Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Category: Travel

  • The Portland/Bon Jovi writeup

    It was a whirlwind tour of Portland, but we managed to make the most of it. We did some quick shopping in Gresham on the way in, stopped to visit with our friends for a bit (had to take over some of my pumpkin ale for a missed birthday), and then went out to lunch at the Horse Brass.

    The Horse Brass rules. Seriously. It’s an English pub, with a ton of beers on tap, real darts, English food, the works. We had a tasty lunch (never had a Scotch egg before—it was good), tasty beer, and when we were finished, we stopped in to Belmont Station and picked up some harder-to-find beers.

    Afterwards, I was able to go to Powells for a little bit (“a little bit” is relative, because my ideal visit to Powells would quite easily be half a day), but didn’t find anything I wanted to spend that much money on.

    We checked in to the hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, met with our friends who were also going to the concert, and then went to BJ’s Brewhouse for dinner. It was good, although slow, and the service was ditzy at best. I have to say, though, they’re seven taster deal is amazing: seven five-ounce(!) tasters of beer for only $7.25.

    And, finally, the concert. We walked to the Rose Garden, entered without fanfare, found our seats. A local Portland band was playing the opening gig (they won a contest), I didn’t catch their name but I wasn’t paying close attention anyway. We had to move around seats a bit because when the tickets were purchased, the available seats remaining were single seats two rows apart (of course!), and after playing musical chairs trying to figure out the best place to see (and—damn it—missing a good portion of one of the classical Bon Jovi songs that everyone is actually there to see), the usher got permission to seat my wife and me in the announcer box seats at the top of the section—otherwise roped off to everyone else. That was pretty cool, because the view was much better and we weren’t surrounded by screaming fans.

    As far as the concert itself, it was decent. Two songs they performed that they didn’t do last time were “Runaway” (eh) and “Blaze of Glory” (cool!). And, Jon had a lot more audience interaction—the first song was from amidst the crowd in the back rows of the floor seats, and “Blaze of Glory” was amidst the crowd at our level one section over from us. The most amazing part? He wasn’t mauled by the crowd. :)

    Okay, this is getting long. I’ll leave you with this writeup of the concert—with pictures.

  • Whirlwind weekend

    It feels like a Sunday, not like we had a three-day weekend, that’s how busy everything’s been.

    Saturday we were up and out the door by 7:30am on our way to McMinnville. We had a first birthday party to attend: close friends of ours who had asked us to be their son’s guardians (should the need arise), so off we went. We made good time over the pass, despite the bitter cold and snow warnings here in Bend—in reality we had sunny blue skies and nearly spotless roads.

    Some sidenotes. McMinnville is pretty much right in the heart of Oregon wine country; we saw many signs for wineries on the way there and the way back, including the Eola Hills Winery, though we really didn’t have the time to stop at any. McMinnville itself is a town of just over 30,000, about half the size of Bend, and has a cute little historic downtown. Also, the locals refer to it as “Mack.”

    Anyway, the party was fun, we hung out and visited with our friends that evening, and had lunch with them the next day before heading for home. Over the pass this time we had to nearly stop for an accident at Lost Lake, but we missed this one by about half an hour. Traffic was backed up for three hours at that one.

    Those made for some long days. To top that off, my in-laws have been in town, and have been entertained as well. So things have just been busy. And tiring.

    Could I have another day off? To catch up? Anyone?

  • Back from Florida; local happenings

    We’re back from Florida none the worse for wear; we actually got back Saturday late, missing hurricane Wilma by two days. As my friend Kerry said, ironic that the one time we should pick to visit Florida, the biggest storm ever tracked starts building up nearby.

    Florida was… flat and humid. No, really.

    Well, it was. Anyway, we had a good time. My wife’s grandparents have a swimming pool (of course) so we spent a lot of time in it. And of course we drove up to Disney World for a few days (three and a half hours each way), that was a trip; it’s utterly mind-boggling just how big Disney World is. We only had time to visit the Magic Kingdom (which is basically all of Disney Land), and part of Epcot.

    Some general Florida observations, from an outsider: what’s up with drivers there? Nobody uses turn signals! And apparently they’ll hit-and-run other cars in parking lots (which seemed to happen to us— borrowing the grandparents’ car— on our mini-trip to Disney) all the time, we’re told. Also, everywhere you go— and I mean everywhere— there’s air conditioning. All the time. Many times we were in restaurants and it was too cold— people were wearing sweaters or jackets. Not what you expect to see in Florida, of all places.

    Didn’t see any gators (in the wild, anyway). I was kind of hoping.

    Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note some of the local goings-on while we were away:

    • There was an E. coli outbreak at McGrath’s; Bulletin story here, Bend.com here. Damn, I knew there was a reason I’m always resisting going to eat there… What really worries me though is the Bulletin’s article states, “No changes in McGrath’s operating procedure were suggested”— say what? Yeah, I’m done.
    • More information has come to light regarding Deschutes County Commissioner Tom DeWolf’s sex abuse scandal: details from the investigation reveal that he allegedly put his hand down two separate women’s pants and groped their genitals. Bulletin story here, Bend.com story here. Not surprisingly, DeWolf is resigning. His statement is here. Not really much more to say, other than I’m not really surprised. That’s some seriously stupid shit to do, Tom.

    Anything exciting anybody wants to tell me about?

  • Off to Florida tomorrow

    Ah, we’re quite the travelers this year: tomorrow we’re flying out to Florida for a week. We’ll be visiting my wife’s grandparents near Fort Lauderdale and yes, taking some time to drive up to Orlando for Disney World.

