Progressive Portland

There’s something really wholesome, healthy and progressive about Portland. Buses on bio-diesel. Bike lanes all over the place even down the center of the I-205 Columbia River Bridge. Even the local fast food burger joint, Burgerville, serves local food. Is that possible? I feel a little less guilty about “bad” fast food when I know the cheese, beef, and handpicked blackberries in the milkshake are from just down the road. Sweet Walla Walla (Washington) onion rings. If you have to have a drive-through fix, this is the way to do it.

And healthy beer? My Best Brewpub Award for this trip goes to Roots. Totally organic… and totally creative. A Kolsch beer that doesn’t use hops, but rather an infusion of herbs (paradise seed, mudwort) and flowers (chamomile and lavender.) Sound weird? It did to me. But it was quite a good summer beer. Heck, you can taste the summer in it. Chocolate Habanero Stout? Hotter than July. An IPA for the hopheads and an Imperial Stout that will make you think you’re the emperor. A seasonal beer called Festivus (for the rest of us) even has a Festivus pole (get your own in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in honor of the holiday. Usually 4-5 regular taps and 4 more seasonals. That’s Manager Jim and Barkeep Biscuit up top. A good couple of guys and further evidence that beer brings people together. If you’re in Portland and you like great beer, this is on your itinerary. A cool neighborhood pub with grub and sidewalk seating in a warehouse district. (Just a couple blocks from yesterday's Lucky Labrador.)

That Voodoo That You Chew

Voodoo Donuts cast a spell on me. They claim “the magic is in the hole.” And so it is with this dynamic hole-in-the-wall operation that would make Homer Simpson drool off 20 pounds before putting them back on with such amazing donuts including the Tex-Ass which at $3.95 comes with a challenge: Eat it in less than a minute and a half and it’s free. There are a few off color donuts (put your mind in the gutter for some of these – think obelisks and a couple globes) and Oreo and peanut butter combos, and voodoo dolls with pretzel stick pins filled with raspberry blood. They do weddings here. Seriously. And the occasional live music act though the area in front of the counter is about the size of many people’s kitchens. Open 24 hours in case you need to hex someone with a Portland Cream in the midnight (or midday) hour.

A tip sent me to Wunderland, an arcade/second-run cinema. So you can see $2 movies or go play video games that take NICKELS rather than quarters. Though having flashbacks to my 80s addiction to plugging coins into the descendants of Space Invaders and Pac Man, I managed to just get a feel for the place and keep my nickels.

Brewpubs Amnesia and Alameda were pretty good, and my favorite for the night, Lucky Labrador which does some great sandwiches with their beers and for a decent price. (Look for this place in the upcoming Morgan Freeman/Greg Kinnear film “Feast of Love.”)

Widmer is also here as is a Rogue brewery pub, but since I can get that in bottles back in Madison, I skipped for the really local stuff. All today’s brewpubs bottles brews for you on demand, like a growler, but smaller. TSA will prevent me from bringing any of this great stuff on an airplane unfortunately. Just another reason to visit again.

Portland and Vancouver!

Upgraded to First Class for my Chicago to Portland segment so I was able to actually work on the 60 Hikes Madison guide while sipping champagne with a strawberry in it. Chicago Portland is about 4.5 hours; at least two hours more than the life of my battery. My flight out of Madison cost less than $300 and it was nestled in the midst of some inflated Labor Day weekend prices. Looking for the cheap flight is sometimes just a matter of choosing weekday departures, waiting for low season, less favored hours, etc. but sometimes booking something right smack in the middle of a national long weekend can surprise you. Try it! Who the heck is heading home on Saturday in Labor Day? Me. And at about $100 less than if I did so on Sunday or Monday.

I’m in Vancouver to record a few songs for the upcoming CD from Marianne Flemming. While I’m here I thought I’d check out some of the local brews both in Vancouver and just across the bridge over the Columbia River, in Portland, OR. And lest everyone starts to think this is the Beer Travel Network, I intend to get a little hike in and a round up of some of the reasons you need to check out Portland.

