Bigass Vacation Wrap-Up: Portland, Oregon - Two Concerts

Hey, y'all, I'm back! 

"Egads! You've been gone?"

Yup, L and I jetted off to the big city of Portland, Oregon, where we spent nearly 6 days, exploring, eating food, shopping and getting to know the place. We'd been a couple of years ago (here) but only for a day or two, and had wanted to come back. Of course, we found a couple of concerts to go to while we were away...we'll get to those shortly.

I did a repeat of some of my capsule travel wardrobe from my Hamilton, Ontario trip (here), and raided my giveaway pile for the rest. I left a bunch of this behind (as well as old socks, tees and underwear) - only a few things came home with me.

In retrospect, I did not take enough warm clothing; it's been really warm here in Victoria, and I was not prepared for the sudden Portland shift from sunny/hot to rainy/cold. I should know these things! I come from a cold, rainy place! Ah, well, live and learn.

• Dress - Michael Kors, consignment; last worn here (6th outfit) in June for a weekend shop
• Shirt - Dept, consignment; last seen here (3rd outfit) in August for a jaunt to Turnabout
• Blue cotton top - Smoking Lily, thrifted; last seen here on my Hamilton trip in July
• Silk bird blouse - Tory Burch, consignment; last worn here in June with creamsicle dots
• Polka dot blouse - as f as y, thrifted; first worn here in April with leather pants
• Hemp skirt - Smoking Lily, thrifted; first worn here for Canada Day
• Linen top - Gap, thrifted; last seen here (3rd outfit) in August to the Ulti field
• Linen cardigan - J. Crew, thrifted; last worn here (3rd outfit) for a shop at My Sister's Closet in August
• Jeans - Levi Strauss, thrifted; last seen here (2nd outfit) in March with Betsey Johnson velvet
• Black leather sandals - Softmocs, thrifted; last seen here (2nd outfit) for brunch in August
• Blue suede shoes - Born, thrifted; last worn here (3rd outfit) in August

The bolded items are the ones that made the cut - still in the closet! Yes, I only brought four things home. I had planned to leave the bird blouse and the hemp skirt behind, but they were both excellent and so earned a reprieve.

There are also a stack of old t-shirts there that I either tossed or left for donation. The only one I brought home was my Tool concert tee. I sleep in my old tees, and some of these were at the point of disintegration, being over 10 years old.

My accessories might also look familiar - nearly the same as what I took to Hamilton again.

I kept everything except the Lia Sophia gold-tone bracelet, which was losing some of its colour.

• Wood ring - thrifted
• Orange ring/bracelet - Italian, 1960s, vintage mall
• Crystal ring - Uffizi Gallery gift shop, Florence, Italy
• Blue cuff - thrifted
• Wooden hoop earrings - vintage expo
• Blue glass bead earrings - local
• Gold earrings - thrifted

At the last minute, I added these gold sandals.

They are heaven to wear, and came home with me.

• Gold leather sandals - Born, consignment; last worn here (3rd outfit) in August for Nick's birthday gathering

As always, with my planned "good riddances," I pack light.

Fully-packed backpack with all the above clothes and shoes, plus tees, underwear (I tossed a bunch of that too, including an old bra), toiletries, make-up and an extra book. My black leather purse is only for on the plane - it holds my identification, travel info, my camera, and a book for planes and airports. As L and I don't have cell phones (really!), we have to carry printouts and maps of everything.

This was my travel outfit on the way down.

Simple but chic.

Easy to spot in an airport!

My jeans are super-stretchy - they are from Levi's short-lived bike commuter jean line for women.

I wore this cardigan a LOT, especially once the weather turned grey.

A last few pictures of our dear kitty.

"Uncle Ross will feed me all the kitty treats I can eat."

He does get a bit spoiled when we are away!

"Just go already, I'll be fine."

I often looked at his pictures on the camera while we were gone. Aw, I missed my kitty-boy!

And now, a bunch of random pictures of things that caught my eye.

