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We are off to Portland for the long weekend; the first such trip we've done in awhile. A chance to relax, do some shopping, maybe visit OMSI, that sort of thing. No real plans, just a relaxing vacation trip.

One stop I'm definitely planning to make—the only one I actively campaigned for, actually—is John's Marketplace. It's a stunningly amazing beer store, with more selection than I've ever seen. I blogged about it on The Brew Site last year after my first trip there; this time I'll take the real camera and get some proper pictures. And some beer.

As usual, computer with us, but I don't know how often I'll be online. If anyone wants to reach me, shoot me an email or fill out the contact form. Otherwise, have a good weekend!

Like the trip we had almost two years ago, tonight we're in the Phoenix Inn hotel in Lake Oswego in preparation for our daughter's corrective eye surgery tomorrow. Pretty much anything I would say is covered in that previous post; the only details being different really are that my daughter is six and it's her third (and hopefully last) such surgery. And I've taken today, Wednesday and Thursday off from work for it (back on Friday).

On the positive side, we had a really excellent dinner at Piazza Italia in Portland's Pearl District; we got to try some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory at Washington Square; and we'll be doing a Trader Joe's run sometime before coming back on Thursday. Anyone need anything from TJs?

I'm taking the day off from work this Friday and going to Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival! Woo hoo! My original plan was to stay in Portland the entire weekend, but as it turns out I'd already obligated myself to a friend's wedding Saturday evening, so I'll be spending Friday night with my friend Justin (who's also going with me to the Brewfest) and leaving Saturday late morning sometime.

It's going to be an eventful day. Aside from the Brewfest, there's a beer blogger meetup that evening (starting at five) over at the Rogue Ales Public House, so I'll get to meet yet more bloggers from Portland and other far-flung places (Arizona, for one, I think).

Are any other bloggers in the area going to the Brewfest? Let me know.

At any rate, I'll have the camera and notebook and plan on writing a bunch about it. And, Friday right now is looking at an 80-degree forecast for Portland, so that's just about perfect. Three days and counting!

It was a whirlwind tour of Portland, but we managed to make the most of it. We did some quick shopping in Gresham on the way in, stopped to visit with our friends for a bit (had to take over some of my pumpkin ale for a missed birthday), and then went out to lunch at the Horse Brass.

The Horse Brass rules. Seriously. It's an English pub, with a ton of beers on tap, real darts, English food, the works. We had a tasty lunch (never had a Scotch egg before—it was good), tasty beer, and when we were finished, we stopped in to Belmont Station and picked up some harder-to-find beers.

Afterwards, I was able to go to Powells for a little bit ("a little bit" is relative, because my ideal visit to Powells would quite easily be half a day), but didn't find anything I wanted to spend that much money on.

We checked in to the hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, met with our friends who were also going to the concert, and then went to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner. It was good, although slow, and the service was ditzy at best. I have to say, though, they're seven taster deal is amazing: seven five-ounce(!) tasters of beer for only $7.25.

And, finally, the concert. We walked to the Rose Garden, entered without fanfare, found our seats. A local Portland band was playing the opening gig (they won a contest), I didn't catch their name but I wasn't paying close attention anyway. We had to move around seats a bit because when the tickets were purchased, the available seats remaining were single seats two rows apart (of course!), and after playing musical chairs trying to figure out the best place to see (and—damn it—missing a good portion of one of the classical Bon Jovi songs that everyone is actually there to see), the usher got permission to seat my wife and me in the announcer box seats at the top of the section—otherwise roped off to everyone else. That was pretty cool, because the view was much better and we weren't surrounded by screaming fans.

As far as the concert itself, it was decent. Two songs they performed that they didn't do last time were "Runaway" (eh) and "Blaze of Glory" (cool!). And, Jon had a lot more audience interaction—the first song was from amidst the crowd in the back rows of the floor seats, and "Blaze of Glory" was amidst the crowd at our level one section over from us. The most amazing part? He wasn't mauled by the crowd. :)

Okay, this is getting long. I'll leave you with this writeup of the concert—with pictures.

On Sunday we'll be heading up to Portland to see Bon Jovi in concert at the Rose Garden. Yes, we've done this before (warning: I sound like a drooling fanboy in that post).

Anyway, we're casting about for something to do Sunday after we get to Portland... we'll be seeing some friends, probably, and of course my wife would love to do some shopping. Myself, I don't really have any real plan; I like going to Powells and I wouldn't mind hitting a brewpub or two, but I'm pretty open.

Would any Portland bloggers want to meet up? I'm not promising anything, but you never know. ;)

For that matter, any bloggers/readers going to see Bon Jovi too?

According to Metroblogging Portland, Corno's Food Market is going to be torn down. Wow.

I say "wow" because there's a more personal connection for me: my grandfather is one of the Cornos that used to run the place. Granted, it's been closed for something like 10 or more years, and my grandfather hadn't worked there for longer than that, but it's still kind of a shock. (In fact, I think my dad may have mentioned to me that Corno's was going to be destroyed.)

During the holidays, we'd always get the gift box from my grandparents full of (among other things) fresh fruit and nuts and such from the Market. One of the perks. And before that—well before that, before I was even born (or at least too young to remember)—we'd get the hookup from my grandfather when he ran the meat department. Yep, cheap meat.

Yep, we're heading up to Portland tomorrow, for the weekend. We've got a bunch of clothes shopping to do. And appointments to keep. And friends to see, if there's time. With all the running around, I wonder when (if) we'll find time to relax...

Taking the laptop, though, so I'll still be checking in.

Our little trip to Portland over the weekend went well, except for the ice storm that hit Saturday. We stayed indoors the whole day with our friends (who we were staying with, fortunately, otherwise we'd have really worn out our welcome), and pretty much any other plans we'd had were shot.

On the other hand, our friends introduced me to the BBC comedy The Office, which is insane but entirely plausible—I've known people (and offices) that are exactly the same way. It's hilarious, check it out. Amazon has it for about 42 bucks.

Our drive back Sunday was uneventful; the ice was already breaking up in Portland and the farther out of town we went, the better it got—even over the mountains. Back in Bend, you wouldn't even know anything had happened. All's well that ends well, they say.

Seems like we just can't get enough of Portland; we're heading there tomorrow (Friday). It's part follow-up to our son's eye surgery, part vacation-y trip. Always fun. I'd like to get in a trip to Powell's Bookstore, but I don't think we'll have the time unfortunately.

Sitting in the Red Lion Inn at the Convention Center in Portland tonight; we'll be here for the next couple of days. Not a pleasure or casual visit, though; tomorrow our son (he's three) has corrective eye surgery for esotropia.

It'll be his second such surgery (our daughter, who's five, has also had two eye surgeries). It's simultaneously a minor and a major surgery; minor because there's nothing being transplanted, or amputated, or anything like that, and major because he will still be fully anesthetized and getting the full surgical "treatment."

The gory details? The lateral muscles of the eyes—those attached to the sides—are moved forwards or backwards on the wall of the eyeball to correct the respective alignment problem. Yes, this involves removing them from where they attach and sewing them onto a new location. Freaky? You bet, but at the same time utterly amazing at what can be accomplished in this day and age.

Anyway, that's the latest in case blogging gets light the next couple of days. (Though tonight I'm blogging a bit.)