A California Dog In Portland

Cassie

2011-09-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

Cassie, the Shetland Sheepdog who is profiled in this blog died on Friday August 26th after a 6 month battle with a brain tumor. She was a great travel companion. We had many more trips planned with her in mind. She will be sorely missed, but hey, she'd been to San Francisco, San Diego, Portland and Paris.

Some Last Thoughts On Portland And Los Angeles

2009-07-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

We live in Los Angeles. And, as a month-long trip, we had plenty of opportunities to compare LA to Portland. In fact, that was one of the things we were trying to do. A month gave us a chance, even if a limited one, to try Portland on and see how it felt.

With that in mind, here are my last thoughts on the two cities. Of course I recognize that any summary like this is limited necessarily by what we saw, by our interests, by good or bad luck, by a bunch of variables. I decided to humanize this comparison. I hope you enjoy it.

Portland is like the friend or little brother who left town 10 years ago. You catch up with him after a long gap and discover that he hasn't grown up the way you have, that he has interests of his own, and that in some areas he's actually excelled at or exceeded you and the rest of the people he'd left behind.

He's gotten all serious about natural stuff. Exercises all the time. Eats right. Environmentally conscious, perhaps preachy about it. Just a bit too cocky and confident he won't get run over on his bike.

He's younger and not so orderly or rule oriented. He parks the wrong way on streets all the time -- knows it's illegal but does it anyway. Doesn't maintain the city streets too well (maybe he's spending his money on other things)

His interests are colored by the Portland locale. Farms nearby -- farmers' markets elevated to a cult. Hops growing an hour south -- big on beer. Rainy winters -- favors local coffee roasters like Stumptown over Starbucks.

Doesn't feel like he needs to conform Placid. Not at all rushing when he's driving to work, or anywhere else. Very much supportive of people following their quirks in dress code, in business, in anything. Smokes cigarettes.

He's self conscious when people notice his city -- and write articles about it in national publications. Proud, but precociously self conscious.

He's affected by living in a smaller locale. Community abounds. Dogs are welcome like people. Business support each other. You stop to help someone when they ask for it, even if you don't know them. People are safe -- you smile at them.

***
LA is the second kid in the family. The one who always got attention for his personality or looks. People want him around. No matter what he does, things go his way. And, he's just so oblivious to it all.

He knows he has it good. He's aware of his looks, of his personality, and in a relaxed way revels in what it brings him.

Despite it all, he's always insecure. He knows who's a celebrity and, if he can claim to be one, knows his place in that game. He never feels like he's treated as seriously as his older sibling. After 9/11 he worried that terrorists might hurt Disneyland. Self absorbed!

He measures himself by his possessions, by where he goes on vacation. Dogs are possessions here, not people.

Life is lived effortlessly. Weather never gets in the way. A bad day might be one with a few clouds. A horrible day is one where it rains.

His interests too are colored by locale. It's a driving city and the spread lets him feel anonymous. He can be rude to anyone, anywhere -- there's always another restaurant with different waiters, always another job, always another club, always one more place he can go to start over. What's the point of kindness to strangers. Even the closest friends might go months without seeing each other.

Lots of things are going on, constantly. He can't sit still because of it. Eyes dart around. Cars dart by. Phone calls. Emails. Motion.

But, he's not stupid or blank or mindless. He's healthy. He understands the environment. He lives in LA knowing what it can do for him.

***

Thanks for reading this. Tom

The Ride Home

2009-06-19T16:06:00.001-07:00

Three days driving. Roughly six hours in the car each day. Not so bad.

We spent the first night in Ashland, Oregon. For years, Maxine's wanted to go to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (http://www.osfashland.org/). I've never been entirely sure why. It always seemed to me that there were other venues, closer to home, where we could see Shakepeare performances. But, since it was on the way home...

Actually, the play was very well done. An outdoor theater with 1000 seats modeled on the Old Globe in England. (And, since we'd planned for a three day drive, Ashland actually is the logical first stop.) We saw Much Ado About Nothing. I hadn't seen it performed before, so I read the play during our last week in Portland (our landlords had a complete set of Shakespeare plays on their bookshelf, along with about 3000 other books.) The one truly amusing thing about the OSF is this. People in Oregon are so used to the idea of rain that the standard verbage in the play program says that if you decide within the first 1 hour 15 minutes of the play that the rain is too much for you, you can go to the box office for a credit against a future performance.

As we took our seats for the performance, the ushers were handing out wads of paper towels so we could wipe the rain off our seats from the afternoon. Then, just before the play started, someone from OSF staff came out and told us that the latest weather report showed clear air for the next couple hours. And, he was right. The air stayed clear and cold. We imagined we were in England watching the play.

Our next morning we reloaded the car (and dog). We drove to Northern California and spent a night with Maxine's sister. Originally we were planning two nights, but with Maxine's shoulder, we decided to press on to our house and our stuff so that she could recuperate more easily.

Saturday night, after having been gone for 5 1/2 weeks, we were home. We set Maxine up in a big pile of pillows so she could sleep better at nights. Opened up all the accumulated mail. Then, we started talking about all the differences between Portland and Los Angeles that we were noticing. Possibly source material for one last blog entry there...

Last Day in Portland

2009-06-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Morning coffee at Grand Central Bakery (http://www.grandcentralbakery.com/index.html). We've driven past them a dozen times, but never stopped in. Mostly that was due to the fact that our house had a coffee maker and we'd been buying Stumptown Coffee and drinking it at home. But, we're running short of ground coffee, so we went out. Ironically, while Grand Central bakes their own products (the chocolate croissante was very good), they serve Stumptown Coffee.

I tried to pick up a T-shirt today from a one person brewery called "Hair of the Dog", but no one was home. Apparently the guy who runs/owns/is Hair of the Dog is very quirky and only works when he wants. I don't know if that's the case, but I know he wasn't there when he told me to come by.

Dinner was a repeat at 10-01. Maxine'd been intrigued about their burgers since I'd said that they were the best I'd ever tasted. So, we had to go back so she could have one. They are very good, and ironically, they use the same beef provider as Roots, which we went to on our first night in Portland, Strawberry Farm (http://strawberrymountainnaturalbeef.com/). So, completing the circle we had burgers the first and last night.

Tomorrow morning -- load the car and drive to Ashland.

Physical Therapy and Paley's Place

2009-06-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

With Maxine's new injury comes physical therapy. We really wanted to get it started as soon as possible to mitigate against any future problems in the way the bone heals (it isn't being immobilized) and future arm mobility. So, we took the first available physical therapy session, which was...

Tuesday at 7:30AM.

The therapist showed Maxine a number of exercises to do, mostly designed at this stage to keep her in motion. One of the things that is most difficult about this is just how frustrating it is to have to do exercises, which hurt, just to keep the shoulder from getting worse. Not fair. And, in fact, the doctor does not want her putting any weight at all on her left arm for the next 6 weeks. Can't carry anything. Doing 'some' emails is allowed, but not spending too much time online. In other words, sit in a chair and read or watch movies...

As we're still winding down our stay here in Portland, we went out for one last 'nice' dinner, to Paley's Place (http://www.paleysplace.net/). The food was fine, but not inspired. And, the place was probably just a bit too busy for the servers to pay attention to customers. But, I had the best mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had -- you could taste the flavor of real mint leaves in it.

Leaving Portland

2009-06-10T15:46:00.001-07:00

As we wind things down and get ready to leave Portland after over a month here, we feel sad – there’s no other way to put it.

We’ve enjoyed many, many great meals at prices LA restaurants charge for mediocrity.

We’ve (mostly me) enjoyed quite a few (91) samples of very good beer.

Until she broke her shoulder, Maxine took our dog Cassie for daily walks in our beautiful, tree-lined neighborhood.

We shopped for groceries.

We shared meals with both family and friends.

We got rained on, but we also sat out in the sun.

We explored the area and enjoyed the scenery.

We looked at houses we could afford to buy.

And, we looked at fireworks in the sky.
(sorry, when I saw it coming I couldn’t help that Dr. Seuss rhyme).

We got help from old friends and new friends and family when Maxine hurt herself. We even visited a Portland hospital!

All in all, we did what we’d hoped – to act as if we lived here in Portland.

We’re not sure if we’re going to move. That’s a complicated question. But at the very least, we will always be appreciative of being able to spend, no, to enjoy, a month pretending we lived here.

