Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Dining in Portland, Oregon

When it comes to dining in Portland, the city seems to have a relatively large number of good places to eat, and I was most interested in finding places with local character.


I tried a couple of local brewpubs, a "haunted" pizzeria, the airport outlet of a place that claims to be a Portland institution, went to a fine-dining Andean restaurant, and finally did a drive-by of a doughnut shop.


Quick summaries of the places I went to:

Peruvian:
  • Andina (1314 NW Glisan Street, Portland, OR 97209): This Peruvian establishment in the Pearl District was by far the priciest and most upscale establishment where we ate. But the food was excellent, ranging from the rack of lamb to the elegant canutos de quinoa y maracuya dessert (cannolis with passionfruit mousse, mango-lemongrass sorbet, and caramel). To my surprise, I also really enjoyed the lime-juice "cooked" ceviche (raw seafood).

Micro-Breweries:
  • BridgePort Brewpub (1313 NW Marshall Street, Portland, OR): Portland has a number of micro-breweries and BridgePort in the Pearl District was the first that we tried. The beer was good (I had their signature India Pale Ale) and the food was decent. It was happy hour and a lot of the dishes were offered for between $4-$6, which was a pretty good deal.



  • Widmer Brothers Brewing Company (929 N. Russell St. Portland, OR 97227): Another microbrewery, but with a German Gasthaus theme in a historic building on the east side of the river. I had the pork schnitzels and spaetzle as well as a weisswurst. I loved the spaetzle (small extruded German dumplings) and the schnitzel was tasty but a bit too thick of a cut. The weisswurst was all right but it was grilled instead of boiled as I expected and they also served it with spicy mustard instead of the traditional sweet mustard. The sauerkraut was surprisingly bland. I decided to try their handcrafted root beer which I liked a lot, though I did also sample an interesting (but very spicy) experimental beer.





Korean:
  • Number 1 Bento (SW 10th Avenue, Portland, OR 97205): This Korean cart is parked in an open paved lot with about 10 other trailers, which were open for lunch on Saturday. I had some fresh and tasty bulgogi with kimchee and potstickers (though the latter were fried a bit too hard).


Haunted Pizza:
  • Old Town Pizza (226 NW Davis, Portland, OR 97209): The pizza here is pretty good if you like it with a lot of cheese and I really liked the hazelnut Italian soda I got at the bar, but the real attraction here is the building, which was built as a hotel in 1880. Old Town Pizza occupies the former hotel lobby and supposedly is "haunted" by the ghost of a lady of the evening who was thrown down an elevator shaft there. Tunnels also lie underneath the building, where sailors were Shanghaied to the dock (perhaps after being dropped down a trapdoor elsewhere on the block, now another restaurant called Hobo's).



Doughnut Drive-By:
  • Voodoo Doughnuts (22 SW Third Avenue, Portland, OR 97204): I didn't actually sample the famous doughnuts at this downtown establishment because the line was too long and time was short, but I did get a picture of a Froot Loop doughnut. They're supposedly open 24 hours.



At PDX Airport:
  • Rose's Restaurant and Bakery (Portland Airport/PDX): I ate at the airport location of this local Portland chain. I had their signature reuben sandwich, a huge triple-decker of corned beef, turkey, cheese, Thousand Island, and sauerkraut on rye bread. It was pretty good but a lot of food.



Places I'd Like To Try
A couple of other places were recommended to me but I didn't have time to try them.

  • Portland City Grill (111 SW Fifth Avenue, 30th Floor, Portland, OR 97204): This Pearl District place supposedly has good food at a moderate price, but the real attraction here is the view from its 30th Floor location. They supposedly also have a nice happy hour.
  • Jake's Famous Crawfish (401 SW 12th Avenue, Portland, OR 97205): Opened in 1892 and now owned by McCormick and Schmick's, Jake's is a downtown institution that some say has the best seafood in Portland.

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Sunday, June 7, 2009

Country Dancing in Portland, OR

Last month I made my first trip to Portland, Oregon in years. With more time and mobility on this trip, I found the time to go country dancing at a couple of interesting clubs and along the way, I unexpectedly ran into an old friend.


The Clubs
In researching country dance clubs on the Internet prior to my trip, I found four clubs listed, all within a half hour of central Portland:
However, Outlaws Bar and Grill has apparently closed and reopened as Bossanova and I was told that Ponderosa is really just a truck stop, so I tried Bushwhacker's and Duke's Country Bar & Grill. Bushwhacker's is just west of the city while Duke's is on Portland's east side. The atmosphere at Duke's is much more lively, but the level of dancing is a lot higher at Bushwhacker's.

