I started bike commuting a few weeks ago with partial hopes that it would help me adapt to the rising temperatures, among other things. Since my ride in to downtown is mostly downhill, and the mornings are still cool, my cooldown time before entering cube-land is short, but on the way home, with the all-uphilledness of the region and hot patches of air, I’m sweating something fierce by the time I get home. As a convenience I sometimes stop by the Whole Foods/Wild Oats on Burnside to pick up groceries, and I’m a bit embarrassed by the being hot and having helmet hair while I’m walking through the store with my pant leg tucked into my sock. With a city such as this with a ton of bike commuters, I would assume that the employ would see plenty of people like me, but even with the pile of bikes out front (Dear Whole Foods, please get more bike parking, kthx), I didn’t see another person looking disheveled in the store.

I’m not an easily embarrassed person, but I’m wondering what the consensus is on this kind of situation: Do you hop into the store with your hair plastered down and mingle with the hipsters, or do you go home and cool down, then go back the mile and a half to the store while looking at least somewhat presentable?

For those of you sick of or too good for the Rose Fest (specifically the Rose Floral Parade on Saturday), Dave from Dave Knows: Portland has some great tips on how to avoid the festivities (there’s also an amazing time-lapse video of the fireworks from last Friday, if you missed it). As this is my first (collective gasp) Rose Fest, I might get up early enough to become part of the throng downtown or at the very least, try to talk the crew at the Horse Brass into tuning in the broadcast while we’re enjoying morning brews and breakfast.

Nextly: I took the train (and bus) to Vancouver BC with the boyfriend 2 weekends ago, and I must say: train travel is awesome, though travel to Vancouver could use some help. Supposedly, there will be direct train service to Vancouver BC from us down here in Oregon in time for the Olympics (a good bit of the city is torn up due to transportation additions to the waterfront and Olympic Village), but I won’t believe it until I see it. We’ve already had a review of the train ride from PDX to SEA, so here’re the bits:

• Pros:
• Far less security hassle than the airport: we arrived and boarded barely 20 minutes before our scheduled departure
• Access to a proper power outlet (120V) for unrestricted use
• We had the ability to use our cellphones where there was reception (though chose not to)
• The car we were in was incredibly quiet, and we whispered most of the trip
• One can bring his/her own liquids aboard! No more smuggling 3oz bottles of vodka! We brought our massive flask and some mixers and made cocktails at our seats
• The seats were comfortable and there were plenty of bathrooms to go around

• Cons:
• Delays - we were over an hour late to Seattle, but the connection was guaranteed, so some people got to wait on the bus for us. Sorry, people!
• When we boarded, the a/c was broken in our car, and we were sweating up a storm (hottest day yet of the year + running a suitcase from the MAX to Union Station = ick!), but it was fixed when we departed (which was, granted, nearly 45 minutes later)
• This is really about the bus - The bus sucks. It’s better than taking Greyhound the whole way, but the bus just seemed that much more crappy after such a pleasant train experience
• Price - It was less than $200 for both of us to get to Vancouver and back, but I would love to be able to take the train down to Sacramento and maybe across the continent without having to sell my firstborn and a kidney. Get the prices for 6+ hours of travel down to an affordable rate (i.e. cheaper than airfare), and I’ll start booking my travel today.

And one more quick one!! Holy crap, it’s Rose Festival season again! The rides are going up to make Waterfront park a muddy mess, should the rain continue (opening Thursday) and the fireworks kick everything off on Friday. The good stuff (boats!) will start floating in on Thursday (Tall Sailing ships, 5/29-6/5, then Fleet Week 6/4-6/8). I’m so excited - more on that soon!

Oh, how I was mistaken. Oh, yes, there is a train that goes from here to BC, but it stops overnight in Seattle. The one and only train to Vancouver leaves from Seattle early in the morning and the only train from Vancouver leaves too late in the afternoon to take it all the way through to Portland. So we’re stuck taking the Amtrak bus on the Seattle-Vancover trip and back again, which I wasn’t too pleased to find out. Since Amtrak is really pushing the Cascades line, they included a free “companion pass” in the fantastic Chinook Book, which is actually why I purchased the darned thing anyway (though all in all, it has been awesome). My beef: Since the train does not go all the way to Vancouver from Eugene (where the Cascades line starts), the coupon in the book does not cover the entire route. The furthest one can go and use the coupon (in Oregon) is from Eugene to Seattle, and I really haven’t a need to go to Seattle. After finding out that the fare with the coupon is the exact same as the fare without the coupon (because of the way they bill the bus and train rides separately with the coupon in use), I’m keeping the savings for the next time we decide to take the train to Eugene (erm…). Thus, I call shenanigans on Amtrak. Why have a coupon marketed mostly to the Portland market (in the Portland Chinook Book) when it’s only useful to travel in a 3-hour radius, whereas the coupon offered in the Seattle-based Chinook Book would cover the full Cascades train lines?

This is where the story gets interesting, kids - I had been reading all these reviews that there is some really good food at Deschutes - if so, I didn’t get much of it. I wanted to try the Elk Burger (being a game and a burger fan - not much there to go wrong), but instead went with the Cuban sandwich with a salad. The boyfriend ordered the fish and chips. The food was out incredibly quickly (though brought out by a different server, a pet peeve of mine, and without our requested sides), but when I bit into my Cuban, I was left wanting. It was okay, but it wasn’t really that good - the different meat tastes got lost in the saltiness of the corned beef, and the pepper tasted, well, from a tin. The bottom bread was soaked through with the moisture from the pepper, whereas the top slice was nicely browned and crispy. The salad was okay - just standard spring mix with a side of bleu cheese dressing (large hunks of actual bleu cheese were appreciated).

