All Things Must Come To An End

Well I guess this is it. The final post for my summer cross-country adventures. It's been a little bit since I left Portland so I'll stick with the exciting parts rather than a day by day play. I believe I left off at was the weekend of the 4th of July. What a wonderful day. Everyone congregated over at Ryan, Jeremy, and Chris's house for brunch (which didn't end up being ready till about 3pm...) The next 5 hours were spent with at least 10 people who were all drinking beer, making bloody marys, and chain smoking cigarettes on the front porch.
The aftermath.
Not sure of any of you remember Sparks, the alcoholic energy drink, but Seth and Cale made an effort to make some using an online recipe. It involved a 1:1 can of King Cobra malt liquor to can of Red Bull ration. And mix in some crushed up Pez for flavor's sake.
Jeremy chillin' on the porch.
After we ate we biked over the the Hotbox for an even bigger BBQ.

The next day I returned to the lake to hang out with Kaitlin and some of her friends again. On Wednesday her, Helen (her friend), and I decided to take a day trip to Cannon Beach. We picked a good day too cause it was about 100 degrees outside. I tried to go swimming but only made it up to my ankles before my feet went numb and I decided to just nap on the sand for the rest of the day.

Friday I headed back into Portland because the day before (Thursday) Mauro and Hannah (friends from NC who were in Seattle) told me they were coming to Oregon to see me!! First night we were there Cale took us to some house show. The band was fun but I had never seen that high of a concentration of hipsters in my entire life. It was a little scary. We tried to go to the pool afterward to cool off from all the dancing. Apparently half the party also had this idea and about 60 seconds after I hoped the fence the cops showed up. Bare foot and shirtless I jumped back over and ran to the car, acquiring a few scrapes and losing one of my favorite socks in the process.

Saturday we went to a street fair in Mississippi (the neighborhood, not the state.) It was a little boring but I did find a food cart that specialized in waffle sandwiches. For 4.50 I got a huge waffle, folded in half like a taco, and filled with maple syrup and sausage patties. Sooooo goooddd!!!!!

Mauro and Hannah left early Monday morning. After that Bekah and I had planned to hitchhike to the Colombia gorge but found ourselves too lazy to do it. Instead I posed for my portrait and Bekah painted me:
Yes I am naked and surrounded by a ring of discarded clothes.

Tuesday Cale's friend Maarvi came into town (she's super cool) and Wednesday morning I had to bid farewell to all my new friends :'[ I miss them very much.

My last 2 days were spent packing and hanging with Kaitlin/her friends.

A license plate I found in my uncles neighborhood with an interesting choice of numbers:

Taking the red eye I arrived at RDU at 8:30am Friday morning. My friend Becky picked me up from the airport but wait... instead of taking the highway back east towards Raleigh she started going west. And we were off to Chicago for the weekend. SURPRISE!!

The first night Becky and Brynn crashed at the hostel while I went to a party with the Couch Surfing host we would be staying with for the rest of the weekend. Her name was Stephanie and her and her friends were wonderful.
The next day we went to the beach; as you can see by Becky's excited expression:And we rode the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. The city was beautiful. Great obelisks of glass and metal towered like guardians over the cool waterfront. By evening it would hide in their shadows. That night we went to a venue called the Subterranean and saw Cloud Nothing (some random opener) and Kurt Vile. It was a super show.

Sunday was the day we had all come for: Pitchfork. After breakfast we arrived and saw music (almost non-stop) all day. Cave, Best Coast, Washed Out, Beach House, Lightning Bolt, Surfer Blood, Major Lazer, Neon Indian, Sleigh Bells, and Pavement: in that order. Probably one of the best days of my life. After the festival Brynn and Becky went to a nearby venue to see Cap n' Jazz while I, being exhausted from the craziest show of my life (Sleigh Bells) went back to rejoin Stephanie and her friend Lea.

Monday we tried to go to some museums, most of which were closed. By the time we made it to the aquarium I was exhausted. It was $30 so I decided to take a nap under a tree while the girls gazed at sea creatures. After they finally found me and woke me up we got some deep dish pizza and headed to Wrigley stadium to watch a cubs game. They were playing the Houston Astros. They got creamed. We left during the 8th inning. The score was 10 to 5.

Early the next morning we made a quick run to Target to get toilet paper, milk, and cheap silverware for Stephanie as a thank you gift for having us stay. After we said our reluctant goodbyes we were back on the road for a quick 13 hour car ride to NC.

Now I'm finally back in Raleigh. It's been awhile. I missed it but it feels strange not being in a new place anymore. It'll take some getting used to. To fall back into the same ol' same ol'. My wonderful summer adventures have finally come to an end... Or have they?

Giant Asheville

So I know I've been a neglectful parent. It's been over 2 weeks now since my last update. But that's only because I've been so busy with new friends and a new city.
So lets start from the beginning, shall we?: After hanging out with Becca I spent the rest of the week being mildly bored at the Lake (Oswego.) But by the next Friday the fun was full force again. I met up with Becca and some of her friends. A few of them were going to see some recently made cult classic called The Room. A movie that was created in all seriousness, by a man who claims to be American (despite his thick accent and broken English) and won't say where he got the money to fund the movie, to show all the hardships of American life. During the first showing the audience laughed so hard (because it was so bad; effects, acting, plot, dialogue) that he started claiming it was intentionally a dark comedy. Essentially it was the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. And at the same time the movie that I've probably laughed hardest during. People were drinking in the theater, screaming, and throwing plastic spoons at the screen every time a spoon appeared in a shot.

