Portland Brewery Adventue - Hopworks Urban Brewery

Beer + bikes, like peanut butter and dark chocolate, it's rare to find such a perfect combo. But that's just what Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland serves up.

Built using a lot of reclaimed materials, such as these keg planters, HUB's building is bright, warm and welcoming.
I don't ever recall seeing bike frames used as over-bar decorative elements before.
Favorite beer? Black IPA. Another combo (black + IPA) that's downright perfect. When you're done with your beer(s), deposit here:
With a handy Sting-Ray saddle headrest if you've had far too many.

HUB also has a mobile "beer bike" for suds on the run:
This bike was at Bike n' Hike's Festival di Ticino earlier in the month pouring for the attendees:
Nice Chris King and Shimamo XTR hub tappers:
Portlanders, what *can't* they do?

Portland - Jupiter Hotel and Doug Fir

When I travel for work, I'm fortunate that I don't have to stay in HamptonRedRoofMotel6HolidayInn-style chains. The hotel du jour for our trip to Portland was the Jupiter Hotel.
Far more of a motel than a hotel and similar to what the small boutique Ace Hotel chain has done in converting older properties in Portland, Seattle, NYC and Palm Springs into hipster hangouts, The Jupiter occupies a chunk of block on Portland's east Burnside Street.

Doug Fir fire pit and patio

It's not a place to stay if you're a light sleeper - or one who's early to bed. Plenty loud with twenty-somethings up at all hours hanging out after a party or a show at their on-site Doug Fir Lounge.
The Doug Fir's bar and restaurant has a great Northwest vibe. Lots of wood and stone...
...and a crystal moose hanging on a faux fir-covered wall.
Great beer on tap and a fantastic indie-rock soundtrack playing. The food's good and reasonably priced too.

The rooms are small by today's standards, but contemporary to the era of the building (1960s?).
Pleasant wall mural, good bedding, IKEA-ish furninshings and speakers to hook up your laptop/iAppliance to. Two pairs of earplugs to help silence the aforementioned night owl twenty-somethings and a Jupiter-branded condom (unused of course) left on the nightstand. Oh, and a copy of Dwell magazine too. The rooms are small by contemporary standards, not surprising as the motel was likely built in the 1960s.

Reasonable rates at $79-99 for my room, I'd stay here again, but my silence-loving wife would probably not sleep well. I had no issue with sleep, the old-school wall-unit AC/heater provided enough white noise to drown the din. Plus they put me on the "quiet side" of the building, probably because I am old.

Photo credit - first and last photos from PurpleProofs.com 'cuz I forgot to shoot the exterior and my room.

Retail Adventure - Really Good Stuff, Portland

A slew of beater bikes on the sidewalk is all it took my boss and I to draw us up the street from Lounge Lizard to our next destination on Portland's Hawthorne Ave.
Hmm, looks a bit like a hybrid antique/thrift/resale shop...
Named "Really Good Stuff", inside was a slew of cast-off electronics, toys, furniture, photographic equipment and the like.
Most items without prices - just inquire with the salty guy behind the counter. And to give you an idea of what it looked like behind the counter, see below:
When we were in the shop, another customer asked the attendant if it was fun working there. His response? Delivered monotone "I hate it, I can't wait until I'm dead." Perfect.
Need kitchen weapons?
Old radios and other electronic apparatuses?

Beer signs for brews I've never heard of?Some decent electric fans - things I used to collect:
Toys...
...pinball...
...and musical instruments:
Skeleton keys...
...records...
...vintage, uh, "gentleman's reading material"...
...and a box of skeleton keys:
I could have easily spent hours here, digging through boxes of junk in search of unknown treasures that I never knew I needed.
Yep, this stretch of Hawthorne is pretty cool.

*fin*

Down on the Street - Portland Edition III

Quick - name one of the most difficult vehicles to park in an urban area!

If you answered "ex-US Army 6x6 truck" (edit: or "deuce-and-a-half" - thanks KVH), you're a winner (of nothing but the glory you can bask yourself in).

This beast was spotted in one of Portland's trendier areas on a Friday night. Now I don't know much of anything about these rigs, but I'm thinking it may be a Korean-era Dodge (edit: it's actually an M35 - thanks again KVH). From the looks of it (or at least from the stickers), this truck is now used for off-road excursions.

It's always wise to carry spare axles with you. Never know when you may break one.

Retail Adventure - Lounge Lizard, Portland

The second day we were in Portland, we made a point of visiting any cool-looking non-bike shop that we came across in our travels. And since both my boss and I really appreciate mid-century modern stuff - from the kitschy to the kool, we had to stop at Lounge Lizard after seeing it while driving down Hawthorne Ave.
As soon as I popped my head in, I knew that I'd be here for a while.
Loads of great furniture on the floor and fantastic lighting overhead.

really, who *can't* use a grape light?

or, even better, an oil fountain light with an olde tyme mill/water wheel?

Walls filled with bad velvet paintings, shadowboxes...
...sad kitties...
...clocks...
...and whatever you call these 2D wall hangings:
Nicely-stocked tiki section being given the once-over by a one-time tiki collector:
Didn't every baby boomer and gen-xer grow up in a home with these straw tumblers?
Best of all, the prices were reasonable, probably half of what they'd sell for in SoCal - or a third of what they'd sell for in Palm Springs. For instance, this couch was about $250.
And most of the table lamps were about $50.
The two things I most wanted to take home were this color wheel lamp:
And this very Heywood-Wakefield-esque table (only $350).
Even framed/lighted Jesus thinks Lounge Lizard is pretty cool.