As we often do, the boyfriend and I stopped at our halfway points and swapped plates. Biting into the fish was a lovely crispy experience, but it seemed like the coating wasn’t “traditional” fish and chip coating and something more like Japanese panko. While it does provide a good crust, it just isn’t “fish and chips” to me without a proper wet coat before frying. It also seemed like maybe both the fries and the fish were fried at a slightly lower than standard tempurature, as the fries had taken on a lot of oil, and the fish was slightly flatish on one side and greasy on the bottom. The tartar sauce served was tasty, but there was no vinegar brought out (and we forgot to ask). The fries were the one saving grace - even though they were on the greasy side, they must fry them in something other than the standard cheapo soybean oil, because the flavor was fantastic. We eat our fries with mayonnaise, and these went perfectly together. They tasted like real potatoes (not re-formed starch), and we ate every single one of them.

All in all, go to Deschutes for the beer, and continue testing the food. It could have been an off night, but I checked with 3 others who visited the new pub within the last week who had the same experience. I’ll go back, of course, and try the elk burger (especially if the fries are that good consistently), and beer beer beer, the fantastic beer. Lovely glorious beer.

Stats!

Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Food: 5/10 (the fries upped the average a good 1.5 points)
Did I mention the beer?: 10/10

Deschutes Portland Pub and Brewery

210 NW 11th Avenue
Portland
(503) 296-4906

TriMet vehicles tend to be really clean and comfortable to ride. Sure, there have been a couple of late-night puking sessions on the MAX (not me, thankyouverymuch), those who don’t shower, and once in a while the bus and even the MAX get to capacity, but for the most part, our public transportation is great. The only big problem I have with TriMet currently is the sometimes missing busses (walked a full 2 miles along my path before the 71 went zooming by one day), and the damned machines that never work (but I have a monthly pass, so that’s moot to me for the most part). What do you love/hate about TriMet? Do you actually send requests into their “comment” lines? I might be notorious for letting them know at least once a week that the machine they’ve never fixed at the 60th Ave MAX stop is indeed still broken…

The Portland Timbers open the season by hosting the Puerto Rico appropriately-named Islanders this Thursday at PGE Park. Last season was the Timbers’ best yet, with record draw, especially on the previously called “Thirsty Thursdays.” The Park is now partially sponsored by Miller Lite, so the “Thirsty” part of Thursday has been changed to reflect that sponsorship (what happened to the Widmer sponsorship?). This is not only the first match of the proper season, but this will be the last time we’ll be entertained (publicly) by our Timber Jim, beloved Timbers mascot since the great reformation of 2001 (and before). Get there early, and you get a free magnet and a “Timber Jim Farewell” t-shirt. You can get tickets on TicketMaster, or skip the fees (which add up to more than 50% of the ticket face price, if you’re in GA) and pick one up at the PGE Park box office on SW 20th and Morrison.

This Wednesday will hopefully be our last springtime indoor meetup at the Green Dragon. I don’t actually have that much to say about this one, as I’ve never actually been to a Portland Metblogs meetup, nor to the Green Dragon, but you should come! We (including me, yes) will be there around 5.30, and I plan on drinking beer. Maybe a lot of beer. We know you like beer, and free food. So there’s really no reason not to come. Stop making excuses.

Something you may not need to prepare for is my mom. That’s right, she’s coming to town this weekend, and I need to find the most expensive restaurant I can safely take her so she can buy me and the bf dinner. You tell me - what’s the best place one can take a loudmouth redhead to? It’s not that she’s uncouth, but she’s my mom, so it’s very likely she’ll do something embarrassing. She will also likely not bring any dressy clothes, so ix-snay on the established fancy places. Any ideas will be picked apart and pored over - only one will be chosen (unless I can talk her into dinner out twice!). Preference given to places with websites that actually contain information besides hours (sorry, Green Dragon).

First off, the BTA is looking for feedback from those of us who bike around town - not necessarily only for those who commute on their vélos, but anyone in the metro area who is interested in putting in a word regarding comfort on the ever-changing paths on which we ride. Important why? This will hopefully help with the planning of the future East-side streetcar lines and other community planning. Take the survey here.

Secondly, Powell’s is having a poetry contest! The challenge: write a poem (less than 20 lines) in some way about Portland. The reward: a chance to win 26 books (!!!) of poetry and an awesome rucksack. Caveat: by entering, your email will be placed on the Powell’s new poetry email list. You can find the details here on the Powell’s site. I’ve won enough stuff completely randomly by being one of the few to actually enter, and while I doubt that will be the state of this contest, you can’t get the goods without entering, people.

Thirdly, hi! I’m “clevergirl” and I’ll be writing here now. I moved to Portland last July, and while I’m still getting used to the city, I already have my favorite places to eat (Masu), drink beer (Tugboat, so far), and have fun (section 107, PGE Park). I’m sure I’ll be writing about things that may be new to me, but possibly not so new to the natives, so I beg forgiveness beforehand. More info can be found in my profile (eventually), and maybe I’ll see you guys at the Green Dragon next week.