Phoenix AZ, Portland OR And Los Angeles CA
Jul. 8th, 2017 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeFriday (9 June) was quite a sad day as we had to say goodbye to Tuxedo after spending two solid weeks together. We left Flagstaff at around 8am, regrettably not getting chance to see any of it beyond the hotel, and made our way to Phoenix around two and a half hours away. It was from here that we were going to fly back to Portland, where we would begin our journey home the next morning. There wasn't really a sense of sadness as we set off though, largely because we had an adventure still to come, descending over 6000 feet into the hottest major city in the United States. As we drove, we noticed the terrain becoming increasingly more arid, with scrubland and then cacti appearing as we passed the fantastically named town of Bumble Bee. This was in stark contrast to the woodland of the Coconino National Forest, which we travelled through to start our journey down interstate 17 and to the capitol of the state of Arizona. We stopped off at a rest area to take a few pictures but the journey was largely uneventful, with the environs of Phoenix approaching quicker than we expected. Tux had used to live here in the Eighties and so pointed out the sheer scale of the urban sprawl since then, with around twenty miles being added to the city on its northern approach. None of the office units and shops were there back then, and it was interesting to get a plotted view of the development of the city. Due to inward migration, Arizona is one of the most rapidly increasing states in terms of population, with Phoenix being a huge draw. This is despite the major heat as it was touching 104F as I became reacquainted with the I10 - a road I knew so well back from my time in Louisiana. Indeed, it was the first time I had been on the road since 1995 and while I was still 800 miles from where I used to live, my heart did warm through the experience. As we drove through the urban freeway, we saw the skyscrapers at the heart of the modern city, along with one of the main stadia here, before Tux deposited us outside the Departures hall of the airport.
Saying goodbye was quite difficult - so much so that I accidentally left one of my jumpers in Tux's car - but we consoled ourselves in the fact that we may meet up again by the end of the year as Tux may be visiting Scotiacon. After thanking him deeply for planning and guiding us throughout the last two weeks, we waved him off as he headed to Orange County and we headed back to Portland, where our journey began. We had made good time and we were actually early, so we checked in, headed through security and waited, to our delight at a craft beer bar which served a range of brews from a local brewery. We tried a raspberry flavoured one and an orange one I think, while a lady sat next to us fifteen minutes later and touted me for a recommendation. She was most grateful for the choice I picked out for her, and we had a pleasant little chat as we waited for our plane. Alas, we couldn't spend more than an hour in this fantastic bar, which was a shame due to the sheer range of beer they had on offer, but with our flight due to be called, we had to rush to the gate. The wait wasn't too long and boarding was a breeze, with the journey passing over some wonderfully rugged mountain terrain, of which I managed to grab a few pictures. The flight was only about two hours and we had soon landed, in weather conditions far different to the oppressive sun and heat of Arizona. Back in Portland we were caught in a torrential thunderstorm swapping 104F for 58F so it was quite a shock, particularly without my coat. Still, we tried not to let it affect us as we grabbed our luggage and headed over to Island Number Two once more, where we asked the desk to phone the Ramada shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. This they did and twenty minutes later we were walking through the reception area of a rather tired hotel. One of the staff members seemed not to be too bothered by us, but the other was very friendly. The one not bothered was the one who served us, but at least we got our keys quickly and managed to settle in. Before taking a shower, we decided we needed to print out our Boarding Passes for the flight home and this proved to be more of an ordeal than we realised, largely due to confusing instructions from Thomas Cook. Still, we did what we could before I grabbed a shower in preparation for a night in Portland ahead.
It was our last night in the US and Portland being a beer city meant we couldn't turn down the opportunity to go out, particularly on a Friday. The only problem was that our flight out of Portland to Los Angeles, from where we were due to fly back to Manchester, left at 8am necessitating a 5:30am start. Still, we had planned to meet a number of furs downtown and didn't want to disappoint them. I had hoped to arrange the evening through Snelrev but he was busy, so he suggested Mousepaws, who arranged a nice little bar crawl for us. I had invited Tarka but he came down with concrud and couldn't make it, so it was just the three of us in the first bar. Due to time constraints, we decided to take a Lyft into town, and we got a rather friendly young woman to whom I enjoyed chatting. She was asking about our trip and seemed bubbly and vivacious, while we also got to talk about life as a taxi driver in your own personal car. We gave her a high tip and rating, largely because of her affibility but also because she dropped us off at our destination pretty much bang on time at 6pm. Our first stop was the Widmar Brothers Brewing Company, where we saw Mouse already at the bar. We grabbed a couple of flights each and joined him, with Wolfie disappearing to a table around fifteen minutes later as his friend Cal, his boyfriend and another friend joined him. The trio spoke and although we came over, there wasn't enough space on the table for another two, meaning we slunk back to the bar to finish our beers.