* But, we’re not gone yet. More blog entries for Tuesday and Wednesday, and travel back to LA are in the works…

Monday Night -- Winding down the Trip

2009-06-10T10:44:00.001-07:00

We went out for a two part dinner. We started at the Lucky Labrador (http://www.luckylab.com/) so I could have one last beer with Cassie (Maxine is now limited to root beer… actually, Cassie is limited to water, so I guess I was the only one who had anything alcoholic). Really fun for me to think we could go out to a place that so welcomed dogs hanging out with their owners.

From there we went to the restaurant Higgins (http://higgins.ypguides.net/) and finished off our dinner.

Tomorrow we’re up at 6AM so Maxine can get physical therapy for her shoulder.

Maxine Breaks Shoulder Bone -- Moved From Injured Reserves List to Out for the Season

2009-06-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

This morning (Monday) we went for an office visit with “G&V’s” neighbor, the orthopaedic surgeon I mentioned in a prior post (the one who came to their house to examine Maxine). The doctor, as a favor to our friends, fit Maxine in that morning. Her X-ray showed two breaks in one of her shoulder bones. No torn rotator cuff. No looming surgery. But, she has to guard her shoulder and let the bone heal for the next 6 (!) weeks. Lots of discomfort now and physical therapy looming. In the scheme of things, a serious injury. But, we feel lucky because it could have been much worse. And, we feel incredibly lucky that, through our friends, we were able to connect with a fantastic doctor who made time for us and treated Maxine so well!

Food and Drink Establishments

2009-06-08T20:20:00.001-07:00

Usually when we re-visit a place we discover that it has 'slipped' in our minds. In other words, the restaurants aren't as good, etc. We usually chalk it up to being jaded. And, given that premise, it's hard to think that we are, for some reason, less jaded on this trip to Portland. SO, we constantly marvel at how great the restaurants and beer have gotten. Before (last trip probably 4 years ago), they were OK, meaning good enough, but not something to write about.

NOW, on this trip, we've found any number of extraordinary restaurants (and fantastic brewers). Maxine put a lot of effort into making sure we went to a bunch of them, but even with a month, we never made it to some. And, some that we did make it to, we really wish we had the time to re-visit before we leave back for LA. Next trip...

Having said all that, I did want to say that I rarely found any extraordinary desserts (ones that matched the superlative quality of food or beer). Not sure if that suggests an opportunity for someone here, but at least I suspect it is the next frontier (or I hope it is anyway!)

Portland very much is a first class food city!!!

Weekend -- Maxine on injured reserves, Good times in Lake Oswego

2009-06-08T15:01:00.000-07:00

We started Sunday morning with brunch at Sympatica (http://www.simpaticacatering.com/). Maxine enjoyed her smoked chicken hash with egg on top. Mine, a strawberry and banana pancakes combination was OK, but nothing to brag about. My expectations might have been too high. The chef at Friday night's restaurant, Toro Bravo, had come from here. And, the 20+ people waiting to be seated all said it was a good meal. Perhaps I ordered badly, or at least something that was too easy for them?

On Saturday, we drove down to Lake Oswego, which is around 20 minutes south of downtown Portland. It's an area we'd consider moving, if we were to come up here to stay. Turns out that their Farmer's Market day (recall that we've been enjoying the Saturday ones downtown) is Saturday. We picked up pot pies (http://www.pacificpieco.com/) and lentil soup for dinner later that night, some peanut brittle (http://www.malousbrittle.com/ never can have enough snacks), and ate some breakfast while enjoying the local band playing. One of the things that is so fascinating to us is that these are all local businesses.

The Lake O market is pretty large and we felt like we fit in. Turns out also that we could have brought Cassie. They have an area they call a doggie parking lot with individual stations, including water bowls, for you to tie up your dog while you shop.

Finally, we had dinner with our friends "G" and "V". At dinner, we mentioned that we were looking for a doctor to examine Maxine's shoulder (recall, she'd fallen off the treadmill Friday morning and had been in a *lot* of discomfort since). Turns out that our friends' neighbor is an orthopaedic surgeon -- he came by for a house call to examine Maxine!!!!! (And we all thought house calls went away in the 1960's) He thinks she might have torn her rotator cuff and is going to free some time on his schedule tomorrow for X-rays.

Saturday -- Maxine still on injured reserves list

2009-06-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

We took it slow Saturday. I went over to Powell's Bookstore for a presentation in the afternoon. Aside from that we stayed by the house.

That evening, we walked over to Reed College since they were having fireworks to welcome their alumni back the week after graduation (new students leave, old students return). Fifteen minute fireworks display no more than a five minute walk from our house. (We put Cassie in the basement bathroom with a stereo on so she wouldn't have to hear the fireworks).

(More in the next blog post)

Golf

2009-06-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

We've seen golfers wearing shorts and t-shirts, playing in a drizzle of rain, over the past couple days...

Friday Maxine Goes On the Injured Reserves List

2009-06-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Maxine fell while jogging on a treadmill Friday afternoon. She's healing, but slowly.

So, I (Tom) will do the restaurant review for Friday night. We went to Toro Bravo (http://www.torobravopdx.com/). Really great food. Lots of flavors. Olives with blue cheese inside. Dates with bacon outside. Shreds of prosciutto alongside shreds of lemon peel. Dessert that you dipped in hot chocolate sauce. Interestingly varied mixed drinks menu. They had a huge chalkboard where they listed all their vendors -- I can't help but imagine it must really be a motivator to them.

We'd go back here again in a second. Total cost for dinner was under $60 for 2. Terrific value and very very good food.

Thursday Rain Day

2009-06-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

The rain didn't come until around 5PM, but it changed our plans for the evening. We *had* planned on going to something called First Thursday (http://www.firstthursdayportland.com/) to spend a couple hours looking at what the art galleries were showing. But, we were rained out. It wasn't just a little bit of rain, but at a level where some roads were closed, 1/2 inch hail to the east of Portland, and strong winds that knocked down tree branches. While the storm passed through within an hour, the drizzle continued the rest of the evening. We decided that even if First Thursday was happening (Portlanders are waterproof and don't notice rain), we weren't going to enjoy it.

So, we went to Laurelwood Brewery (http://www.laurelwoodbrewpub.com/) for dinner and called it an early night.

Earlier in the day, I checked out F.H. Steinbart (http://www.fhsteinbart.com/)

Wednesday Flowers

2009-06-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Morning: Maxine and Cassie took a walk over to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens (http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=27&action=ViewPark) so Maxine could look at the flowers and Cassie could yell at the ducks. Both got what they wanted.

Lunch: Otto’s again (http://www.ottossausagekitchen.com/). Grilled hot dogs for Tom and sausage for Maxine. Recall from our earlier post that Otto’s has some of the best hot dogs and sausages in the country. They’re also only a 5 minute walk from our house. After lunch, we went inside so Maxine could pick up a jar of their Coney Island mustard (a mixture of mustard, ketchup, relish, and onions made in Beaverton, Oregon) to take back to LA. We noticed their beer and soda refrigerator. 120 different beers! And this place is no bigger than a 7-11!

Afternoon: We drove over to the International Rose Test Garden (http://www.rosegardenstore.org/thegardens.cfm) since the flowers are now in bloom.

Dinner: At home, prepared by Maxine!

Dessert: We went to a dessert specialty restaurant, Papa Haydn (http://www.papahaydn.com/). They don’t sell only desserts, but they do specialize in them. Their Westmoreland store has a great location with a lawn, flowers, and a fountain. The desserts were pretty, but didn’t taste as good as I’d hoped. I’ve given up my search for desserts in Portland, with this last attempt. While the restaurants here are great, the desserts are only OK.

Por Que No?

2009-06-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Por Que No Taqueria for a (very) casual dinner. There was a line out the door when we arrived at 6:30. Thankfully it moved fast and after ordering we found seats in the back on a funky patio with mismatched furniture, mirrors hanging from the wall and cut out picture banners draped across the area.

Por Que No is a taco bar. There are handmade tortillas with a choice of 9 fillings and some side dishes. We tried six different fillings. They were small. Really! We had chorizo, two different kinds of chicken, two different kinds of beef, and carnitas (pork). Everything tasted good and the chorizo, pollo asado and carnitas were delicious.

