Bar Brawls and other OR adventures

I've realized that I've been going out a lot lately--I'm not sure if it's living in the city, or not having a kitchen--and therefore being forced to be social or what, but I've definitely been getting my drink on lately.

Over Labor Day, Al and I headed to Portland, OR to hang out with my friend Betsy (who I know from my days at The Nature Conservancy). I've never been to the PNW (Pacific Northwest), so.....we decided to take a quick trip out West.

We left DC at about 4 am, and got into OR around 11 am, and Al's friend Zach (the one who calls me every name but Jodie) picked us up and drove us around Oregon. It's an adorable city, very green, and environmentally friendly--also a lot smaller than I had anticipated. We stopped for lunch at Lompoc Brewery (Portland is the land o' many breweries and coffee shops!), but no beers for lunch since we knew it would be a late night.

After that, we drove to Betsy's office, got her keys, and went to her apartment, which is in a historic building located close to 23rd (or as locals call is trendy-third or Nob Hill), a cute little shopping district with boutiques and restaurants. Al and I wandered around, and found an amazing chocolatier, Moonstruck, which provided the chocolates for the Academy Awards...and seriously, I bought some for my coworkers, and they thought it was manna from heaven.

Betsy was able to get out of work early, so we walked around for a few minutes, and then made our way over to the Big Pink (nickname of Oregon's tallest building) to grab drinks at the City Grill-which overlooks the city. The bar was totally packed---and we started our drinking frenzy--with yummy dirty martinis for me and Bets and grey goose and tonic for Big Al. Zach and his girlfriend ended up meeting up with us, catching a few drinks, and then onto the next bar...

The next bar was by far one of the coolest bars that I've ever been to--called Doug Fir. It looks a bit like a hunting lounge with these kind of 60's accents--it sounds sort of tacky, but it's totally hip and adorable. At this point, we all had a fairly good buzz on, and my hunger kicked in, so I ordered a burger--and I'm not sure if it was me being hungry, or drunk, but it was seriously one of the best burgers ever. I made it until about 11 pm and then crashed---but since that was 2 am our time, I figured that wasn't too bad.

The next day (Saturday), we grabbed breakfast in the gardens of a quaint restaurant Merriweather's, and then headed to Washington Park, walked through the rose garden, and took in the view of the city. After that, we drove around some of Portland, ultimately ending up in the Pearl--which is the more artsy section of town. There was an art show going on, so we took some time to walk through the art show--which brought in artists from all up and down the pacific coast.

That night, we went to out for dinner and met up with Betsy's sister Amy and brother in law Ryan, as well as Zach and his sister Alice. After dinner--we went for martinis, and then off for dancing at a club called Aura. When we walked in, it was rap central, but Betsy talked some sense into the DJ, and he started playing more normal dance music. So, while we were out dancing, there was a group of drunk girls that were basically falling all over the place, and one almost fell on me. I put my hands up to kind of shield myself from her falling on me, and all of a sudden, this drunk girl got all up in my face trying to start a fight. Before I know it, Amy (who is my height) starts yelling at the drunk girl to bring it on, and I was thinking to myself, "okay, we are getting ready to roll now". But, luckily, Alice was with us (who is about six feet tall) and put some fear into the drunk girls, but it was pretty hysterical.

Sunday, we hiked around the Columbia Gorge, and went on several waterfall hikes. After the Gorge, we went to Hood River to the Full Sail Brewery for a few beers, and to watch the wind surfers on the water.

That night, we took it easy and went for dinner at an organic restaurant called the Tao of Tea, and then headed back to DC early the next morning. All in all, it was a great trip, and Betsy was the hostess with the mostest. Portland was a fun city to visit--and we were able to cram in a lot in a short amount of time,b ut there is still plenty to do when we return....

Want to see pics? Visit: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcNGTZs3ZOH7A