Cascadia Beer Odyssey: One night in Portland

Winding down this trip took us on an 8 hour car ride from Arcata to Portland. We broke down the drive into 3 shifts. I had first shift and took us up the California coast and into Oregon. Cascadia, again beautiful on all its frontiers didn’t disappoint today as we traversed the Redwood Highway (US 199) along the Patrick Creek canyon. Hwy 199 met I-5 in Grants Pass where we stopped for ice cream. We arrived in Portland around 7:00 and went straight to my favorite place, the Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB).

Quickly we learned however, that Mike’s Portland priority closed at 8pm. Because Heath and I had settled in with a beer and snack, GASP, the team broke up for a couple hours. Mac took one for the team and escorted Mike to the Hair of the Dog brewery. We knew it was the right thing to do because we received a single text from Mike “Soooo happy.” YAY FOR MIKE! They also went to the Cascade Barrel House for sour beer, another of my favorite PDX stops.

Meanwhile back at the HUB Heath and I had dinner from their delicious menu and we were joined by good friend and owner, Christian Ettinger. It’s always great to see Christian who was also coming off vacation himself at the north end of Cascadia in the San Juan Islands. He treated us to a tour of his facility on Powell and some sampling from the conditioning tanks. Also present for dinner were Heath’s good friends Kathy, Eric and son Arlo. We were joined a little later by Heath's pals Mandi and Brian who went on the tour with us.

We reunited with Mike and Mac at the Green Dragon and went to a non G-Rated non-Blog appropriate establishment in Portland before turning in.

Next stop, Pine State Biscuits for breakfast then home. I will reflect on the journey tomorrow.