Portland, for real
First let me say that Portland was beautiful and wonderful, and I really really want to move there, and that this is the first city in the States that I have fallen in love with besides NYC.
Second, the details...
The trip started off poorly. Our flight was delayed. We left the apartment in Brooklyn at around 1:30pm, got to LaGuardia airport at around 2:30pm, our flight was supposed to leave at 3:52pm. We left LaGuardia at around 9:30-10'o'clock pm. That's about 7hours at LaGuardia. Fortunately, there was a bar, unfortunately, it was a very expensive bar. And because our flight was delayed, we missed our connecting flight from Denver to Portland, and by the time we got to Denver, there were no more flights to Portland that evening (because we arrived at around 11:30pm Denver time), and there were no rooms available in any hotel (not that we wanted to spend the money anyway - the airport wouldn't pay for a room, because the delay was due to weather, so not their fault). So we slept in the Denver airport that night. Because we missed the flight, the next best route that would get us there the fastest was to fly to San Francisco from Denver, a 6am flight, and then fly to Portland from Denver. So we received boarding passes for these flights, hoping to land in Portland by 9:30am Thursday morning (July 24th). Well, our flight out of Denver was also delayed, so we we're going to miss the flight out of San Francisco. So we were put on the stand-by list for all flights leaving from San Francisco to Portland on Thursday, because the only flight we could confirm left San Fran at 10pm thursday night. I thought we would be waiting in the San Francisco airport forever. Fortunately, we were put on the first flight to Portland (an 11:30am flight) and were able to make it to Portland by 1pm Thursday, even though we were supposed to get there by 9:30pm Wednesday. And that's 1pm pacific time, so really 4pm nyc time. so we traveled for a good 24 hours.
We did get $100 travel vouchers for a United flight each (one for JP and one for me) after the Denver flight was delayed, and our luggage followed us (actually beat us to Portland, it arrived Thursday morning). We also did not end up paying for the room we booked Wednesday night, because the hostel was able to re-book the room after I told them we would not be able to make it. People are really nice in Portland. We also missed the Thursday morning brunch and parade that was supposed to start off the Oregon Brewers Festival, that we had already paid for. But we did get our t-shirts and mugs and some tokens, because I contacted the organizer to let her know we couldn't make it. And she said we could pick up those things at the info tent at the festival. (the $20 each paid for brunch, beer at brunch, a t-shirt, and a mug - the mugs were $5 at the festival, and you had to buy one in order to drink at the festival) Since we didn't get beer or food, we got tokens instead.
When we arrived, we went to the Guesthouse (it was a hostel, but we got our own room, we just shared a bathroom - but there were 3 bathrooms for 5 bedrooms. It was a great place to stay, more like staying at someones house, but with more privacy) where we were staying first, and then went to get some food cause we were starving. I thought we would pass out right away, cause we were so tired, or at least i was. But the food revived us a little, and we decided to head to the beer fest.
There were 73 taps at the Festival, which means there were 73 different beers and 73 different micro breweries there (each brewery was allowed 1 entry). Most of the beer was from the Northwest, but they had some entries from other areas, including one from New Jersey (Flying Fish Brewing Co.). There were tents set up with refrigerator trucks lining one side, with the kegs and taps, and then tables to sit at on the other side. You had to buy tokens, each token was a dollar, 1 token got you a taste of the beer (about 1/4 of the mug), and 4 tokens got you a full mug. I think the mug was about a pint, maybe a little less. We mostly bought tastes, since we wanted to try them all.
We didn't stay at the festival too long on Thursday, because I was tired, and wanted to get some rest. So I went back to the hostel to sleep and JP went to the Flanders St brewpub, which is the Rogue brewpub in Portland. Rogue beer is our favorite beer ever. If you haven't tried any, you should. Any of them. They are all the best beer I've ever had. Anyway, he was only going to stay for a little bit, but ended up staying well into the night. He started talking to everyone there, and found out some good brewpubs to check out, and a distillery. And he learned about the Portland Timbers soccer team, which had a game that night, which we would have gotten to go to if our flight wasn't delayed, because the brunch was in PGE park (the soccer/baseball stadium), at the Widmer brewpub that is in the park (which is awesome! a brewpub in the park!), and we would have learned about the Timbers and went to see them play that night. Apparently they are fanatics about the soccer team in Portland, and more people go to the soccer games than the baseball games.
For not wanting to write about Portland, I wrote a lot. I guess once I get into it, I have a lot to say. And I've only recorded 1 day. But now I really don't want to write anymore, and I have to leave work soon anyway.
