OREGONIAN AGAIN
I slept a bit in the car ride from Seattle to Portland since we left straight from the party. And then I slept again for a couple hours once we got back to Hoop's house. And then...at the crack of...9am, Rae and I hit the streets to explore. It's pretty relaxing in Portland, completely different from Seattle. We had an old lady lunch and then browsed around art shops and met some cool people. Then a bizarre dude on a bike rode up to us asking about the knife shop...yeah. Some weird horror film shit. I guess he wanted to talk about his knife, I mean that's totally normal right? After our adventure I ate another sandwich and then watched the debates and Tijuana show in NY live on the internet. Damn the internet is amazing. Ryan and Case showed up and we drove over to Holocene for the Portland fiesta. Apparently Portland and Seattle are always vying to be on top...so I had to try and pick which city was better. I couldn't. One is sassy and dirty with some truly 'real' people where you know someone always has your back. The other is quiet and quaint with lots of smiling faces and interestingly enough, no one even flinches when you take their photo. Let's just say I wouldn't expect anyone in Portland to throw their sippy cup of booze onto my camera (thanks OC).
Rae and I got ridiculous in Portland...limbos and playing jacks, photobooths and dance-offs. Holocene was wild.

click to see all the photos:

LET'S SHASTA!
So Rae and I had an awesome drive up through Napa and into the valleys past Mt. Shasta. We are finally in Portland and passed through some cute little towns where everyone wears Uggs because they should. We've realized our road trip consists of a few themes (kitties, dogs in bars and MGMT) and our drive sessions are like elementary lessons. First it's english class with Mad Libs, mathematics where we analyze our gas mileage and do long division followed my music class where we scream and sing along to 90's hits. With all this educational focus we were stumped when Garmin told us to get off the freeway!! We had some doubts about following the nav devices route. 101N or a shady back road...hmmmm. So...we flipped a nickel and it landed on heads. Therefore, we followed Garmin's advice and were more than happy that we did. The winding roads and views were amazing and it definitely saved an hour or two on the drive up to Oregon.
Seven hours later we hit Mt. Shasta which was freezing and it was when we really noticed that first of all Jeppy is missing some key insulation and we totally blew it on the packing game. Let's just say fast packing is not encouraged. Since our pre-party and NKOTB bash had us up all night, the 20 alloted minutes for packing with blurred heads led us to forgetfulness when it came to scarves and jackets. And the wind is definitely a bully up north. We rested in Medford for the night at a lovely Motel 6 where the heater was so hot it didn't matter if we had hats, scarves or pants for that matter.
Motel 6 beds suck. When I woke up my back hurt like an elephant sat on it all night. After coffee..a thriftstore...new scarves and fluffy vintage vests we hauled ass to Portland and then celebrated with a brew. Portland is full of insanely colored houses, neon paintings in the street, bridges and dogs in bars. I feel like I'm in a cartoon but its rainy. Oh...and the excessive politeness is amazing. Here's an intersection scenario:

"You go."
"No, you go."
"No, really, it's ok...you go."
"Aww no you go first."
Me: "Ok fuck it, I'm gonna go!"

So yes, now we go. Today it's off to Seattle for Outsourced at Moebar. Rae and I are rocking our jeans for the 6th day in a row and now have plenty of ironic layers to put together so we should be pretty toasted and toasty warm by tonight.