    It probably goes without saying that I won’t be online much, or at all. We’re taking the laptop, but time and connectivity may not permit much. I’m not too devastated by this.

    See y’all on the other side.

  • Shoe trees

    Pril is wondering what the deal is with shoe trees. I’ve been curious about that myself, since seeing one on my Walla Walla trip. I know of two (that I’ve seen personally): the one I just mentioned, on highway 97 south of Grass Valley, I believe, and north of Shaniko, and another one on highway 26, between Prineville and John Day (which may even be this one, but I can’t say for sure).

    Very strange.

    Some Googling turns up a number of shoe tree sites. Here’s one. Here’s another.

  • Walla Walla

    I’m in Walla Walla tonight, on the road for work. My company purchased a house up here and needed to get a computer and WiFi set up. It’s kind of a cool deal, the house is available to employees spending time up here—business takes a priority, but it’s open to anyone who wants to take a weekend in Walla Walla also.

    So, in addition to getting the stuff done I came to do, I also stopped at Three Rivers Winery and bought some wine to take home, and had dinner at the Mill Creek Brewpub (and wrote a review of it on The Brew Site).

    Back home tomorrow. In case anyone’s wondering, it was a five hour drive from Bend, counting a few reststops. I’ll have more to write about the drive and Walla Walla tomorrow night, probably.

  • Portland for the weekend

    Yep, we’re heading up to Portland tomorrow, for the weekend. We’ve got a bunch of clothes shopping to do. And appointments to keep. And friends to see, if there’s time. With all the running around, I wonder when (if) we’ll find time to relax…

    Taking the laptop, though, so I’ll still be checking in.

  • Bastille Day

    Today is Bastille Day in France, their equivalent to our Fourth of July/Independence Day. The Wikipedia article I point to there has a pretty good overview.

    On 20 June [1789] the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (named after the place where they had gathered which was a place where an ancestor of tennis, the “jeu de paume” was played), swearing not to separate until a Constitution had been established. To show their support, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a prison where people were jailed by arbitrary decision of the King (lettre de cachet). The Bastille was, in particular, known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government. Thus the Bastille was a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy.

    There were only 7 inmates housed at the time of the siege. The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance. No less important in the history of France, it was not the image typically conjured up of courageous French patriots storming the Bastille and freeing hundreds of oppressed peasants. However, it did immediately inspire preparations amongst the peasants for the very real threat of retaliation.

    An even more comprehensive history (you gotta love Wikipedia) is found at the Storming of the Bastille article.

    Back in the summer of 1989, when I was 16, I spent three weeks in France on a high school trip. We were there for the Fête Nationale (National Holiday), in… Tournon, I believe it was. Not only was it Bastille Day, but it was the bicentennial as well. Sadly, it was half my lifetime ago and I don’t remember nearly as much as I should; I remember fireworks in Tournon but the big action was in Paris (where we weren’t). I did keep a journal for the time I was there—most of it, anyway—I think I’ll dig that up and re-read it. Hell, I’ll post it here, even.

    In the meantime, happy 14 juillet.

  • The Time Traveler Convention

    I don’t know whether to file this under “weird” or “science” or “brilliant”: MIT is hosting a time traveler convention on May 7.

    What is it?

    Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT in one week, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

    Why do you need my help?

    We need you to help PUBLICIZE the event so that future time travelers will know about the convention and attend. This web page is insufficient; in less than a year it will be taken down when I graduate, and futhermore, the World Wide Web is unlikely to remain in its present form permanently. We need volunteers to publish the details of the convention in enduring forms, so that the time travelers of future millennia will be aware of the convention. This convention can never be forgotten! We need publicity in MAJOR outlets, not just Internet news. Think New York Times, Washington Post, books, that sort of thing. If you have any strings, please pull them.

    Great idea, I’d love to help! What should I do?

    Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries! Carve them into a clay tablet! If you write for a newspaper, insert a few details about the convention! Tell your friends, so that word of the convention will be preserved in our oral history! A note: Time travel is a hard problem, and it may not be invented until long after MIT has faded into oblivion. Thus, we ask that you include the latitude/longitude information when you publicize the convention.

    You can also make an absolute commitment to publicize the convention afterwards. In that case, bring a time capsule or whatever it may be to the party, and then bury it afterwards.

    I wish I’d thought of that. :)

  • Klamath Falls

    In my previous post, a fellow named Kirk wrote in the comments:

    Hi Jon my wife and I will be relocating to the Klamath Falls area soon from the Spokane,Wa area. I have become quite fond of talking with bloggers in the Spokane area and found that there is much information to be learned from them. Not knowing the area very well I was wondering what you could tell us about Klamath Falls and surrounding area.

    Seemed like a good idea for an entry all its own, except for one thing… I don’t really know all that much about Klamath Falls! :)

    Here’s what I do know: It’s a nice area, located in beautiful southern Oregon, though economically worse off than much of the rest of the state. The population is just over 19,000. It’s about 60 miles or so from Ashland (which is my favorite southern Oregon town) and about 20 miles from California. I know that, some time back, they were pushing to make the area a high-tech mecca, even coining the name “Silicon Basin” for this purpose—though I don’t know how it turned out. (Not entirely well, I’d guess.)

    Since Kirk sounds like he’s looking for bloggers, I did a quick search online for some in K Falls. Not many; ORblogs doesn’t have a page for them, and a Google search turned up nothing. Then I figured I’d browse Blogger’s regional blogs, with some luck: Klamath Falls Bloggers, 30 of them. I can’t speak to how current they are, though. What’s up with that? Where are the Klamath bloggers?

    Anyway, Kirk, welcome to Oregon!