Last night my friend Todd and I stopped in at Salmon Creek Brewpub in Vancouver to samples a few pints and get some eats. Neat place with a courtyard, pressed-tin ceilings and a sort of classy English pub atmosphere (is that an oxymoron?). Beer-battered fish and chips were recommended. I went with halibut, but they also do it with salmon from the Copper River (the good stuff). The food was good, and of all the beers I loved the sweet stout more than the rest. But what made the night memorable was Ana, the wife of the brewmaster, Larry Pratt. She is originally from Croatia, the manager and others refer to her as “Mom”, and she is a character. (She’ll make the video highlights later with her infamous Bat with which she threatens customers who order mass-market beers – PBR, Bud, Miller, etc. The beer names are engraved on the wood so she finds what you ordered before waving the bat and offering you water. “My husband works too hard. When you are here, you drink OUR beer!” Talk about beer battering.)

The couple is celebrating 45 years of marriage this year. The secret? “The man makes a good beer!”

Best time to come though is happy hour 4-6. Pints (of the 20 oz. variety, not 16!) at $3.25, and Scotch-ale-battered deep-fried mushrooms, onion rings or veggies for $2.50.

Austin Day Four, the Finale!

After four days in Austin it was high time I got to meet some of its 1.5 million inhabitants. No, not people - there are only about 1.4 million in the entire metro area - I mean the bats! The largest urban bat colony in North America resides under the Congress Avenue bridge. One wonders how they found the place and if real estate bats spread the word that this was the up and coming hot spot in Austin. Or maybe bats are a lot like rabbits and things just got way out of hand in the cramped quarters between the bridge girders. Well, whatever the reason, the bats are batty for the narrow spaces under Congress and at around sunset, like a giant plume of smoke, the bats take flight to hunt out as much as 30,000 pounds of mosquitoes! Bat oglers line the railings of the bridge and fill the lakeside park below, while kayakers and boat tours pass underneath awaiting the flight. Not to be missed.

Just before this I was at The Oasis, a cliffside hangout serving--among other things--margaritas and outstanding nachos for those who gather to watch the sunset over Lake Austin 450 feet below.

But the crowning event of my trip may have been the blues act I saw at Lamberts Downtown Barbecue. First off, the food is billed as "fancy barbecue" and it does have a bit of class to it thought the casual diner will not need to worry about this being uptight and requiring fancy dress. It is totally relaxed in a recently redone historical building. Reservations are not a bad idea especially if a popular act is scheduled. Local beers are on tap (such as that Bootlegger Brown I mentioned on day one) and they make a decent mojito and caipirinha. And the food is high quality prepared in an open kitchen (I've always liked that - nothing to hide, like a bartender who drinks with you). I started with Fried Green Tomatoes with Lump Crab Meat and struggled to eat them slowly. (Savor it for cryin' out loud!) The barbecue was top-notch: brown sugar and coffee-rubbed brisket, achiote and lime-rubbed free range chicken, and maple and coriander-crusted pork ribs. All that was out of the smoker; the wood grill unfortunately will have to wait until the next time I'm in Austin, but the selections - salmon, halibut with snow crab claw scampi, pesto-rubbed lamb chops - were no less inviting.

But dessert for me (other than a couple mojitos) was the show I had been hearing so much about. Gary Clark Jr. is a 23-year old hometown blues player who has already made a name for himself with a band and two CDs and soon you'll see him in a John Sayles movie called The Honeydrippers due out in fall of 2007. But you haven't seen him till you've seen him at Lamberts. This is the only place he does his solo act. You wouldn't know it was a solo act if you never came upstairs to the bar and small stage. He plays a kick drum with one foot, hi-hat with the other, a harmonica hangs around his neck and his voice can go from booming blues to smooth R&B from one song to the next. And that's all saying nothing about his guitar playing. He thumbs the bass notes and lays down some Texas blues over the top slipping in a line or two that follows the vocal melody making me think of Hendrix (though he is often mentioned in the same breath as another local guitarist - the late Stevie Ray Vaughan. And in a momentary aside I just want to say, life is short and opportunities come and are gone. The night SRV died in a copter crash after a show at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin, I was in Madison telling a buddy who wanted me to drive him to the show, that though I appreciated his offer to loan me the money for the ticket, I really thought I should be responsible and save the show for another day when I had employment! Fortunately I had already seen him one year before in the same venue, but the point is, see it/visit it/eat it/experience it/enjoy it when you can!)

