Tag: fun

Arbor Lodge Jazz Concert

Matt, Laurie, and I headed over to Arbor Lodge Park for a neighborhood jazz concert featuring The Lorna Baxter Quintet.

The concert had been moved from a date earlier in the season due to excessive heat, and this was a perfect day.

The quintet kept us in good tunes.

The neighborhood association had streamers they handed out to the children atttending. It was very fun to watch them dance around.

Soft Serve Attempt No. 1

I wanted dipped soft serve, so we drove across the bridge to the Dairy Queen in Vancouver. The North Portland Dairy Queen that was closest to us closed, so Washington is our closest option.

While waiting in line, I enjoyed watching the owner of this truck make his own parking spot. The DQ has parking lots on both sides of its building, but that wasn’t quite enough for this fellow.

Alas, they were out of dip, so we both got Blizzards. We will have to return another day.

Miniature Golf at Oaks Park

Matt and I tried out the mini golf at Portland’s only amusement park.

I like that all the holes had these flags. They made it easier to get the ball in.

In fact, I was on fire during this golf game. “On fire,” in this case, is defined as mostly only being one over par and sometimes making par but still losing. Usually it takes me six or seven tries, hand-eye coordination not being a thing with me. But for whatever reason today, I could really get that golf ball where I needed it to be.

The course itself was very basic. But it was also deserted, which was nice. I hate to feel hurried during mini golf.

Caricoa Bowls and Waihua Shave Ice

Unfortunately we had to cancel In-Portland Vacation Restaurant Experience No. 2. I was very ill for about three hours on Sunday afternoon, and so we were not able to attend our tasting meal. I think the illness was probably food poisoning, but from food I made, not food the Firehouse Restaurant made. Matt ate the exact same thing as me at the Firehouse Restaurant and he was fine.

We also missed out on the Everett House, so no soaking for us during this vacation. But now we are back on track.

Matt wanted to introduce me to Carioca Bowls and so we got some before our movie. It was my first açaí bowl. My experience wasn’t great as I requested no bananas on the Ultra bowl I ordered. The clerk confirmed no bananas, then went in the back and made my bowl with bananas. When I reminded her no banana, she offered to remake the bowl. I suggested she just take off the bananas and she did, but there was also banana in the Ipa blend that was part of that bowl. She told me about it, and offered to remake the bowl, but we were headed off to pick up shave ice and I felt we didn’t have time. Also that maybe she should have thought of that and mentioned it when I ordered. I ate around the glop with the banana in it and Matt finished off my bowl.

His order was a very big bowl and he quite enjoyed it.

Having experienced shave ice in Hawaii, we opted to make Waihua Shave Ice part of our day. We ordered online ahead of time and stopped by to pick up our shave ice.

While waiting, we discovered that I’m just the right height to wait in this particular spot.

I got the Almond Joy and it was delicious! Matt got Da Mango One and liked it. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to each much due to eating 1.5 açaí bowls.

From there we headed to the Laurelhurst to see Vengance, which was the kind of film that we had things to discuss on the way home and the next day.

JAW New Play Festival

After several years of thinking I would attend Portland Center Stage’s JAW New Play Festival, I finally went! Matt came too. It was a date. And a very cheap one as all the plays are free. We did buy cookies. I like PCS’s cookies. So that was $2.00. And we paid for parking. But a date for less than $5.00 is a win!

Also a win? The performance we picked to attend. It was very fun to see Larry Owens’s three different untitled things. One of them was the start of a play about a Black royal family that I would love to see a full production of.

By the time we signed up for our free tickets, they only had seating in the upstairs simulcast space. But I asked and the box office lady said to ask the house manager after all the ticket holders were seated. We didn’t have to even ask. We just hovered along with several other people. When the house manager said, Are you all standby? we said yes and we all got seats. That’s the win about free tickets. A lot of people don’t show up.

We also inadvertently sat next to the artistic director. That was handy because artistic directors tend to know when to clap.

Coming Prepared to Cinema 21

I’ve been attending Cinema 21’s Seven from the 70s series. It plays at 11:00 on Saturday morning and that is a perfect time for me. And for the various other gray-haired people who are perhaps revisiting the movies of their younger years.

This woman came prepared to wait for Paper Moon to start. And she brought her own book light.

I’ve done my fair share of reading before movies start. For a long time I could just tilt the book toward the screen and be fine. Now I need the assistance of my phone’s flashlight.