When The Kids Are Away, The Parents Will Play

So the kids went with Shelley's mom for the weekend so we had 2 complete days all to ourselves...

So whatever shall we do??? Everything.

We were true Portlanders this weekend.

We took the MAX into downtown Portland both Friday and Saturday and played hard. So here's a quick recap of an awesome weekend.

Friday

1st stop: Shoe shopping. Boring, but productive.

NEXT stop Rock Bottom Brewery for Happy Hour where I tried their Oregonic Amber. A decent Amber Ale. Liked it fairly well.

Then it was on to Powell's books which is the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. Very cool.

Then it was on to Pioneer Courthouse Square where we caught this week's installment of "Flicks on Bricks." They blow up this huge screen on the square and show a movie at dusk. This week it was The Birdcage. Very, very funny. Cool to watch it in a huge crowd too. People were really into this flicks on bricks thing. Lots of people brought chairs or blankets. One couple even went so far as to bring a queen size air mattress and a pump. They even brought a sheet, a comforter and a few pillows. They were set. We on the other hand had not planned to watch a movie at the square and had to sit on the bricks. We were quite ready to stand when it was all over.

After the movie, it was back to the Rock Bottom Brewery where we had dessert. Wow that was good stuff.

Saturday

Got a late start after getting home at 1am. But we made it in time to eat breakfast at Elmers. Btw, turns out going out to breakfast is an old people thing. There were a lot of grey hairs in that building…

Then it was on to downtown again for the Redbull Flutag event. This would have been cool if 60,000 other people didn't have the same idea. If you have not heard of this event before, check out the website. It's where people build impossible flying machines and compete on style, distance, and creativity. They push these things (along with the "pilot") off of a huge ramp and watch them plummet into the river. Unfortunately, we couldn't get close enough to watch it nor even to get a good view of the jumbo screens, so we left.

After wandering around downtown, we were off to Henry's Tavern for another happy hour. This time I tried my first Nitro brew: the "Old Speckled Hen." You would not believe the change in texture. The Nitro brew was soooo smooth. It took me about half the glass to get used to the difference.

After eating more than our fair share of appetizers, we headed off to PGE Park to see the Portland Beavers. Not only did we win 9 to 1, but our pitcher was amazing. He pitched 8 shutout innings, gave up no walks, 2 hits and struck out 11. He was incredible. We even had great seats to watch him. We were only 4 rows back just to the left side of home plate. Very nice indeed.

Sunday, the kids came home and we were happy to see them, but we were a little worn out from our adventures….