But I digress! Often! Gary is the newest thing you should not miss. And the Lamberts show, his one-man band bit, is just cooler than cool. Right now he comes in about every two months or so, but his star is on the rise. Run, go see! I'll be getting a You Tube vid up for Austin in the next week or two, and I'll throw a teaser in there for you.

It was a fitting end for my trip to Austin. Great food and great music. Isn't that what Austin is all about?

Austin Day Three

The day began with a boat ride around Lake Travis. There are seven lakes here, all artificial. Dams across the Texas Colorado River have created long, narrow lakes and further development created little fingers off the edges to create more shoreline for houses, condos, boat slips, etc. Lake Travis is the largest at 65 miles in length. Closer to the city is Lake Austin and right downtown is Town Lake, which now is being renamed Lake Lady Bird. My friend Iggy and I stopped at Carlos and Charlie's, overlooking the lake or half-submerged by it at one time this year as the rains have been unusual and abundant. Not much happening on a weekday, but at night and on weekends the lake is crazy with boaters and party people often gathering in a cove to lash boats together to make a little party barge.

I headed back into Austin to continue my research of the nightlife. Dinner was at Shady Grove, the grooviest of the places I visited. Half indoors, half outdoors in a trailer park (not kidding really - the restrooms are in a converted aluminum trailer!) this place has a free summer music program that packs the house and a menu that you actually have to read and appreciate (not just burger, burrito, chicken-fried steak, fries with that?) I had fries in fact, but they were unpeeled and smothered with the in-house queso (cheddar, Monterey Jack blended into a good melting cheese) and green chilies. Chicken wings - not deep-fried, but grilled to spare us all the extra grease - with a BBQ sauce that was both spicy and flavorful (usually it's one or the other in my experience... or neither, god forbid). The main was a tortilla-crusted fried catfish filet with a twice-baked potato with pickled jalapenos blended in. A little heat, a little tanginess. Dessert was a brick of peanut butter ice cream on a crumbled Oreo crust. Put a couple of Shady Thangs in me (vodka, Triple Sec, and Peruvian pisco with in-house sour) and I was delirious and stuffed.

The stage is at the corner of the lot. Chairs are set up in the courtyard under a massive pecan tree, plus there are tables for the outside diners and a front lawn where concert-goers lounge on blankets. The night's act was Will Taylor and Strings Attached working in string instruments with guitar and rock/jazz instrumentation to lay out some outstanding tribute material. Lots of Beatles covers the first set, and then various others including Zeppelin. Quite extraordinary, clever, and unique. Next show features the work of Peter Gabriel and it pains me to know I am missing it!

Second stop was The Broken Spoke. If you are looking for a honky tonk, this place is the real deal. Hearty food in the dining area (claims to the best chicken-fried steak in the state) and then a long dance hall with plenty of fans moving the air around as patrons kick up their heels. To quote a great movie: They have both kinds of music: country AND western. The whole joint bathes in the neon glow of beer lights and roughly 1/3 of the men sport cowboy hats. All are welcome, of course, but many of the regulars clearly know how to cut the rug (there's no rug - it's concrete). There's a sort of museum on hand dedicated to all things honky and tonky. A real cultural experience!

