Filed under: Chicago
Uncharacteristically, I bought tickets to The Magnetic Fields show in Chicago last July. I never do that – so much to go wrong and in the end I did miss one important work meeting back in St Paul but I don’t feel too bad about. The show was worth it. Katie and I went to night one of a two-night series where they played their double album, 69 Love Songs. The collection has a song for every conceivable breakup and a couple with happy endings. Next time we’re going to both nights!
Dad (aka grandpa) drove down too – for the eating and the driving and he met up with friends. We arrived early Wednesday afternoon. Katie and I took the train to downtown Chicago and walked around until we went for an amazing dinner at Pilsen Yards. (Hot ti: pina colada ceviche.) Then we walked up to Thalia Hall. There was already a line – but we’re pros so we caught a beer in the bar downstairs. We didn’t get front row seats but, we didn’t wait in lines either. The sound in Thalia is awesome anywhere and honestly the sightlines are better upstairs. The show was so much fun and I think I cried twice from laughing so hard.
Thursday we mostly chilled. Not enough time to truck downtown with all the road construction. Every time we went out for a walk it started to rain. But we did make it to consignment shops in Evanston, where I got a dress that’s too fancy, except I can wear it when I host an actual rock show on an actual venue stage. (Mama Hellcats at the Hook & Ladder on May 16!)
Thursday night, we ate at our favorite French restaurant, D&J’s Bistro in Lake Zurich. Dinner includes pate, carpaccio, scallops, lobster, mussels, dark chocolate ganache and family: dad, Katie, Dan, Betsy and me. My niece Betsy just successfully completed a tons of tests in her year-5 of her 6 year quest to become a physical therapist. So, it was a celebration. After that dad and I headed to Janesville for the night and now we’re passing the Ho Chunk Casino on the way back to the Cities.
Filed under: Oregon
On my last day, we finally got to Powell Books, apparently the world’s largest independent bookstore. I’ve worked in many libraries, and I have to say, none were as large as Powell Books. It’s busy and well organized. It seems like they have a good calendar of events, which always helps. My favorite memory was overhearing a young girl say to her mom, “I found a book on Disney World. (pause) It has everything. (pause) I really like Disney World. (pause) I mean really … I’d like to go there … someday.”
Spent the last day then reflecting on the trip. We had a great time. Lily compared Portland to “New Orlean’s tired uncle, who usually just has two beers now.” It is a place where people seem to live easy. People drive slowly, start conversations and seem nice. I spent a lot of time near and in downtown so I saw a lot of people living in tents. That’s always hard but only because it’s hard to see someone on a rough day. The weather is very Irish, which I had been told before. Lots of misty-rain, which just makes my hair look better.
There feels like a DIY undercurrent in the community. As Lily noted, it’s like third generation fisher families move into town but they still know how to fix a boat or scale a fish. The city is plunked in the middle of amazing nature. I’d say that about St Paul too – but Portland beauty is maybe more obvious, if you like that sort of thing.
Final word – Lily is doing well and always fun to spend a week with a kid. (And just a few pictures from the trip…)
Saturday night ended at El Corazon seeing Ariel Pink. Very fun place. Fun show. Seems like the sort of thing I might do in Minneapolis, which is always a little funny for me since I generally don’t see a ton of live music while on vacation.
Sunday we took a slow drive from Seattle to Portland, stopping whenever and wherever we wanted. We started with Snoqualmie Falls. I had no expectations and was just amazed. I love my Minnehaha Falls, but I’m realizing how “cute” they are after a look at some of these just majestic water falls in the real mountains. Also, the waterfall featured in Twin Peaks. Who doesn’t love a famous waterfall?
Next stop, the cemetery in Renton WA, to see Jimi Hendrix’s memorial. It’s impressive. I’ve been there twice and it was raining each time. So I think the angles are always crying for Jimi. The population the cemetery is very diverse. There’s a grave nearby that has chanting-type music blasting. It aids an interesting dimension.
Next step the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Best thing, I got to get my Chihuly fix. I love his art; there’s great color and movement in most of his work. It’s amazing to think that anything would work in a medium that seems by its nature so fragile. Another impressive piece in the Salmon School Sculpture, which is created with salmon-like, silver hand-blown mini-sculptures hanging from the ceiling in the shape of a salmon. We both saw a lot of works we liked; there’s something whimsical and permanent in art that seems so hard to do.
We made a quick stop in Olympia. Lily went to a vintage shop – ironically one I remembered from an earlier trip with Aine. I checked out the local street art.
Eventually we made it back to Portland. We had a nice diner nearly Lily’s work (Grassa?) and we went to two of her favorite bars: the Blue Moon and the Book Pub. Both were nice but a pub that features books, where most of the patrons are readers or writers (and you can tell because they are reading and writing at the pub) is hard to resist.