This is the kind of place we would go to often if we lived here – something we think about as we’re sitting in restaurants during this trip. Of course, we’d have to see what it was like in the winter when the only place to sit is inside to get out of the cold and rain… (restaurant review from Maxine)

http://porquenotacos.com/

After dinner, we went back to The Horse Brass Pub (http://horsebrass.com/) – Maxine is humoring me by doing this with me. I had Industrial IPA from Diamond Knot in Mikilteo, WA. Then Tricerahops Double IPA from Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, Oregon. You might recall from my earlier post about this place that they have 56 beer taps and reprint their beer menu 3 times each week since they change the beers so often. (tom)

Monday More Non-Sightseeing

2009-06-04T10:17:00.001-07:00

Monday we also did some more non-sightseeing activities. Dinner was at the happy hour for a restaurant called "10-01" Earlier in this trip, I'd been told about how quite a few restaurants in the city (possibly a result of this economy?) are offering discounted happy hour food and drink menus. There's even a book rating them sold at Powells. Maxine blogged about this earlier.

Monday night I had, quite literally, the best burger I've ever eaten. That an a pint of Double Mountain's Hop Lava beer for under $9. Amazing.

Later that evening we drove over to Beaverton and saw the latest Star Trek movie. Surprisingly good!

Pictures

2009-06-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Monday I drove around Portland taking pictures of places we've been and blogged about, but hadn't taken photos of. So, if you look around, there are about a dozen new photos interspersed amoung the various blog entries.

Voodoo Doughnuts

2009-06-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

It's a Portland thing.

http://voodoodoughnut.com/

A doughnut shop licensed to perform weddings. I had a sugar glazed creuller with both peanut butter and chocolate drizzled on top. And, chocolate chips on top of that. It was between that one or the one with the Fruit Loops on top! Maxine didn't get anything...

Looking for Business

2009-06-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Out driving today, I passed one of those places that does $29.99 oil changes.

There was a guy at the corner, waving a sign (we've all seen those signs, about 2 foot by 3 foot wide they use to attract the attention of people driving by) which said that one of their bays was free right now to do an oil change.

It got me thinking about the current bad economy we're going through.

First thought. I wondered if the manager of the shop told the mechanic to go out there with the sign and generate some business so he could get work and continue to get paid.

Second thought. Portland is somewhat of a slow growth/save the environment sort of city. In that context, I would suspect that they city is OK with less driving happening, and thus less car oil changes. However, that is counterbalanced with the idea of people being out of work as a result.

The overall quandry of economics being consumption driven -- growth uses resources like oil and fills landfills, but, it keeps people employed...

The Weekend

2009-06-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

We tried to focus this weekend on doing even more of the sort of things we would do if we lived here. So,,,

We began Saturday with a third trip to the downtown Portland Farmer’s Market. Our goal was to buy some artisanal food to take home to Los Angeles. For immediate eating, we bought strawberries, duck a l’orange pate, cheese, apples, and ciabatta bread, To bring home, we picked up an assortment of honeys -- wild blackberry, meadow foam, wild mountain flower -- from a small producer who is extremely serious about his work. The flavors come from the types of flowers the bees are pollinating. We also bought strawberry rhubarb jam and an interesting curry sauce. We ran into a couple who we’d shared a table with the prior Saturday – small town!

In the afternoon, Tom went to another philosophy group. This one meets at a McMenamins (http://www.mcmenamins.com/) bar which allowed him sample their beers while debating – a potent combination. Afterwards, a stop at Sahagun Chocolates (http://www.sahagunchocolates.com/) to pick up some test items finished the day’s planned activities for him.

Maxine checked out the Museum of Contemporary Crafts and did some shopping in the Pearl District. Walking down the street she ran into the couple we met at Beast on Friday night. Is Portland a very approachable city or is it just small?

As she does most days, Maxine took Cassie for walks each day. It’s a way to check out the neighborhood and it’s also something we can’t do back in LA. The houses in this area, called Eastmoreland, are gorgeous. Tree lined streets, some porches, Craftman-style construction. And, the ice cream guy came jingling his truck down the street Sunday – anyone else remember that from childhood?

On Sunday, we headed back downtown (all of a 15 minute drive). First, to Deschutes (http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/) for dinner and more beer samples. Then, we walked over to Powell’s Bookstore (http://www.powells.com/). It’s been on our list of places to revisit from earlier trips to Portland. The largest bookstore in the United States, Maxine and I always end up feeling like we could spend days there wandering the stacks of new and used books. Of course, the place is such a maze that some of that wandering could also be called ‘being lost’.

We were also at Powell’s for the lecture/booksigning by a friend of Tom’s, Ani Phyo (http://www.aniphyo.com/). They’d met last fall in Groundlings improv class and, given Maxine’s interest in cooking, Tom finds it ironic that he knows a cookbook author…

Beast

2009-05-30T22:50:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful dinner Friday night at Beast. For those of you who are reading the blog carefully, you may remember that Ruth Reichl mentioned that she was eating dinner there the night I heard her speak. It was a great dining experience.

First, the company. There are two tables in the room. Ours seated eight and the other was larger. We were seated with two other couples – two lawyers from Washington, DC and two architects who live here in Portland. Since it’s a prix fixe menu and we all arrived for the 6 p.m. seating, we were all in this together. We seemed to have a lot to talk about so we visited through the entire six-course meal which made it all the more fun.

Second, the food. As I mentioned above, it’s a six-course prix fixe menu with, as they say on their website, “substitutions politely declined”. The good news is that the menu is meat oriented rather than fish which made it more acceptable to Tom. He was a little turned off by what appeared to be attitude but we went anyway and I’m so glad we did. The food was fabulous! We ordered one wine pairing which gave us small glasses matched to each course. I don’t know enough about wine to match specific wines to each course but I can tell when it’s done well and Beast did a great job. I feel like I should just give you the menu since the food was all great:

Chilled curried carrot soup with crème fraiche and spring pea chervil salsa

Charcuterie plate:
Foie-gras bon-bon, sauternes gelee
Steak tartare & quail egg toast
Pork, pork liver, sour cherry & pistachio pate
Chicken liver mousse, maple candied bacon

Lamb loin chop
Smashed red potatoes
Marinated radish & cucumber salad with mint and pinenuts (Tom finished this and he doesn’t like either radishes or cucumbers!)

Arugula salad with strawberries, stilton & aged balsamic vinaigrette

Cheese selection with anise & fleur de sel shortbread, poached fruit, candied hazelnuts

Apricot spice cake with pistachio praline ice cream & rosemary caramel

Candied bacon dipped in chocolate

It was as good as it sounds. I’m so glad we went. http://www.beastpdx.com/

Wineries and Weirdness

2009-05-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

(It’s nearly 7PM as I’m putting this blog entry online. The sun is high enough in the sky that it seems like late afternoon. Portland has very long days in the summer and apparently very short ones in the winter)

Thursday we made our long expedition down to the wine region. It took us about 45 minutes to get there --- everything really is nearby!

We spent the next 4 hours enjoying local wines, Pinot Noir mostly. And eating a very pleasant picnic lunch that Maxine put together from the farmer’s market. The views at the wineries were bucolic: rolling hills, rows of vines, red clover fields and trees. But, at the end of the day, we’d concluded that, as much as we enjoy a day of wine tasting at the source, we don’t like Pinot as much as other red wine varietals.

Later that day, after stopping home for a few hours, we started an exploration of Portland’s Northeast side. We began at something called “Alberta Last Thursday” (http://www.blogger.com/Documents%20and%20Settings/Tom%20Morris/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/GXDE1ELI/artonalberta.org/last_thursday.html). The last Thursday of every month during the summer, about a dozen art galleries stretched across a 15 block range (on Alberta Street) opened up in the evening, or so we’d read. So, we were a bit puzzled when we got there to find the streets, even side streets, closed off and parking difficult 2 blocks away. After parking, we walked over to Alberta Street for one of the most amazing open air street parties we’ve ever seen. Guys on stilts leading marching bands. Crowds of hundreds following the band. Guys doing Brazilian judo in the streets in time to music. Performance artists dressed in orange bodysuits. People dressed only in their bathrobes. People selling things they’d made. Portable restaurants. Dogs. Thousands of people walking on the sidewalks and in the streets. This party was as good as the ones they hold to celebrate sunset at Mallory Square in Key West, or Mardi Gras in New Orleans. We were so sorry that we didn’t bring the camera with us to take pictures.

