After grabbing a quick bite to eat near the Portland Saturday Market, Sean and I walked down to the waterfront to cross the Steel Bridge. Lots of joggers and runners were out making the journey along the seawall.
This helicopter buzzed Tom McCall Waterfront Park a few times and landed on top of a nearby car park. I thought there were rules about how low someone can fly over cities…
Several years back a pedestrian path was added to the lower deck of the Steel Bridge. It’s a nice way to connect between the two halves of the city.
Rail traffic travels on the bottom span of the bridge. The upper deck hosts a street and Light Rail.
A train went by while we were crossing the bridge. It was pretty neat watching it go by.
Bum camp just below the east pedestrian approach to the bridge.
Last weekend Sean flew up from San Francisco to explore Portland with me. Our first stop was the classic car show that the Portland Art Museum has been putting on for the last month or so. The Allure of the Automobile has an outstanding collection of vintage vehicles. Lighting conditions were unfortunately poor resulting in me not getting pictures of all of the cars.
This evening, several of us went up to see a Portland Timbers game. This year marks the Timbers first year in the MLS. With the upgrade to major league status, the former PGE Park was transformed into Jeldwen Field.
Looking at the Timbers Army section and the log that Timber Joey, the mascot, cuts from every time the Timbers score a goal.
We had a few hours to kill so we walked around downtown Portland.
North Park Blocks. As we walked through, a guy in a wheelchair saw my Timbers hoodie and our Timbers scarves. He said “is it scarf time already!?” and we said “YES!” so he pulled a scarf out from under his chair and put it on. And this is why Portland is awesome.
Portlandia
Yes, the glasses seen in the TV show “Portlandia” are real. In fact, I saw quite a few hot girls wearing these sorts of glasses. Life imitates art or art imitates life? It’s hard to say in Portland.
A drunk dude had fallen over backward through some newspaper boxes. We watched him for about 15 minutes flail around on the ground while a circle of eight or ten police officers stood by casually watching him. After a while, some paramedics arrived and removed him from the area. Stay classy, Portland.
The sketchy delivery truck that the Timbers Army sells merchandise from. I bought a scarf here and a hoodie at the official Timbers fan shop. Next time I think I’ll get a t-shirt from the sketchy truck.
We got in line an hour or so before the gates opened.
Temporary bike parking for the game.
The line moved surprisingly quickly once it started going forward.
Some dude dressed as a turtle.
Into Jeldwen Field!
We found seats in the 7th row just behind the goal.
Bumblebee soccer. I rooted for the highlighter green team. The highlighter orange team ended up scoring more goals but everyone was a winner at this match.
We never sat down and never stopped singing and chanting for the entire game. Heck, we started chanting and singing as soon as we got into the stadium!
Kids line up to say hello to the players as they come in.
Chanters gonna chant.
Another smoke bomb. This might have been after we scored a goal. Or just because it was fun to set one off.
This smoke bomb was much more powerful than the previous one.
Perhaps a little TOO powerful. The inhalers started coming out and everyone used their scarves to cover their mouths and noses. The acidic, burning metal-flavored smoke was not friendly on the lungs.
Next time, we’re thinking about bringing proper gas masks.
The Timbers Army flag drifts across the stadium. The guy in the lower left is one of the capos. That is, a capo in the non-mafia sense.
Another smoke bomb gets let off.
Lots of smoke this time. We covered our mouths and noses again.
It’s a real experience being in the Timbers Army section.
Some time later, the game finished with a huge 1:0 win for the Portland Timbers against the unbeaten (until this game) Real Salt Lake, and we departed.
On our way out of the parking structure, Brent’s Honda sprang a leak in the radiator core. We ended up a few blocks away pulled over at the side of the road. A quick call to AAA later and we got a tow back south. It seemed an appropriate end to an awesome night. I am certain that I will be back at another Timbers game in the near future.
