Portland - Part 1

From Helena Susan and I drove into Seattle and arrived in the evening. That night, Eric and his roommates and friends got us out to another fantastic brew pub (I'm pretty sure this one was Elliott Bay Brewing Co. in West Seattle.) Eric took this obligatory sampler pic.


We made our way to Portland (with Eric and his roommate Billy Bob) the next day and had dinner with Shane and Tom. The following morning we met up with Eric's friend Jason who took us through a huge park that runs through the city (Forest Park?? I think it's the largest park in the US in a major city, larger than Central Park). We took a train uphill and walked back downhill back to Jason's place. Good plan Jason! It was a great afternoon. It was impressive seeing so many mature trees after seeing seeing so many smaller trees due to the burn cycles and short growing seasons in Montana.

Jason's dog was pretty awesome... and got quite a workout.

There was a great, and enormous rose garden.
Susan took this one.
During our walk we encountered about 50 skateboarders that were taking turns racing down this road in heats of 4-5. I missed a couple of good photo-ops where a couple of heats were tightly contested and resulted in some nice wipeouts. This was the best I got.
That afternoon/evening we met up with Shane and Tom at the North American Organic Brewers Beer Festival. You just don't have stuff like that out East. Susan beat me to some of the good pictures here on her blog, but here is a photo of Shane in his awesome Silver Surfer shirt looking awesome. (Drinking from a cup made of compostable corn-plastic. Thanks hippies!)



Susan... having a good time I think?
Susan proposed getting a fried Snickers bar. I had never had one and I'll tell you that Yes, it is better than a non-fried Snickers bar (who would have thought). That's one more item scratched off of my bucket list.
This festival was crowded and we were lucky to have gotten a spot under the tent. The sun was so warm I almost wished I had worn shorts. But it was still an otherwise moderate Pacific Northwest day. And the beer was fantastic.
That night Tom took Eric, Susan, and I out to a bar where we played a board game outdoors while continuing our beer tasting. It was a great time. Shane unfortunately had to get to sleep for his early rise so he could make us the pastries that we enjoyed so well the next day. (See next post)