There’s a saying here (of course, you can buy the bumper sticker) “Keep Portland weird.” This event honors that goal.

Oh yeah, we figure that we were in the oldest 10% of the people there.

P.S. The wineries we visited earlier in the day, all of whom served good wine, were:
1. Penner-Ash http://www.pennerash.com/
2. WillaKenzie http://www.willakenzie.com/
3. Anne Amie http://www.anneamie.com/
4. Domaine Drouhin http://www.domainedrouhin.com/en/index.php?contentVersion=7
5. Sokol Blosser http://www.sokolblosser.com/

Thanks to Jen for the recommendations!

Washington State and Pendleton

2009-05-30T18:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was our day to “check out” Washington as a place to live. Washington and Oregon have an interesting difference in the way they tax their citizens. Oregon does not have a sales tax. Washington does not have an income tax. So, it’s possible to play the two states’ tax differences – you live in Washington (and arrange your work so that you’re based there) and buy stuff in Oregon.

There’s no secret to this. It’s a major reason for the development of Vancouver, Washington which is just across the river from Portland.

Our final decision – we’ll stick with Oregon. Two reasons. First, while Vancouver is nearby, it isn’t as close to Portland as we’d like, especially during rush hours. The second reason is that the railroad runs along the Washington shore line – in other words, right next to the houses closest to Portland.

We did take advantage of our drive to stop at the Pendleton (http://www.pendleton-usa.com/) mill and outlet store. We saw the process of turning raw wool into yarn and then into cloth which was especially interesting for Maxine since she’s been learning about weaving. Years ago, Pendleton proved to me that they value their customers, and besides, I believe they’re the largest wool clothing manufacturer in the US. Yes, as Southern California residents, we don’t often wear wool, but we do occasionally.

Finally, Wednesday night, I made the drive over to Beaverton (home of Nike), about 20 minutes from here, for a Philosophy study group I’d learned of through meetup.com. Seventeen people and a very interesting discussion on the topic of why we care about things and what it’s important to care about. And yes, I do enjoy multi-hour conversations on topics like that.

Why People Move

2009-05-30T18:25:00.001-07:00

A couple years ago Maxine and I had some intense discussions about moving from LA. It seems appropriate to revisit this with a blog entry given that we’re here in Portland thinking some of the same thoughts.

While people give lots of different reasons when they move, it seems that the most common two reasons are for family, or for economics.

By family I mean anything from wanting or needing to be closer to family, to moving to be with someone for ‘romantic’ reasons – basically, moving because some sort of relationship to another person draws you to the new place.

By economics, I mean anything from seeking/moving for a job, to moving to change careers, moving for a career experience, to moving someplace more affordable (i.e. retirees going to Florida).

Neither of these really applies for Maxine and me. And, that’s what makes Portland such a quandary for us. Moving is such an important decision, and there are an enormous number of things we really like about Portland, but in our circumstances moving is an elective decision. Which is why we keep talking …

Wildwood Restaurant (by Maxine)

2009-05-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

We had the best dinner last night.

We went to Wildwood, one of the restaurants that pioneered Northwest-style cuisine – very fresh, local ingredients with interesting flavor combinations. Wonderful service and a great eating experience. This is a place that cares about the food and the staff shared the enthusiasm. http://www.wildwoodrestaurant.com/

Highlights were the fresh veggies (asparagus, spring onions and cardoons, which have stems like celery) with a light tempura-like crust, and served with an aioli dipping sauce and the raviolo (a huge ravioli) stuffed with cheese in a brown butter sauce with many fresh vegetables. I also loved the honey ice cream (delicate and better as it melted a little) and the rhubarb sorbet (never had this flavor before). It was tangy and a little bit sweet and made me think of spring. More dishes to try to make at home.

Everything tasted fresh, clean, with clearly identifiable flavors. We loved it. And, to cap off the experience, the waiter realized we were from out of town and gave us a list of restaurants to try while we’re in Portland. All in all, a great dinner!

Hood River Excursion

2009-05-27T22:41:00.001-07:00

Tuesday we took an excursion eastward. We weren’t sure how long we’d be gone, so we bundled Cassie into the back seat and headed out of town.

We drove out along the Columbia River. First stop, Multnomah Falls. Lots of water. Rocks that have moss on them.

Next stop, the town of Hood River. Great river views. Around 50 guys and girls windsurfing and kite surfing. The air was surprisingly warm, but they told us the water temperature was in the 50’s, so they were wearing wet suits. From what we understand, Hood River has lots of wind congenial to these sports.

Then we stopped at the Bonneville Dam. Built in the 1930’s, it apparently generates 80% of the region’s electric power (helps them have ‘clean energy’).

We were home by 4, which, as Cassie pointed out, meant that we needn’t have taken her…

Memorial Day

2009-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

We wanted to do something today that recognized the holiday and Maxine came up with the idea of going to a baseball game (we’d had hot dogs and apple pie the day before). She noticed something in the paper – turns out that Portland has a AAA minor league team. The Oregon Beavers are a Padres farm team (for those family members who will care). Everything is so convenient in this city. The ballpark is 15 minutes away, right in the middle of downtown.

This is a great way to see the games. The concession stands sell a variety of interesting beers, but, Widmer’s, one of the large local breweries, has a “special” area where only their beer is poured. Their area starts at first base, and runs just off the foul line all the way down the right field line (“incoming foul balls”!) What a fantastic way to see a baseball game. Sitting at tables and chairs at the field level. Our original seats were about 30 feet back from first base, maybe 10 feet off the foul line. We gradually moved up and eventually we were sitting closer to the first base coach than he was to first base! Low 70’s weather. Great seats. Perfect Memorial Day afternoon. Oh yeah, the Beavers won 2-1.

And, later that day, we met a friend from the Maltose Falcons and her husband, who were visiting from LA, at the brewpub Roots. (They do have good beer).

Family Visit

2009-05-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

Sunday we got together with Maxine’s cousin (the one who’s been here 25 years), his wife, and their daughter for a BBQ at their place. He’s from Southern California but has been up here long enough to really know the way around and has been a great source of advice and perspective on the city and the state. As we think about the possibility of moving, it’s nice to know they’re here.

Saturday Cocooning

2009-05-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Just did two things Saturday. Started the day at the Farmer’s Market – our second visit and an absolute highlight. We’ll be there every Saturday during our stay in Portland.

Spent the rest of the day reading in the backyard, watching movies, and otherwise doing nothing much – just like we’d do if we were home in LA.

Fireworks -- Start of the Rose Festival Season

2009-05-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Portland’s nickname is “the Rose City” [same as Toulouse, France, but there it’s for the color of the bricks and here it’s for the roses]. Portland makes a big deal out of the first rose blooms of the year. They have parades and more parades, boat races, concerts, an amusement park and … fireworks. It seems to us like another indicator that the residents are so excited that the winter rains (and snows) have ended that they really want to celebrate.

Friday was for fireworks. Twenty continuous minutes of them. None of that launch one, wait for it to explode, wait for the smoke to blow away, then launch another. This was grand finale level stuff for almost the whole time.

The sun sets very late here in the summer, so they started the show at 10:15 PM. Luckily Maxine’s cousin, a Californian who’s been up here for 25 years, suggested a super location to watch the fireworks and avoid the crowds.

Earlier in the afternoon, we spent nearly 3 hours walking the urban part of Portland, called the Pearl District. Lots of interesting shops and restaurants.

Even earlier in the day, I rented a zipcar.com for two hours to go to the Oak Bottom Public House (not worth it!) while Maxine worked out. My car, named Iberia (zipcar names its cars) was waiting 476 steps from our house front door.

Neighborhood Familiarization

2009-05-25T12:53:00.001-07:00

After walking to Otto’s for a lunch of grilled hotdogs, spicy pork sausages and chicken sausages (yes, we ate a lot!), we were feeling very positive about the neighborhood and doing local things. We spent some time driving around, marveling at how many classic Craftsman-style homes there were.