I'll finish this later.
Second, the details...
The trip started off poorly. Our flight was delayed. We left the apartment in Brooklyn at around 1:30pm, got to LaGuardia airport at around 2:30pm, our flight was supposed to leave at 3:52pm. We left LaGuardia at around 9:30-10'o'clock pm. That's about 7hours at LaGuardia. Fortunately, there was a bar, unfortunately, it was a very expensive bar. And because our flight was delayed, we missed our connecting flight from Denver to Portland, and by the time we got to Denver, there were no more flights to Portland that evening (because we arrived at around 11:30pm Denver time), and there were no rooms available in any hotel (not that we wanted to spend the money anyway - the airport wouldn't pay for a room, because the delay was due to weather, so not their fault). So we slept in the Denver airport that night. Because we missed the flight, the next best route that would get us there the fastest was to fly to San Francisco from Denver, a 6am flight, and then fly to Portland from Denver. So we received boarding passes for these flights, hoping to land in Portland by 9:30am Thursday morning (July 24th). Well, our flight out of Denver was also delayed, so we we're going to miss the flight out of San Francisco. So we were put on the stand-by list for all flights leaving from San Francisco to Portland on Thursday, because the only flight we could confirm left San Fran at 10pm thursday night. I thought we would be waiting in the San Francisco airport forever. Fortunately, we were put on the first flight to Portland (an 11:30am flight) and were able to make it to Portland by 1pm Thursday, even though we were supposed to get there by 9:30pm Wednesday. And that's 1pm pacific time, so really 4pm nyc time. so we traveled for a good 24 hours.
We did get $100 travel vouchers for a United flight each (one for JP and one for me) after the Denver flight was delayed, and our luggage followed us (actually beat us to Portland, it arrived Thursday morning). We also did not end up paying for the room we booked Wednesday night, because the hostel was able to re-book the room after I told them we would not be able to make it. People are really nice in Portland. We also missed the Thursday morning brunch and parade that was supposed to start off the Oregon Brewers Festival, that we had already paid for. But we did get our t-shirts and mugs and some tokens, because I contacted the organizer to let her know we couldn't make it. And she said we could pick up those things at the info tent at the festival. (the $20 each paid for brunch, beer at brunch, a t-shirt, and a mug - the mugs were $5 at the festival, and you had to buy one in order to drink at the festival) Since we didn't get beer or food, we got tokens instead.
When we arrived, we went to the Guesthouse (it was a hostel, but we got our own room, we just shared a bathroom - but there were 3 bathrooms for 5 bedrooms. It was a great place to stay, more like staying at someones house, but with more privacy) where we were staying first, and then went to get some food cause we were starving. I thought we would pass out right away, cause we were so tired, or at least i was. But the food revived us a little, and we decided to head to the beer fest.
There were 73 taps at the Festival, which means there were 73 different beers and 73 different micro breweries there (each brewery was allowed 1 entry). Most of the beer was from the Northwest, but they had some entries from other areas, including one from New Jersey (Flying Fish Brewing Co.). There were tents set up with refrigerator trucks lining one side, with the kegs and taps, and then tables to sit at on the other side. You had to buy tokens, each token was a dollar, 1 token got you a taste of the beer (about 1/4 of the mug), and 4 tokens got you a full mug. I think the mug was about a pint, maybe a little less. We mostly bought tastes, since we wanted to try them all.
We didn't stay at the festival too long on Thursday, because I was tired, and wanted to get some rest. So I went back to the hostel to sleep and JP went to the Flanders St brewpub, which is the Rogue brewpub in Portland. Rogue beer is our favorite beer ever. If you haven't tried any, you should. Any of them. They are all the best beer I've ever had. Anyway, he was only going to stay for a little bit, but ended up staying well into the night. He started talking to everyone there, and found out some good brewpubs to check out, and a distillery. And he learned about the Portland Timbers soccer team, which had a game that night, which we would have gotten to go to if our flight wasn't delayed, because the brunch was in PGE park (the soccer/baseball stadium), at the Widmer brewpub that is in the park (which is awesome! a brewpub in the park!), and we would have learned about the Timbers and went to see them play that night. Apparently they are fanatics about the soccer team in Portland, and more people go to the soccer games than the baseball games.
For not wanting to write about Portland, I wrote a lot. I guess once I get into it, I have a lot to say. And I've only recorded 1 day. But now I really don't want to write anymore, and I have to leave work soon anyway.
I'll finish this later.