Bushwhackers in Tualatin, OR
I first went to Bushwhackers on a Wednesday night, where they were teaching intermediate level two-step lessons. There was a pretty good-sized crowd there when I walked in at 7:30 pm, but virtually everyone was in their 40's or older. This may have been because it was an intermediate (not beginner) level class.


The dancers were solid but with a sedate style, and after the two-step lesson the open dancing was a mix of two-steps, waltzes, and swing (both east coast and west coast). No one came in after the lessons were done and I left about 9:30.

The floor is fairly large (I'd estimate about 50' x 70' or 3500 sq. ft.) and has a perfect surface -- silky smooth without being slippery. A railing runs around most of the edge.


The instructor, Randy Shott, was very good, and though I was originally going to sit out the lessons I jumped in when they rotated partners and a lady needed a partner. Although in a sense the moves he was teaching were simple, I had trouble with them because I'm not used to turning to my left, and I didn't have a strong sense of the lead.

At several points he discussed proper footwork; how to maintain frame; and how the lady should "spot" during a turn (look at a point down line of dance, or reverse line of dance, and only whip her head around when forced to by the turn).

He taught us how to:
  • take the lady through a full outside turn (to the right) from the closed position;
  • wrap the lady to the left with three half turns;
  • unwrap the lady to her left;
  • perform a hand change and using the man's right hand turn the lady to her left, ending facing reverse line of dance in a cape or sweetheart position;
  • and finally, wheel as a couple to the left and get back to closed dance position with a free spin of the lady to her left (with a small prep move in front of the free spin).
(When I looked him up I found that Randy is a former Masters Division competitor -- the highest level in C&W competition, comprised of people who've been national champions multiple times -- who used to teach full time in California, and who helps sponsor the Portland Dance Festival.)

The big surprise was when a lady came up to me and said, "You look like..."

As soon as I heard her voice I said, "Barbara!"

I had met Barbara years ago in Germany, and she credits me with really launching her into country dancing. She's a German who had moved back to Germany for a while after living in the US, then moved back to Seattle and then Portland.

Duke's Country Bar & Grill in Portland, OR
Although Barbara had warned me that the floor is small at Duke's and there aren't too many serious dancers there, I went to Duke's on the east side of Portland after work on Friday. The floor was smaller but still reasonably large by East Coast standards, probably about 25' x 35'. There was a mechanical bull in the corner that several people rode.


As I'd been told, the level of dancing was pretty low, but it was pretty fun (though quite loud). The crowd was very young and mostly female, and they danced almost exclusively line dances. One youthful couple though stood out from the crowd, as they danced some fairly advanced west coast swing and couples dances with competition styling.

It was a lively atmosphere and I would have stayed a little longer if I hadn't been with some non-dancers. (I felt guilty about dragging them out there even though they were pretty laid back about the whole thing.)


I danced some line dances, trying to pick up a few of their dances there (including one peculiar one where they virtually walk in a semi-circle). They also danced some familiar line dances (Swamp Thang, though I'm not used to doing it in contra lines; Slappin' Leather; Tush Push; Watermelon Crawl; and Cotton-Eyed Joe).



The Bottom Line
I may try Bushwhackers again if I get the opportunity. I know pretty well that a club can change dramatically from night to night and Barbara told me that Thursdays would be ideal for me (lots of line dances and lots of good couples dancers), but I was committed to some other events that night.

Duke's has a very young, attractive crowd and is very line dance-oriented. If the Friday night that I went is typical it's probably best-suited if you're in the mood for a really loud, energetic environment and either want to line dance or else come with a good partner for two-stepping and swing. I had fun there because of the atmosphere.

Getting There
The two clubs are about half an hour apart if traffic is light. From Portland's airport (PDX):
  • Bushwhackers (less than a mile west of Exit 289 of I-5 S): Take I-205 South to I-84 West, and then to I-5 South for about 12 miles to Exit 289 (Sherwood/Tualatin). Turn right at SW Nyberg St. to go west a short distance, then do a quick jog by turning left onto SW Martinazzi Ave., right onto SW Warm Springs St., and then a right onto SW Tonka St.
  • Duke's (about 10 miles southeast of the airport): Take I-205 South to Exit 19 (Division Street). Turn left to go east on SW Division Street. The club is about 2.5 miles on the left, between SE 145th Ave and SE 148th Ave.

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Saturday, June 6, 2009

My First Video: Multnomah Falls, Oregon

I used Apple's iMovie on my MacBook to create my first video ever, using some stills and a short grainy video I took at Multnomah Falls, OR, part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area just east of Portland.