Dinner time neared and we decided on pizza. Our pre-trip research had turned up 2 “serious” pizza places. Earlier in the trip we went to Ken’s Artisan Pizza (http://www.kensartisan.com/pizza.html) and today we tried Apizza Scholls (http://www.apizzascholls.com/). We liked Ken’s better. If the decision were only about pizza, Ken’s would have won, but just slightly. However, Apizza Scholls has got attitude. Not “I work hard to make good pizza and hope you enjoy it” attitude, but “I know I make good pizza and if you think otherwise, you should go somewhere else” attitude. Maybe it is good pizza. But, especially with the prices they charge, they’re a restaurant and need to realize it.

After dinner we spent an hour at the Eastmoreland community meeting learning what sorts of issues the residents of our neighborhood are concerned about. We also learned that the city of Portland has a deep attitude of community involvement – there are 25+ neighborhood associations for Southeast Portland alone.

Food Network Alert!!!

2009-05-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives will feature Otto’s Sausage Kitchen on Monday, May 25th at 10 pm. This is a great place! And we’re lucky that it’s walking distance from our house. We walked there with Cassie for lunch Thursday – delicious!

"Taking Your Dog To Paris" versus "Bringing Your Dog To Paris"

2009-05-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

After re-reading some of my earlier posts I wanted to make a distinction between "Taking Your Dog To Paris" and "Bringing Your Dog To Paris". At Cal State LA's Philosophy MA program I learned to make distinctions in words and, in the context of this blog, making this kind of dog-distinction seems useful.

It seems to me that Taking Your Dog To Paris has a similar meaning to Taking Your Wife To Paris, or Taking Your Daughter To Paris. In this sort of usage, you are saying that what is important about Paris is that your dog/wife/daughter get to visit the city, that there is something good about going to Paris that you want to share with your dog/wife/daughter (although I guess the reverse holds as well, that you could be Taking Your Neighbor To Work, for example).

Bringing Your Dog To Paris is, to me, something more similar in usage to Bringing Your Raincoat To Paris or Bringing Your Credit Card To Paris. In this usage, what you bring you are bringing because it is useful to you. So, if you've brought your dog or raincoat or credit card it's because you think you'll find them useful.

So, we're bringing our dog Cassie to Paris. We think she'll be useful to us (no, not as a guard dog!). We're looking forward to seeing if we are right!

--Just wanted to reprint this post to mitigate against the any dog-emphasis to this blog
--Aug 23, 2006, doginparis.blogspot.com

Lucy's Table

2009-05-20T21:48:00.001-07:00

So apparently happy hours are big in Portland. Many nice restaurants have discounted happy hour and bar menus. Last night we went to “social hour” at Lucy’s Table before going to see Angels and Demons downtown. http://www.lucystable.com/

All small plates were ½ price as well as a number of special drinks. The highlights were the corndogs and the bruschetta. The corndogs had a beer batter tempura crust and were served with wasabi mustard and home-made ketchup dipping sauces. Those who know Tom won’t be surprised that he ordered these but I can also tell you that the wasabi mustard was wonderful. This is another recipe I have to try to make at home. I also liked the bruschetta – chicken liver pate, mushroom, and beef/beet – all good, especially the chicken liver pate. We need to find more happy hours to try…

Kindness of Strangers

2009-05-20T21:47:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you notice a small thing and it helps you understand a larger truth, or at least what you imagine to be true.

Last night we were in our car, heading to the movies. The road was an uphill drive. Not a steep uphill that you’d think twice about walking, but sloped upwards nonetheless. At the base of the hill, a stop light, a man in a green t-shirt, probably in his 30’s and healthy looking. In a wheelchair. Another man passes by, walking briskly. The guy in the wheelchair calls out, they speak for a few seconds, and then the walking man steps behind the wheelchair and begins pushing up the hill. I can see them in my rear view mirror, the wheel chair’d man’s arms spinning his chair wheels fast, as the two of them work together.

It was obvious from their initial exchange that they did not know each other.

It was nice to see people in urban Portland interacting that way – helping each other.

I have a difficult time imagining the same thing happening in my home town, Los Angeles.

Sometimes I come to conclusions too quickly, but I’d prefer to think I haven’t here.

Lucky Labrador

2009-05-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

The Lucky Lab advertises itself as a dog friendly brewpub – an ambitious goal in a dog friendly city with plenty of brewpubs. Dogs are allowed at their outside seating area filled with picnic tables. But, since that could fit roughly 100 people plus maybe 40 dogs, that wasn’t a problem.

Since we’d started planning this trip to Portland, I’d been intending to take Cassie, our 12 pound Sheltie, to the Lucky Lab.

We arrived at 4 PM on Monday to join the 30 people and 6 dogs already enjoying the 80 degree sunny weather. Maxine and I got a sampler of 6 different beers including the Super Dog IPA (my favorite), Stumptown Porter, and Black Lab Stout (Maxine’s favorites). We also shared a glass of black raspberry mead that they had on tap. Through all of this, Cassie roamed over the limited area around our table, growled a few times at otherwise friendly dogs who tried to visit her, and snacked on the dog treats the Lucky Lab provides in a big bucket.

Good beer plus atmosphere (the dog-friendly accommodations) make this my favorite to date. Next time we’ll try the food too.

Clyde Common

2009-05-19T14:45:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful light lunch yesterday at Clyde Common. It’s another restaurant that’s receiving a lot of press and it’s warranted. What I loved about the meal was the use of very fresh, high quality ingredients that came through in the food.

Tom ordered best. He had potato-onion soup with peas and olive oil. It was absolutely fabulous. You tasted the range of flavors both separately and as a blend. He also ordered a side of grilled asparagus that was perfectly cooked and dressed with olive oil and balsamic. It was both sweet and grassy. I had the grilled flatbread with chickpea spread and a side salad. The bread and spread were both good but the side salad was the best example of my point about fresh, high quality ingredients. It was just simple lettuce leaves dressed with a light vinaigrette and it was delicious. It made me think that I need to either grow lettuce myself or find good sources of very fresh lettuce at the farmer’s market since I really could taste the difference.

Tom says this was the best meal we’ve had so far in Portland. The dinner menu at Clyde Common (http://www.amateur-blogs.com/free_galleries/2009/promo/118//)
is also interesting and we may have to go back before we leave the city.

Random Notes From Sunday And Monday

2009-05-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

We spent Sunday afternoon with old friends at their house – we’ve known them since Tom worked with “G” at Peat Marwick nearly 20 years ago. Really good to see old friends…

Their son, who’s been raised in the Pacific Northwest, had an interesting observation last time he was down in Anaheim/Southern California. He kept looking out the windows of the airport shuttle, worried, and finally asked his father, “Dad, what happened here? What killed all the plants”. It was a great thing to notice. For those of you NOT from Southern California, our trees and plants are much browner, dead looking, than the Northwest.

Rain. Our car got splattered with dozens of bugs on the 2 ½ day drive up from LA to Portland. Brown bugs. Black ones. Yellow ones. Even purple ones. The front of the car looked so bad we actually wondered what our new neighbors would think of us.

While there hasn’t been much rain since we arrived 10 days ago, there’s been enough to clean the car without doing anything. A benefit to the rains?

Monday we filled our day up with a myriad of smaller things. First, we drove around the Northwest neighborhoods of Arlington Heights and Washington Park, looking at houses and trying to imagine if we could live in this area. Then, we stopped by Ken’s Bakery (http://www.kensartisan.com/) to pick up some bread to have around the house. This was our second bread purchase there. Then we took an hour walk along the Portland city waterfront (picture). And then we had lunch at Clyde Common (Maxine’s description follows this entry). And then we went to the Lucky Lab (see separate entry). Tuesday we’re mostly going to stay at home and catch up on things (aside from going to see Angels & Demons, and out for dinner)

Horse Brass Pub

2009-05-19T14:43:00.002-07:00

Maxine was really humoring me Saturday. The Wharton event had ended, we’d stopped at Target on the way back to our house, and it was still only about 8 PM. “Would you be OK trying another beer place?” I asked. So, we stopped home to check on Cassie and then drove the 10 minutes over to the Horse Brass Pub.

It’s a dark, rough beamed place, with flags and old posters around. Opened in 1976. People talking loudly in big groups. Darts games going in several directions. Gloomy yellow lighting. Have I discouraged you yet?

56 beers on tap. They reprint their beers menu 3 times EACH WEEK as they change out what they’re serving. This place is a MUST VISIT.

