Portland, Oregon in 24 hours.

Over the last few months we visited our old stomping grounds twice - independently, and for work reasons. Conferences always seem to be hectic and stressful, and while we did see some friends and have some fun while we were in town, these were definitely not slow visits.

So when I saw that the Decemberists' Friday night Edgefield show hadn't sold out a few weeks ago, I immediately bought tickets. YAY! A whole weekend of fun!

Then I checked the calendar and realized we would be leaving Thursday late morning and returning early Saturday afternoon. YAY! A whole 50 hours of fun!

Of which nine would be spent driving and at least 14 would be spent sleeping... YAY! A whole ~24 hours of fun!

You can actually pack a lot of Rose City fun into 24 hours, especially during the summer months where festivals abound. Just ask our kind hosts for the weekend who recently published a compilation of 365 weird things to do in Portland, Oregon.

Or you can do what we did, and not do very much at all.

first stop: beer not made by 7 Devils Brewing Co...

Short visits are always a challenge because there are so many people we would love to see (and so many places where we would love to eat). That always ends up hectic and stressful too, so over the past few visits we've switched to quality over quantity. This time we were able to pull off a ¿Por Qué No? dinner reunion with Patrick's former co-workers, a true miracle!

last seen together: 2012(?)

About halfway through dinner I realized that Governor Brown was sitting two tables away. We see our US Senators and Representative fairly regularly around Coos Bay, but we don't see the governor often (or ever, ahem, Kate) and I was a bit star-struck. I resisted taking an awkward photo, but as we were leaving I leaned over and said "Coos Bay says thank you!" I felt like a total hick saying it, but I said it anyway, and the big smile I got in return made me feel... well, even more like a hick.

Otherwise, the only other familiar faces we saw all weekend were those of our hosts. There was travel talk. There was laughter. There was life talk. There was beer. There was beer talk. There was a really nice breakfast sendoff on Saturday. It was good.

When we weren't doing that stuff, we kept it simple.

We drove through some of the neighborhoods where we used to spend time. The phrases "WOW that's weird," "WOW that's new," and "WOW that's cool" were uttered quite a bit. 

weird

new

cool

We did "big city" stuff like buy new running shoes and visit independent record stores. We enjoyed the diversity and all the progressive political signs around town.

we all belong here®

We met one of our hosts for lunch at the PSU food cart pod Friday afternoon. Indian next to Mexican next to Thai next to Turkish next to sushi next to noodles? Heaven.

decisions, decisions...

decision: veggie Turkish pide from Turkish Voodough and

chicken tikki masala/pakoras from New Taste of India

We had a few hours to kill after lunch before meeting our other host for a pre-show beer. There were many, many hour-killing options available so we did what any former SE'ers would do - we avoided any further decision-making and wandered around Laurelhurst Park.

respite for the urban-weary

Laurelhurst Park was the spot of our second date; it's where we ran trails in prep for half-marathons; it was 3 blocks from our old apartment so it's where we headed whenever we needed a little nature. Nice to know that some things about Portland haven't changed.

Speaking of change, we knew the beer scene had multiplied like a wet mogwai since our last extended stay, but holy crap! We further avoided any decision-making and deferred to our host to choose. His recommendation was quick and wise: Ex Novo, where all profits go to charities, where the motto is "We gather, we volunteer, we drink beer! Drink Beer. Do Good. Be Awesome!"

photo courtesy pdx.eater.com

(was so excited to help local charities that I forgot to take a picture)

Pretty awesome.

And still speaking of change - holy crap, Edgefield! Stopping shows by 10pm? Metal detectors? Ninkasi beer? Oh my.

The band was great, scratchy lead voice notwithstanding...

 

approximately the 14th time I've heard that song live

upping the whale game this year

But in keeping with the catchiest tune off their latest album, the crowd was (mostly) awful. Walking to the "restrooms" I followed a drunk man weaving on the path, passed a drunk woman who fell while leaning against a tree, and waded twice through a lawn of drunk people talking through the entire show. We also sat behind a drunk guy wearing the shirt pictured below (I'm pretty sure Colin Meloy would've refunded this man's ticket price and - politely - asked him to leave if he'd seen that shirt).

what is this, the Coos??