Making The Video
It took me a few hours because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing.

Importing the video was simple enough as iPhoto simply pulled it in from my camera just like the still photos. I then started a "project" in iMovie and was able to quickly drag and drop the video into the project area.


Clicking on the icons on the far righthand side of the middle bar gave me access to title templates, transitions, my photos, and iTunes music. I mostly used cross dissolves to transition between photos and used the "Ken Burns" effect to pan slowly across a photo in the style made famous by the documentary maker.

By adjusting the timing of this pan-and-zoom effect, I was able to align the timing of the transitions between pictures with breaks in the music.

Publishing The Result
I then created a YouTube account and linked it to this blog, and finally published the finished video directly from iMovie. Interestingly, it not only took 5-10 minutes for my video to show up, but initially the quality was significantly worse while it continued processing the uploaded video.


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Friday, June 5, 2009

A Quick Visit To Portland, OR

I spent a few days in Portland, Oregon in May and came away with an appreciation for the city. Though I like living in a fast-paced area like Washington DC, the city of Portland and its environs have a charming character and are nestled in still-significant swaths of forest. The journey over the bridges across the Williamette River at times reminded me of Pittsburgh.

Pittock Mansion
I started by making a quick trip to Pittock Mansion, which charges a fee of $7 to tour the house though the grounds are free. The mansion, now a park run by the City of Portland, was completed in 1914 for Henry Pittock, the publisher of the Weekly Oregonian newspaper, near the end of his long life.


Henry and Georgiana Pittock played a leading role in early Portland society, with Henry a member of the first group to climb Mt. Hood and Georgiana credited with starting Portland's Rose Festival.

The house was primarily designed and built by young craftsmen and contains a lot of the ornate touches common in turn-of-the-century buildings. Situated on a bluff over the Williamette River at the end of a long winding drive, the mansion's grounds include a point from which the iconic pictures of snow-capped Mt. Hood floating in the background above the city are often photographed.


Powell's Books
We next drove into the city and visited Powell's City of Books, the famed bookstore in the Pearl District that claims to have 1 million books on the shelves at any given time, both new and used.


The store is so large that it is broken up into multiple color-coded sections. If I lived in Portland I would probably visit periodically to see if any unusual books turned up, especially by authors whose work has largely gone out of print. For example, they had two dozen books by Gordon R. Dickson, including a couple I'd never even heard of.

Then again, you can buy from Powell's online either directly or via Amazon.com (as I've done before). And I've been surprised at how quickly I've converted to e-books since getting my iPhone. I haven't bought a physical book in months now.


Waterfalls
On Saturday, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to range 30 minutes to the east of Portland to the Columbia River Gorge to view the many waterfalls, which are worth a post of their own. I wouldn't have thought to do this had it not been recommended by a local but it was a lot of fun.

Rose Festival Parade
Portland became associated with roses during World War I, when European blooms were brought to the city to preserve them from the bombing on that continent, and there are still large experimental gardens that I didn't have time to visit on this trip. The International Rose Test Garden is clustered at Washington Park along with the Portland Japanese Garden, the Oregon Zoo, and a couple of museums.


We were there during the annual Rose Festival, on the weekend of the illuminated Starlight Parade which had a surprisingly irreverent feel to it. Though it started at 8:30 PM as the sun was still fading in the sky my pictures are kind of blurry, but they give you a feel for the show. We only stayed for about an hour.


Related:


More Pictures

Pittock Mansion:








We were advised that SmartPark would be the cheapest parking in downtown Portland:


Portland has a small Chinatown:


Rose Festival Starlight Parade:






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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Carolina's Tex-Mex in Baltimore, MD

I went to a going-away luncheon at Carolina's Tex-Mex in Baltimore, MD for a friend from Puerto Rico who's moving to Florida. I was a little skeptical because I couldn't find a web site or menu on-line, and I've been almost universally disappointed by all of the restaurants claiming to have Tex-Mex in this area.

But, while the "Tex-Mex" part is a misnomer, the food was delicious. The cuisine is more accurately described as either Cuban, Puerto Rican, Spanish, or Latin American.

About Carolina's Tex-Mex
Carolina's is in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, though not in the picturesque cobble-stoned district along the waterfront that many think of when they hear the term.

There seem to be a couple of loosely-affiliated Carolina's restaurants within a few blocks of each other, but the one I went to is at 505 South Broadway at the intersection with Eastern Avenue.

The staff spoke very little English (one lady handles the brunt of the customer interaction), but since the guest of honor, Hugo, was organizing everything I didn't attempt to use my high school Spanish. I wasn't sure if it's run by a family, but I believe they have a professional cook who Hugo said is Cuban.