Not only was the movie fun but Tommy Wiseau, the director of this steaming pile, was there for a Q&A and costume contest. Above is a picture of my friend Cale fist-pounding Tommy. Note: all new friends mentioned in Portland are students of Reed University, a truly magical sounding school.

The next day consisted of mainly the same thing. Becca, along with my new friends Kylie and Jeremy, went to see the new Harmony Korine movie, Trash Humpers. I can't really say whether it was a good movie or not but Harmony did not make it with the intention of it being a movie. He described it more as something he would want to be found in the trash, or floating down the river in a plastic bag. The reason why I knew he said this is because he was at the theater for a quick talk about the movie and afterward a Q&A. People took it way to seriously.

Sunday was father's day so I returned to the Lake. The cousins, Uncle Tom, and I set off on a day trip around the legendary Mt. Hood. As you can see below there were a lot of waterfalls...
..And picture taking.
The inn at the top of Mt. Hood. Once we started to get close to the summit I, being the only one awake, was awestruck when I realized that the dirt around the road had become several feet of snow and ice under about an inch of dirt. Not something that I expected to see when I woke up on that rainy June morning.
Ridiculous hot chocolate at the resort on top of the mountain. This is also where they filmed all the outside scenes from The Shinning.. A little unnerving since I had just seen it for the first time about a week before.

Again the following few days were spent at the Lake. Lots of movies watched, lots of things read.
Wednesday I got to meet some of my cousin Kaitlin's (the younger one) friends. The two of us had spent the day wandering around NW Portland (downtown) and were eventually joined by a larger group of giggling, high school girls. They were nice but we didn't have much in common. That evening a party was thrown at her friends house and I attended. School had just gotten out. Much celebrating was had.

Having gotten little sleep I spent the next day recovering and napping until about 6pm when I decided to take the bus into the city to meet up with my Reed friends. I arrived 3 hours later, having changed countless buses and going in every direction. Since then I've managed to get a better grasp on how the bus system works and rarely make mistakes. I missed dinner but much drinking and merriment were had to the mark the end of Becca's first week of summer classes (microbiology).

The next few days were spent with new friends in parks, around dinner tables, in shops, and on porches.
This is just a silly picture I snapped with my phone. Watch out for those deaf children; they'll getcha.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night I slept at a farming collective called The Big Pink (Monster.) Named so for the giant plywood teeth hung around the porch and the two windows on the front side, creating eyes. This was the residence of my aforementioned friend Kylie. A house of 11 residents it reminded me so much of Pearson house in Asheville. Only with a little more emphasis on gardening.

Saturday I attended Alice's birthday party at a house called the Hotbox. I got to meet/talk with a lot of new people.

Sunday marked the final day of Pedalpalooza; a two week long bike festival that had been going on (events included: naked bike ride.) Kylie, Jeremy, and Cale biked to the Bike Faire that was the day's final event. It was fun but not much was going on. So we met up with others: Jeannie, Kurt, Ryan, Bekah (different from Becca), and Chris at the food carts for dinner. Afterward about half the group biked to the park for snacking and beer. And finally half of that group (Ryan, me, Cale, Jeremy, Bekah) biked to a wonderful place called the Rimsky Korsakoffee House, named appropriately for after the Russian author. The cafe resided in a large, beautifully furnished house off of 12th st. I had been warned before hand to watch out for the haunted tables; one of which we sat at. I put my phone on the table and nothing seemed to happen, so I quickly forgot about the ghosts and engaged my friends in conversation. When I went to grab my phone to check the time I found it at the other side of the table, near Ryan. At first I thought he had taken it but then realized the table itself was turning so slowly that it was not noticeable if watched. I found out later that there was another table that slowly moved up and down, to about the height of an average sized person's chest. We all split 3 sundaes and then I happened upon the most interesting bathroom I've ever been in.
This terribly creepy mannequin sat in a kayak in the corner.
And these feet dangled off a dock painted on the ceiling. Everything was blue. A woman was painted on the wall and her hands reached out, into our world, to hold the roll of toilet paper.

Monday morning I crept back to the Lake, watched more movies, and helped my uncle set up his beautiful stereo system.

Wednesday I received a message from Cale saying that people were going to the Oaks Park carnival that evening. I quickly packed my bags and got a ride over to his house (known as the School House; residence: Cale, Sara, Kurt, Jeannie, Mamie, and Philip, who I have yet to meet because he is out of town but apparently the most charming ladies man ever. The housemates blame it on his red satin sheets.) The carnival was a blast. Almost everyone mentioned above came along with a few other unmentioned friends. It was good to see just how hard all my new friends could laugh. We went on the bumper cars twice.

Now we finally reach today. I woke up this morning and walked to a vegan restaurant with Bekah to visit our friend Kurt at work. Bekah left and I was picked up by Cale, Chris, Ryan, and Ryan's friend Will. We had a boys day out that consisted of Powell's and lunch at The Hot Pot (an Asian restaurant where they give you pots of broth on hot plates and you add what meat and veggies you want and let them cook. Somewhat like fondue.) Now I'm sitting at the School House and I'm about to go over to Reed's campus with Sara and Kurt

Conclusion: Portland is exactly like a large version of Asheville. I miss NC...