The Portland Winter Light Festival has been growing every year. What started as a very humble collection of eccentric artists has become a ever growing event.
Unfortunately, half of this year’s event occurred during our big snowstorm – the very weekend I was hoping to go out so I missed most of it. Bummer. However a few folks posted some video of this year’s event:
Also, here’s some collected photos from the event over the last few years to enjoy
Links
Set in the fictional city of Providence Oaks, Oregon in 1986, Lake is an upcoming, chill-looking game where you deliver mail and get to know the town’s quirky locals.
Here’s an idea during these lockdowns to connect with others across the state.
Attend a different Oregon parish for mass each weekend. Links to all Oregon parish livestreams are here.
Pick one and meet a whole new community this weekend.
Want to get a custom Oregon license plate? This guy made a twitter feed that checks for common and funny words you might want and when they come available.
You can check the availability of your desired vanity plate online here: https://dmv2u.oregon.gov/eServices/_/#1
Interestingly, even if the plate is available it doesn’t mean you can always get it. All vanity plates must pass through 3 different reviewers independently to make sure you’re not trying to slip something nefarious by them. Also, there are some other limitations:
The Portland Winter Light Festival was on Feb 6-8. While not as good as it was in years past (and really, really over-crowded this year), there were some good displays:
I was aware and visited the warming hut at Teacup near Mt Hood on several occasions, but little did I know that the Willamette National Forest has winter shelters maintained by volunteers for use by winter sports enthusiasts. Some of the shelters even permit overnight stays; some are warming shelters only. There are also three winter cabin rentals available by advance reservation. How cool is that?
Here’s a list of the different cabins/lookouts. I’ve done at least 2 of these and they were fantastic getaways:
List of shelters with information, recent condition, and trail links:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/willamette/recreation/wintersports/?cid=stelprdb5109521
I went to the annual Portland Retro Game Swap Meet (sponsored by SideQuest Games – a newer game shop that seems to land shockingly amazing and rare gaming gear on a regular basis – see the link) and picked up a few small things. I’m mostly interested in old PC stuff, so I’m not the direct target audience.
However, I did find folks referring to the following resources when valuing their games.
This site gives current and historical prices for almost every video game on every platform. They track and price loose, complete, new condition games. Fascinating site to see what’s hot, and what’s not.
WATA is one of the professional game grading services. You send your game and they pay for them to grade them. Prices range from $35 for a basic grading to well over $200 for rapid grading.
Small, rural town being revived by a strange new builder community.
It’s no secret that Eastern Oregon is a fantastic, barren landscape full of plains, deserts, mountain ranges – and most of all – solitude. The Wallowas Mountain area is located in the far NE corner of the state and is a wonderful area to get away and enjoy the outdoors far from big city tourist.
JO Paddle (which stands for Joseph, Oregon), a family-run paddling outfitter that launched in fall 2018, offers a guided two-hour Wallowa Lake Monster Expedition that takes visitors out under the cloak of darkness, with just the lights of the glass-bottom kayak to illuminate the way.
Flotsam is a circus group that has been performing on the river between Salem and Portland.
Here’s one of their live performances they did at the waterfront in Portland this year.
Read more about them here: http://www.rivercircus.com/