The Food
Hugo strongly recommended both the pork chops and the lechon asado (roast pork), but since he said that the latter is much harder to find and normally would take a long time to cook (they had prepared some ahead of time for our party), I chose the roast pork. I was glad that I did.


A few months ago I tried the roast pork at Cuba de Ayer in Burtonsville, MD and found it decent but uninspired. The lechon asado at Carolina's, in contrast, was juicy, tender, well-seasoned, and had a crispy edging of fat and skin that gave it a delicious savory flavor.

(It was kind of humorous when they started bringing out the food and the server, holding two dishes, asked, "Lechon?" Everyone stared at her. She then said, "Pork?" and everyone laughed as several promptly raised their hands.)

Even the plantains which came with the platter were unusual and delicious. Most plantains I've had have either been fried hard, or else are mushy and overly sweet, and are more of a chore than a pleasure to eat. These plantains were somehow caramelized, perhaps in a skillet, and I devoured them.

I also tried one of the pupusas, an appetizer originally from El Salvador made by putting filling (pork and cheese in this case) inside a thin masa tortilla. It was also very tasty, with slight carbonization on the tortilla. They served a kind of pickled cabbage with a very spicy relish over it on the side with my pupusa.


Everyone else seemed to enjoy their food also (mostly the steak and shrimp platter, or else a chicken dish) with the exception of the girl next to me who got the green chicken salad and found the chicken to be so spicy that she couldn't finish it.

Getting There
Coming from the south, the easiest way to reach Carolina's is to take I-95 (or 295) to Baltimore Inner Harbor, then follow Pratt Street east around the harbor to a right on South President Street, and then a left on Fleet Street.

South Broadway will be about 10-12 blocks down Fleet at the Broadway Market, and a left turn will put you practically in front of Carolina's (on the right) with Pay to Park spaces on the island dividing S. Broadway.



The restaurant looks non-descript on the outside and is small downstairs (I didn't go upstairs or explore it beyond the main dining area, where they had pushed tables together to accommodate our large party). But it shines where it matters, with the food.

Carolina's Tex-Mex Restaurant
505 S. Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-276-0773/410-276-0711
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Monday, June 1, 2009

DC-MD-VA Country Bands Calendar

As an experiment, I decided to create a public on-line Google calendar that consolidates the band schedules for the three major Country (C&W) dancing clubs in the DC-MD-VA area (Washington D.C. and its suburbs):
The cool thing is that I can synchronize this to iCal, the calendar program on my MacBook, so changes to one calendar automatically show up on the other. I haven't been able to figure out how to get them on my iPhone yet, though.



Notes:
  • Direct link to the calendar (opens the full-size consolidated calendar by itself in a new window)
  • Clicking the downward triangle in the upper righthand corner (next to the Week/Month/Agenda tabs) lets you select which of the four separate calendars you want to view.
  • Clicking on an individual entry gives you a pop-up window with options for a map and to add the entry to your own calendar.
  • Check the club web sites for line dancing and two-stepping lessons.
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Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, TX

aka Dallas for Kids Part 3
Our final stop last Sunday in Dallas was the Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park, the Texas State Fairgrounds. This turned out to be much better than I expected, and I wish we had allocated more than 2 hours for the visit.


They've combined two neighboring museums, The Museum of Natural History and The Science Place, both opened more than 60 years ago.

The Science Place has been renovated so extensively that it feels light, airy, and very modern; and more importantly the exhibits are highly interactive and engaging. In contrast, while Natural History may have been state-of-the-art in 1936, today it feels dated and kind of sad, though the second floor appears to be under extensive construction.

If you only have time for one museum, skip Natural History. It also will feel disappointing if you visit after seeing The Science Place, except for maybe the fossil exhibits.


About The Museum Of Nature And Science
The boards of the two museums decided to merge in 2006, and have announced plans to build a new 200,000 sq. ft. facility in downtown Dallas a few miles away in Victory Park. Today the museums are part of a complex built for the Texas Centennial in 1936 that includes the Cotton Bowl and hosts the Texas State Fair each year in the late-September to October timeframe (including the Texas-Oklahoma football game).

I hadn't been to Fair Park in many years, and though the surrounding neighborhood is still somewhat seedy they seem to have expended some effort in sprucing up the grounds. But we were accosted by a couple of panhandlers when we stopped at the McDonald's across the street.

There are 7 museums on the fairgrounds, with Natural History (1936), The Science Place (1946), and The Planetarium all part of the science group, though the Planetarium and the IMAX theater in The Science Place charge separate admission.

