Thursday, I traveled to Portland, OR. Due to a combination of delays due to heightened security and weather near Chicago, my flight from Roanoke was delayed and I missed my connection in Chicago. I made it on the next flight to Portland, which was also delayed about an hour.

So, I ended up checking into the hotel after 10 p.m. (Pacific time - 1 a.m. my time). About five hours later than I expected. But, since I was only going to be in Portland two nights, and had plans to have dinner with a (potential) customer on Friday, I was determined to keep to my brew pub plan.

I visited Laurelwood Public House and Brewery. Of course, I started with their Boss IPA. (I’m an unrepentant hophead….) Next, I tried their Organic Free Range Red. I was torn between the Organic Treehugger Porter and the Space Stout. The nice bartender gave me samples of each. I wasn’t terribly excited by either one, so I got the Belgian-style trippel (a one-off batch, so no link on their website). While exploring the world of beer flavors, I scanned the appetizer menu for something munch-able. Of course, there was no further consideration once I saw the garlic fries. FANTASTIC! There must’ve been two tablespoons of freshly chopped garlic on the half-order of fries.

Hopefully I didn’t stink too much during my presentation the next day…

On Friday, after the presentation, my (potential) customer said that his mother-in-law had a serious health issue that had just come up, and he would not be able to join us (my co-worker, Tom, was also in Portland) for dinner. Tom’s youngest daughter lives in Eugene, OR, so he hooked up with her for the evening.

Since it was still pretty early ( 4 p.m.) after going back to the hotel and changing out of the monkey suit, I did some quick research on-line and found a store with a good beer selection and my next brewpub adventure. It was a beautiful day (about 75 and clear as a bell), so I put the top down on the PT Cruiser (never know what Hertz will give me….)

I stocked up on beers to bring home with me. Six bombers (22 ounces) and a six pack. (Along with the two pint glasses that I picked up, this brought the weight of my suitcase up to 52.5 pounds, which is 2.5 over the limit. They didn’t say anything, but that is probably due to "no liquids/gels/lotions in carry on luggage" aspect of the heightened security, which resulted in a lot of people having to check their carry on bags or transfer items to their checked bags.)

Then I went to check out the Liberty School brewpub, which is part of the McMenamins chain. What a funky place! They converted an old elementary school in the middle of a residential neighborhood. They have several different pub & restaurant areas, as well as a theater with beer and pizzas in the concession stand. I spent a couple of hours in the courtyard, soaking up the sun. Here’s a picture of part of the courtyard, from their website. (This only shows a small section - there are a bunch of trees and other vegetation.)

I sampled their Hammerhead Pale Ale, an IPA (name?) and their chocolate/vanilla porter. Since I am so proud of my chocolate/vanilla stout (I rank it up in the top ten of beers I’ve tried anywhere in the world), I held it to a pretty high standard - it fell far short.

I finished the book I was reading, so I decided to drive to the Barnes and Noble at the Jantzen Beach shopping mall. After careful deliberation, I picked out a book. (And, like usual, I randomly read several pages to make sure that I hadn’t read it before. Which can be a problem for me - combine a poor memory with an average of about 1.5 books per week. Unfortunately, if I had included the first page in my random selection, I would’ve realized BEFORE buying the book that I had read it within the previous year. Sigh.)

Since there was a BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery (big west coast chain) also at the mall, I decided to finish the day there.

Of their "standard" beers, I had the Piranha Pale Ale. I also had an IPA (of course) and a Berliner-style weisse beer. The latter was a first for me. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time, but very few brewpubs in the US make it, and I’ve never had the opportunity to make it to Berlin. I quite liked it - kind of a watered down version of a gueuze, which is my number one favorite beer style. I also had something else, but it wasn’t sufficiently memorable to survive the effects of all of that alcohol on my memory.

For dinner, I ordered their "Great White" pizza. An excellent pizza that I’ve had before at their Houston location. I told the waitress that I wanted so much garlic that I would stink the next day. As you can see from the receipt, she did her best to convey my wishes to the kitchen:

Apparently it worked. When I told Kel about it, she said that I still reeked when I got home on Saturday - after 10 p.m. (Sorry about that to the poor lady that sat next to me on the Portland-Chicago flight….)