We continue to amuse/amaze ourselves with our ingenuity in the road eating department. After our 12 hour drive from Utah to Washington we found ourselves (yet again) without a place to stay and stomach grumbling like a water pip ready to blow. We pulled ourselves into the (what turns out to be) very convenient chain of grocery stores known as Safe Way. Now, we were getting rather bored with our dry style died so we decided to mix it up a little bit and through some protein in there. We picked up a couple of cans of tuna and a steel a few packs of mayo and went to work opening and draining the fishy deliciousness in the Safe Way parking lot... but not without a couple of confused looks.
Along with our make-shift gourmet meals, Katy has also developed another interesting procedure for brushing her teeth when there are no bathrooms to be found in the immediate area. Instruments that you will need:1. Toothbrush (optional [a finger works just as well])
2. Toothpaste
3. A Cup
4. Some sort of liquid (be it water, cranberry juice, orange juice, coffee... etc)
Katy uses an electric toothbrush but doesn't use the electric part. She's got good form though.After walking around the busy streets of Seattle and playing a wonderful house show with the Autumn Electric we made our way down the coast to ye ol' Portland, Oregon. I've been waiting the whole tour to see this place and I'm so glad that we have had so much time to spend here. I'm also really bummed that we left our bikes in Maine because riding around here would have been worth carrying them along for the whole trip. We spent the first day walking around the downtown area trying to find food that we could afford. We ended up stopping by a burrito place that I got a fairly decent burrito at but Katy ended up getting a tiny corn quesedilla for way too much money (she had a sad face on for the rest of the night). We burnt about 7 hours in downtown Portland waiting for my old high school homeroom buddy Alycia Canavan and her husband (who are both some of the most amazing, funny and charming people you could ever meet) to get down with their dinner so that we could crash out their house with their adorably curious cats! As we sat catching up about the 6 years we hadn't seen each other, the cats were rummaging through our stuff and slowly starting to warm up to us. They didn't sleep with us on the futon that night but they did spend the night staring at us while we slept... only mildly creepy.
We spend the next day hanging out on Portland's "East Side" where all of the cool kids hang out. Its a neighborhood filled with young kids who aren't sure what they want to do with their lives so they spend their time scattered among the many cafes and thrift shops around the area talking their philosophies and buying their used clothing and nick-nacks. As it turns out (to our surprise and maybe disdain), we fit in quite nicely with crowd of tragically hip:
These were taken immediately after we walked by a shop window and saw each other arm-in-arm marching down the street. We both simultaneously laughed at the ridiculousness of it all (I think it was the yellow glasses Katy bought at Buffalo Exchange the day before the really put it over the top or maybe me being a totally hipster prick.... either one...
After a day of walking around and taking in the sides of Portland wonderful east side we went to the venue (Mississippi Pizza) to take in the amazing event that was happening before our show: Portland's Weekly Spelling Bee! We first got there and were surrounded by 30 somethings with their small children doing adorable tricks for us (staring, rolling, running and staring some more) as we sat waiting for the spelling be to begin. We started to get really excited at this point because we thought we were in for an amazing treat of cuteness on stage (I asked Katy if she had her camera and she said, "Yes, but I think I'll take the pictures... it won't be as creepy"). Turns out, as the start time got closer, the contestants were all hyper intelligent adults reciting the spellings of words that I didn't even know the meaning of (which isn't really saying much...). I would just like to point out that I am the worst speller in the world so any attempt to spell a word turned out to be a monumental FAIL (for example: the word would be "elephant" and I would spell "aeroplane"). After the first few words I gave up.
My set that night was riddled with feedback and all the wonderful joys of running your own sound. Luckily, by the time we got to Katy's set we had it all figured out and could just sit back and get into it. We also had a special guest in the crowd. His name is James and he is the drummer for the band called Bombadil. This was pretty exciting for the both of us because their CD "Buzz, a buzz..." has been a staple of our tour listening for the past month. His girlfriend lives out in Portland (he's from Durham) and was spending his off-time hanging out with her and graciously offered us a place to stay at her house that night... which turned out to be a pleasure not just because of them being incredible human beings but also because of the animals which lay inside to greet us.