When did you become a frat party, Edgefield? I got so annoyed that I went to the front to stand with the people who actually cared that there was a band on stage, and as we were leaving we decided that would be our last show there. At least we went out on a low note (Colin can't hit the high notes right now).

All in all, though, it was a great 24 hours. We were happy to visit, and we've already decided to return for several days this fall without any plans.

But we were also happy to get back to little old Coos Bay. We have our challenges here, but we're definitely more comfortable in this rural coastal town than any big city. We're grateful for our experiences over the years that got us here, and we're looking forward to what's next.

Whatever that is...

paying attention to signs

Living like a local: Portland's music scene.

Portland's music scene is a big deal. It's the main reason I moved here in 2008. It was our first date back in October 2012, our second and third and fourth dates after that. It's one of the few (only?) splurges we allowed ourselves while we were saving for our trip. And it was one of the main reasons we were excited to spend the summer here!

Back in February we were in Hawaii without a clue about the next six months when I got an email about The Decemberists' summer show at the Edgefield. Everything about this email literally screamed "Portland!" at me as I read it, so I bought tickets and July 10 suddenly became our Portland deadline. (Behold our super-thorough and highly-thoughtful planning process!)

the aforementioned Decemberists making everyone at the Edgefield better

(not pictured: GIANT WHALE)

This summer we've also been able to see some of our old favorites at one of our favorite old haunts, Mississippi Studios...

how Slim Cessna's Auto Club does things in Portland

little Loch Lomond will start a storm

... and we were bummed to miss out on Weird Al's sold out concert at the Oregon Zoo - that would've been amazing. (Or at least really, really memorable.)

But for us FUNemployed folks, sometimes the best music is free music! We've already mentioned that our friend gave us her Patron Passes to the Waterfront Blues Festival - not exactly free, but free to us, and totally awesome. We finally caught one of the Oregon Symphony's free park concerts a few weeks ago, also really cool. And while we skipped PDX Pop Now!'s free shows for the zillionth year in a row - for some reason it always seems to require enormous amounts of energy that we never seem to have - we did schlep ourselves through rush hour traffic for Ecotrust's last free summer Sundown concert.

Horsefeathers: an exclamation of frustration
or an awesome band? discuss...

Most of the free summer shows are winding down but LaurelThirst Public House and the White Eagle still have year-round free music nights, good to know...

We're hoping to squeeze in a few more shows before we take off. It would be a crime to leave town without seeing a show at the Doug Fir but we're really out of touch with new bands so we've had a hard time choosing a show there. Portland(ish) folks - any recommendations?

Every-day-is-Friday five: songs about places we have been.

We would sing the song for days while in a particular city. Sometimes we sang it for weeks before we visited the city, and sometimes we couldn't get it out of our heads for weeks after leaving the city. (Sometimes this made us want to cry.)

Here are five songs about cities we've visited on this trip, in no particular order... complete with links to YouTube videos so that YOU can get the song stuck in YOUR head for days.

• One Night in Bangkok (Murray Head)
• Barcelona (Builders and the Butchers)
• Istanbul (not Constantinople) (They Might Be Giants)
• Kathmandu (Bob Seger)
• Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills and Nash)

And now, as our return to Maryland (and therefore "real life") is more and more imminent, I can't seem to get (Don't Go Back To) Rockville out of my head. Go figure.

What are some of your favorite songs about international cities?

Hey, remember when we were in Toronto?

Once in a while something in our current place jogs a memory of a prior location. Or a funny thought from three months ago pops into our heads, or we're having a particularly hard travel day, or we can't recall where we were 10 days ago, or we just want to remind ourselves how lucky we are... On these once-in-a-while occasions, one of us looks at the other and says, "Hey, remember when [fill in the blank]...?"

This "hey, remember when...?" flashback is brought to you by today's date.

Despite our intentions to keep Canada as inexpensive as possible, we could not resist splurging on two tickets to the Toronto Urban Roots Festival. Music is our only real splurge in Portland anyway, and this is something we're interested in exploring everywhere we go. (If we can ever stay up past 9pm, that is...)