The beer was good - standard for Portland but good generally. The plan had been to move on to McMenamins White Eagle Saloon but Cal had already ordered food, meaning that they had to stay in Widmar's. Having spoken to Wolfie, it was decided that he stayed with them and I went up tp McMenamins for one with Mouse. This worked quite well, although I was a little frustrated that non-drinkers had been invited on a pub crawl. Still, Wolfie got to catch up with his friends and I got to sample another bar, which again resembled something like a British pub. It was quite dark and atmospheric, with a stage at the far end, which was being set up for live music. I grabbed a tasty snack of tater tots and bacon here as I hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime, while I sat on the stool at the bar, supping another great locally produced beer and chewing the fat with Mouse. He seemed to know a lot of the bar staff so we got into conversation too, which only enhanced the general friendly vibe of the place.
It was about 7:30pm by the time we left, heading back to Widmar Brothers to see Wolfie and his entourage. They had just finished so we all left together, with Cal and friends heading one way and Wolfie, Mouse and myself heading to Labrewatory, a place which allows home brewers to sell their beer to the general public. This was a great place, understandably busy, but with a strong range of different beers in different styles. They even had an ESB called Extra Special Brexit made with English hops, which was a shame. We had the mole milk stout (Mole Mole Mole) and the kettled sour pale ale (Georgia On My Mind) from memory and both had exquisite flavour profiles. This place was probably the highlight of the microbrewries we tried due to the sheer diversity of the beer they had on tap.
While we were here, I was tweeting Noxy, who said he could come meet us after work. We arranged to meet at the Ecliptic Brewing Company up on North Mississippi Street, which necessitated a half mile walk from Labrewatory. It was getting dark by this stage, and we had to cross under the interstate. All of this, coupled with the alcohol, made the steel and concrete bridges particularly imposing, partiuclarly as between the brew street where we were and the huge brewing scene near Ecliptic there was nothing but eerily desolate light industrial units. This added quite the atmosphere - in a full moon no less - as we traipsed up the hill and towards Ecliptic, outside which Noxy and his partner were waiting for us. It was great to see them again and after struggling to find a seat inside, we managed to nab a long bench and order another tasting tray, not to mention a desperately needed burger as we were craving food. I can remember the conversation being convivial but not much else. We stayed here for about an hour, but with the time pushing 10:15pm and with our early start, we knew that we had to head. This saw us saying our farewells, but not before we had ordered a Lyft further up the road, at least getting to experience some more of the brewing scene on North Mississippi. We got our car - a red pickup truck in actuality - outside Stormbreaker Brewing, which had a slight Wild West theme about it. Mouse popped in for a beer, Noxy and his partner left, while we were transported back to the hotel where we got a vague five hours sleep.
Getting up at 5:20am is hell enough as it is, but after a skinful it was torture. We did manage to drag ourselves out of bed though and get to reception for the 6am bus shuttle service to the airport. Once there, we found we had to wait in a humungous queue for check-in, with us being unable to do this online the day before due to some administrative reason of having booked the flights through Thomas Cook but us flying Alaska Air for the first leg of the journey. We also had to drop our luggage off anyway, and there was confusion here too as whether we would have to pick it up in LA (as we had to do when we routed through San Franscisco on the way in) or whether it would go straight on to Manchester. As it turned out it was the latter, but the check-in staff didn't seem sure and I wasn't convinced until I spoke to the check-in people in LA. Anyway, with luggage checked in, we made our way to the gate, deciding not to stop at the craft beer bar on the way due to the early hour. We also didn't have much time after the long check-in queue so this was probably wise too.