Noticing me reading the beer menu, our waitress came over, so I asked her help. “I like hoppy IPA’s, but more for flavor/finishing hops, not for bittering. Can you recommend something?”

How many places could you say something like that and get a credible answer in return? Here, anyway you could.

Our beers for the night: I started with the recommended Vortex IPA from St. George Brewing in Astoria, Oregon. And, it was exactly what I was looking for. Then, I had an Old Tavern Rat Aged Dark Barleywine (despite the name, Barleywine is a beer style) from Lompoc Brewing here in Portland. Also very very good. And, no rat’s tails in my glass. Maxine had a Black Cherry Stout from Walking Man Brewing in Stevenson, Washington. This one was extraordinary (the others were too, but this was unique). When you started to taste it, the mouthful began with black cherry flavors dominating, but then your mouth would notice as the coffee stout flavor took over – this in each mouthful! Fantastic.

Even though we have quite a few more beer places to check out in the time we have, we’ll be back to the Horse Brass Pub – maybe in a few days after they’ve changed their beer menu!

Cassie's Got Her Mojo Back

2009-05-19T14:43:00.001-07:00

Mojo is just a fun word to use. What I mean is that Cassie has her confidence back.

Maxine and I are the ones who damaged it in the first place.

Earlier in this trip, we did a lot of walking with Cassie. And, when we’d come home she’d slip on the polished wood floors of the house we’re renting (photo is Cassie in front of the stairs).

It’s a two-story house and we go up and down all the time, expecting Cassie to follow. But, either from tiredness or just the slipperiness, she started falling. She’d get up two steps then slide down, or, she’d stand at the top of the stairs afraid to take that first step down.

We felt bad for her, and thought we might be to blame having gotten her too tired (she’s 10 years old). So, we began carrying her up and down the stairs rather than expecting her to manage on her own. “We’ll only do this for two days to let her rest up.”

Dumb idea. We fed into her fear of the stairs and taught her that we’d take care of things. After two days of being carried she would not go either up or down on her own. It took a week for her to get her self confidence back. Now, happily, she bounds up and down the stairs freely.

What struck me was the parallel between how we’d treated Cassie, and raising children or managing people. Do you help them, especially if you care for them and don’t want to see them fall? Especially if you can help them so easily? It’s tempting, but you risk something bigger.

Wharton Club at Et Fille Winery

2009-05-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

Since Maxine graduated from Wharton, we decided to go to their school/club event in Newberg, Oregon, which is roughly thirty minutes south of the house we're renting.

Et Fille Wines. http://www.etfillewines.com/about.html Terrific small winery – they made roughly 2000 cases last year. They’re growing at a good rate, up 50% this coming year, and hope to surpass Gallo in 10 years (a joke from Howard, the pere/father). The event was hosted by Howard and his daughter (and Wharton grad), Jessica/fille.

Maxine and I went to this for the obvious reason… No… Not for the wine, although it was very good Pinot Noir. We went hoping to talk to people who live here in Portland. People who might have moved here (or at least they spent a couple years in Philadelphia). They were more than generous with their time, as well as tolerant of our questions. (i.e. Is the weather always like this? Do you go to the Farmers’ Market? How long is your commute?)

Howard and Jessica make nice wine, and Maxine and I are appreciative of the fact that we were able to attend this event.

Farmer's Market

2009-05-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we went to “The Farmer’s Market”. I need to be specific about which one, since there are over thirty farmer’s markets held each week in Portland (http://www.portlandfarmersmarket.org/).Before I get to the praise towards this market, it’s worth noting that, unlike LA, they do not run year round – which is just about their only deficiency, the only thing that keeps them from absolute perfection.

So...we drive over and find a place to park, six blocks away from the address we've got. We don’t give the distance much thought; it’s a crowded neighborhood and we assume that’s why parking is scarce.

We put money into the parking meter – only have enough change for 1 hour + 12 minutes. Seems fine, in fact, seems like plenty of time…

Wrong! This is bigger than any market we’d found in Paris in 2006! Really. Around 150 vendor stands. We’ve never seen anything like it. And, it’s not just produce from the farms, but also artisanal food products that people make in small batches to sell. Real fruit sodas (with bits of fruit in them). Three different booths that sell only honey. Four or five bakeries. At least that many who sell cheese. A truffle guy (apparently Oregon is the largest US truffle producer). Two different apple sellers – each with 10+ different types of apples for sale. A stand that does bicycle repairs, in case you biked over… If I’m not taking your breath away with the scope of this thing, I’m sure I haven’t described enough of what we saw. Not a problem though. There will be another blog entry on this one next week! Plans include going to the farmer’s market for our neighborhood Thursday (roughly 50 vendor stands, we’re told), and, back to this one next Saturday.

P.S. Most of these pictures are overview ones. Maxine’s made me promise to have more product pictures next time.

Pok Pok

2009-05-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

I’d (Maxine) heard about this restaurant from several sources including friends and family who read Food and Wine, Ruth Reichl at her speech on Wednesday night and Portland Monthly magazine’s “Best of 2008”, Oregonian 2007 Restaurant of the Year. It’s definitely a hot restaurant and, some say, one of the best Thai restaurants in the country. (http://www.pokpokpdx.com/)

It turns out that Pok Pok is less than ten minutes away from our rental house. It’s in an up and coming neighborhood and is the kind of funky place we’ve seen often here in Portland. It’s a converted house with picnic tables in the front yard and grills in the back. We sat on the front porch and I ordered the sour plum vodka sour recommended by Portland Monthly. It was a tangy drink with pieces of plum and a sweet-sour taste which worked well with the spicy food.

Since Pok Pok specializes in grilled food, we ordered a variety including Kaa Yaang, its signature grilled guinea hen with cilantro, lemongrass, and garlic and a wonderful sweet and sour dipping sauce. The dipping sauces for all of the meats we ordered were different flavors that complemented the meats and were absolutely delicious. We also had the Muu Sateh, pork skewers with peanut sauce and a tangy, spicy cucumber salad. My favorite meat was the Sii Khrong Muu Yaang which was baby back ribs marinated in whisky, soy, honey and ginger with two dipping sauces. I would have preferred ribs cut lengthwise rather than crosswise but I suppose that’s the American rather than the Thai way. Tom ordered the Khao Soi Kai, a chicken noodle soup with curry and coconut milk, his favorite flavors at a Thai restaurant.

All is all, it was a very good dinner. I enjoyed the food and the very vivid flavors. I also wish that I’d had a chance to try the green papaya salad and the flank steak. So, even though my expectations may have been a little unrealistic given the hype, I hope we’ll have time to go back so that I can try other dishes.

Hott

2009-05-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

Later Friday, Maxine, Cassie & I went walking neighborhoods. The weather has been tremendous the past few days and we've felt the energy of the city pick up, as well as our own. People walking everywhere. The guy at the coffee shop (Stumptown Coffee) said business is off because everyone is out enjoying the weather. And, while all of this is good, Maxine & I find it troubling that our mood is susceptible to the weather, for the obvious reasons about Portland's incidence of rain and grey skies... Gives us food for thought as we consider possibilities about moving here and makes us wonder how much the uniformly good weather in Los Angeles has seeped into our perspectives. Truthfully, we are hoping for some more rain so we can see how we react to it.

But, in the interim, we're enjoying long days (the skies have some blue in them till nearly 9pm), greenery, flowers, and chances to look at neighborhoods. And, that brings us to our dog-in-Portland story. While strolling through the Sellwood neighborhood, we (Maxine, Cassie, & I) walked past a dozen high school girls. We warned them that Cassie was not very friendly. The girl replied, "Well, she's hot(t) with two T's". So, here are two Cassie photos, at the window inside our house, the other posing in Sellwood.

Portland Japanese Garden

2009-05-16T12:16:00.001-07:00

Friday, I went to the Portland Japanese Gardens and Maxine hung out with Atwood (the name of the car that she rented so she could go work out). Zipcar places cars in locations throughout the city and you reserve online. You show up at the proper time, wave your pass card, and the car is yours. The car was parked about 600 yards from our house in the parking lot at Reed College. (When you're done, you park the car back in it's spot, lock up, and walk away...)

