Portland's Love

Awaking in a ritzy Portland neighborhood we started the day off with high expectations. I awoke early trying to catch a shot of the city with the sunrise and drove to higher ground with Sheldon still asleep in his sleeping bag. I took random streets heading in a direction I was hoping to take me to an overlook so I could get the shot I was dreaming of. I sadly took us far outside the city limits, got caught in traffic, missed the sunset and in total took about an hour's drive through the surrounding country region of Portland. All in all the drive did bring some scenic views and allowed me to take the picture below of the  female statue. Worth the drive? Ya I'd say so.

   

(Waking up early one morning I tried to find an overlook of Portland but ended up getting stuck in traffic. 

I ended up not even getting a shot of the sunrise over Portland, but

I did come across this statue in a cemetery outside of the city. 

I saw the statue from the road and had to stop.)

  

Once we managed our way back to the city, thanks to the technology of Sheldon's "smart phone", we drove around searching for a non-existent Gold's Gym and the vain search brought us to a community center in northwest Portland, aka " the ghetto". We dropped four bucks to swim some laps and get cleaned up for the day. I tried to teach Sheldon how to swim but he still left doing laps like a golden labrador. More of a paddler I'd say...  (Random tidbit: In the shower there was a homeless fellow who was doing his laundry.) We got cleaned up and then headed to a coffee shop to get breakfast and update the blog. We happened across the coolest coffee house of the trip downtown, right next to the Portland State University stadium. Great food and beverages, pleasant atmosphere, lots of attractive college girls, free and fast wifi, outlets and just an overall great coffee shop. 

Chandelier in a coffee shop in downtown Portland.

Pink Tie

Just around the block from the coffee shop.

From the coffee shop we headed downtown to do some wandering and see the city. We walked around for a few hours shocked by the size of the city. Growing up in a tiny farming town I had no real encounter with skyscrapers or any idea of big city. The biggest man-made objects in our town were churches or schools. Then seeing buildings that seemingly touch the sky makes them seem almost surreal.  Upon wandering under the shadows of the giant metal structures we came across a film photographers dream, a store carrying different types of 35mm film! I was in awe learning about all the kinds of film. I have only shot with two brands of black and white film and only with Kodak, Walgreens, and Ilford on color film. And behold there is a plethora of 35mm film! I went buckwild bought some Ektar 100, Kodak Pro 100 & 400 (color and B&W), Fujifilm 200, and a few Portra rolls. All of this jazz may mean nothing to some of you but these rolls are the bee knee's in the film world. Give me some time and you will see the outcome. After the film find we came across a delicious pizza joint serving the finest New York style pizza. I ordered a San Franciso pizza slice, kind of ironic being in Portland having traveled from SF (it did not remind me of the city though)... 

So word came that a good friend of mine was in the city. We were planning on a night on the town with his sister and boyfriend, long time residents of Portland, to show us the goods of Portland nightlife. Sounds risky, right? 

I called Chadillac (my friend Chad's hip-hop pseudonym) and we planned on meeting later that night downtown on 19th and Burnside. So Sheldon and I walked the city until nightfall, parked the van and headed to meet the pals. While walking to the meet up place Sheldon and I came across an open performing hall and invited oursleves in. We seem to have this way of finding open places. Inside we came across an 80's dance party and a strange acting convention thingy. We indulged for a minute or so and then headed to meet Chad. 

Doves flew and angels sang as the door to the bar opened, and out stepped Chadillac. A familiar face in the big city. We rejoiced and reminisced. We were introduced to his sweet sister Amanda, and also her boyfriend Mike. They were funny and cool folks and I knew instantly from meeting them we were in for a great night. We hung out at the watering-hole for a bit and then headed to a hookah bar. The place was too crammed and strange for Chad, so while he waited outside Amanda and I tried to make a deal with the deaf Israeli cashier. Somewhat difficult, to say the least. Things didn't work out there so we headed to a house of fire, of sorts. Beautiful sights inside this magical place excited me and opened my eyes to the underground ways of house's name fire. Chad and I were treated to a special ceremony there. Sweet, sweet ceremonies. We left shortly after our kind welcoming in the bead room and took a cab downtown to do some more late night wandering. 

The night made us stumble upon a love-maker's shop, find some fine Washington ladies, celebrate with ten fingers and spin the air freshener, and also guide the mother ship home. This may all seem like code talk and in reality it may be, however we are not in reality in the interweb. Don't mean to burst a bubble but the internet is not a tangible place so therefore my words have no tangible worldly reference. If you were there you would know. Don't mean to not include anyone in the festivities but all I can say to you is visit Portland and ask for the visitors treat. We ended up at Amanda's welcoming studio apartment late that night, regrouped with Chad and let our partied-out bodies sleep in soundness. 

Go! 

Entering Portland