Admission to the exhibits for both museums was $5.50 (total) for the kids and my $8.75 adult admission was waived because Bank of America customers get in free on the first weekend of each month. (I didn't know this beforehand; I only found out because I was using my BoA credit card.)

Parking is usually free except for during the State Fair.

The Museum of Natural History
We went to Natural History first because it was closer to where we parked the car. The museum is frankly creaky and rundown, with static exhibits that mostly consist of stuffed animals and obscure rock exhibits on the first floor.


The second floor is a little more interesting, with dinosaur fossils (many of them found in the area), but again the exhibits are static and not interactive. One half of the floor was mostly closed off for construction, where it appears they're doing some major renovation.


Natural History wouldn't be worth paying for admission on its own, but is of minor interest since it's essentially free with The Science Place admission.

The Science Place
By the time we got to The Science Place we were all tired and hungry, so we stopped in the small cafeteria first (we had also visited the Dallas World Aquarium that day). Unfortunately this left us with just 45 minutes to tour the museum, which is not nearly enough.

The first gallery was devoted to optical illusions, which we'd mostly already seen elsewhere. But just past the gallery a volunteer was conducting a kitchen chemistry experiment that my nieces loved. The kids were given the opportunity to participate in making super balls from Elmer's glue, food coloring, and borax. (Corn starch may have been part of the mix too.)


The kids really liked being able to participate and when I called the next day after returning home to Maryland, my nieces were in the kitchen recreating the experiment from memory.

I had trouble tearing my nieces away from the next exhibit, despite my desire to make a quick run through the museum before it closed. This was a giant sandbox where the kids could play paleontologist and look for fossils. I didn't get a picture because I was trying to scout ahead so here's an image from their web site.

The next gallery seemed to be focused on mechanical things and physics, with some giant soap bubble makers and a Rube Goldberg-esque machine demonstrating the effect of gravity.



They had a large exhibit devoted to the human body that included this thermal imaging camera. There was a hand pump in front that you could work in order to see your image change color as your temperature increased with exertion.


The other exhibits I remembered were one that showed if you rub your hands with chicken wire between them, you get an odd silky feeling, and the vomit diorama. (You push a button and it spews forth liquid from the "person's" stomach. Both of my nieces simultaneously said, "Eewww!!")

Otherwise the only exhibit we had a chance to tour in detail was a traveling exhibit about building materials and construction, which was very interactive in showing you the principles involved.

We weren't able to get to the network exhibits or to the exhibits downstairs, which appear to be oriented toward younger kids but which I think my nieces would still have enjoyed. These included a dental exhibit and a "Little Urban Farm" where, among other things, they can simulate milking a cow.

Other Attractions and Summer Camp
Outside, they've created an attractive lagoon with swan-prowed paddle boats. My nieces really wanted to ride them but they closed at 5:30 and no boats were available by the time we walked out. The cost was $10 per boat and there are two pedaling positions and a middle seat.

On such a beautiful day (80 degrees with a light breeze) I think we should have spent about 4 hours at Fair Park. The other museums sound like they're too specialized to be of general interest, but the science museum and lagoon would easily make for a productive afternoon.

There are also two dishes in front of the science museum to demonstrate that a parabola can collect and focus sound at the focal point, so a whisper into one dish can be heard at the other dish about 15 yards away. From YouTube:



They're also offering some science camps at Spring Break and during the summer. They sound like they're fun but it wouldn't necessarily be easy to bring the kids into downtown Dallas every day.

Other Activities For Kids In Dallas
We also considered going to the Dallas Zoo, but with limited time and funds, I decided on the aquarium and museums instead. One of my nieces was very disappointed because she wanted to go to the petting zoo.

However, I had read decidedly mixed reviews that left me with the impression that the Dallas Zoo is an old-fashioned zoo (similar to Baltimore's) with very small habitats for the animals, which can be a little disconcerting (in contrast to the Fort Worth Zoo, where we've gone a few times and which is very large and modern). I decided not to risk it, especially since the aquarium was almost like a zoo anyway.

More Links
Some links that I found useful when researching these museums:
  • MuseumSpot.com - a consolidated listing of museums in various cities around the US, including Dallas
  • 10Best.com - a site that gives you an editor's opinion of the best attractions in a city
  • TripAdvisor.com - user-generated ratings of almost everything a traveler needs. I find it most useful for evaluating hotels, and to a lesser extent restaurants and attractions. Quite often the reviews are contradictory.
  • Yelp.com - Yelp has a large enough base that you often get useful reviews, though of course you have to filter out the biases of the writers.
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