Pretty Much Went Nowhere, Did Nothing

by | Oct 10, 2025 | Uncategorized

This was one of my worst vacation days ever. I had a great breakfast, drove around Portland, took exactly five photos (three of the same thing), and then went back to our hotel to rest and pack for the cruise tomorrow. I am sure I have NEVER gone an entire day on a trip without shooting at least 100 photos, but here we are.

The biggest reason (getting out the Meldrew, Paul) is the hotel we are staying in. It is just too far from anything except the airport, and I really don’t care to take photos of planes taking off through a dirty, sixth-floor window. If we were downtown, I could be out taking lots of photos of the war zone that is NOT here in Portland. But we are way out here. And driving in isn’t so bad, but the parking is HORRID! I mean, really bad. Last night, I parked in a space so small and tight that it took me 14 gear changes from Drive to Reverse to back into it. I could never have gotten into it from the front. And it costs a fortune. Every place wants to charge me a lot to park for a much longer period than I need. At Multnomah Falls the other day, the only choice was $20 for all-day parking. We were there for no more than 45 minutes. Last night, I was charged $20 for “overnight” parking from the time we arrived at 7:00 pm to 6:00 am. We left at 8:30. Ridiculous!

I want to share a few thoughts about this hotel. It’s the Embassy Suites by Hilton, Portland Airport. Interestingly, I stayed here before when I was working with Jostens, and we had a sales meeting. It was just as disappointing then as it is now. The rooms are spacious and relatively clean. They offer a free breakfast—which is not even “fine”—and complimentary “appetizers” in the evening, like chips and salsa, trail mix, or hummus with cold pita bread. However, the real issue with this hotel is that it misleads you. When we checked in on Monday evening, the woman at the desk asked if we wanted our room made up every day. We said yes. Today is Friday, and our room was finally cleaned. Each day, I would go to the desk after returning from our outings, asking why our room hadn’t been cleaned, and I was told it would be done the next day—yet it wasn’t until today. I believe the delay was simply because the hotel saw us checking out before we actually checked back in with American Cruise Line, which had paid. It’s just sad. So that’s my complaint.

Here are the photos I took today, both with my camera and my phone. I think I took one with my camera.

And thus concludes our four-day pre-cruise trip in Portland. We had fun, but even better, we enjoyed some amazing food. Tomorrow, I will return the rental car and board our ship (I’m not sure what to call it since it only holds 250 people) late in the morning. Due to low water on the river, we will need to take our “luxury motor coach” further east on the river to board in Skamania, Washington, about a 45-minute drive. We are scheduled to be on board by lunchtime at noon. I have a feeling that after a week of experiencing the best of Portland, the cruise food might be a bit of a letdown. We shall see.

There’s something that I can’t describe about the city [Portland] that I really love – just physically – how it feels to walk around there, and have coffee there. Also, the way that it’s a little overcast sometimes. Something about Portland just really resonated with me.  —Fred Armisen

Cars, Planes, Waterfalls and of course…More Food!

by | Oct 9, 2025 | Uncategorized

Yesterday morning, we headed out to the Columbia Gorge (after a hotel breakfast that left much to be desired) to visit Multnomah Falls, Vista House, and Hood River. Then it would be back to Portland for some outstanding Greek food for dinner.

Multnomah Falls is about 25 miles due east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge. That’s about all I can say about it, other than it is a waterfall, it’s pretty, and it’s fairly accessible. I will let some pretty pictures do the talking. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After our waterfall experience, we drove about six miles back down the Gorge to drive up to Vista House. This is an old structure that perches on top of a very high point along the Columbia River and offers amazing views in both directions. I took a few shots there, and then we are off to Hood River.

Our next stop was at the Cascade Locks, where the original locks were built to allow steamships to bypass the rapids on the river. Took a couple of photos there as well.

About six months ago, my son Josh told us that he and his wife had visited Hood River and were really impressed. To the extent that they felt they could actually live there. For an urban lover like my son, that says a lot. So we had to go investigate. It turns out to be a pretty cool town. Our first stop was the pFriem Brewery, where we grabbed a delicious lunch. Here’s what we had.

When we emerged from the brewery, we were looking directly at the river. One of the things the Columbia is famous for is wind and windsurfing. Got a few photos of that as well.

