the end, we spent over an hour in here chatting with a gentleman behind the counter who had made it his life's aim to visit every single Anglican cathedral in England. Indeed he had already planned a trip to Bradford this forthcoming September and suggested that we should meet up. He was very interesting though and told us an awful lot about the city's history, along with a range of different beer tours we could go on. This was to prove invaluable when we returned two weeks later and we thanked him as we left, blinking into the sharp light of the hot sunny day.
There's a bank not far from Pioneer Square which was built in the 1930s and was one of the first buildings of its architecutral type in the world. It has glorious marble pillars and flooring, along with a golden ceiling, and it's very much a case of stepping back in time. As it was a working bank, and it was closing, we didn't want to stay there too long while we also looked at a neighbouring building which I believe was part of the same project. By this stage, even though we had only done a modest amount of walking, Wolfie's foot was really starting to play up so we decided to head to the Pearl District in Portland's North-East to sample some more beers. We could have stopped at the Deschutes Bar but it was busy and we were scheduled to visit their brewery in Bend, OR, later in the week so we decided to go to Fat Head's Brewery instead, which was further down NW Davis Street. As was the case everywhere we went, we were ID'ed, which made we feel quite young (we were even ID'ed in Fred Meyer buying bottles for the room) and soon we settled in to taste their massive range of excellent beers. Many of the ones here were quite new to us, with some interesting flavours, so stopping by was definitely a positive, while we also got a huge soft and salty pretzel with sweet mustard dip to tide us over.
Not eating proved to be a slight error, as Taneli dropped us a message on Telegram telling us he was out with a local fur friend of his called Tawn. They were in a bar called Tugboat on SW 7th, not too far from where we were. We supped our drinks and headed over there, with Wolfie's ankle still causing him pain. We managed to get there though, and it was quite a nice place, albeit a little darker and perhaps more dive-like than the bright airy places we had just experienced. They did have some homebrews on tap though including an exquisite 11% stout which I ordered for Wolfie and I. In this bar, I got chatting to a rather friendly girl called Jennifer and her boyfriend for the best part of half an hour. She was from California and in the end she invited me to stay with her at her home, which was very nice. It was great speaking to them and while Tawn perhaps felt a little awkward dealing with a drunk Wolfie, the evening itself went rather well. However, after the 11% beer, we definitely needed food so we ordered a burrito from the Mexican place next door and retired to Bailey's Taproom across the road. Tawn's boyfriend and one of his friends had come out by this point, but we had been promised a lift back, and we were feeling a little worse for wear so we did insist we had back to the hotel shortly afterwards. I think I did try another beer in Bailey's but I can't really remember, the only thing that struck me was the sheer range of beer they had on offer there.
So we headed back at about 10pm and we just crashed, with the jetlag and the booze really catching up with us. Still, it was an excellent first day in the US and Portland was definitely a city close to our hearts, which boded well for the remainder of our weekend.
