Will's Thoughtstream

• Side trip (from OMSI): The Portland bridges. From OMSI it is a quick walk to the downtown bridges and more than once I've been offered tours of the towers and inner workings just for showing interest.
• Willamette Locks at Oregon City: River engineering is a big part of the economy in the region (for good and ill) and the Willamette Locks are a great, close in, example of how the rivers are operated for commerce. My kids got to operate the locks under the supervision of the lock master - smiles from ear to ear. Make sure the locks are in operation before visiting. The Army Corps of Engineers operates the locks only when they have the budget to do so. If your kids like this trip consider a visit to Bonneville.
• Arrival of the Jayhawks: A few times a year the Coast Guard Jayhawk rescue helicopters come up from Air Station Astoria to do a SAR demonstration. They always do a demonstration at the June Rose Festival Fleet Week but my favorite place to get up close and personal is the occasional open houses at Coast Guard Sector Portland. The demonstration is within about 100 feet of dock and you get a great view. At either of these events you can tour the USCGC Bluebell, our local buoy tender. (I'm a Coast Guard Auxiliarist so I have a bias on this one). Photos here.
• Evergreen Aviation Museum : Home of the Spruce Goose. If the kids are interested aviation this is trip you must take. They have wonderful collection of aircraft from the beginning of flight to WWII war birds to an SR-71 all under the longest wingspan of any aircraft ever built, Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

Posted by will hertling at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to my friend Mike, I was lucky enough to see Carrie Brownstein play a few songs in an intimate setting at the backroom on last Friday night. She was very sweet, and although she talked about being nervous, she also shared some wonderful personal stories. Mike and I managed to refrain from jumping up and down or rushing the stage. Probably wise, as our good behavior allowed us to stay for a wonderful meal cooked by Naomi Pomeroy. Although I ate many times at Ripe's Gotham building location, I can't remember any meals cooked by Noami there, but I do fondly recall the early days at their house.

Posted by will hertling at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a new Hot Lips Pizza coming to Northeast Portland! While you won't find any mention of the new location on the Hot Lips website yet, these photos of the Hot Lips signs and liquor license shows that a new Hot Lips definitely is coming soon to NE 33th Ave and Killingsworth.

Hot Lips Pizza is a local Portland chain of pizzerias that feature local and sustainable (not to mention delicious) food.

This was the old location of La Tazza Rossa, and is only one block from the Concordia New Seasons. The address is 5440 NE 33rd Ave, and it is at the corner of 33rd and Killingsworth.

My family is thrilled, and we hope the new location is as kid-friendly as the Ecotrust building. We all love Hot Lips, and they are the only pizzeria in Portland where I've found authentic Sicilian pizza.

Posted by will hertling at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MovingToPortland.net is the best website for MLS searches of the Portland area that I've found, because it allows you to search by individual neighborhood, sign up for email notification when properties go on the market in a neighborhood, and gives you the exact address of the property and plots it on a map. All this comes in addition to the usual MLS features and search you expect.

Posted by will hertling at 3:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)