We spend the next day hanging out on Portland's "East Side" where all of the cool kids hang out. Its a neighborhood filled with young kids who aren't sure what they want to do with their lives so they spend their time scattered among the many cafes and thrift shops around the area talking their philosophies and buying their used clothing and nick-nacks. As it turns out (to our surprise and maybe disdain), we fit in quite nicely with crowd of tragically hip:
These were taken immediately after we walked by a shop window and saw each other arm-in-arm marching down the street. We both simultaneously laughed at the ridiculousness of it all (I think it was the yellow glasses Katy bought at Buffalo Exchange the day before the really put it over the top or maybe me being a totally hipster prick.... either one...
After a day of walking around and taking in the sides of Portland wonderful east side we went to the venue (Mississippi Pizza) to take in the amazing event that was happening before our show: Portland's Weekly Spelling Bee! We first got there and were surrounded by 30 somethings with their small children doing adorable tricks for us (staring, rolling, running and staring some more) as we sat waiting for the spelling be to begin. We started to get really excited at this point because we thought we were in for an amazing treat of cuteness on stage (I asked Katy if she had her camera and she said, "Yes, but I think I'll take the pictures... it won't be as creepy"). Turns out, as the start time got closer, the contestants were all hyper intelligent adults reciting the spellings of words that I didn't even know the meaning of (which isn't really saying much...). I would just like to point out that I am the worst speller in the world so any attempt to spell a word turned out to be a monumental FAIL (for example: the word would be "elephant" and I would spell "aeroplane"). After the first few words I gave up.
My set that night was riddled with feedback and all the wonderful joys of running your own sound. Luckily, by the time we got to Katy's set we had it all figured out and could just sit back and get into it. We also had a special guest in the crowd. His name is James and he is the drummer for the band called Bombadil. This was pretty exciting for the both of us because their CD "Buzz, a buzz..." has been a staple of our tour listening for the past month. His girlfriend lives out in Portland (he's from Durham) and was spending his off-time hanging out with her and graciously offered us a place to stay at her house that night... which turned out to be a pleasure not just because of them being incredible human beings but also because of the animals which lay inside to greet us.
This is Sampson
Sampson (who has one of the most powerful tails I have ever felt against my leg) was the only animal that I got a picture of but I can assure you that they have two sassy cats (one of them is a drooler... mmmmmmmmm) and another dog who has the most adorable face and an immense amount of patience. I love animals.
We woke up the next morning and James made us a delicious batch of potatoes and zucchini/onion scramble to send us off with (along with a preview of the new Bombadil... no, you can't have it) and here we are... in a cafe waiting to head out to Eugene, OR dreading the all night drive we're going to have to take tonight to get to San Fran (get excited for that blog)... Oh, Portland... I'm going to miss you.
Cheers,
Luke
Sampson (who has one of the most powerful tails I have ever felt against my leg) was the only animal that I got a picture of but I can assure you that they have two sassy cats (one of them is a drooler... mmmmmmmmm) and another dog who has the most adorable face and an immense amount of patience. I love animals.We woke up the next morning and James made us a delicious batch of potatoes and zucchini/onion scramble to send us off with (along with a preview of the new Bombadil... no, you can't have it) and here we are... in a cafe waiting to head out to Eugene, OR dreading the all night drive we're going to have to take tonight to get to San Fran (get excited for that blog)... Oh, Portland... I'm going to miss you.
Cheers,
Luke
2 comments:
Luke,
It's great to see you appreciating the West.
Are you going to Santa Cruz? I have a singer/English teacher friend and her husband who likely has room for you to stay.
If you like Portland you'll love Santa Cruz.
Dude, you really do "write like a retarded foreign exchange student" in this one, but it makes it like a puzzle, so it's all good.:) Can't wait to hear how you got through the storm!
Love A*F,
lane
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