The first flight was smooth and we landed in LA on time, where we had a six hour layover before our Manchester flight. At any normal airport, this would be enough time to pop into the city centre but LAX is about an hour away from downtown Los Angeles and it's not particularly accessable. Perhaps we didn't need to go through to the terminal building outside security but we weren't sure about whether we needed to pick our bags up or not. What this meant though was that we had about four hours in the terminal building before we could check in for our flight back to the UK. We spent some of this time at a nice pizza restaurant in the main international terminal, while we also spent a while walking around the rather dull arrival and departure lounges. We saw someone with a Nutribullet, which pleased me no end due to the infomercials I have become somewhat addicted to on late night TV, while buying a neck pillow really was one of the highlights. Still, the four hours passed pretty quickly and once past security, at least we could get a drink from another place, albeit a trendy cocktail bar. This passed the time at least though and soon we were boarding our flight. The trip home was largely uneventful although I was disappointed they had the same movies going out as they had on the way in. Still, I got somewhat obsessed with Thomas Cook's two mascots - Lollo the Giraffe and Bernie the Bear, who have their own little song which was clearly written in a foreign language (I suspect Swedish) first before being translated into English as some of the phrasing didn't quite work. They even have their own dance routine which was interesting to watch about ten times. Aside from this, there was little else going here, suffice to say that the communication from the airline wasn't great. I doubt I would fly with them again, but at least it was cheap I suppose. Despite this, we were left with numerous happy memories of our trip and despite some initial misgivings, we are glad we went. It was just the right combination of furry stuff and tourist sightseeing and we will always be indebted to Tux for driving us around. And with more invites from American furs already, hopefully it won't be another five years before we go Stateside again.
Saying goodbye was quite difficult - so much so that I accidentally left one of my jumpers in Tux's car - but we consoled ourselves in the fact that we may meet up again by the end of the year as Tux may be visiting Scotiacon. After thanking him deeply for planning and guiding us throughout the last two weeks, we waved him off as he headed to Orange County and we headed back to Portland, where our journey began. We had made good time and we were actually early, so we checked in, headed through security and waited, to our delight at a craft beer bar which served a range of brews from a local brewery. We tried a raspberry flavoured one and an orange one I think, while a lady sat next to us fifteen minutes later and touted me for a recommendation. She was most grateful for the choice I picked out for her, and we had a pleasant little chat as we waited for our plane. Alas, we couldn't spend more than an hour in this fantastic bar, which was a shame due to the sheer range of beer they had on offer, but with our flight due to be called, we had to rush to the gate. The wait wasn't too long and boarding was a breeze, with the journey passing over some wonderfully rugged mountain terrain, of which I managed to grab a few pictures. The flight was only about two hours and we had soon landed, in weather conditions far different to the oppressive sun and heat of Arizona. Back in Portland we were caught in a torrential thunderstorm swapping 104F for 58F so it was quite a shock, particularly without my coat. Still, we tried not to let it affect us as we grabbed our luggage and headed over to Island Number Two once more, where we asked the desk to phone the Ramada shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. This they did and twenty minutes later we were walking through the reception area of a rather tired hotel. One of the staff members seemed not to be too bothered by us, but the other was very friendly. The one not bothered was the one who served us, but at least we got our keys quickly and managed to settle in. Before taking a shower, we decided we needed to print out our Boarding Passes for the flight home and this proved to be more of an ordeal than we realised, largely due to confusing instructions from Thomas Cook. Still, we did what we could before I grabbed a shower in preparation for a night in Portland ahead.
It was our last night in the US and Portland being a beer city meant we couldn't turn down the opportunity to go out, particularly on a Friday. The only problem was that our flight out of Portland to Los Angeles, from where we were due to fly back to Manchester, left at 8am necessitating a 5:30am start. Still, we had planned to meet a number of furs downtown and didn't want to disappoint them. I had hoped to arrange the evening through Snelrev but he was busy, so he suggested Mousepaws, who arranged a nice little bar crawl for us. I had invited Tarka but he came down with concrud and couldn't make it, so it was just the three of us in the first bar. Due to time constraints, we decided to take a Lyft into town, and we got a rather friendly young woman to whom I enjoyed chatting. She was asking about our trip and seemed bubbly and vivacious, while we also got to talk about life as a taxi driver in your own personal car. We gave her a high tip and rating, largely because of her affibility but also because she dropped us off at our destination pretty much bang on time at 6pm. Our first stop was the Widmar Brothers Brewing Company, where we saw Mouse already at the bar. We grabbed a couple of flights each and joined him, with Wolfie disappearing to a table around fifteen minutes later as his friend Cal, his boyfriend and another friend joined him. The trio spoke and although we came over, there wasn't enough space on the table for another two, meaning we slunk back to the bar to finish our beers.
The beer was good - standard for Portland but good generally. The plan had been to move on to McMenamins White Eagle Saloon but Cal had already ordered food, meaning that they had to stay in Widmar's. Having spoken to Wolfie, it was decided that he stayed with them and I went up tp McMenamins for one with Mouse. This worked quite well, although I was a little frustrated that non-drinkers had been invited on a pub crawl. Still, Wolfie got to catch up with his friends and I got to sample another bar, which again resembled something like a British pub. It was quite dark and atmospheric, with a stage at the far end, which was being set up for live music. I grabbed a tasty snack of tater tots and bacon here as I hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime, while I sat on the stool at the bar, supping another great locally produced beer and chewing the fat with Mouse. He seemed to know a lot of the bar staff so we got into conversation too, which only enhanced the general friendly vibe of the place.
