Now Honey...

Oregon

I took a first class flight, to meet Mark in Portland on Wednesday (6/1/11). We went to the Deschutes brewery and their beers are the bomb. My favorite was the 31-25. It was a combination of a Hefeweizen and a Pale Ale. They're still tweaking it and I can't wait until it's bottled. We checked out Henry's Tavern and they had about 100 beers on tap, but other than that it was only ok. This first day required a nap after all the beers. We headed out to dinner Jakes for happy hour and dinner and then the awesome Driftwood Bar that was in the Hotel Deluxe bar. They have a fine black and blue.

Mark had to work on Thursday. So, I spent a few hours in Powell's bookstore, did some light shopping in the Pearl District and took a nap. I didn't even have a beer until almost 5. We walked down to Bailey's tap room for some great brews. We ordered food from a little Mexican restaurant that delivers to Baileys. I'm not sure who was to blame, but we kept ordering more beers. They have a great trippel there that's over 8% alcohol and I had two of those to top the night off. I don't remember walking home, but I don't think I missed anything. Mark claims that once we got back to the room I kept making all these groaning sounds, like I was trying to die. I can confirm I woke up to many strange noises coming from the toilet area at various hours of the night.

On Friday, we went to The Stepping Stone for breakfast. This place was on Man Vs. Food for their pancakes. Neither of us had the pancakes. Although, I wish I would have. We drove up to Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge and that took most of the day. Once back in Portland, we headed over to Amnesia Brewery and I checked out some cool little shops on Mississippi Ave. We were both beat and headed back to the hotel for a light dinner and drinks.

Most memorable quote, "It's just poopy man." This comment was made by a homeless dude when Mark told me to watch where I stepped.

Strangest Fact, I had no idea that Oregon is almost 90% white. I mentioned to Mark that I had only seen four African Americans in three days. Weird.

Common knowledge-Portland is very green and I don't just mean environmentally. Everywhere you look there is beautiful landscape, tall trees, moss growing everywhere, things in bloom all over the place. It was beautiful. The weather was in the 50's-60's on Wed. and Thursday and would have sporadic rainfall. Friday it was sunny and no rain.

No surprise-Most people appeared pretty healthy and fit. The only two morbidly obese people we saw were both on our flight back to DFW. One of them rode a scooter down to the plane and I'm not sure how the other one made it down here. Very sad.

Bailey's Tap Room

Ashley going in for the final kill on Connect Four.

Stepping Stone Breakfast. We, stupidly, ordered a full order of biscuits and gravy a piece. Not to mention a side of bacon and eggs.

Multnomah Falls on the way to Mt. Hood.

Timberline Lodge/Mt. Hood

View from the bar in the Timberline.

Sweet Heidi. Bruno was in the other gift shop.

Later, Ashley

Pearl (1996-2009)

In early 1996 Ashley picked up a chubby little yellow puppy at the Hyper-Mart in Arlington. She already had Bubba, who was just over one, when she decided he needed a playmate. The puppy was the last of the litter and Ashley had to have her. Little did she know that she was getting the sweetest doggy in the world, the direct opposite of Bubba.

Ashley's stepmother's Dad liked to drink Pearl beer and naming her little yellow fuzz ball Pearl seemed fitting. Pearl grew into a tall dog and she appeared to be a Greyhound/Yellow Lab mix. She was a loner at times and didn't play with Bubba like Ashley had probably envisioned. She loved to walk the perimeter of the backyard and she rarely met a turd that she didn't like. Labs really like to eat poop.

Early this December, Pearl started to go downhill and it was time. Ashley held her until the end but the love they shared can never be extinguished.

Various Shit Holes - Wichita Falls

The Life Of The Party

He really twisted one off that night.

Sod!

8 pallets of pure fun...

Munich Breakfast

Veal sausage, special mustard and a wheat beer.

Augustiner Keller

I don't think you can buy Augustiner beer in the States and it's a real shame.

Bavarian Heaven

I'm Cooler Than You

Get over it.

Iguana Man

His girlfriend is not impressed.

My Kind of Girl

Wetzlar, Germany

Marburg, Germany

Always Sound Advice

Lahn River

Frozen.

Christmas Poop

Daddy, I left you a present near the tree. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Pearl

*Picture to follow*

George

8 Legs Of Fury

Palin, Texas Tech Fan

Snobbish

I Heart Pub

The Market Porter

The Wenlock Arms

The Exmouth Arms. I good place for a punch up.

The Dog and Duck

The fireplace at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

The Jerusalem Tavern

All are located in London.

"Double Or Nothing?"

Patrick did indeed eat the hottest bowl of Pho known to all of man kind during the last challenge. He was the champ but he wouldn't allow himself to bask in the glory of victory for long. His comment on my blog entry said simply, "double or nothing."

That was a huge mistake. We negotiated what "double" should be and we decided it meant double the spice. The Great Pho Challenge, Part Deux was scheduled...

His first taste of the bowl of complete crap. He almost pukes on the third spoonful.

Another near miss. Danielle, are you proud to be married to such a man?

Defeat and a special note to my boy, Bruno, it's not over til it's over. I like how I am emphatically try to override Bruno telling Mears that "he did it".

Patrick and The Great Pho Challenge

Patrick, as you may know, is always ready to accept a challenge. When we eat Vietnamese Pho, a broth and egg noodle soup, he spices it up with various spices. He brags about how much he puts in. However, he usually is sweating, coughing, crying but all the while, he is bragging. This spawned the challenge. If he could eat the hottest bowl of pho ever then I would buy it.

The spices...