The Victoria "International" Airport is pretty small - we flew to Vancouver on a prop plane, then flew to Portland.

We stayed at one of the famous McMenamin's properties*: Kennedy School, which is an old elementary school that has been renovated but retains all the classrooms and grooves on the history of this 100+ year old property. Seriously, go down the rabbit hole on the Kennedy School link above - it was an amazing place! Highly recommended.

*all links because I love, of course!

That's our comfy king-sized bed - we stayed in one of the old classrooms in the English Wing. The entire school is a gigantic complex, with chalkboards and cloakrooms in many of the rooms, an in-house brewery, multiple bars, a warm salt-water soaking pool, a movie theatre, and ongoing performances of bands (we caught some opera on Saturday night!) and an excellent main restaurant. Everything is decorated by local artists, too - it is a feast for the eyes!

It also has NO TV (they do have wireless), and only a few of the bars have a single TV, so L and I really had a media detox. Honestly, I did not miss it - I read a book and a half while we were there, and that's in between all the fun stuff we did. It's good to have a break from the Internet and media once in a while.

I spotted a couple of local cats on our walks, including this wee dude.

"Yar, who be ye, who wants to cross my path?"

Pirate Cat of Portland! He looks like he has a few tales to tell.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon - it's only a 4-hour trip for us, and even in the same time zone - and spent about 2 hours walking to the Alberta Street district and looking around in shops and checking out some of the local arts scene.

Tired from our strolls, we had dinner in the Cypress Room, which is one of the old classrooms (you can see the pull-down doors of the cloakroom below) and listened to records on a record player (mostly reggae).

The entire complex has the most amazing lighting - variations of beautiful lamps and globes were in every single space. We visited two other McMenamin's locations on our trip and they also had spectacular lighting.

We were up early on Friday for our first full day of exploring.

I'm wearing my Tool concert tee...

...under my "cowboy" shirt.

Ready to go!

We walked to Mississippi Avenue from our hotel, and had a browse around there. L and I did tons of research before we left on music and consignment stores we wanted to check out, and then grouped them on our maps, to cover them all in our time there.

A lovely Catholic church spotted along the way.

I liked this sign outside a bookstore.

We walked all the way to the Moda Centre near town, stopping in at various shops and pubs along the way for exploration and fortification.

Being cell-phone-less can be a pain - instead of having tickets on our phone, we had to pick them up in person.

YES! We have our Iron Maiden tickets for that night!

From the Moda Centre, we walked over this bridge to the main city centre area.

It was a lovely sunny day, very warm.

Portland has a lot of bridges.

This one was pretty quiet on a Friday afternoon.

I like the shapes that the girders make.

This is in stark contrast to every other day we were in Portland, when the traffic was crazy.

A selfie on the bridge!

Jeez, I look pained! Ha! L is wearing his Dio t-shirt. We weren't sure until nearly the last minute if we'd be staying downtown and going straight to the show, so we dressed as if we were. No large bags allowed in the Centre, so if we bought things, we wouldn't be able to bring them in (although we found out later that they had a bag check).

Looking back - that's the Moda Centre there.

We spent some time shopping in the Pearl District, where L did well at Everyday Music (he collects obscure CDs), then had a quick early dinner. We cabbed back to our hotel, rested for a few minutes and then cabbed back to the Moda Centre for the show.

And here we are, only 4 rows from the very back, in the "nosebleed" seats, about an hour before the 70s-era classic heavy metal rockers took us by storm.

We had bought our tickets early in the summer, when we were first planning our trip, and were lucky to get these - it was a sold-out show of 15,000 people! We later heard from a woman who attended the Big Boi show that same night that the crowd at that show was sparse - you really shouldn't have your show on the same night that Iron Maiden comes to town after a 30+ year absence!

I have anxiety issues around big crowds (and little crowds!), but if I get to a big venue early, I can handle it.

We checked out the 3rd level bar area views. There's my guy!

And here's me, after a visit to the merch table.

