Sunday, August 31, 2014

8-31-2014 Saturday Market and Horton Heat show

We started off by going to the Saturday market on Sunday.  (I didn't name it they did)  There are 3 stages of music going there and plenty of street performers that are quite good.  It is a weekly ritual to go there and hang out.


This is a real tree turned into art with copper bark

He had some sort of boxed accordian

We saw navigate north and they are a really good band.  Her name is Tammy J and she is an emergency room nurse but always wanted to be a musician

We swung by a little mom and pop thai place and got some spring rolls

This is the view from the 30th floor the place is called Portland city grill.  They have a good happy hour there and it is always packed

Portland is known for these drinking fountains and they shoot water out all the time. 

This is the fountain art right by our apartment which is on 3rd and Jefferson

We stopped and ate at this little Thai food cart

cara got spring rolls

Eric got chicken pad thai

The homeless guys hang out there and watch....when they see you are about done they come and ask if they can have the rest.  If nobody asks then instead of throwing the food away you put it on top of the trash can and somebody quickly comes and finishes it for you.


It is hard to get a good picture in poor lighting with movement.....It was a great show.

8-31-2014 Saturday Market and Reverend Horton Heat Concert

It is a Sunday and we headed off to the Saturday market.  They named it, we didn't.  We have talked about it many times in this log.  It is a great place to go and hear a show.  They have 3 stages of music there.

This is where we ate the night before

This is a real tree that is turned to art with copper bark.  It is anchored to the building.

There are always a lot of street performers

This is a good band called Navigate North

There is a really good little Thai place (Pho TNT) in a nook by the Saturday Market and we got some delicious avocado
spring rolls and a fresh strawberry smoothie.

This is a view from Portland City Grill.  They have a nice place on the 30th floor and a good happy hour.

These drinking fountains are famous in Portland and they have a lot of them.  This is called a Benson Bubbler.

This is Keller Fountain Park near our apartment - it's Cara's favorite.

We ate at this little thai food cart before the show...we were in a hurry

The homeless people watch you and when you look done they swoop in and ask if they can have the rest.  If that
doesn't happen then everybody just puts the left overs on top of the trash can and somebody will soon be along to eat
it. 

The second opening band was really impressive - PiƱata Protest.

Reverend Horton Heat is a hard driving rock a billy style band ... they refer to it as psychobilly.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

8-30-2014 Saturday Farmers Market then long bike ride

We took off to have lunch at the farmers market that is a couple blocks away.....It is HUGE and you can practically eat lunch just with all the samples everybody has.

This is one of the most bike friendly cities in America and we never use the car.  We don't talk a lot about biking, but it is implied in each post that we walked or biked there.  We have used the car 3 or 4 times in 2.5 months.  That was just to pick people up from the airport and get groceries.

They do not allow dogs at the market so this guy gets tied up by the bike rack

This is just a small chunk of what is there.  Throngs of people turn out.  It is at Portland State University

They had just gotten done roasting up hundreds of pounds of fresh peppers
 After that went to visit our cousin.  She happens to have just moved to town and we visited her new place.  It was a pleasant bike ride of about 12 miles each way.  We got there early and decided to check out a park nearby.  It was called the Grotto and is a Catholic Sanctuary.  It had a gift shop, an outdoor church, bathrooms, trails and more.  Very interesting indeed.

They were holding a wedding on the day we were there....would have been a great venue for a wedding.

There was a trail with big bronze statues depicting 14 scenes of Jesus's crucifixion.

This is the trail
Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Savannah's house, but we had a good time and they have a cute pit bull Chihuahua mix.

Friday, August 29, 2014

8-29-2014 walking around on Burnside near Chinatown

We consulted the www.Yelp.com/wordmap/portland heatmap of what to do.  In case you don't know what that means....it is a map that shows you the density of certain keywords in reviews and descriptions of places.  So it can tell you things like hipster, dive bar, PBR, etc.  The map shows this as shades of red so that you see an overlay of the hotspots.

We had thoroughly checked out and been to most of the places, so we decided to go to the biggest concentrations of dive bars and that led us to "old town" on Burnside and second.

The goal was to pop into only places we had not been.

Eric got the #4 high score on the pinball machine at Blitz Pearl :)

There are 250 different music and movies in the park and they do it on a large blow up screen.  Look at the throngs of
people to see a Disney movie.

There must be 1000 people to watch the movie

this is the screen they use to watch the movie on

We had a groupon for $30 bucks for Lotus Cafe and Cardroom.  We were pleasantly surprised at how nice and old and
well kept the interior was.

Cara got the Tuscan Kale Salad with Currants & Almonds (delicious!), and a Blood Orange
Margarita (yummy!).

Eric got steak and potatoes

The bill came to 5 bucks.  We both gave it 5 stars.

This was the back bar....old school with a moosehead and everything!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

8-28-2014 Last Thursday on Alberta street fair

This is the fun street fair called Last Thursday on Alberta, and it is held on the last Thursday of each month from about 5-9 pm.  They close the street off and people just come out and sell and do stuff.  It is fun to watch all of the people doing their things.  There must be 20 pop up street performers who create all sorts of cool stuff.

This guy combined a battery, duct tape, old computer speakers, and an IPAD to create a
mobile synthesizer

These guys were painting their bus with spray paint at the event

This girl led around this dragon all night

It seems mandatory that if you are living on the street you need a big dog or two

After we got home from the street festivities we went for a walk by the river

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

8-27-2014 Startup meetup

This is a new weekly meetup that has no agenda and no real rules....you just show up where they tell you and hang our for a couple of hours.  We met some really interesting people and had a good time.

At about 7:30 we rolled over to Slabtown for some dinner and Pinball.  We got home a little after dark.

Startup Happy Hour at PINTS Urban Taproom

Slabtown has 6 total pinball machines and they are free from 5-7....in reality there are usually still free games on them
after that.

Shawarma fries from Falafel House at Slabtown....the white stuff is a garlic sauce....good and good for you!
A total dive bar with awesome vegan food - so Portland!  We love this place!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

8-26-2014 PDX Web & Design Monthly Happy Hour


At about 5:15 we headed over to a place called Rontoms which I would call an upscale dive bar without any machines to play.  There are couches and chairs everywhere and we mingled with other web professionals.  It is interesting to hear what people do and it drives home the point of how complex the web is.  Everybody seems to have a specialty and really dig down into something -vs- being more of a generalist.

PDX Web & Design Monthly Happy Hour at Rontoms
After that we headed off to a Mexican restaurant called Que Pasa.   We had a groupon that got us $25 for $12. 

Vegetable Enchiladas with Potatoes Ole (5 stars)

carne asada fajitas (5 stars)

sangria