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.
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.
Because we had a big and very fancy vacation in March, we opted to stay in Portland for our August vacation and go out to eat at the restaurants we’ve been wanting to try. First up: The Firehouse Restaurant.
I’d heard good things, but even with that background info, the quality of the vegetable sides blew me away. We ordered roasted carrots, fried cauliflower, and a beet salad and all were some of the best sides I’d eaten in a very long time. We ate them right up, as you can see by the empty dishes. The mushroom pizza was also delicious.
It was also a very hot day, but sitting on the patio, we had a very nice breeze.
Thanks, Fireside, for getting our vacation off to a great start.
More than any other summer, Antares seems at home and happy in the heat. Once the daytime temperatures popped over 80 degrees, he started spending more and more of his day outside on the catio.
He even goes outside and hangs out on the front porch catio during the day, which he’s never really done.
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.
Back when we were a single-cat household, Sentinel gave me all the signs that we should be a two-cat household. He cried to go out every time he saw a cat outside—and it was, I want to be friends! not, I want to kill that cat. When my aunt’s cat came to stay while she was on vacation, they got along well.
And so a year later we brought Antares home and ever sense I have wondered off and on what kind of mixed signals Sentinel was giving me. Because Sentinel, now that we are a two-cat household, doesn’t really seem to be into sharing space with Antares. You can see here his foot placement. It’s more Go away! than Hooray!
He puts up with it, because he’s that kind of go-with-the-flow cat. But it’s usually Antares who wants to do social grooming and Antares who wants to sleep curled up together.
Maybe Sentinel just wanted to be the kind of cat who made the rounds and stared at all the other neighborhood cats until it was time to come home to his own place? Regardless, they’ve been living together for 13 years now, and I’m guessing it will be Antares who next experiences the single cat life. I wonder how that will be for him?
Many (many, many, many, many) years ago, someone stole a screen from the triple windows in our living room. Why? I do not know.
Soon after, Matt went to see about getting a replacement, and the person at the hardware store he talked to sold him a kit with screen, metal things to cut into a frame, and a tool to install the screen in the frame.
I looked at the kit and was not inspired to take action. Matt wasn’t either, and so for many years we just opened two of the three windows. We didn’t even get around to making a new screen during the quarantine time of the pandemic. I figured we never would.
However, today, Matt got out the kit and the hacksaw he would need. And in about an hour, he made a replacement screen! Amazing!
Well done! It’s nice to be able to open all three windows at once.
We return to a once-regular summer activity: Shakespeare in the park! Portland Actors Ensemble seems to have folded (a great loss!) but OPSFest lives on!
There was the usual great people watching before the show including this young person, who carefully laid out his napkin so his stuffed animals would have a nice seat like he did.
Preshow self portrait. There was a bit of preshow drama with one dog attacking another. But the attack was preceded by a very long, very loud scream of “Nooooooooooooooooooo!” by a woman who was racing after the attacking dog as it approached the other dog. So people got the dogs separated quickly and both sets of dog owners seemed okay, if shaken, by the interaction. Jennifer Lanier, who played Banquo, came out to check on everything and also complimented the yelling woman on her lungs.
Lauren Saville Allard as Macbeth was mesmerizing. Most all of my pictures were of her.
As with all OPSFest performances, the prompter (Keith Cable) and the prompter-in-training (Stew Towel) kept things moving along and amusing.
Brian Saville Allard played the gentleman Macbeth and he was also great.
Thanks, OPSFest for providing a great summer entertainment.
We had fancy birthday dinner at Eem on Williams. They have a strict proof-of-vaccination policy to dine indoors, which I appreciate. We ended up sitting outside because the indoor tables were full. I was fine with this as I don’t love dining indoors in a crowded restaurant.
The food was amazing! We got some hot cauliflower, fried chicken, and amazing fried rice. Then we also ordered curry (mine was green, Matt’s was red) and that was amazing too!
Plus, because I forgot what drink I ordered, and the drink delivery person delivered drinks to the wrong table, I got two cocktails for the price of one.