I am an Iron Maiden! Yeah!

Here's a look at my tour shirt, which was $45 (ouch), US (double-ouch).

It's "The Flight of Icarus", one of Maiden's songs, and shows Eddie (the band's skeletal mascot) helping Icarus along with a flamethrower (hint: foreshadow!). There were a lot of tees to pick from, but I thought this one was the best, as far as composition and colour.

I like having the tour dates on my shirts - the back of this one is just gorgeous.

Eddie as priest (and demon in stained glass) presiding over a collapsed and burning church. It says "Revelations" at the bottom. So much pretty colour! I will be styling this and wearing it to work (hee hee, get ready!).

Despite all the "scary" demon/devil stuff, Iron Maiden is not really scary. It's all a stage show, folks. These are middle-aged UK rockers.

Our position in the stadium meant that we couldn't see the band head-on - thank goodness for the above screen, so that we could see what was going on.

The opening band was Raven Age.

They look like a bunch of angsty emo-metalheads. More eyeliner, guys, ha ha!

Zoomed-in view of them onstage. I wore earplugs for the volume for the full show.

Loud! I amused myself by trying to catch all three of the non-drummers making a "metal pose" on their boxes.

At the end of their set, Raven Age asked everyone to light up their phones.

It looked pretty cool. You can see the crowd starting to fill the floor area. I've been on the floor for one metal show in the past (Judas Priest, way back here in 2008) and it is NOT my scene.

And then...Iron Maiden! Here's an awesome review of the show we were at. I agree with "endearingly kitschy" - I had a delighted grin on my face the entire show, and laughed out loud with wonder and glee at the spectacle. This review here also notes the camp factor. For better pictures than mine, check out this gallery here.

Fog, and a FRICKIN' SPITFIRE PLANE! With a rotating propeller!

Seriously, that's a plane hanging above the stage. It - like some of the other "effects" used during the show - was actually an inflatable prop.

The original band members are in their 60s now, but you would not know it from this show. See the little guy in black at the front? That's 61-year-old singer Bruce Dickinson prancing about!

Being a fashionista, I noted all of Bruce's wardrobe changes.

He was in leather pants, sturdy dancing/running-around boots, and black shirt as his base outfit, adding different tops/hats as the show progressed. His long metalhead locks also went from fully tied back to long and head-bangin' by the end of the show.

Here, he's wearing an aviator jacket and cap.

And then he came out in a white windbreaker (?) and snowy winter cap.

Caught on the screen. I don't know a lot of Iron Maiden's songs, but this show was mostly greatest hits.

Dickinson's voice is one of the greats in rock vocals, with an operatic and melodic style that soars over the multiple guitars. I was totally impressed - he's still got it!

A good look a the base outfit - nice puffy sleeves there, Bruce. I bet those leather jeans were hot, with all the running around he did.

And now our venue is fully packed, not an empty seat.

That's more what our view was actually like! The crowd was totally into it (as we were!).

This song featured a 10+ feet tall Eddie!

That's a performer in stilts stalking around the stage, fighting Bruce!

He was massive! And waving his massive sword about menacingly.

I was interested to note that the crest on the back of Eddie's pack is actually a Canadian crest (it matches my passport)! Is Eddie a rogue RCMP Mountie??

This is a shot of the screen, caught mid-pixel by my camera.

I liked how you can see how much fun Bruce is having, and the awesome snarl on Eddie's face.

Later, the set transformed into a church-like look.

Bruce has on a long black robe with swooshy sleeves. Look at him swoosh!

And then the jets of fire! There was a ton of pyro in this show, including fireworks raining down on the stage.

The screen at the side shows what folks on the floor saw vs. our view of backstage and all the lighting gear.

Bruce in a cloak (which he also swooshed about in, Darth Sheila approves!) and a light-up cross that he carried around.

More fire!

We could feel the heat from that, even in the nosebleed seats!

Here's Icarus, which was also a giant inflatable prop.

This is the screen view, as we couldn't actually see Icarus from our seats.