Food Carts

2009-05-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today (Thursday) we went downtown with two purposes in mind – to explore the area and to eat at a food cart or carts. For those who don’t know, Portland has an amazing assortment of food carts in various areas with many gathered downtown. These are full mobile kitchens and are not at all roach coaches. On Alder Street there must be 20 food carts with almost as many types of food. Let me just name some of the food types: Bosnian, Mexican, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Greek, Israeli, Crepes, Mediterranean, Italian, Peruvian, American, Vegetarian, Coffee Shop, and more that I can’t remember at this point.

I tried Bosnian food at Ziba’s Pitas which had one of the longest lines and newspaper clippings praising Ziba’s food. Bosnian pita was more like a bready pierogi than typical middle eastern pita bread. I had a combination plate with 2 types of stuffed pitas -- Burek (beef, onions, potatoes) and Zeljanica (spinach, eggs, cottage cheese, sour cream) – plus sour cream cucumber salad, and ajvar (grilled vegetable sauce). It was enough food for two people for less than $6. Unfortunately, Tom had already bought a chile relleno burrito (yes the chile relleno was IN the burrito) at another cart so I didn’t have any help eating it.

The cart food experience was great and we’re going to try others while we’re here. Check out this website and you’ll get an idea about the amazing variety.(http://foodcartsportland.com/)

Wednesday Night: Ruth Reichl, Bridgeport Brewing

2009-05-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

Last night I (Maxine) went to hear Ruth Reichl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Reichl) speak at the Baghdad Theatre. For those who don’t know, Reichl is the editor of Gourmet Magazine and she’s on a tour promoting her new book, “Not Becoming My Mother”. We received a copy that I now have signed by Ruth. While the title of the book is literally true, Reichl said the book is actually about taking advantage of the career opportunities that were not available to women of our mothers’ generation and is her way of thanking her mother for encouraging her to soar. It was a great presentation and I even came away with some restaurant recommendations!

The other significant point about this presentation is that it took place at the Baghdad Theatre (http://www.mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=9&id=176) which is quite a place. It’s run by the McMenamin brothers and is also a movie theater with full bar and food service at tables interspersed throughout the auditorium. It’s quite an experience and I’m sure it would make seeing a movie into a full evening’s entertainment event.

Tom, as noted earlier, spent the time at Bridgeport Brewing. This was purely to accomodate the fact that we've only got one car and Bridgeport is adjacent to the Baghdad Theatre.

Tuesday & Wednesday: Beer Beer and more Beer

2009-05-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Beer brewing is one of my passions – I don’t think I’m particularly good at it, but I am interested. Part of it is the process; Maxine compares beer making to wine making, with the former more science and the later more art. These are gross generalizations, but I like them and they help to explain why I find beer making appealing. Not too much relying on ‘the gods’, “just follow the recipe” and you’ll have something in a month.

In LA, I’m a member of the oldest homebrew club in the United States, the Maltose Falcons (http://www.maltosefalcons.com/). Figuring that meeting Portlanders who share my interest would give useful insights to life in this city, I’d contacted the Oregon Brew Crew aka OBC (http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/home.html) to see if I could attend one of their meetings. Their President, Aaron Cohen, graciously said yes.

Beer #1: Tuesday evening’s club meeting was held at Rock Bottom Brewing (http://www.rockbottom.com/) in downtown Portland. The club had roughly 80 attendees at the meeting. The people were all very welcoming, putting up with my questions about life in their city. Aaron couldn’t have been more helpful or informative and I appreciated this chance to do something I’m sure I’d be part of if we moved here. I had their IPA and also a winter Belgian. Both were great. Fred Eckhart, a very long time beer advocate, who’s a member of the OBC, was there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Eckhardt). In the home brew world, this is a non-trivial thing...

Beer #2: Wednesday’s lunch was another beer opportunity (Portland has more breweries than any other city in the world). Maxine and I went to Hopworks Urban Brewery (http://www.hopworksbeer.com/) for lunch. They’re another organic brewery (see blog entry for “Roots”), but on a much larger scale, probably 5 or 6 times as large. They’ve obviously invested money in their building, which is in a trendy area of Southeast Portland. It was a fine, but somewhat sterile experience. I really enjoyed their IPA, and they had at least 12 of their own beers on tap, giving us many chances to experience what they could brew. But, tons of different logo’d merchandise for sale had me wondering if they weren’t a little too focused on marketing themselves. And, to cap it off, I spotted a folder behind the counter labeled “Employee Self Evaluation”. Just a bit too corporate and planned out for me, especially after comparing it to Roots which was downright rustic.

Oh yeah, we started the day at Stumptown Coffee (http://www.stumptowncoffee.com/). And, just now as I’m typing this, it’s raining. Beer. Coffee. Food. Rain. The PDX themes.

P.S. Beer #3 is tonight, when I’m planning on going to Bridgeport Brewing.

P.P.S. In the house we’re renting, there are no curtains on any of the bedroom windows. All that early morning light puts my slothful tendencies to shame and has me feeling some sort of moral (as in “get up early and go do something healthy”) imperative which I’ve been resisting so far. Have to find another brewpub to help me over the guilt.

Monday, Park Kitchen Review

2009-05-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Since I (Maxine) am the foodie in the family, I’ll be contributing occasional restaurant descriptions to the blog. Last night we went to Park Kitchen which is at the edge of the Pearl District near downtown. This restaurant has been around for a while, gets great reviews and I’d wanted to try it but never had a chance during previous trips to Portland.

Well it deserves its good reputation. Although it’s a tiny place with just a few tables and a view into the open kitchen it has an ambitious and creative menu. The guy who greeted us also waited on us and remembered our names. We enjoyed his banter; his knowledge of the menu and recommendations were spot on. The menu is divided into Small Hot Plates, Small Cold Plates and Large Plates and I could have ordered just about anything and been happy. We decided to have an assortment of small plates which is always great since you get to try more things.

As the experimental member of this couple, I followed our waiter’s recommendation and tried baby octopus for the first time. Tom was a little mortified when he realized that the chef heard him say “yuck!” when he delivered the sizzling skillet of octopus to our table. We were extra nice to him later to make it up to him. The octopus was cut into pieces so that I couldn’t recognize its original state (a good thing) and tasted garlicky, buttery and delicious, sort of like sautéed calamari. I would order it again. I also had chickpea fries with an Indian spiced squash ketchup and grilled asparagus (the skinny pencil size) with olive salsa and slow-roasted tesa. If you don’t know what tesa is, you’re not alone. I learned that it is pork and it tasted like thick cut pancetta. All were a little unusual and all were delicious.

Tom ordered buckwheat & rhubarb soup with foie gras – he can never resist foie gras. This combination was sweet, tart and a little crunchy all at the same time. Not my favorite but Tom liked it. His duck terrine with pistachios was served with a grainy mustard and crumbly crackers. It was a combination of sweet and savory and made me think that I need to learn to make terrine so that I can eat it more often! He also had a flank steak salad with blue cheese and sherried onions which was similar to steak salad that we’ve had before but better. The key is the sherried onions, I think.

The chef says that the menu changes frequently so we’ll go back in early June to check out the late spring/early summer version. Given the seasonal ingredients, I’m sure it will be equally interesting.

Arrival -- Saturday Afternoon Through Sunday

2009-05-12T17:35:00.001-07:00

The house is great – having done everything about this over the internet we were nervous. The neighborhood is ideal. Within 24 hours, two different sets of neighbors have stopped by to introduce themselves. A few minor hiccups (no shades in the bedroom mean waking up at sunrise, and, the kitchen stove could have been cleaner). But, we’re settling in.

The house has two floors plus a finished basement. Upstairs, we’ve unpacked into the master bedroom and I’ve got a desk in the second bedroom, looking out at tall trees, cherry blossoms, and the house next door. On the main floor, a huge eat-in kitchen, a dining room that we’ll probably never use. Living room with three chairs, a sofa, and a fireplace. And, beyond it, a sun room with TV, two more sofa’s, and a desk that Maxine has claimed as hers. (It works for us to each have our own space, not close to each other, especially since neither of us goes into an office.)

Reed College is 1 ½ blocks away, so after settling in, we take Cassie for a walk on their large lawns. It’s a stunningly beautiful day in the mid-70’s. On the walk Cassie barks at one student and I apologize, joking that “college kids scare her”. He assents. He’s heard it before?

