Driving to Portland, 2018

Looking forward to being in Portland. Driving up on Thursday, staying in a house at SE Cesar Chavez & Hawthorne for 2-3 weeks. So many people to see!

Headed off to Portland. Today's drive through Oroville, Chico, up I-5 to Medford and then staying the night in Jacksonville. It's going to be 85 degrees! A bit more summery than I intended.

Rural California highway fruit stand.

Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River in Redding, last stop before the mountains.

Mt Shasta quite full of snow. The reservoir is nice and full too.

Made it to Jacksonville, OR, a Gold Rush town near Medford with a cute little inn and well reviewed restaurant. Also a shady saloon on a hot day with Widmer so cold it gives you brain freeze.

This hotel / restaurant would be the perfect discreet place to go to with your mistress.

Siskiyou? No, Siski*me*! I-5 through the Klamath Mountains is pretty great engineering. It roughly follows the 1800s (and older) Siskiyou trail. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siskiyou_Trail

“You Are Captive They Roam Free” - Wildlife Safari, a drive-through animal safari near Roseburg, OR. (Judging by the sound of tearing flesh the captive cheetah was content with the raw flesh in its cage.)

Hey! I’m in Portland! Where’s the beer?

I get the feeling it’s always 4:20 in Portland.

Happiness is the intimacy of long time friends.

My Portland AirBnB is really pretty nice but the decor cliché is strong. Mechanical typewriters and vinyl records as decorative elements, piano TV stand, jelly jar glassware, stripped wallpaper. This works on my nostalgia.

It is easier for me to buy weed near where I am in Portland than to buy liquor. State-run liquor stores are so dumb.

Portland isn’t all beer and weed and hipster decor; there’s shirtless firefighters too.

Good lunch and great cheese shopping experience at Cheese Board out by Mt Tabor. Friendly and knowledgeable cheesemongers.

None of my old friends in Portland have said anything about the beard. Not sure if that means it's unremarkable or if it's unspeakable.

Cheese Bar, not Cheese Board. Same folks who own Chizu downtown. cheese-bar.com

More good Portland things: Laurelhurt Market, a combination butcher / charcuter / steakhouse restaurant. Very good scrapple sandwich, pate, sausage, etc. This kind of place can't easily exist in San Francisco; Portland has a bunch of similar delights. laurelhurstmarket.com

Oregon goodness: driving along and Boom! Your favorite winery shows up a mile away on the map. View from Domaine Drouhin.

Portland is really mellow and fun and mostly pretty easy to deal with. Then you get to some area that's too congested or busy and it's a complete meltdown disaster. Particularly traffic and parking. Very bimodal.

Excellent dinner at Aviary, Asian fusion on Alberta. Old friend from Reed + Media Lab. Portland sure is delivering.

Angry-sounding person shouting crazy rants here on 39th/Cesar Chavez. Portland feels just like home!

Excellent arepas at Teote with my law-talking friend followed by a walk in flowery Ladd's Addition. Portland is sure agreeable.

More excellent Portland food + beverage last night. Dinner at Coquine, an impress neighborhood restaurant punching above its weight with thoughtfully composed American fine dining menus. Then drinks at everyone's favorite Rum Club. coquinepdx.com

Afuri's tonkatsu tantanmen ramen is interesting. Spicy pork broth but with a bunch of sesame so it has an almost tahini note to the flavor. Super rich and delicious. afuri.us/#food-menu

Enjoying a radish gastrique cocktail with salt and pepper @ImperialPDX medium.com/track-and-food/vincents-picks-a-radish-walks-into-a-bar-imperial-portland-bdd548ae8c70

Drink last night at Han Oak was a kimchilada. Menu lists kimchi, daikon brine, tequila, mama lils pickles, hot sauce, beer. But it was more like a regular michelada, all liquid, except kimchi juice and Korean flavors instead of tomato and Mexican. 좋았어

Portland AF.

Tasty ‘n’ Alder has the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had anywhere. Korean flavored one today to go with the bi bim bacon and eggs.

I love the sound of the freight trains in SE Portland. It’s dumb they still run through the neighborhoods but the whistle and clack is evocative.

I've joked about all the beer places in Portland and all the weed shops. But my mind was blown last night by the idea of CBD-infused beer and soda being served in ordinary bars, thanks to some loopholes / ambiguity in state law. wweek.com/cannabis/2018/04/19/five-places-to-get-weedy-drinks-in-portland wweek.com/cannabis/2017/01/23/portlands-coalition-making-cbd-beer-even-after-dea-classes-drug-the-same-as-cocaine-and-heroin

Last meal in Portland at Xico. Inventive Mexican, excellent carnitas. Also a "Negroni en Fuego": smoky mezcal instead of gin, sweet red vermouth as traditional, and a chile-infused Campari for a kick. xicopdx.com/menu/#dinner