Filed under: Washington
Lily had a relaxing morning while I took a walk, one of my favorite things! I check out a lot of street art, including the Giant Red Popsicle by Catherine Mayer. I visited the fish market and the Spheres. The weather was crisp, very windy and a low key misty drizzle that made me miss Ireland. (And made my hair look good all day!)
Then I met up with Lily. We had a fun pasta lunch at Pike Place and then checked out the Seattle Art Museum. The staff there were so kind. They let me in with my reciprocal MiA membership even though I had no proof. Holding my Walker card may have helped lend authenticity to my claim. Either way, so nice. I was drawn to some of the artists I know from the Walker and MiA at home such as Wendy Red Star and Kenhinde Wiley. I really enjoyed the art by Calder (especially his little wire sculptures) and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. I also enjoyed the multimedia Virtual Chimeric Space by Sara Woolfalk. There was also a work by called Take a Knee and Scream, where folks are invited to enter the space and … you guessed it – scream.
We had an amazing dinner at the Pink Door. We got lucky being on the walk-up list and scored ourselves the best table in the place because we weren’t near anyone and we were in the perfect place to watch the aerial performer. She was fantastic and performed for about 10 minutes each half hour. The perfect amount. And the food was amazing. I had braised beer risotto and tuna crudo. Lily had arancini and squid ink seafood pasta and we shared a lot. Best meal of the trip … so far.
Day five started in Astoria, we made one last stop to see Astoria Column. I thought it would be like an older water tower. It was much cooler. As the t-shirt indicates, it’s almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. It’s on top of Coxcomb Hill and the views are amazing. We saw a very scary looking bridge that crossed the river to Stevens State Park.
Our next stop was the Peter Iredale shipwreck in Stevens State Park. God love Lily – she drove over the scary bridge. I think she didn’t realize how scary it would be. Part of the problem in that you take a hairpin turn on the elevating ramp to get to it. But we survived. We did get the beach to ourselves. It was really nice.
The on to Long Beach where Lily found a vintage shop that she loved. She got a great haul. Turns out art in Portland is pretty expensive. But the art at the secondhand store in a rural coastal town, is less expensive. We had a nice lunch and then I took a walk on the beach. I suspect it’ll be my last walk on the ocean for a hot minute, so I soaked it in.
Then onto Seattle, which was much farther than we wanted it to be. But we checked in, We checked out some of the basics (Ferris Wheel, gum wall and Pike’s Place) on the way to find a restaurant open past 9pm. We found one. And we found ourselves an Irish pub for a pint or two.
Filed under: Oregon
Day four started Wednesday night at The Pharmacy PDX, a bar that featured a few times in the Matt Dillon movie, Drugstore Cowboy. We happened to be there for burlesque night – a very fun and gender expansion show.
Thursday Lily and I packed up our bags for the coast. The drive to Seaside was gorgeous between the forest and the mountains. The trees are so much taller than I’m used to, even in Northern Minnesota. We saw snow for the first time in weeks. Apparently, it’s been a while for folks here too to see so much snow. Then we got to the beach. Amazing! The sound could lull anyone into a good mood. There was a promenade, that was too far from the water for us, so we went right to the water.
We learned a little bit about clam digging, which looks like a pretty fun work out. People use what I’d call a clam digging auger to dig up the dirt and hopefully a clam. We chased down sand dollars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them on the beach like that before. Also Seaside is the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. So that was pretty interesting.
From Seaside we went north to Astoria, where much of Goonies was filmed. I went to see the Goonies house. The view is amazing and there’s sort of a well-maintained ragtag feel about the area. Astoria is where Clark Gable began his acting career; unfortunately, the theater burned down and the plaque doesn’t photograph well but we saw it. There were so many movie connections in the area. And as Lily noted there were a couple of cinemas and a video store. Lily works at a Cinema in Portland and worked at the Lagoon in Minneapolis. I feel like she could move to Astoria.
My favorite thing so far – the sealions in Astoria. You can’t get very close to them but you can hear them from far away. The last two times I visited Dublin, I didn’t get to see seals so this was a total bonus seeing sealions here!
We had very yummy seafood for dinner and checked out a few of the local breweries. A mellow but fun night. We stayed right in town and it was nice to see there were a few options that were walkable to the city.
Filed under: Oregon
Last night we went to check out Creepy’s – an old town, clown, kitschy bar. It wasn’t busy but the bartender was really nice and the scenery was good. We visited a place next door, with some amazing velvet art. It was a good end to a fun day and great start to day three.
