Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Days 34 & 35 - McMinnville to Portland and Portland

So yeah, I didn't post last night. I was just way too exhausted. Yesterday wasn't too eventful. I did a bunch of wine tastings, most of which I enjoyed a lot. Bought a few bottles and shipped a bunch home.

I made it to Portland yesterday evening and went to a performance of Somewhere In Time, a new musical being shown here in Portland. I went into the show knowing very little about it, except that the book was written by Ken Davenport, who is a Broadway producer whose blog I read. I learned last night that the show is based on a 1980 movie, which is originally based on a book, and all 3 versions are actually based on the book's author's brother's journals. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very well written (save for one song in the second act that I hated and I would throw out and re-write completely). The set design and direction were incredible. The transitions were beautiful and the use of body doubles was very smooth. Some of the costumes could have used some attention though. One dress in particular was beautiful, but was too long and the wrist loop (I don't know what that loop thing is called) that was put in to prevent the actor from tripping on it caused so much distortion on the dress that it looked ridiculous. And it looked like the actor was preoccupied with it as well. Overall, the acting was very good. There was one actor I didn't like because she overacted, but mostly, I was very impressed.

So today....

Today was gray and rainy. I've been very fortunate so far on my trip. Save for some rain on the drive on Day 1 and a little heat in Ukiah, the weather has been excellent. I knew it would catch up to me at some point. Unfortunately, it caught up to me on a day that I was looking forward to being outside. Thankfully, it didn't rain all day and just showered on and off. So today started with a trip to the farmers' market. Well, the Wednesday farmers' market. There are apparently many farmers' markets here. And apparently the Wednesday farmers' market is THE place to take pre-school classes. Seriously, there were like 5 classes there in the half an hour I was there. I picked up some fruit and got a bagel for breakfast.

From there, I went over to the Pittock Mansion. Henry Pittock was the editor of the Oregonian newspaper. The house was built in 1914 and was in use until 1958. It was in disrepair and almost got torn down in 1969, when it was rescued by a group of concerned citizens and the city. I've already discussed my love of old mansions and this one was just as great. It's interesting to see the differences in these mansions based on the time periods in which they were designed and built.

After the Pittock Mansion, I went over to the start of the volksmarch I was planning on doing. But before I started, I took a much needed nap in my car. The walk was ok. Like I stated before, it kept raining. Thank goodness I carry an umbrella with me at all times. I did stop a couple of times to let the rain pass, which worked once, but the second time, it wasn't letting up and I was close to the end, so I sucked it up and kept going. My observations on Portland: there are a lot of smokers here. Seriously, it seems like I saw more people smoking here than everywhere else leading up to here. Also, there are a lot of homeless people here. They were all over the place. Maybe it's because it's a more liberal, weird city, kinda like Austin, but I was really taken at how many I saw. There are also SO many restaurants. Seriously, they're everywhere. I had lunch at a place called Lardo, which had supremely good fries and tomorrow I'm going to a place called Tasty & Sons for breakfast. Looking forward to that.

Hopefully the weather won't follow me tomorrow.

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