Final stop was Stubb's. Acts here range from local, up-n-comers to big-time stars like Willie Nelson in an outdoor, 2300-person amphitheatre... ok, it is more like someone's backyard with an excellent stage with professional sound system, lights, and a concert shell. Not to mention a massive smoky Joe capable of taking on 1000 lbs. of meat and smoking it 11 hours over post oak wood. Now THAT'S some serious barbecuing. Ween was playing the first of two sold out shows and the "Pit" was elbow to elbow. Indoors is another smaller venue for pre- or post-shows as well. The food is extremely popular, arguably the best smoked meat joint in town and tops for concerts. Gospel brunch with two seatings on Sundays. The story of the founder, Christopher B. Stubblefield, is a great one and off the official web page version I was told Stubb first sold his barbecue in Austin out of his motel room. The popularity drew too much attention and he was shut down by local authorities. The venue now resides in a 1840s limestone brick building originally housing stonemasons. Stubb got his start in Lubbock, Texas and gave Stevie Ray Vaughan his start!

Austin Day Two

It's hotter than Hades but the good folks of The Rotary Club are driving me through their fair city in air-conditioned comfort. Wednesday I had two different guides. In the morning I found the view over Lake Austin, in the afternoon it was Town Lake which was recently renamed Lady Bird Lake.

Lunch was at Ranch 616 (six one six, not six sixteen as I called it - oh the faux pas!). Famous for fried oysters and frog legs. I had a burger sutffed with pico de gallo and monterey jack. A great little music venue. They clear away some tables by the window on weekend nights. Dessert was a photogenic lemon tart, a decision made after much debate of the 7 made-in-house postres.

My afternoon guide Ladd Pattillo showed me a great swimming hole and canoe/kayak spot right in the middle of the city: Barton Springs (and Barton Creek). See the pic above. We were told we couldn't go inside by a teenage worker who said we needed permission to photo the fenced in portion of the springs because it is a city rule. All requests must go through the media department or something like this. Ladd was a bit annoyed and said as much since why would anyone not want Austin to be promoted??? (I admit this isn't the first time I've seen this - southern Italy has two amazing Greek bronze statues that no one in the world seems to know about. Why not? No one can photograph them! Duh!) So the kid at the office says, well, if you don't like it, you can talk to the mayor. Ladd smiles, well, he's a member of my club and a friend of mine, so I believe I will. Ha! So we just walked to the fence and took photos anyway.

We stopped by a city park of statues in a beautiful wooded/garden setting. (No problems getting permission to walk about) Then we took in the state cemetery with graves of such famous Texans as Stephen Austin, Barbara Jordan and Tom Landry. And then on to the French Ligation Museum where in 1841 the charges d'affaires from France was sent to the Republic of Texas. He became frustrated when the neighbor's pigs kept coming onto his land, ruining the garden, etc. so he had a pig shot. Didn't take long for the Texans to cattle drive his butt out of the state.

Dinner was with a representative of the visitor's bureau at Guero's Taco Bar where Bill Clinton once ate. I ordered the El Presidente: a chicken breast taco, a beef taco, beans, rice and guacamole, exactly what Bill had. They menu boasts: And he ate ALL of it! Guero's was an old feed and seed store until only about 10 years ago. Rough wood floors and the corrugated plastic skylight/roof. Great food, excellent margaritas (on the rocks, none of that Sno-Cone machine stuff) and live music outside under an enormous oak tree. Guero's is on a strip of South Congress that not too long ago was a bit on the seedy side. Red light district, drug deals, that sort of shenanigans. Now it is a quirky but trendy stretch of restaurants, bars, boutique shops and art galleries.

After dinner I met up with Jon Pattillo owner of a record label Fat Caddy Records and the son of Ladd, my guide. He picked me up from Guero's in a 1960 Cadillac and we cruised with class to the next site, Hill's Cafe. The restaurant has been there since 1947 and is held to be one of the best places for chicken-fried steak. (They won top honors for their burgers in 2005 in Austin) The meat is provided fresh by baseball great Nolan Ryan. How cool is THAT? (Seriously, if you know, email me, because I'm not really sure.) Food is great, fresh-made (100 lbs. of potatoes to peel each day!) But Hill's also has live music 5 nights a week in their garden out back where there is a treehouse, BBQ and plenty of beer and seating. Crowds can get as big as 2000! It's mostly country music with a bit of rock or something in between, and a dance floor crowds up in front of the stage. Definitely makes my list of best places to eat and hear live music. Tomorrow a little down time in the morning will put me on Lake Travis then it's off to see Austin's population of 1.5 million... bats!

