Modern Art, Jeld Wen Field at the bottom of our street

Modern Art, Jeld Wen Field at the bottom of our street, a photo by clare&joe on Flickr.

Mt Hood from our apartment

Mt Hood from our apartment, a photo by clare&joe on Flickr.

Mt St Helens from our apartment, not blowing a stack!

Mt St Helens from our apartment, not blowing a stack!, a photo by clare&joe on Flickr.

Joes Burgers, Downtown Portland

Joes Burgers, Downtown Portland, a photo by clare&joe on Flickr.

Minnesota from the air, heading north

Minnesota from the air, heading north, a photo by clare&joe on Flickr.

Nice weather, and some photos...

We had 2 days of amazing weather over the weekend (down to t-shirts, gasp!) The locals apparently queued up at the car washes, but Clare and I explored 21st & 23rd near our apartment, discovering some amazingly good looking restaurants, and even more scary, a giant bookshop full of intellectual books. I wouldn't be seen dead in there of course (now I have my 180 tv channels), but I'll have to keep Clare out somehow. OK, we'll just keep her flying around the US, which will not be difficult. We were up past Seattle last Friday. Clare did her audit, while I worked remotely from Starbucks, then we got stuck in Friday afternoon traffic coming back past Seattle. 5 hours back to Portland, and a moderate degree of fast lane road rage, although this quickly subsided as we approached Portland - people here are just about the friendliest drivers in the world, for real. So back to the weekend, we can now 100% certify the $5 Happy Hour Blended Margaritas at the Mexican joint at the end of our street. We polished off two each before struggling back up the hill with our shopping. Clare went to Philadelphia on Sunday. I went to an Easter Egg hunt with friends at a local vineyard, which was excellent & the sparkling was very good indeed. Yes, the weekend was rather boozy, but not planned that way at all :) I did another HHH walk on Tuesday night, revealing another little suburb in this amazing city (it's really like a Pandoras Box). So here we are, next update soon - we are taking some little travels, still working, but going to some places old and some places new in this big land... See you soon!

Keep Portland Weird

So today I went to Comcast to get a cable box and an internet modem. I walked into what seemed like an old peoples home where they took my name and I joined a group of old folk with their eyes glued to a giant screen with cops chasing people across Alaska. Not a Doctors Surgery but a TV waiting room for Heaven. Not a whisper was heard. Eventually my name was called, they gave me a bunch of Comcast stuff in a pretty red bag, and I headed home. That's where the fun started. After about 4 phone calls (have a lovely day!) and no bad sitcoms on my gigantic and ludicrously cheap 43" flat screen from Beavertron, I realised the cable point behind the telly looked rather dodgy, I took the cable to another outlet in the room, and hey presto, there was MTV Cribs in glorious HD. 180 channels and nothing on, literally. BBC World here plays Star Trek & Battlestar Galactica - looks like no British Crime and no Mr Darcy, what the? Then came the internet hook-up, and again, with no instructions at all, I had to speak to 3 people to get the net working at a mad high speed, without the need for an NBN - that's you Australia. Tonight I negotiated my way round the homeless types returning their carts full of empty beer cans, and just the plain old weird traversing around my local supermarket, Fred Meyer, where I bought a bunch of stuff, some of which is cheaper than Australia, and some of it not. But if we want really expensive, we head up to Zupan's Market, think of food shopping on Rodeo Drive. But this place really grows on you. There is plenty of weird, but plenty of good too, like the many local Hash House Harrier Groups - last night I walked over 10,000 steps - gasp! A great way not only to meet the locals (and make some good friends), but attract a Portland Cop, followed by a Portland Fire Engine as we barbequed some hot dogs and drank some beers, in a park, at 10 o'clock last night. The fire guys just wanted to know what beers we had. Yes, it's just what we do round here in Portland. And if you ever get bored, you can go and join the queue at Voodoo Donuts at 3am (the donut joint that never closes, and the queue never ends). We hear the maple and bacon donut is a winner, but somehow that might have to wait for another night. If we didn't have a home in Brisbane, and a home in Annagassan, this might just be another one.