Wow, what a packed couple of weeks. First we spent a weekend in Portland with a couple of friends, goofing off and seeing Robyn perform. We’ve been to Portland before, but this time we learned a few new things:
- Avoid the restaurant Afrique at all costs. The service sucks and the food is subpar. (The only thing worth ordering are the drinks. Try the Chai martini thing, it’s amazing. Then get the fuck outta there.)
- Do go to the BBQ joint down the street from Afrique. Excellent service, and food is actually served to you. Brilliant!
- People in Portland go absolutely apeshit for Voodoo Doughnut. We stood in line for over an hour in the freezing wind for some. They were pretty good as donuts go, not sure if the wait was worth it but you can be sure I scarfed them down after the Robyn show. Ya can’t beat flavors like Bacon Maple and Triple Chocolate Penetration.
- Portland has a really large, funky outdoor market on the weekends. It kinda puts Seattle’s Fremont market to shame.
- People there (at least the ones we ran into) are more friendly and chatty towards strangers than Seattle folks. But everyone knows that!
One other thing that happened: our train ride back to Seattle was stopped just south of Tukwila. Apparently someone was killed on the tracks by an outbound train from Seattle, so they had to stop ALL trains on all tracks while they investigated. So for THREE HOURS we sat on our asses, bored to death (though we made use of the iPad and other gadgets). Every once in a while some guy would get on the intercom and say in a thick Russian accent things like “There is nothing we can do. The person on the tracks is…beyond help. Thank you for your patience. This kind of thing happens a lot, it can happen anywhere, even in a car. The crew on the other train has been replaced and we will keep you updated.” Ohhhhhkayyyy….
The following week (and all weekend) was spent downtown in a hotel room during Critter’s family reunion/Thanksgiving gathering. Not much time for blogging, just eating and shmoozing. We had a great time, though. His family are a fun and interesting lot.
Anyway, I’ve uploaded a video montage from the Robyn show to YouTube. You can watch it in HD and full-screen by going to the video page and clicking the appropriate settings. I also took some photos if you wanna see more… It was a fantastic show–the crowd was really into it and she had great energy, so we had a blast.