Welcome to Austin

I arrived in Austin late - thanks American Airlines, had to wait in Dallas for a part for another plane stranded in Austin... um, FedEx? And did we really want to know you have broken planes on the tarmac?!? My contact from Rotary Club found me curbside and whisked me off to the Rotary lunch/meeting where we heard the new police chief of Austin speak about his goals. Excellent speaker, smooth politician, and 20 years experience... in L.A. Yikes.

I am doing a travel piece about Austin for The Rotarian Magazine and so I spent the rest of the day with Gaines Bagby getting a "windshield tour" of the place. Wednesday I will go through some of the sights up close. It was nice to get an overview of the city. A few lakes, University of Texas, Capitol building... wait a minute. Is this Madison? No, it is not. A bit bigger, a bit warmer, and rather than resting close to the Ice Age glacial ending line, Austin sits right on top of Balcone's fault. Flat land ends, hills begin right through town. Very cool, very beautiful. Lots of rain this year so lots of green.

We tried to drive into the Capitol parking area... denied. Apparently, "a journalist writing for the Rotary Club" didn't hold as much weight as we thought. Stopped for a local beer, Independence Brewery's Bootlegger Brown Ale. The bar BB Rovers has a checklist of over 100 beers, most of them on hand on any given day. Drink 100 and you get the 101st free. I've seen better deals I guess, but it looked like fun. They in turn recommended that I check out Chicken Sh*t Bingo on Sunday. Unfortunately, I won't be here, but it involves a chicken and a bingo card in a cage. You get the idea. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon???

Now begins my tour of great places to catch live music while having some great food. Photos to follow!

A Tree Fell in the Forest

An all night rain changed my hiking plans, so I got a late start on hiking 7 miles in the Black Hawk Unit of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. There are a lot of nice scenic overlooks into the Wisconsin River Valley and on to the hills of Baraboo. The trails are a bit rugged with some moderately steep stretches and you could come here several times and plot a different route each time. Today was not a good day for it. Mud was deep, mosquitoes ferocious, and the previous night's storm had dropped a few trees across the trail. I ducked under one precariously balanced against the trees across the trail wondering if I could be so unlucky as to be passing under it when it finally gave way. Would I still have signal for my phone? Might I text some friends who knew where I was and hope the GPS worked? A bit farther down the trail, a tree -- well, ok, a very large branch -- fell in the forest and it did in fact make a sound. And I heard it. But then again, I was there, so it wasn't exactly a controlled experiment. Schrodinger's Tree, I guess.

Viewpoints on the trail are better in spring or fall because the foliage gets pretty thick. Still, I saw deer, a lot of birds, some nice prairie in the midst of thick woods, and a few overlooks that still overlook through the branches of interfering trees. The area has some historical significance as well, hinted at in its name. Sauk warrior Black Hawk, pursued by US troops, chose this area known as Wisconsin Heights to make a stand, the only face to face stand of the so-called Black Hawk War which wasn't much more than a hunt. On July 21, 1832, a band of Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo and Ho-Chunk led by Black Hawk stalled the pursuing military long enough so that the elderly, women and children were able to escape across the Wisconsin River. A short-lived victory as the troops caught up to them at the Mississippi shooting them all or watching them drown. A gloomy story on a gloomy day and this year is the 175 year anniversary.

This will make a nice LONG option for the 60 Hikes Madison book I am working on, GPS-ing in at just under 10 miles! I was the only person in the 800-acre park (with a car in the lot anyway). I emerged tired and muddy and since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped in at The Tree Farm to pick my own produce for the week. Great prices, great fun, great food!

Monday I will be in Wisconsin Public Radio with Jean Feraca on Here on Earth, then Tuesday it is off to Austin, Texas, Live Music Capital of the World!