Portland/Seattle, w/a subtle motif

Onwards and upwards, from San Fran to Portland and Seattle. This leg of the trip was literally awash in alcohol, from the moment we stepped off the plane.

We were greeted in the terminal by a fantastic wall display featuring locally built bikes of all makes and models. The single-speed cyclocross caught my eye.

I totally need one of these.

From the airport, it was downtown while we waited for a former roommate to finish up at the office. I had time to stop at Powell's, which is always fun. No pictures from there though. Once closing time hit, it was off to the roommate's place where I met my new best friend--his kegirator.

We hit it off immediately. The seemingly endless supply of frosty-cold delicious Full Sail Amber was easy to get used to. I could never be a fully functioning member of society with one of these in my house. But since I was on vacation, it was easy to put back 5 or 6 pints each night after we got back from going out. I ended up hiding the bottles of Full Sail we had at the tailgate later in the week so they didn't get instantly consumed. This is why my beer-scale scores have been so low lately, but I'm starting to perk back up. I'm going to have to start looking for it in Chicago while I have time.

Portland wasn't all drinking, even thought it was most of it. On a drive up the coast we stopped in Astoria and Seaside. I believe this is the beach where they filmed the car race at the start of Goonies.

Once it was time to head to Seattle the drinking started back up again, and included some bull-riding Friday night. Surprisingly, it took less drinking than you would think to get people up on that thing.

Yee-ha

And as one last blowout, we decided to get up as early as possible to set up our tailgate Saturday. We ended up shopping at about 7:30 and getting to Husky Stadium at 8:00 AM to set up for a 5:00 PM game. Outstanding. We only had to move once, after the head of parking lot security told us his underlings had it wrong and we were in a reserved lot (PS-way to go guy. You're in charge of a parking lot. You've accomplished a lot, and of course that gives you every right to be a dick to people from opposing teams. Now if only your employees knew what the fuck they were doing too, you'd have something to be proud of).

Actually, the same thing happened 3 years ago at the same game, only that time it was other tailgaters suggesting we move b/c we were in this family's spot that's been there for 30 years. That was alright. Security, not so much. Anyway, once set up was done I could head back downtown on the bus and catch a nap before coming back and drinking more.

Our beer depositories on my way out.

5 hours later, but who the hell brought O'Douls?

I have to say it was a lovely tailgate. Especially once the Portland club sponsoring everything showed up and consumed every single remaining beer, liquor, and over 200 feet of sandwiches. I swear, it was like something straight out of the Bible.

The game itself was fantastic, a great way to end a great vacation. Getting up the next day at 4:30 AM to catch a 6:00 AM flight was not fun, but air travel basically sucks anyway so what the hell. It was a wonderful 10 days, and the further into the workweek I get the more I wish I was still out there. I guess that's why you take pictures.

Current beer-scale: 3.2