Bring on the fog machines...

...and the flamethrower! Bruce had a pack on his back and flames that shot from both hands! At the end of the song, he shot the flames up at the Icarus inflatable and it collapsed onto the stage.

Then a quick costume change to a white puffy shirt with lace cuffs with a fitted black jacket over it (I approve!).

It was an amazing spectacle of a show.

I think this is during "The Number of the Beast", one of the few songs I know, from my brother Dave playing it on his ghetto-blaster back in the 80s.

The audience member in a bit of concert joy is just so perfect, isn't he?

L and I were not the only grey-hairs in the audience. We saw grandparents with grandkids (including granddaughters, yes!), moms, dads, and kids of all ages. Funny how something so outrageous back in the 70s and 80s has now become so normal.

Eddie as "The Beast" - a shot taken of the screen. That's another inflatable prop.

One last screen shot of Bruce, now changed to a puffy shirt and with his hair in a long, bedraggled mop.

Hey, the guitarist is wearing our tour shirt! Awesome! I knew we made the right choice.

A selfie shot in the hotel when we finally got in, around 11:30pm.

We hung out in the Boiler Room bar for a drink and a bite to eat before we crashed into bed. What a day!

On Saturday, we readied ourselves to head back to Laurelhurst for the next round of consignment shops and music stores. We bought day passes for the transit system and took several buses to cut down on our walking - but we walked everywhere! We both love getting to see a town by walking its streets.

You can see that all the original doors and woodwork (as well as the floors) in the Kennedy School  have been preserved, right down to the chalkboard beside me.

What will the weather be?

Better bring my cardi just in case.

We took the bus for a bit, then walked through Laurelhurst Park.

The leaves are starting to turn, but it was just gorgeous.

It reminded me of Beacon Hill Park here in town.

I love a chunk of greenery. Very soothing after all the hustle and bustle.

I also loved this lamp-post.

Why do I love it?

Obviously, because it's My Light Post. Mine!

I didn't buy a ton on this trip - I wanted to find really special things to remember our time. One of the consignment stores in the Hollywood district (Ray's Ragtime Vintage, link here) had a tray of copper jewelry, and I found this amazing set.

It's curved, rounded squares of copper with "splatter" enamel work in red with white and black splatters.

There is very little wear on this, but unfortunately, no markings on it. I am pretty sure it is from the 1950s, in the modernist style.

This was $58.00 US, but totally worth it. I will smile every time I see it.

While we were out on Saturday, we hid from the rain and ate at the McMenamin's Barley Mill Pub, which is all Grateful Dead themed (the bathrooms had black light and disco balls! very trippy!).

We walked for over 5 hours on Saturday in total. We were just exhausted, especially after all the walking and concert-going on Friday (which was another 5+ hours), so after a nap, we went to the Kennedy School theatre and watched the movie "The Dead Don't Die" - movies are free to hotel guests, and you can have food/drinks brought into the theatre, right to your comfy chair or couch! Now, that is civilized.

We slept in on Sunday.

Only a few stores left on our lists that we had not yet explored, so we hopped the bus again to check them out.

Looking back at the Kennedy School.

Many of the guests enjoyed sitting out on the patio - there's a fire pit there for the evenings

This was probably my favourite vintage store of all the (very cool) vintage stores we visited: Hollywood Vintage (link).

For one, it's a huge indoor vintage mall, full of stalls with everything you could possibly think of. For another, a ferocious rainstorm hit while we were shopping inside! We were very happy to miss that!

I found this wonderful short kimono.

I have no idea how old it is, but it's not silk - I thought it was at first, but it didn't wrinkle at all, so polyester.

I love the black and cream pattern.

There are bits of gold sparkly colour on the tips of the black "mountains" and bits of orange and green in the pattern as well.

The inside fabric is pale pink, blue, grey and cream.

There are two ties at the inside front for anchoring it shut.

It was $29.00, which felt like a great deal.

As we walked back to a bus stop, a flock of blue jays followed us.

