XCIX Portland Trip - City Exploring

 Welcome to Portland.  I was creeping on this Zayn look-a-like after gay clubbing walking along the food carts.  So... Portland.

We've been meaning to take a trip and Portland became the destination.  It was Szeto's birthday and along with a local cake that I bought him, he indulged in artsy overpriced things that Portland has to offer like a wooden plunger.

We ended up at a full frontal gay club where Joe bought him a lap dance from someone who went by the name Aladdin.  We watched as Szeto grabbed the balcony rail for his life while he was getting jackhammered by the straight go-go boy.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Though I think it was more entertaining for us than it was for him.

I stayed with Sandy and surprise! she lives in a really cute 2 bedroom.  She turned her extra bedroom into a craft room slash bike room.  Her pull out bed was really comfortable!

Joe was happy to try the food carts that Portland was known for.  Though we missed out on the pubs and biscuits... which made him pretty upset.  We should have invested in a car because we were pretty downtown'd out.

A little hike with Diana!!!

This Whiskey bar had an amazing library.  It was pretty bougie, but pretty awesome.

 Of course - the boutiques and long haired man with his long haired pet.

Szeto and I got haircuts!

Everyone is so cute here.

These aren't that great.

We ate a lot of terrible places which I coulllld recap... okay.. let me open up my apps.

Howthorne Hophouse - Bar
Swift Lounge - Bar
Bungalow Bar - Bar with Swings?
Lonesome's Pizza - Drunk pizza
Mother's Bistro & Bar - Not that good breakfast and mimosas were not strong enough
Blue Star Donuts - Runs out quickly
Powell's City of Books - A large collections
Scandals - Divey gay bar
Multnomah Whisk{e}y Library - MMM
Departure - Hotel rooftop bougie
Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen - Terrible.  Terrible
The Silverado - Gay Strip Club
Bishops Barbershop - got a haircut!
Irving Street Kitchen - Terrible and over priced
Frank's Noodle House - Asian fair
McMenamins Kennedy School - Second time here.
Teardrop Lounge - Expensive cocktails for yuppies
Ken's Artisan Bakery - Local bakery
Art in the Pearl - Art fair for old people

Sorry Joe.  Next time we're going to pubs and Pine State biscuits.  Promise.  But let's remember the trip for the nature trip we took!

XCIX - Portland Trip - Rooster Rock and Nature

Don't worry Chris and Szeto.  We're almost there!  Well not really.  We squeezed into a car and found ourselves in nature.

Portland has a lot of green that's worth seeing and we were lucky that we had a tour guide.  It was quite an adventure and the bottle(s) of wine definitely added to the fun.

I took a handful of amazing shots with lots of colors!

We got our tourist on at Multnomah falls.  But this was only the beginning of our adventure.    Our tour guide told us that we were going to get wet... I wasn't too sure how wet he meant.

We ended at a hike where we had to wade through chest level water.  It was cold, but manageable.  I risked dropping my phone to grab these pictures.

We made it!  It was refreshing and exciting and not that strenuous.  Bring water moccasins and waterproof all your gear.

Definitely worth a trip to Oneonta Falls!

Our next stop was calmer, but also very gorgeous:  Rooster Rock... which is also a gay beach... and by beach I mean sand island in the Columbia River.

The water was warm and the weather was perfect.  We had more wine and enjoyed the day.  It was spectacular.  Our tour guide flirted his way to getting on a speed boat with some new friends.

We took a walk to change scenes and found another part of the river that was extremely shallow.

You could walk across.  It was amazing.

On our way out during sun down.  Unforgettable colors!

April Trip to the Bay

View from Mony's Loft

I rarely go back to the bay, but this time Joe was in SF and it was an opportunity to see him.  So I got a bus... sort of... and found myself in San Francisco.

Mony works in hospitality so when I crawled into bed with him he kicked me out because I was wrinkling his sheets.  What a punk.

Anhimals was a part of the guest list too so we got ready for the Castro.  Here we are fidgeting with our hair.

We visited an apartment inhabited by creatives.  This guy bought some fiber optics from ebay and took it upon himself to get creative with the installation.

This is my absolute favorite picture of the boys.  They are my family.

Anhimals on the other hand is my lover.  

And JV is my little brother.

Well actually... this is my little brother.  :]  But JV is my other little brother.

...and my parents who don't seem to age.

Oh!  And my high school friends.

Until next time bay areeeeeaaaa...

I Left My Boys in San Francisco

The view from Mony's appartment at 6AM when I had to catch the AMTRAK back to San Jose

I've been using the Umano app to listen to interesting articles during my commute to and from work.  Today, I listened to "Getting off the Google Bus" from London Review of Books which discussed the displacement of poor communities due to rising housing costs that are driven up by a richer class of tech people moving in.  These buses are a private solution that doesn't really benefit the public and is a symbol of privilege as they take up the space of bus stops without having to pay a government fee.  I usually refrain from really complaining about these things because I feel like just as responsible for the problem by working for a Tech company and living in a poor neighborhood.  But I do my part by paying very low rent, accepting the fact that my car was driven into and buying tamales from the local stores that have been around for decades.... right....

I was reminded of my adventure in San Francisco in November of last year.

I got dropped off in the Mission district... not the cool section of the Mission, but the area that was clinging to its Latino roots as possible.  It was like Westlake in LA - full of people and strollers and trash.  I met up with Matt for a light brunch to catch up on things and later met up with the boys for two rounds of overpriced Dim Sum in the Castro at Mama Ji's.  The workers were amused that we basically spent 3 hours there.  I was entertained by Mav's shade slinging; I was in the splash zone.

We found ourselves taking silly pictures while watching our friends play tennis in Dolores park.  These guys make me laugh.

Mony showed us the hotel that he works for and all of the bars that surround it.  He gave us some history while we had cocktails in multiple venues.  Mony was showing us his territory - the gentrifying part of the Tenderloin and I was pretty impressed.

Redwood
Jones
Redford

Randomly had some Peruvian food for an 8PM dinner at Pisco Latin lounge.  Eric joined us for more cocktails.  We cabbed it back to Mony's place and took a fatty nap until Chris J. arrived to take us out around 11PM

I really wish I blogged about this sooner.  The details in-between are pretty blurry.  I just remember having a really wonderful time connecting with good friends and feeling like I was vacation splurging, exploring and drinking non stop.  I also remember being upset for not bringing my point and shoot.  These mobile pics suck a bunch.

I remember Mony opening up a bit and getting a text from him a couple days after saying how much fun he had.  Which is nice since Mony has a really high wall... at least with me.

I remember being in shock after paying $30 for late night Denny's because SF has about 5 addition taxes and fees.... and watching JV stress about a boy.  Nights like these.

Mony and Joe Surprise Visit

I came back to the house to find these punks waiting for me.  WHOA!  My boys from the bay are in town on an impromptu trip because they had miles... I guess I'll have to put something together for us to do.

LACMA!  There was a pie content and if you wore an apron you were able to get in for free.  This was what I was able to find for them.  I confused people though asking for the Pie Eating Contest .. which I think would be a more interesting event.

This is Joe observing the exhibits at LACMA.

This is the result of me making fun of joe and his efforts at taking some camera trick pictures.

We grabbed some potato balls from Portos (chicken is the best!) and took a nice nap at Echo Park... and they were off.

What a nice weekend.