Portland Wedding and Weekend

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A few weeks ago, I headed out all by my lonesome late one Thursday morning on a week-and-a-half-long road trip. First stop: Portland, for a friend's wedding. I drove from Provo to Portland in a day, stopping for a while in Boise to stretch and rest my eyes and to get gas, and two other times to get gas in Tremonton, UT and in Pendleton, OR. I finally rolled into Vancouver, WA (where I stayed with an old roommate of mine, Jon, from the Moscow days) close to midnight, after a bit over 14 hours of driving. Talk radio (especially Dr. Laura) and books on CD (like So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish) really help the hours pass much more quickly.

Tangent: When approaching Portland, I thought, "I've had enough of conservative political talk radio. I'm in Portland. Let's hear some 'Progressive Talk'." So I did. All weekend. I discovered that progressive talk radio is basically the same as conservative talk radio but from the opposite side. Just as much bias, just as much (actually, I think more) conspiracy theory (you should've heard progressive talk in Seattle during the Bush administration...I was floored by how many accusations they threw around like candy), just as much flimsy reporting. But I appreciate the balance, so I listened exclusively to progressive talk all week.

Friday morning, I was off to downtown Portland (about a half hour with traffic, which, by the way, is hideous) to meet Kim for lunch. Neither of us knows the restaurants in the area very well, so I went a bit early to scope things out. I parked in an inexpensive ($1.75/hour) parking garage downtown and walked to Pioneer Square, where there's a walkway across a water feature into an information center. Nice setup. With restrooms and various info booths, they have all you need to find your way. I asked a nice lady with a European accent where the good but inexpensive eats were, and after she pointed out a few places on the map, I called Kim, and we decided Al Amir was the way to go. It was great Lebanese food, and I definitely recommend it. I do have to say I still prefer Mazza in Salt Lake, but it was really good.

After lunch, we parted ways, and I took a few photos downtown:

We passed this on the way to Al Amir, and I couldn't pass up getting a quick shot of it. Gotta love quirky Northwesterners.


Just a random shot of a Portland street.


At a corner of Pioneer Square, there's a chess set built into a stump of a column that was made to look like it was hacked into pieces which are strewn across the pavement, revealing the checkerboard pattern inside like you reveal the rings of a tree. Pretty fun. There was a small crowd of men gathered together to watch an intense match between an older gentleman and a younger guy.




Across the street, I had a good chat with the HRC dude about where campaigning for "civil rights" becomes special recognition and unintentional inequality or has unintended consequences beyond basic protection and how that has kept me from fully supporting the HRC because I see them as a bit overbearing in some of their campaigns. He listened to and addressed my concerns or reservations patiently. We agreed that nobody should be denied housing, employment, or other basic rights based on their sexual orientation or other already-protected statuses such as gender, ethnicity, and religion, and it was good to communicate that common ground with each other.


By this time, Jon was getting out of work, so I headed back to Vancouver to meet up and go to the gym by his house. That was definitely the nicest YMCA I've seen, not that I've seen many, but it was a great little gym. Anyway, we ate some food and watched 17 Again, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, despite my still finding Matthew Perry mildly annoying and completely uninteresting in everything he does. Fortunately, his character spends most of the movie as his younger version a la Zac Efron, who is far less boring.

After the movie, Jonny introduced me to the show Better Off Ted, which I decided I really enjoyed, so we stayed up past his married-guy bedtime (Sarah and the kids were out of town visiting her family, so I didn't get to see them) watching a couple of episodes online.

Saturday was the big day, the wedding of my friend who used to say she couldn't really picture herself married, and my first gig as a wedding photographer. I made sure I had my batteries charged, my memory cards cleared, and all of equipment loaded in the car. I even had an index card with reminders of what kinds of shots to get and what order in which to take family shots to make the process most efficient. Unfortunately, as I expected might happen, things didn't go exactly as planned. The diffuse lighting of often-overcast Portland was replaced by beautiful, harsh sunshine. Not all family members showed up even close to on time for photographs. I'd scoped out good photo spots just before the ceremony was to get out, but the light kept changing, so I had to rearrange my original plans. It was stressful and challenging, but their families were so patient and courteous and understanding of my being an unpaid amateur that I had fun doing it. Just two and a half hours later, we were done... *sigh*

After the luncheon, I took some pictures of the Portland temple at sunset and headed downtown to work out. After my workout, I went back to the temple to take some night shots (which didn't really turn out), then on my way back to Vancouver, I stopped in downtown Portland to check out a place an acquaintance, another Jon, had recommended: Papa Haydn on 23rd near Burnside, where I bought a slice of their Oregon blackberry cheesecake, which was mighty tasty. This was an area of Portland I don't think I'd seen before, and it left me really wanting to explore it more. Great shops, great food, and a very charming street with a slight "edge". Burnside was really active and alive with people, more energy than I was used to from Salt Lake or even most of Seattle. Next time I'm in Portland, I wanna go wander with one/some of you locals. I finished Saturday off eating my cheesecake while watching more episodes of Better of Ted with Jonny.

Sunday, I went to Jenny and Colton's ward to hear Jenny play the violin, then I went to meet up with the "other" Jon for a good chat, then back to have dinner with Jenny and Colton. Among other things, we had toasted chick peas, which turned out to be tasty! I'm not sure Jenny is convinced they were worth the trouble, but I liked them. *wink* It was fun to catch up with them and see where they've settled in and to see some of Jenny's photography, which was really good. She's a film photographer, so she gets extra points for that in many circles. :-)

Monday morning, Jonny had to get up early to fly out to a job interview on the east coast, so I just got up at the same time and drove to Seattle. Yes, I drove to Seattle at 4:30 am. Delightful. OK, it wasn't all bad. I got to watch the sun rise...from the freeway. And I beat the traffic into downtown Seattle. ...but this is more than enough for one post, so I'll leave the rest for another.

This was, surprisingly, possibly the longest single time I remember spending in the Portland area (I'm usually just passing through overnight), and it left me wanting to spend more time there the next chance I get. So be warned, Portland friends, I'll be back!