My heart is drenched in wine; But you'll be on my mind; Forever

30 June 2007 - Portland

We slept in. I woke up at about 8:30, which is extremely late for me. I shuffled to the lobby for coffee, and then played on the computer while everyone else kept sleeping. At about 9, is started roustin’ the young-ums. They wanted no part of it.

Eventually everyone got up. Steve led the boys in Hotel Room Physical Training (HRPT – because everything must have an acronym). They did burpees (don’t ask), sit-ups, push-ups and they also did a torture position where they laid on their backs and held their legs about 6” off the ground. This is why I hate pilates. The boys counted to 100 very…slowly… for Steve, then Nate did it for a count of 50 and again for about 30. It’s crazy, the kid has a little mini 6-pack on his tummy.

We were going to spend the next night at our friends’ house so we started getting cleaned up and packed up. Somehow we managed to miss the free continental breakfast, so we had bagels in the room then headed to Camas, WA, just north of Portland.

Steve went to CGA with Chris, so we’ve known him basically forever. He has a civilian big-wig job now. Beth and I hit it off right away when we met about 4 years ago, she’s like a friend I’ve had for a long time, but just didn’t get the chance to meet until a few years ago. Last time we saw them, we all lived in Connecticut and they hosted a big party for us as we were moving to Alaska. We all remember most of that night…

Anyway, Chris and Beth both very bright people and have super-duper jobs that keep them working very hard. As a result, they also have a beautiful home and are just about the only people I know who move more than we do.

We arrived at their house at about noon and since it was such a beautiful day, we hung out on their back deck for a while. Malley was confined to the back yard because they have 2 cats & we weren’t exactly sure how that would work. Drew & Steve played catch for a while.

We had talked about going to the zoo, but after about an hour of sitting on the deck and chatting, we decided to just keep doing what we were doing. Chris made it better by opening a bottle of pinot noir from an Oregon winery. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Good friends, good weather, good wine. This is the life.

Our quiet afternoon was interrupted by Nate screaming like I have never heard him scream before, and that is saying a lot. Nate is our screamer. All we heard was “Malley No!” “No Malley No!” followed by a blood curdling scream. Yes, Malley had followed Nate into the house and was making friends with Pumpkin and Snowball the cats. I got to the door in time to see Pumpkin, not a svelte kitty, flying through the air about 4 feet off the ground and 43 lbs. of Nate holding on for dear life to a leash attached to 41 lbs. of Malley. Nate was winning, but not for long.

We got Malley out of the house, convinced Beth that our dog had merely traumatized, not eaten, her kitties and carried on with our lovely afternoon.

When we started planning the trip, we knew we wanted to swing by Portland to visit our friends, and when I e-mailed Beth, she said they were free Friday night and during the day on Saturday, but they have tickets to a Norah Jones concert Saturday night. My response was that I was jealous since I like Norah Jones and it has been a long time since we have been to any concert. Think about it, when was the last time you saw “Anchorage, AK” on the back of a tour t-shirt?

In the meantime Steve and Chris had talked and they started hunting for concert tickets so we could join them. Of course the concert was sold out, but have no fear, this is Chris and Beth! They found some tickets for us and our seats were even a bit better than theirs. What about the kids, you ask? Well, again, this is Chris and Beth. They found a babysitter for us (Chris’s brother’s girlfriend’s sister – just in case you cared).

We had a wonderful dinner at Jake’s Grill in downtown Portland. The restaurant is beautiful and the food was even better. We started with a bottle of wine and an enormous chilled seafood platter. Baby shrimp, huge prawns, lump crabmeat, oysters, crawfish, lox with onions and capers, all served with a spicy cocktail sauce and red pepper aioli on a big tray in the middle of our table. Steve had the blue cheese crusted NY Strip. It was a great steak. I had Yukon River wild salmon stuffed with crab and brie. I’ve made crab stuffed salmon, but I never thought to add brie, and I’ve never seen it on a menu before. It was amazing! I also knew that this would be my last chance to have fresh wild salmon for a long time. Atlantic salmon really shouldn’t be called salmon, it is so different from what we have in Alaska.

A quick drive later, were we at the concert hall. It was a decent size theater with classic theater architecture. It was a nice place. We had a glass of wine in the lobby, then headed in to watch the last few songs of the opening act (can’t remember his name, but he was good). Our seats weren’t together, so we met up with Chris & Beth after the opening act for another glass of wine in the lobby (nothing but water allowed in the seats). The wine wasn’t great, wasn’t terrible either, but it was a pretty generous pour and we didn’t realize that there wouldn’t be much time between sets. We didn’t exactly chug, but we did have to drink it quickly. I was reminded that the last time Beth and I drank wine out of plastic cups it didn’t end well.

Norah Jones sounded great, her banter with the band and a few random audience members was good, but when she was singing, she didn’t really perform. She is really lost in her own world. It was interesting to watch. She wore a very pretty white print sundress. This was the last stop on the American leg of her tour and I wonder why no one has told her that the audience can see through her dress with the way the lighting is during the first song…nothing vulgar, but like that picture of Lady Di with the little kids when the paparzzi first started stalking her. It seemed odd to me.

Anyway, the concert was great. Steve didn’t especially enjoy the song “Election Day” about her disappointment in Nov. 2004. But, this is Portland and he was outnumbered.

We had a lovely evening.
Good friends, good wine, good food, good music. Life is good.