First Night of the Dirty Thirty Weekend

Our week was about to get off to a very strong start. We made it to our hotel in time to take advantage of Happy Hour.

Before this trip even began I would say there was an unsaid expectation that we were going to do our best to make it down to Portland in time for Happy Hour. It was never made into formal plans, but as much as we said we should take our time in the morning and not rush ourselves out the door, we got ourselves ready within a certain time-frame in order to get there in time to bask in all the glory that is Happy Hour.

I, for one, am excited to see this trend surface in North America. I remember being both impressed, and a bit confused, seeing the Happy Hour specials when I was in Europe. I was impressed to see drink specials, but I was also confused, wondering how many people would take advantage of drink specials so early in the evening.

It should be mentioned that Happy Hour starts significantly later in Europe, my guess would be because of the long hours they tend to work (especially in Germany) but even so I still thought it was early in the night. This was back in the day when I was still a party animal and didn’t even start to consider hitting the clubs until 9 or 10. But life has a tendency to change, and change it did.

When Happy Hour started to become a thing in Vancouver I had already graduated out of my bar star days, and was much more interested in after work drink specials than I was about late night and early morning jagger bombs at the club (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5QJ9i_o5vo).

Anyway all I am really saying is that I have learned to appreciate the Happy Hour lifestyle and was excited to see what our hotel had one to offer J.

After checking in to our hotel, we dropped off our stuff in our room and did a quick wardrobe change. The hotel room was…..rustic. It was what we have come to expect at a McMenamin’s establishment. It shared a similar décor to places we have stayed in the past and on top of that it was especially old…it kind of reminded me of my Grandparents old house.

It was no 5 star resort but that is neither what we expected nor wanted. It was a perfect room for what we anticipated using it for. It was inexpensive, it sat atop a saloon and its proximity to downtown Portland was not to be topped. The haunted past was a merely a bonus J.

We left our room rocking some fresh and stylish threads (how could we not, we are hitting the town?!) and had yet to see any ghosts. We slipped in just before the end of Happy Hour, maybe there are ghost down there?! There were not, but there were drinks and good food!!

Our first order of business was an order of two Ruby Ales, our McMenamin favorite! With that being taken care of we gave our attention to the food menu (http://www.mcmenamins.com/997-white-eagle-saloon-happy-hour).

We had intentionally avoided stopping for lunch on the way because we intended to do our eating once we arrived at our destination. Stopping along the way would not only eat up some valuable time we could have spent driving, but also would have taken away from the appetites that we fully planned on indulging once we arrived.

After a short chapter of strategizing we determined the Cajun tots and hot dogs were what we were about. The hot dogs were tasty but not really anything rave about. The tots were a different story. It was the beginning of a long lasting relationship with the tots.

We loved them the first time and the second and third. I would like to say that we only ordered them three times during the weekend in Portland but in all honesty I cannot, in good conscience, say that for a fact.

I know that they were the first item that came to mind when we were in a snacking mood and they were also the first suggestion that we gave to our friends when they asked for a good recommendation. Tater tots are not usually anything amazing. They are consistently satisfying, but rarely sought after as anything special. I think what made these tots special was the Cajun seasoning for one and the dipping sauce was the deal sealer. It was impeccable!

As for the drinks, we gave the beer menu our attention as we finished what was left of our Ruby Ales. What we decided on next was the Berliner Weisse, a seasonal sour that was still a part of the line up following the Oktoberfest celebrations that are a big deal at Edgefield (as we experienced last year) and in all likelihood the other McMenamin establishements as well.

I was a bit hesitant at first. I was still new to the idea of sour beer. I know that it has been growing in popularity as the next trend in the micro-brewing scene, but the closest thing to a sour that I have had experience with would be the really cheap beer that I used to drink when in University.

But I was up for an adventure and I decided to give it a chance. I am glad I did! It took a few exploratory sips to acclimatize my palate but a few sips was all it took for it to distinguish itself. It was not in the same league as Colt 45, the beer so strong that downing a six-pack is like drinking nine regular strength beers. Really it was a terrible comparison because Colt 45 is not even actually beer....it’s technically malt liquor lol, pure class in a bottle J.

The Berliner quickly became a favorite and continued to be that way for much of the weekend. This might have been partly because of it being on special, but that was only part of it. It was not my favorite type of beer, but it climbed its way up the charts in a substantial way! It took some getting used to but if you give it a chance you will be happy you did!

After our appetites were satisfied and our thirsts were quenched (for the time being) we turned our attention to where the evening was headed next.

Luckily for us in Portland, you are never too far from a WIFI Hotspot. This has come in handy to us a number of times while visiting Portland. The last time we were there, Shannon and I got separated but did not want use our phones because of the extravagant roaming charges we would have incurred.

So, both of us thinking the same thing, we used the ever present WIFI to log into Facebook to message each other so we could reconnect. Our medium to stay in touch has evolved to Viber, at present, but at the time Facebook more than did the trick.

On this occasion we used the WIFI to set the stage for the rest of our evening. It is not hard to find fun in Portland but you do have to decide what type of fun you are looking to have. Each section of Portland provides you with something a little bit different from the others, so where you decide to go will be based on the good times you are looking to get involved in.

Dirty Thirty Here I Come!!