Steve Jobs of Apple Computer gave a very interesting commencement speech a few years ago mentioning what he learned attending Reed College:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Sunday we drive 6 miles to downtown Portland and the Saturday Market (on Sunday, the Saturday Market. Yes. It runs both days each weekend). It is a ‘sight’. People selling homemade soaps, tie dyed clothing, wind chimes, wood carvings, crocheted pot holders, leather belts, vegan leather belts (they looked like leather), and various food stands (with and without meat). Rather than let Cassie get scared and maybe stepped on by the large crowds, I carried her for the two hours we were there. She got dozens and dozens of cooing sounds and smiles from people who saw her. One teen girl came over and asked to pet Cassie and when I warned that Cassie wasn’t friendly, she wistfully replied, “Well, she’s beautiful…”

Sunday night Maxine and I went to an organic brewpub, Roots, for dinner and beer (http://rootsorganicbrewing.com/blog/our-beer/). I’ll confess that I find a lot of the Portland environmental/organic emphasis silly. But, I respect people who fully walked their talk. At Roots, they buy the beef for their burgers from an organic farmer who delivers the meat himself. They compost 98% of their waste.

Beer-wise, I started with a “Woody IPA”, which had a nice tang from the hops. Not excessively bitter, which was good, but it also didn’t have much of the piney aroma from the dry hopping. I also had a “Island Red” which was surprisingly good. I think of that style as having a bite, but not much flavor. But, Roots’ had a great malty taste.

Maxine had an Alameda Brewing Black Bear Stout, a “guest tap” (http://www.alamedabrewhouse.com/beers_house.html) that was terrific. Dark, smoky, creamy, smooth, soft mouth feel.

Our waiter was more than fantastic. He poured us free samples of three other beers. And, knowing we were visiting, he wrote up a list of seven more brew pubs he recommended. If the food and beer experiences in Portland are all like this…

Candy, On The Drive To Portland

2009-05-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

We’re counting on many food experiences on this trip. (Picture is Maxine at the Jelly Belly plant.)

An hour north of Pleasanton we come unexpectedly on the first one. A sign at the side of the freeway reads, “Jelly Belly”…

Jelly beans. Really good ones. Maxine calls their switchboard. Sure, come by. We do tours all day. We’re at the plant in 15 minutes. Touring a candy factory -- how much more fun can it be? And besides, Maxine and I originally met while working for M&M/Mars.

The tour was fine. Not very detailed, but what you’d expect. Trays and trays of jelly beans in more colors than you see in a rainbow. Millions of them. At the end of the tour, the guide hands out free bags of them and points us towards the souvenir shop. Maxine resists my begging – I’d wanted to buy the 10 pound case. She compromises at 2 pounds worth. They become snacks for the drive and taste great. And, we have over a pound left for the cold, rainy Portland days I’ve been imaging.

Aside from that surprise, the trip passed uneventfully. By the afternoon of the second day, we’d run out of talking and were listening to music. Seat belted in the rear seat, Cassie was peaceful, except for occasional barking. I thought back on two-day drives to Florida during my childhood and how challenging it must have been for my parents with four kids – but, at least we didn’t bark at motorcycles.

Oh, and along with the motorcycles, Cassie spent a lot of time barking at tall trees. That, though, was a new one. Even though she lives in LA, she’s seen trees, but never this many in one place. We’re not sure what about them bothers her, aside from the newness, but she did not like the trees. Urban dog!

The Argument Against Planning

2009-05-11T17:59:00.002-07:00

In my last blog, I talked, probably too proudly, about Maxine and me as planners. Our reflex to always organize and plan served us in our work life. But, having said that, a very specific warning about overplanning comes to mind.

Years ago, we’d made plans to spend a weekend in Provence, France with our friend Bill. We had our checklists of sights, tour books, maps. After an afternoon’s sightseeing, we were headed back to the hotel (we, of course, had dinner reservations). Bill spotted a sign for the local olive oil cooperative and announced that he wanted to check it out. We didn’t, not particularly, but since Bill was driving…

It was fun. And the point of the story is this. Years ago Maxine and I had absolutely fallen in love with the idea of Provence, having read Peter Mayle’s book, “A Year In Provence”. If there had ever been a first motivation to visit the area, that book generated it! His lyrical stories about the food, the people, the land, intrigued us for many years and made us want to go.

And now after having finally been there (and reluctantly gone to the olive oil cooperative), I picked up the book to reread passages. I found one I’d forgotten – Mayle describing the same olive oil cooperative we’d nearly missed *because it wasn’t in our plans*.

Our planning had nearly gotten in the way of experiencing the very Provence that we’d dreamed about. Something to think about.

Planning

2009-05-11T17:59:00.001-07:00

We leave for Portland in a few days. We’d decided to drive up, taking our dog and as much else as we could fit into our car. Day 1 – Los Angeles to Pleasanton, Ca, overnighting with Maxine’s sister and daughter. Day 2 – Pleasanton to Grant’s Pass, Oregon. Day 3 – arrive in Portland sometime early afternoon. In all, 956 miles at what seems like a leisurely pace compared to childhood trips of New Jersey to Cape Canaveral, Florida: 1112 miles, 2 days, 2 parents and 4 kids.

Last October, Maxine was searching internet home rental sites and came upon a house in Portland, Oregon. We’d been up to Portland 4 or 5 times over the last 15 years and always found the place fascinating, imagining we might move there some day. This house was in a neighborhood we’d considered living in, the house about the size of our home, and the landlord willing to waive her “no dogs” requirement. Cassie, our 12 pound Sheltie, was written into our lease.

Maxine and I are inveterate planners; the lease was signed and a deposit made by early January. Our plan is to arrive early in May and be there till mid June, expecting to experience some of Portland’s notoriously rainy weather. We wanted that. We want the trip to be about more than just sightseeing.

So, with the drive about to begin, we’ve got a fairly full schedule planned. We’ve both spent time over the last 2 months accumulating lists of things to do -- ones we imagine we’d pursue if we lived here, signing up for meetings and registering for events.

The luggage will get packed tomorrow – we’ve already checked to see how much we can fit in the trunk. We’re traveling with 2 computers, 2 ipods, an electronic book reader, 2 cameras, and our cell phones. Hard to see how we got by before all of this existed, but it lets us feel more connected.

What/Who/Why/When

2009-05-11T17:58:00.001-07:00

What this blog is about:
…a trip to Portland
…for one month
…in a rented house, near Reed College

Who:
Tom & Maxine
Cassie – a very shy, very small (12 pounds, or, 13 pounds if she’s wet)
… Shetland Sheepdog
… who’s been to Paris (doginparis.blogspot.com)
… because we don’t have kids

Why you might find this interesting:
You know Maxine or Tom
You know Cassie (not likely)
You read my Paris blog (doginparis.blogspot.com)
You’re curious what there is to do in Portland
You’re curious about Portland’s food and beer culture
You’re bored and just surfing the internet

When:
The blog will be updated 3-4 times/week
*Now* through June 13, 2009

Here’s the original email that was sent out to announce this blog:

In 2006 my wife and I spent two months in Paris, living as if we were expatriates who’d moved there. We enjoyed the adventure and I wrote a blog chronicling the trip. It had 52 entries, ran to 20,000 words, and was viewed 4239 times.

This year, it’s going to be Portland, Oregon, not Paris, France. And, one month, not two. Cutbacks in light of the economy? Yes, to some degree. But, we’ve been fascinated by Portland for years, have taken a number of trips there, and found a professor on sabbatical who wanted to rent his house.

The Paris blog was called “An American Dog In Paris” (doginparis.blogspot.com) to recognize that part of our French adventure involved taking our 12 pound dog with us; on the plane, into restaurants, and on walks through the city. The dog is going on another trip and, simply to be consistent, this blog is titled “A California Dog In Portland” (californiadoginportland.blogspot.com)

But, the blog isn’t going to be solely, or even mostly, about our dog’s travels. The Paris one wasn’t either.

One of the things that motivates this trip is our question about moving, some day, to Portland. I’m writing with that in mind. So, along with posts covering how we see the city as tourists, I’m planning comments about housing prices, how people act, Oregon’s wine and beer industry, their environmental culture, and comparisons with LA. And, of course, some of our dog Cassie’s adventures too…

Please enjoy the blog if you wish. I hope it serves in part as a way to stay in touch. Your reactions and comments are welcome, as is, most importantly, any of this prompting a reply with how you’re doing.

Tom