What's to do in Portland?

[Hoax]

If you get that beautiful dog shot over mushrooms you are going to have to pick a new birthday..

[voodoolily]

None of the commerical picker loonies camp the spots right next to the road (where Forest Service rangers are likely to find them). It's the hunters you really have to worry about. I have a terrible habit of dressing in earth tones during hunting season. 

[FatuousTwat]

I suggest you find a TV with public access channel 11, and watch Noah Larson all day. That is probably the best thing to do in Portland.

[voodoolily]

You still coming up this month, Sam?

[Samwise]

Getting in on the afternoon of the 12th, leaving the morning of the 15th.  We've got a list of things to check out now, but nothing rigidly scheduled.  Still up to entertaining?   

[voodoolily]

Sure! But being weekdays, you'll have to settle for a dinner at our house instead of mushroom picking. Fortunately, the nice grocery stores are lousy with wild 'shrooms, so we can still eat them. 

The newlywife is a vegetarian, right?

[Samwise]

Lacto-ovo vegetarian, and not the type to worry about whether the cheese was made with rennet.  And she's not offended by the sight of meat so long as it's not on her plate.

[hanzou]

Ok, well I just wrote the longest post I've ever written in my life, but just hit the back button after previewing and lost all of it, so before gouge my eyes out in frustration, let me summarize my previous entry.

-Stumptown coffee: drink it.  I suggest at the Ace Hotel.
-Voodoo donuts: actually pretty solid.  If you drink in downtown you will go here.
-Powell's: duh.
-Breweries: The Rogue and on the more bougey side Henry's tavern.
-Vege-x-tarian food: ubiquitous, but try the sweatpea bakery.
-Japanese gardens: pretty good, but they are in fact just gardens, and it is october
-Beaches: Canon Beach (go to the bakery and get canon beach bread)
-Hotels: Ace Hotel > Jupiter Hotel (primarily because I think the west side is more manageable for a 3 day period)

Miscellaneous:
The west side is bougey, is pretty close together,and has infinite bars and restaurants.  The east side is more psychedelic/hip and almost exclusively inhabited mustachioed fixed gear riding hipsters who have emigrated from various American shitholes, punctuated by a smattering of actual oregonians.  That being said the east side is the portland end-game, whereas the west side is newbie froth.  Try Hawthorne, Belmont, or Alberta(all names of streets on the east side).  Hawthorne being the most approachable of these three.  Voodoolily seems like she's going to do a good job taking care of you, so rest assured.  

 

[Samwise]

-Hotels: Ace Hotel > Jupiter Hotel (primarily because I think the west side is more manageable for a 3 day period)

Heh, that's what we ended up picking.  We actually would have done the Jupiter, but my fiancee vetoed it because their website offended her deeply.  (She does web design stuff at work and it's made her hypersensitive to "bad practices" like blaring music and overuse of Flash.)

[voodoolily]

Yeah, the crappy click-hop they have on autoplay is pretty annoying. 

[Samwise]

Just thought I'd follow up here with what we ended up doing and what we liked.

 - Stayed at the Ace Hotel, which was almost TOO cool for us.  Nice location and they gave us a free suite upgrade for some reason.   
 - Powell's is very impressive.  Sadly, since any books I bought would have to be schlepped home, I couldn't bear to spend too much time there.  It's basically like if Green Apple had Amazon's inventory and a full city block to shelve it in.
 - The best meal we had by far was at Voodoolily's and Sauced's place, and I'm not just saying that.
 - Both brewpubs we went to (Rogue and Deschutes) had surprisingly good food.
 - The Chinese Classical Garden is way cool, and easy to get to.
 - The Japanese Garden is almost as cool, but difficult to get to.
 - Voodoo Doughnuts is quite an experience; the doughnuts themselves aren't anything special, but the array of toppings is breathtaking.
 - Burgerville is cool and I wish we had those here.

All in all a good trip!

[voodoolily]

- The best meal we had by far was at Voodoolily's and Sauced's place, and I'm not just saying that.

/blush

It was great to meet you and the little mussus, we had a lot of fun shootin' the shit and I really enjoyed cooking for you both.  Glad you had a great time!