As I mentioned in the previous post my intention was to spend my thirtieth birthday in Edgefield. As a general rule my birthday celebrations have always been more of a hit or miss type scenario.

Seeing as my birthday weekend is always the same at Canadian Thanksgiving, the majority of the people that are on the guest list already have prior obligations. It would be bold of me to think that my birthday party would take precedent over a National Holiday but I do take consolation in the fact that most people would rather be out partying with me rather than visiting family for the traditional turkey dinner.

I really quite enjoy my family dinners. The food is great, my family is full of good people that I enjoy spending time with, but even I on occasion have blown off my family dinner to go out and celebrate my birthday at the pub. In my defense it was not just a simple matter. It was also that time of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. So all of you that were gasping at my lack of family loyalty can stop that train of thinking right where it started. I am not a bad guy! I am just someone who enjoys drinking beer and watching rugby on his birthday. Nothing wrong with that J.

My point is that I am no stranger to having less than 10% of the guest list show up to my celebrations. It is for this reason that I decided to make up my mind very early on what my intentions were going to be for my Dirty Thirty. I wanted to give people ample time to make the proper arrangements to make sure that they could be part of the action. It also worked out well that Thanksgiving weekend was a bit later this year and so we did our Shin-Dig on the weekend before.

Even with the extensive notice, it was not an unbelievably large crew that was there in the end. But, I will say, that it was just the right amount of people. Any larger and we would have run into issues booking rooms. Any smaller and it would still have been a lot of fun but it would not have been the same. In the end we had a party crew of ten including myself and my lovely wife.

I would also like to take this chance to give a shout out to my wife who did a fantastic job arranging everything for this special trip. She was very astute in booking the rooms and keeping everyone updated on the availability and even when the right time would be to book. She arranged all of the details, all the way down to which communication app we were going to use to keep in touch which each other when on site (Viber is what we agreed on….the stickers are so fun!!) She is an amazing planner in general, and she really flexed her planning muscles in a big way making this trip happen!! Thanks again my love!!

To go back and fill in a few gaps, you might be wondering why booking seemed like such a complicated issue for us. The reason for this is because by the time we went to book our rooms there were not many options left. We found out later this was because of a number of events that were happening there at the same time we were booking. There was a wedding, a business conference and even a child’s birthday party (though I believe that might have been the parent’s choice of venue lol.)

This being the case, out of the ten of us, two couples were able to book a joined room and the other six ended up in dorm rooms. The three dudes bunked up in the guys’ dorm and the three broads in the girls’ dorm. Very summer campy, I know, but it made for a memorable experience. Some enjoyed it more than others I think, but I (being one of the three) thought it was kind of fun! Both the guys and the girls had some fun stories to share about their bunk mates the following morning J.

For full disclosure, the dorm rooms contained roughly 8 bunk beds, so we had some bunk mates to co-exist with. One such bunk mate decided that he needed to get into his locker at the crack of dawn, or close enough to count. I give him props for trying to open his locker without turning on the lights, but what happened in the end was far from discrete.

I fully believe his intentions were to avoid disturbing the other guests. Well that was good in theory, but did not work out so favorably in reality, for he could not open said locker. The tried and tried and tried some more but it was not happening for him. The would rattle the locker for a good minute, then stop, pace the rooms taking some deep healing breaths, then start rattling away once again.

In the end, a staff member of the hotel had to pull the locker out of the dorms and into the hallway and then break into it using a crowbar. It appears it was not the fault of the fellow trying to stealthily get his stuff in the morning but he was still able to wake up most of the people in the dorm despite his initial intentions. It didn’t bother me much, I actually found it quite amusing, but I cannot speak for the others.

On the girls’ side, they had a couple characters as well. One woman with a sleep apnea machine and another older woman knitting in the corner…..watching everyone change!! I kid, I kid, I added that part myself. I have no proof to make such an accusation lol.

The one dorm story that I especially appreciate was the one where my wife told another girl in the dorm that she was using the wrong locker. It was the classic 6, 9 mix up. If they do not make it clear which one is which you are always going to have confusion? I understand that she thought she was completely in the right when she told the poor girl to pack up her stuff and move on over to the right locker, but it turns out she was not. The girl had been in the right spot and was right to protest, but my wife can be very convincing and intense and I assume that is why the girl gave in despite being correct the whole time.

This story, to this day, does not make much sense to me seeing as the key for locker 6 would only fit locker 6 and would not fit locker 9. I would have thought that would have been the best way to settle the debate. But if you are able to convince someone that there are using the wrong locker despite this hard fact, than you must be good J.

Good times were had in the dorms. I would have chosen the same arrangements, even if I had the options of a room, strictly for the randomness of it all. I love experiences that give you interesting stories to tell, and that is exactly what these rooms did for me!

I do believe that I have gotten a bit ahead of myself. You do not even know how I got to this point yet. That is a story for another day.

Thank you everyone that continues to visit my blog on a regular basis. I appreciate your interest and will continue to detail my experiences for your amusement. I apologize for my inconsistency with the regularity of the posts. I work a full time job and I am not always in the mood to write after a long day at the office. I have made a mental goal to be more diligent with my writing, so we will see what that looks like from this point moving forward.

Keep coming back, and I will keep providing the entertainment J. Also tell your friends!!