The Road Trip Part 7. Epilogue Portland

So let's wrap up the Portland leg of this trip. 

Portland in a nutshell

My last two days were pretty good times, primarily focused on seeing buddies and saying goodbyes.

Deschutes Brewery

I went and managed to catch Kyle, an old buddy from High School and we spent the evening hanging out, getting a bit drunk and wandering the streets. We hit up Deschutes brewery and grabbed some beers and also saw a resin-zombie thing next to a half-pipe at his buddy's place. All in all, pretty good times.

The next day I woke up with a tiny twinge of a hangover and decided to go grab lunch with Kyle and say goodbye. We went to this little Deli near his house where he introduced me to this stuff. 

I have seen the face of god.

Pictured: Lunch, and Kyle's thumbs.

Secret Aardvark Sauce, Unique to Portland, it's like, a habanero sauce thing, spicy but not aggressive. It left a pleasant burning sensation in my mouth that didn't hurt, it just tasted good. I immediately purchased a bottle for the road and intend to pour it on damn near everything. 

That was a pretty good meal. 

That night I went over to another friend's house. This guy I had only known on the internet until a few days ago. We met about five or so years back when I was doing a bunch of OCTs on Deviantart. He ran the club I was a part of, he brought together a group of people who really seriously influenced my growth both as an artist and a storyteller. So yeah, he's a pretty decent guy once you get past his truly biblical self-deprecating streak. 

Also he can kick my ass at Magic the Gathering any day of the week. 

Greg's the guy on the right
with his head in his hands.
Such is the life of a Party Healer.

I met his dog, his nephews, sister, brother and parents, who are all tremendously kind people, and also his brother's friends who came over to play some D&D. 

And then we played D&D. Most of them haven't played since 2nd Edition with THAC0 and everything. It felt remarkable watching them roll up Dwarf Fighters and learn the ropes of 4e. It was honestly a pretty tremendous experience. 

Seriously. Teal as hell. 

The next morning I woke up, said some goodbyes and went off to visit Rhiannon and Mel for the last time. We played some Smash watched some Korra, talked about books and then I bid them farewell. 

Them and their INCREDIBLY TEAL house. 

So yeah, Portland. It was pretty fucking awesome all told. I can't wait to go back sometime. 

But not tomorrow, because next stop: SEATTLE!

~Ying