It was about 7:30pm by the time we left, heading back to Widmar Brothers to see Wolfie and his entourage. They had just finished so we all left together, with Cal and friends heading one way and Wolfie, Mouse and myself heading to Labrewatory, a place which allows home brewers to sell their beer to the general public. This was a great place, understandably busy, but with a strong range of different beers in different styles. They even had an ESB called Extra Special Brexit made with English hops, which was a shame. We had the mole milk stout (Mole Mole Mole) and the kettled sour pale ale (Georgia On My Mind) from memory and both had exquisite flavour profiles. This place was probably the highlight of the microbrewries we tried due to the sheer diversity of the beer they had on tap.
While we were here, I was tweeting Noxy, who said he could come meet us after work. We arranged to meet at the Ecliptic Brewing Company up on North Mississippi Street, which necessitated a half mile walk from Labrewatory. It was getting dark by this stage, and we had to cross under the interstate. All of this, coupled with the alcohol, made the steel and concrete bridges particularly imposing, partiuclarly as between the brew street where we were and the huge brewing scene near Ecliptic there was nothing but eerily desolate light industrial units. This added quite the atmosphere - in a full moon no less - as we traipsed up the hill and towards Ecliptic, outside which Noxy and his partner were waiting for us. It was great to see them again and after struggling to find a seat inside, we managed to nab a long bench and order another tasting tray, not to mention a desperately needed burger as we were craving food. I can remember the conversation being convivial but not much else. We stayed here for about an hour, but with the time pushing 10:15pm and with our early start, we knew that we had to head. This saw us saying our farewells, but not before we had ordered a Lyft further up the road, at least getting to experience some more of the brewing scene on North Mississippi. We got our car - a red pickup truck in actuality - outside Stormbreaker Brewing, which had a slight Wild West theme about it. Mouse popped in for a beer, Noxy and his partner left, while we were transported back to the hotel where we got a vague five hours sleep.
Getting up at 5:20am is hell enough as it is, but after a skinful it was torture. We did manage to drag ourselves out of bed though and get to reception for the 6am bus shuttle service to the airport. Once there, we found we had to wait in a humungous queue for check-in, with us being unable to do this online the day before due to some administrative reason of having booked the flights through Thomas Cook but us flying Alaska Air for the first leg of the journey. We also had to drop our luggage off anyway, and there was confusion here too as whether we would have to pick it up in LA (as we had to do when we routed through San Franscisco on the way in) or whether it would go straight on to Manchester. As it turned out it was the latter, but the check-in staff didn't seem sure and I wasn't convinced until I spoke to the check-in people in LA. Anyway, with luggage checked in, we made our way to the gate, deciding not to stop at the craft beer bar on the way due to the early hour. We also didn't have much time after the long check-in queue so this was probably wise too.
The first flight was smooth and we landed in LA on time, where we had a six hour layover before our Manchester flight. At any normal airport, this would be enough time to pop into the city centre but LAX is about an hour away from downtown Los Angeles and it's not particularly accessable. Perhaps we didn't need to go through to the terminal building outside security but we weren't sure about whether we needed to pick our bags up or not. What this meant though was that we had about four hours in the terminal building before we could check in for our flight back to the UK. We spent some of this time at a nice pizza restaurant in the main international terminal, while we also spent a while walking around the rather dull arrival and departure lounges. We saw someone with a Nutribullet, which pleased me no end due to the infomercials I have become somewhat addicted to on late night TV, while buying a neck pillow really was one of the highlights. Still, the four hours passed pretty quickly and once past security, at least we could get a drink from another place, albeit a trendy cocktail bar. This passed the time at least though and soon we were boarding our flight. The trip home was largely uneventful although I was disappointed they had the same movies going out as they had on the way in. Still, I got somewhat obsessed with Thomas Cook's two mascots - Lollo the Giraffe and Bernie the Bear, who have their own little song which was clearly written in a foreign language (I suspect Swedish) first before being translated into English as some of the phrasing didn't quite work. They even have their own dance routine which was interesting to watch about ten times. Aside from this, there was little else going here, suffice to say that the communication from the airline wasn't great. I doubt I would fly with them again, but at least it was cheap I suppose. Despite this, we were left with numerous happy memories of our trip and despite some initial misgivings, we are glad we went. It was just the right combination of furry stuff and tourist sightseeing and we will always be indebted to Tux for driving us around. And with more invites from American furs already, hopefully it won't be another five years before we go Stateside again.