One of the biggest attractions (but you have to look for it) is the WAAAM. That stands for Western Antique Airplane & Automobile Museum. My son also enjoyed this, which surprised me as well, until we drove up (it’s above the city by the airport) to see it. WOW! That’s all I can say. If you even slightly like cars and airplanes, this is the place you have to visit. Here are too many photos I took there. I can promise you that for every one you see here, there are five or six more I didn’t post. There are captions on my favorites.

If you aren’t into cars, feel free to skip ahead to dinner. Many of you know I have a thing for hood ornaments. I just think they are art that has been lost. So when I see good ones, I have to photograph them and add them to my collection. Here are the ones I found this time. No captions. Just the art of the hood ornament.

After we left WAAAM, it was a long drive back to Portland on the Washington side of the river so we could end up in Vancouver, WA, where I need to check in with my doctor for a quick follow-up test related to some issues from the radiation I had in March. No big deal. Everything’s better now.

That night, we had dinner reservations at Eleni’s Philoxenia, a highly-rated Greek restaurant in the Pearl District. We can see why it’s well-regarded. It was amazing—fantastic atmosphere, great music, superb service, and some of the best Greek food I’ve ever had. And I love Greek food.

That about covers our Wednesday. Portland is still awesome and we can’t wait to sail up the Columbia Gorge and see it from the water. Stick with us. That happens next week. Tomorrow (earlier today as I write this) we went out to the Oregon Coast.

Sometimes in L.A., we get accused of being superficial. I feel like Portland’s the opposite, in that there’s a greater depth of character, and sense of self.  —Ruben Fleischer

 

 

 

Portland Day 1-It’s All About the Food (tour)

by | Oct 8, 2025 | Uncategorized

Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours. Kathleen and I had toured with them quite a few years ago, and we are happy to report that they still do a superb food tour. That’s the whole crowd at Deschutes Brewery (but more about that later) above.

We started the day with a free breakfast at our hotel (Embassy Suites by Hilton-PDX), and it was fine. It gave us enough to get us to the tour. We were to meet up with Ken Lin from Secret Food Tours at 11:00 am beneath the Umbrella Man sculpture in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. And, not to be too political here, I can tell you that Portland is NOT AT WAR. It is NOT DANGEROUS. We saw no crime, just a beautiful day and a lot of really nice people out enjoying the sunshine in the heart of Portland.

I took some shots around the Square before we met up with Ken. Just some interesting architecture, people, and the aforementioned Umbrella Man statue. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.

After our food pod experience, we took the longest walk of the day from downtown into the Pearl District to visit Deschutes Brewery and sample their wonderful pretzel with cheese sauce and mustard. All I can say is that it was wonderful. Not quite up to our favorite at Valley House Brewing near us in Duvall, WA but still really good.

Next up was Nong’s Khao Man Gai. It’s an interesting place that is renowned for just this one dish. As you can tell from the name, it is an Asian restaurant. When you order the Khao Man Gai, you get chicken, rice, soup, cucumbers and one of the most amazing sauces. Truly delicious.

From there it was on to Grassa, which is predominantly a pasta restaurant. We got to sample their Pork Belly Mac & Cheese. Absolute decadence might be a good way to describe it. Just amazing.

The last spot and the last course were, of course, dessert. We went just down the street to Petunia’s Pies and Pastries, the home of some truly delicious marionberry pie. If you have no clue what a marionberry is, think of a blackberry without all the annoying seeds. The pie, despite being gluten-free and vegan ?, was amazing.

During the entire tour, I took some street photos, mostly of neon signs, which I love, as well as others of interesting buildings. They are a good way to wind this up photographically.

That about did it for Kathleen and me. She was exhausted from all the walking, so we dropped off Steve, Jamie, Mike, and Cathy at the Portland Rose Garden, and I took Kathleen back to the hotel to rest before going back to pick up the other four about an hour later. The traffic sucked, and that’s kind of what we get for staying in an airport hotel. We had reservations for dinner at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant Kathleen and I had visited before. However, everyone was still so full from the food tour, that I called and rescheduled them for Thursday.

Tomorrow is a trip up the Gorge to visit Multnomah Falls, Hood River and see Mount Hood. Should be fun. I will let you know on Thursday.

Portland is quickly becoming one of those lovely, lush Third World countries where kinda-rich people retire with their money. Here, they can live like kings, generating only service-industry jobs and jacking up housing prices.  —Chuck Palahniuk