Today Lily and I went to The Grotto. The Wowser! It reminded me of my visit to Kylemore Abbey with Kate in January. It is a Catholic outdoor altar and sanctuary with daily Masses. Constructed in 1924, the sanctuary covers 62 acres, set both at the foot of, and atop, a 110 foot cliff. It is so peaceful with all of the moss and forest smells. It is, as one might guests pretty religious. There are outdoor sculptures for the Stations of the Cross, bas relief vignettes of the joyful and sorrowful mysteries, lots of statues and various shrines. The shrines come from different lands and are each cool, yet unique. There’s a small chapel (St Ann’s) with a few prayer pews and paintings with different renditions of Mary and Jesus; each also coming from different lands. I thought they were fascinating. And a labyrinth, which was very relaxing.
Also worth mentioning the number of trees that came down during a recent ice storm. There’s a picture of me below standing by the tree trunk to show how big the tree had been.
The most amazing part (maybe, but it was all so great) was the meditation overlook. The views of the mountains were spectacular and really the first time I was fully able to see the mountains. The overlook was built in 1991 by the family of Marilyn Moyer. I’m pretty sure we saw Mount Rainier in the distance.
I love the story of how grotto began…
The story of The Grotto begins at the end of the 19th century, with a young boy who learned that his mother lay near death after giving birth to a daughter. In tears, the boy ran to the little parish church in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He prayed to the Virgin Mary for his mother’s life, promising that if she were spared he would one day undertake a great work for the church. Both his mother and baby sister survived, and the future Fr. Ambrose Mayer never forgot his promise.
We stopped on the way home at Mt Tabor on the way back. It was a quick look at some more views. Between Tabor and the Grotto, I’ve grown to really like the smell of a forest.
Filed under: Oregon
This living on Pacific Time is tough when the good people of the Midwest are two hours ahead. But I’m adjusting. Day two began last night when we all headed to The Alibi, for tiki drinks and karaoke. I did not sing; the others did. We did start the night (which minds you starts at midnight CST when Lily’s off work) with a fishbowl of cocktail. What could go wrong? Actually. it was a super fun night. The people in our group were great performers and we saw some fairly amazing strangers.
Tuesday (today) I took some pictures of Lily and her regular places – home and work. We had a nice lunch and then Lily went to work.
I took a weird walk for a couple hours. I like Portland but, in my experience, thus far, it’s not a walking city. (I guess most US cities aren’t.) Not that it’s difficult to get to places, there just aren’t a lot of other people walking around.
I walked to Chinatown, which came recommended. It was a sunny day so in the distance I could see the hills and just about see the mountains. It’s gorgeous. Closer to me, I walked through a lot of neighborhoods and got to cross the river (The Willamette) twice. Turns out not much commerce or tourism is happening in Chinatown these days. Lots of folks with nowhere else to go. Some folks were friendly, and no one was aggressive, but hard to take tourist photos without looking like a strange photojournalist trying to capture someone’s not-finest moment.
I did accidentally find the Wishing Tree on Morris St and 7th Ave, which is near Lily’s places. The homeowner leaves paper, string and instructions and people write their wishes on the tree. Apparently the original has inspired other wishing trees to pop up. But this is the original. (Of course I knew none of this before I looked on Google, after seeing the tree!)
Filed under: Oregon
I arrived late on Sunday night to visit Lily in her new home city of Portland Oregon. I had never been here before. We didn’t skip a beat and headed right out to the Lollipop Shoppe to see a few bands. It’s always weird to start a trip in the dark. I liked the place and the music but had no real feel for Portland. Today I got a little better feel.
We went to check out Vintage Merchants, where I scored new-to-me boots and two new-to-me dresses. Lily got some art and clothes. Tyler got some art too. We had super tasty pastries and then Lily went off to work at the taco place. (She also works at a cinema.)
I spent the afternoon walking from one workplace to the next back to Lily’s. The weather does feel like Dublin – wet and chilly but not super cold without the wind. I walked by some very nice neighborhoods and interesting shops. I saw some folks who weren’t living their best day. You know like you’d see in most cities.
Lily lives in a very nice basement apartment. It has some old school charm with wood and hidden space but it’s also very brought and feels modern. The neighborhood feels much the same. Each house is different from the next. Lots of colors and yard ornaments or swing sets. She’s just a few blocks off what seems to be a busier street, which I always like.
Soon we’ll be walking up to meet up with Lily for more adventures!
I got home last night – very tired but happy. Myr flight was late and turbulent – although the flight attendants at KLM were very good. It took an hour or more to get through MSP passport processing – not sure why.
It was so nice to hang out with Kate. She was a little under the weather but she was a trooper. We had a good time seeing new things and going back to nostalgic places. Kate really likes traditional music and classic art. You can see it in her art.
For myself, I was able to work some (thank you broadband) but also had a nice break. My hope was to walk 10 miles a day. I walked more than 120 miles over 10 days. I’m going to miss that. It’s nice to be back home (thank you Minnesota heating) but I’m also sad do be away.
I thought I’d share the quick videos and some unused images from the last 10 days.
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