We never see these in Victoria - how cool!

That night, we had dinner in the Boiler Room pub and watched Sunday Night Football, then played hangman on the chalkboard back in our room (being well-fortified by delicious food and drink).

On Monday, many things in Portland are closed, so L and I slept in, went for breakfast (we "discovered" jalapeno cheddar grits, a delectable dish we don't have in Canada), then chilled out in our room, reading.

That pile of chalkdust near my feet is a remnant of our hangman shenanigans.

I decided to wear my kimono for lounging around.

I can't wait to style this in a proper outfit.

We wandered around the school, making sure we hadn't missed anything (it was really easy to get lost in it!).

I love the above artwork - it reminds me of our old kitty Inigo.

I also really liked this one.

It reminds me of a painting our friends Cat and Ross have. There were easily over a hundred pieces of original art in the place.

We hopped a cab that afternoon to McMenamin's Crystal Hotel, where we had dinner at Ringler's.

Back in my jeans and kimono, to see The Mountain Goats at the Crystal Ballroom!

We had an amazing stroke of luck while eating our dinner: the Event Staff came around and gave everyone with an e-ticket a stamp for Early Entry to the show! Being nosy me, I asked if our paper tickets would also count - yes, it did!

We were moved to the front of the (huge) line, and strolled right into this 4-level venue, and snagged two of the (very limited) seats in the front row of the 21-and-over balcony, overlooking the floor and stage! It was a great area, with its own bar and bathrooms.

Again, A+ on the lighting game, McMenamin's. The chandeliers, the lighting around the local artists' friezes on the walls...it was a beautiful venue for a show.

Our view when we arrived - just a cluster of dedicated fans up front on the left who got in early with us. The aisle down the centre of the floor was to keep the underage from the drinkers (excellent security/administration at this event).

As previously noted, I don't do well with crowds and absolutely cannot deal with standing in the midst of hundreds of people. Although this isn't a 15,000-seat venue like the Moda Centre, it does have about a 1,100-person capacity. That's still a lot! I liked my railing and security pole, and had no issues with the crowd.

The opening act was Lydia Loveless, who L and I are both fans of.

Lydia, you mumbled too much! However, her voice is amazing when she's singing.

We loved her, and so we both bought the shirt! This was $20.00.

I like the plain white tee.

And I adore the wonderfully detailed (and a tiny bit creepy) design.

I might actually style this into an outfit.

During the intermission, I got a better picture of the amazing glass chandelier right at our eye level.

You can see that the crowd has arrived in full force.

Here we all are, ready for the show.

Dang, I am happy not to be in that melee! The stage is in the upper left.

I had to zoom in with my camera to catch a couple of pictures of The Mountain Goats, so my pics are a little blurry, sorry.

Never heard of them? They are pretty obscure, but they have very dedicated fans!

Check out L's review of the current album here, as well as the concert.

And here is a local review of the Eugene, Oregon show (I couldn't find one of the Portland show). I enjoyed it, although I didn't know a lot of the songs. Check out L's review of the album and the show, again here.

I did buy one of their t-shirts, though.

How could I resist a possum with a sword? This will be lovely to sleep in. It was $25.00.

We cabbed back to our hotel, and crashed, but not before we sorted out all the stuff we were taking home and leaving behind.

That's quite a pile of my and L's stuff (plus a generous tip for the staff).

I'm ready to go.

And four hours later, we were home!

Vizzini was so happy to see us!

"I was?"

He totally was! He drooled all over us, and meowed pitifully until we picked him up. He slept on us and cuddled with us all night.

Today/Wednesday, we both took the day off work to recover (and for both of us to blog).

"Uncle Ross! Let me lead you to the kitty treats!"

It's been a wonderful break - 8 days total - and I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, but hey, it's only 2 days and then it's the weekend again! It's like we planned it that way, heh heh.

My friends, thank you so much for coming by! I hope you enjoyed our trip memories! Back to our regular outfit posts tomorrow.