The TURF July 4th festival timing could not have been more perfect - nothing says celebrate-America-from-Canada like a trip to Niagara Falls and four days of good folky music, right? A much better idea than Plan B which involved sitting in Quebec City eating baguettes with all the anti-Americans.

It's also fitting that we saw Frank Turner at some point on this adventure, and that he was the driver for the TURF splurge. See, we owe a lot to Frank. His Portland show two years ago was our first date. A week after that show, Patrick and I sat across from each other talking tall tales of wanderlust and the road beneath our feet, and the seed for this trip was planted.

Last October, on the one-year anniversary of that show, we got a little sentimental and wrote Frank a "thank you" email. He actually replied (!) within hours (!), wished us luck on our still-to-be-determined adventure, and told us to let him know if we'd be nearby during any of his tours so that we could have a beer.

So when we were in Toronto, we emailed him - and once again he actually replied (!) within hours (!). Various forces prevented us from actually meeting him, such as the fact that he's Frank Turner for gosh's sake, but we're holding out hope that he's touring on our path someday soon.

 

Portland TedX - March 2013 
(handshake still pending, 
and we still owe him a drink)

We had a great time at the festival, though. Familiar bands like Camera Obscura, Flogging Molly, Neko Case, Xavier Rudd and Canada's own The Wooden Sky were great. Newly discovered bands like Whitehorse, The Cat Empire, The Sadies, The Barr Brothers, and Portland locals Larry and His Flask were a lot of fun too. Plus it was a tiny venue to begin with, and the off-and-on rain (and outright downpour Sunday) kept the crowds down.

Toronto, ON, Canada - July 2013
(one of my favorite feet shots)

This "one splurge per country/continent" idea might be a running theme - or a really, really bad idea. Hopefully we won't be sitting in an empty apartment in Portland this December saying "Hey, remember when we spent all our money and had to cut our trip short a year?"

Zdiar, Slovakia - October 2013

(happy two years)

Friday five: road trip rules.

Sure, the driver gets to pick the music (or other listening entertainment) - that goes without saying.  Albums that sustained us for almost four months on the road included Frank Turner's Tape Deck Heart, Jared Mees's If You Wanna Swim With the Sharks..., REM's Eponymous, REO Speedwagon's The Hits, and Family of the Year's Loma Vista.  We also relied heavily on old podcasts of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

After 10,000+ miles of experiential learning, here are five additional road trip rules we know are true, in no particular order:

• Rock, paper, scissors should determine who gets the first driving shift.
• U-turns for ridiculous photo ops are mandatory.

 carrying a stuffed cow to participate in photo ops: optional

• Mad Libs are fun no matter how young or old you might be!  We kept a bunch in the glove box and pulled them out when driving got really tedious (starting somewhere around Manitoba, continuing off and on through Ontario).  This Mad Libs version was specific to road trips, vacations, and saving money, so the story lines were particularly relevant.  The best one-liner was from one called "Sing Along", about singing to pass the time on long road trips - "Old MacDonald had a yurt." 
• Always have a paper map, especially when exploring new territory.  Before we left Portland we ditched our GPS and loaded up on Canada maps from AAA.  Every province also had a welcome center that provided free, detailed provincial and local maps.  Tree-friendly?  Nope.  Absolutely invaluable?  Yes!  You crazy kids can keep your electronic handheld pricey mapping devices - paper maps are generally cheap/free, they don't require charging, they're totally reliable, they make good campfire kindling when you're done with them, and figuring out how to refold them can provide hours of entertainment for your co-pilot.
• Fritos are a perfectly acceptable road trip snack! 

And you?  Leave your road trip tips or suggestions for driving music in the comments!

You're on your own for five days in Quebec City... go!

Wednesday morning: as your partner in crime heads to the airport, you head down to la Marche du Vieux Port and admire all the lovely local produce.

why, hello, strawberries from Ile D'Orleans

(not pictured: strawberries)

Stop by Place de Gare for lunch...

it's actually a train/bus depot

... and wander through the fortresses in Vieux-Quebec and along la Promenade Gouverneurs for great views...

... of the city 

... and the St. Lawrence River 

Have your view interrupted for a moment by three boys in blue ponchos who stand silently right in front of you waiting for your reaction - mine was, "oh boy, and so the weird French artist immersion begins". Which I said out loud. They laughed.

