Wedacation, November 23 - Hesse Family Jewels

Wedacation (formerly Wednesday) morning was another crystal clear morning. That makes five in a row! You can ask anyone out in these parts and they’ll tell you that this doesn’t ever happen. More often than not this is rainy season. I was up at 530am exercising, meditating, and having some coffee. Before taking off on my run, I did some writing. After a satisfying run I showered and readied for the day. As soon as Glenn got up (sometime around 9am) I asked if I could borrow his car so that I could go after some additional groceries we’d need for our TG cheesecake, as well as directions to the local music store to get some new guitar strings. I drove over the river into Oregon to the Safeway in Jantzen Beach. It’s only about a two mile drive. There I found all the ingredients I needed as well as some more local beers. After finishing up with the groceries, I drove back over the river into downtown Vancouver to find the local music store. It was easy to find, just a few hundred feet from the highway exit. After browsing around for a while, I bought some new guitar strings and a digital guitar tuner (just like the one I have at home) for Glenn to keep around the house. The entire reason for doing all this was to re-string one of his two guitars for a left-hander (me). In trying to do so, I snapped the high “E” string twice, hence the need for new strings! I was back at Glenn’s by 1030am. Once all the groceries were put away, Glenn made our breakfast. I restrung and tuned the guitar. Our plan for the day called for visiting the Portland Museum of Art as well as attending the after hours event they hold each Wednesday. Come 2pm, we left for downtown Portland. We were almost immediately greeted by traffic gridlock. To avoid as much of this as possible, we exited the freeway and took the back way into downtown. We arrived at the museum around 3pm. They were featuring the Hesse exhibit, which is a collection of artifacts left behind by the royal families of Europe, most of which were from the 16th – 18th centuries. The exhibit featured furniture, table settings, vases, guns, uniforms, and paintings. It really was a complete look behind the scenes. I enjoyed it! The museum closed its doors right at 5pm. We had half an hour before the after hours event began so we patronized an upscale downtown Portland pub called SouthPark. We were planning to meet up with a couple of Glenn’s friends for dinner so we avoided ordering any food. We were content with a beer. Come 550pm, we pulled anchor and headed back over to the museum for the after hours gala. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the band, but what I can tell you is that they were a country crossover type band. They sounded an awful lot like Dwight Yoakam. Glenn’s friends (Tom and Eric) showed up after we’d finished our first beer. We hung at the event until it was over. It only lasted two hours (730pm). Our next stop was Higgins, a downtown favorite of Portland movers and shakers. Needless to say, I don’t fit in that circle to well. On more than one occasion, I was asked to quiet down. Sad, we were just having a good time without harming anyone. After Higgins we moved on to another venue 23 floors high in the sky. Sorry, can’t recall the name. I do know a cool jazz band was playing. We were all feeling no pain. It was fun.