11.Sept.08
The plane ride home was hellish. The anticipation made it difficult to sleep, and unlike the flight to New Zealand so many months ago, you couldn’t choose from a huge array of movies to keep occupied. No problems, we’ll deal with the jetlag later.
Our short trip home was nice. Jess and I had some good times with friends in the Bay Area, then I went home to see family and friends, and Jess went with parents to Lake Tahoe. It was really nice to be back, but still didn’t quite feel like home as we’d soon be world travelers again.
11.Sept.08
I flew to SF where I hopped on a connector flight to Portland, meeting Jess along the way. A couple single serving snacks and orange juices later and we were in Portland.
On the phone, my brother Mike tried to convince us that $50 isn’t much money to take a taxi to our hotel. Jess and I had a good laugh at that and after about 5 minutes had figured out the train route and paid a much more reasonable $5 to ride Portland’s unbelievably clean, cheap, and efficient public transport system. With a nice tour of the city passing by, we walked to the hotel and after a couple minutes were reunited with more family.
It was great seeing everyone; Mom, Marc, Mike, my step brother and sister Kristen and Jay, with all of Jay’s friends here for his wedding. We picked up our tuxedos (as I am also part of a wedding for the first time in my “adult” years; flashbacks to age 4 when I lost the wedding ring off the pillow when I was ring bearer for Mom and Marc). After we ate at the number one most delicious Hawaiian plate lunch place any of us have ever eaten; Noho’s. Unforgettable teriyaki spare ribs and chicken, and to kill for macaroni salad (well if you die for it you can’t well enjoy it can you).
After a quick rehearsal we ate delicious Ruth’s Chris dinner where Marc and others made lovely speeches about Jay and Thereza. Then off to Rogue Brewery for tasty beers and Jess and I left before all the other groomsman got tanked and started wrestling and punching each other…sounded fun though…or not.
12.Sept.08
Everyone else was boring today; only Mom had an excuse because she just heard that her little prince Harley had some heart issues and had to be hospitalized, poor little pup. (He’s doing okay now). Jess and I loved what we have already seen of Portland and went out to discover more. The metro system in Portland is not only efficient, cheap, and clean, but downtown it is FREE!!! We rode around on the train all day exploring the tranquil Japanese Gardens, and the exquisitely colorful Rose Gardens. The city is incredibly fun, no traffic, very clean, terrific people, good food, lots of green space; a little utopia. The only downfall is the huge number of meth heads wandering the streets.
We had dinner with everyone including my uncle and some of Mom and Marc good friends, the Friesians who were terrific chatting with about travel. Good times!
13.Sept.08
It was wedding day. We drove out to Salem, checked into a hotel, put on our tuxes and dresses and hopped over to the Zenith winery for the ceremony. Everyone had a good time, beer and wine flowed merrily, a good mix of people, good food, great speeches. Kristen made a terrific speech and put on a phenomenal photo album of Jay and Thereza. Thereza’s dad made an incredible speech complete with thick Czech accent which made it all the better, I love that guy! The actual ceremony was great save for the minister who many felt did a really shit job. He was the only one who could come out so far of the city so there was no other choice, but he slowly stumbled through a boring cookie cutter ceremony from a big ugly folder he held like a security blanky. This guy got paid $500? What a joke, I’ll do that as a part time job, memorize my damn lines, and make something far more personal for the couple (plus I’ll dress however you want and do voices and accents; anyone wanna hire me?) He should be fired.
Anyway that was one moment of a thousand terrific ones. An overall beautiful wedding!!! Congrats Jay and Thereza. On the ride back to the hotel we had some post-wedding Burger King, and went to the hotel for some more drinks in the hotel suite. Jess and I left early, but the party raged for many hours.
14.Sept.08
After some more Noho’s plate lunch and dropping off all the tuxes, Mom, Marc, Jess, and I drove to our Couchsurfing hosts house. Logan and Mariah were awesome hosts. Took us all around the city via the great transport system and showed us some more terrific sites. It wasn’t their fault the entire city of Portland shuts down for Sunday, stupid Sabbath, I am surprised people still obey that crap, why else would the shops close on a weekend?! We still found some decent pizza after much disappointment from all the better establishments in town being shut. Then we laid in our big comfy bed and went to sleep to a film being played on the massive projector screen Logan had thrown together a few weeks before. Sweet system!
15.Sept.08
Jess and I wandered around a bit more. Checked out the local weird donut shop, Chinatown, more meth heads, etc. Then we headed to the airport and began our long boring flight to Germany where Finding Nemo made me cry for the fourth time…you know where Nemo finds his dad in the end…UGH, gets me every time. You think I kid…
Portland Photos Here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157607363386791/