Meander down the boardwalk and catch more weird French street artists at work, then through the cobblestone paths of Old Quebec.  

louder than...

Have dinner at the hostel and chat with the nice young tourists who are on brief excursions; watch as they marvel at the thought of a 90+ day Canadian road trip, let alone a year+ on the road.

Thursday: breakfast at the hostel (Cheerios + peanut butter = magic!), then a tour of la Citadelle where you stare obsessively at the royal goat during the changing of the guards.

he's no Nubian goat

Also listen to the stories told by the guide and wonder if you actually learned any of this history in school.  

Back through Old Quebec where you happen upon a free music show at Cathedral Holy Trinity.

world's largest stringed instrument 

After lunch and a rest at the hostel, visit the maple museum and and Erico's chocolate museum.

chocoticktock

finally putting five years of French to use

Recover from your sugar rush by heading up Saint Jean, window shopping in the markets, and stopping in St John Baptiste cathedral where services are underway.

(oops

but what a lovely church!)  

Head south through the fairly new Jardin de Saint-Roch and sit for a while, enjoying the garden and impromptu electric guitar player covering Hendrix.  

flower power

Discover the local Mountain Equipment Coop in up-and-coming St Roch, which looks remarkably like REI; also discover that you can't buy anything without a membership.  Get friendly advice from their staff for another camping store nearby (Latulippe), decide to make that tomorrow's adventure, take the long way back to the hostel and rest up for day three.

Friday: head to Latulippe in St Roch and happen upon an odd religious park which needs more research (as the signs were all in French and there was nothing about grapefruits).  

Slayer doesn't love you
this I  know

After Latulippe (butane purchased at last! we've been out since Waterton Lakes!), wander through St Roch's ethnic markets and colorful streets.  

many murals were sanctioned by the city and painted by youth

Detour to the cemetery at the hospital, a nice tribute to soldiers of the Plains of Abraham and Sainte-Foy, then make your way to la Parc de l'Amerique-Latin.

hola, Simon Bolivar 

After lunch head up Saint Anne and people-watch, then hit Petit Champlain for more windowshopping.  Call it a day.

Saturday: back through Place d'Armes for more people-watching (yes, I did a lot of this - mostly because I had time, but also because it was FASCINATING to see what people found fascinating enough to photograph), then east to Villa Bagatelle, stopping at a used book sale in a church to rummage and purchase The Happiness Hypothesis (en englais... er, en anglais).  Get lost trying to find the museum and wander through St Patrick's cemetery.

a much nicer place of eternal rest than the hospital cemetery

At Villa Bagatelle (which you walked right past several times), enjoy the strikingly different exhibits of Roland Giguère and Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, poets instrumental to the Canadian literary movement who also painted, and appreciate the lovely hospitality of the museum host after some recent less-than-pleasant French Quebecian encounters.

Make your way to le Parc du Bois-de-Coulogne, a setting renowned for its beauty and tranquility.

I have eaten lunch in worse places

Finally succumb to 50 miles of walking and a heck of a sinus infection, take a power nap, then hit the port (along with everyone else in the city not attending the Celine Dion concert) for more freaky French art at the free Cirque du Soleil show.  

still don't get it

but at least I stayed awake this time

Stop by the Bunge to watch a few minutes of the light show tribute to Norman McLaren, make a mental note to research this fellow, then sleep for 12 hours.

Sunday: wonder what to do.  Skip the $18 Musee de Beaux Artes even though you want to see the Alfred Pellan collection - there are many more museums in your future, after all, pace yourself - and head back to the Marche du Vieux Port for strawberries, then to Saint Anne for maple gelato, and sit for a while to enjoy your bounty.  

lunch of champions

As the crazy wind picks up again, hit the hostel for an afternoon tea and then wander until you come across the Festival des journees d'Afrique, where a Bob Marley cover band briefly unites locals and tourists from all over the world.

one love

Endure the wind a bit longer to check out the city at night...

mostly looks like the city by day

Finally, at 11pm, attempt to sleep while the 60 year old lady in the bottom bunk whacks the bed frame for an hour as she rearranges her suitcase a hundred times.  (This is the same woman who, earlier in the evening, sternly told me to "mind her coat" - which had been thrown on MY bed.  And the same woman whose alarm went off for 20 minutes at 5am this morning before she rummaged through her bag to turn it off.  And the same woman who sat in the kitchen for an hour this morning looking at photos on her iPad - time she could've spent REARRANGING HER SUITCASE instead of doing it last night.  Good times, good times.)

Quebec City, it's been fun!  But I am ready to reunite with my partner in crime and get back to nature for three weeks.  Gaspe Peninsula and Forillion Provincial Park, we're coming for ya!

 

au revoir!

Belated Friday five: helping to harvest the earth.

Five highlights from our two-week stay at Earth's Harvest Farm, in no particular order:

• Heavy machinery! In addition to operating table saws, chop saws, circular saws, jigsaws and electric screwdrivers... 

we learned how to drive the mule... 

 

... which is awesome in muddy terrain 

 

Patrick helped with the auger 

 

one day was a rototill-o-rama 

and jen still hates leafblowers 

• Baby chicks! The next crop of meat birds arrived a few days into our stay and one of our daily chores was to make sure they had food and water. We watched them grow... 

from tiny peeps that fell asleep standing up 

to toddlers that stomped over each other to get to the grain 

• Dragonflies! 

But first an aside - grass-fed chickens and turkeys are raised on this farm using a technique similar to the Yolkswagons we experienced on Gabriola Island. Large wooden pens contain the birds; the pens are moved lengthwise down the field and the birds eat the grass and fertilize the pasture during their 24(ish) hour stay on that piece of land. Eventually you get a bird-mowed pasture that grows strikingly lush and green the next season.

no artificial ingredients 

and another aside - grass-fed chicken is the best thing we have EVER tasted 

Anyway, we took turns getting up at 6am to help move the pens and feed the chickens each morning; some mornings our farmer host was busy so we both went on our own. As we would drive through the field, the morning haze would start to lift and dragonflies would swoop in and out of the mule, as if guiding our way. It was such a peaceful way to start the day.

We also saw dozens of bright blue dragonflies on our day-off canoe trip down the Rideau River.

crayola doesn't have a color for this 

• Thunderstorms! We broke our trend of leaving tornadoes and floods in our wake and instead, brought on three straight days of heavy afternoon thunderstorms - close, booming thunder and forks of lightning that you just don't get in Portland. And buckets of rain! One day almost 5" fell in just an hour. 

the sky was amazing 

the mud puddles were also amazing 

(our host, farmer Luke) 

• And speaking of hosts - our hosts! Luke and Liza were incredibly generous, friendly, and funny, and their children were really sweet. 

Patrick's new girlfriend 

great garden, really great peeps

We learned so much about farming, pasture grazing and raising organic animals from Luke during our short stay (we can't wait to try that cow trick someday). He's a wealth of information and a great teacher. We appreciated that he trusted us to care for his crops and his flocks, and he seemed to appreciate our efforts even when the end result was a sagging tomato trestle or a limping turkey who got too close to the edge of the pen when it was moved (that turkey is JUST FINE now - although Patrick's aching knee afterward suggests that Luke should keep an eye out for possible turkey voodoo activity).

Earth's Harvest was our last WWOOF gig in Canada, and we couldn't have ended on a higher note. Excluded for numeric reasons but equally as awesome as the five highlights above:

a backyard evening concert 

(the first stop on a series of organic farm concerts by Matthew McCully

who interviewed us for his documentary) 

lunching at The Branch 

(owned by former Millennium chef Bruce Enloe,

who chatted with us for a bit and treated us to a lovely porter) 

and all the wonderful...  

 

... farm-fresh ... 

... food we enjoyed during our stay 

It seems that Canadian hospitality knows no provincial bounds; we continue to scratch our heads about what we have done to deserve such kindness and how we can possibly repay everyone who has taken such great care of us on this trip (or at the very least, pay it forward).

Now we're off to explore Montreal and Quebec City, where we'll try not to get overwhelmed with the masses of humanity, noise and consumption. A day of botanic gardens might be in our future...