Portland’s infrastructure is woefully behind. Despite 10 years and dozens of millions of dollars, there is still no I-5 bridge replacement plan.
Take an opportunity to answer their survey:
https://www.interstatebridge.org/november
Turns out my neighbor’s sister is the voice actress for Tekken’s Nina Williams. Who knew?
Polybius is a great urban legend that got its start in Portland. There’s lots of fodder thrown around about it, but The Polybius Conspiracy appeared to be a real investigation on the subject. They even have a lot of interviews from local people. It turns out, it was COMPLETELY FALSE and their main character was an actor.
None of that was disclosed. It is one more reason you should be very weary of documentaries as information sources. Evidence shows you should NOT be putting faith in documentaries any more than an editorial opinion piece.
If you want a little better coverage, this is also a good video about the urban legend:
Finding cool Halloween displays and house decorations in your area can be trial/error driving around or word of mouth. These folks at Northwest Haunters Association have an interactive map where people can share their setups for others to enjoy.
Hop on over there an start touring some great Halloween displays
Staying at remote fire watch towers in the Pacific Northwest is kind of a thing for me. Above are two of the ones I stayed at. After getting lucky enough to land a near-impossible reservation, they usually require you to hike in to remote locations at the top of mountains. No power, no plumbing, and sometimes no cell service. You have to hike your own food and water into these remote locations – making them amazing experiences in living off the grid. The views, solitude, quiet, and beauty can be jaw dropping experiences for the lucky.
Keeping track of which ones are closed for repairs, inaccessible due to landslides, fires, blowdowns, snow, learning about new regulations and seasons of operation has never been easy.
Fortunately I’ve found another person with the same passion and she posts updates on some of these towers as well as her progress on visiting every one before they are gone.
One of the more notable postings was of my favorite tower Gold Butte which was recently wrapped to protect it from wildfires that ravaged one side of the peak.
My favorite season is fall. The air turns cool, there are hay rides and pumpkin patches, one curls up with a good book in front of a fire, reading scary tales, and, of course, watching the leaves change.
Japan has some very good, live updating of fall colors on a few websites.
The folks over at this website have a nifty little tool that predicts when fall colors will change this year. How do they predict the trends this year? With a little bit of data (and possibly a touch of pretentiousness):
The company uses a model that ingests a multitude of data sources including historical precipitation, NOAA precipitation forecasts, elevation, actual temperatures, temperature forecasts, and average daylight exposure to develop a baseline fall date for each county in the continental United States. Next, the model consumes hundreds-of-thousands of additional data points from a variety of government and non-government sources and layers this data over its own historical data from past years and, finally, with a high degree of accuracy, the algorithm produces nearly 50,000 date outputs indicating the progression of fall for every county in a graphical presentation that is easy to digest.
As vaccination rates go up, the state also opens up. From makeshift drive-ins, piano concerts in the Oregon wilderness, dinner movies with some of the top restaurants in town.
List of Renaissance fairs.
Check out the whole list here.
Every year on the south Oregon coast, paths are made in the sand and you can walk through them.
You can pan around in this 360 video clip to get an idea of what it looks like.
Founded in 2016 by classical pianist Hunter Noack, IN A LANDSCAPE: Classical Music in the Wild is an outdoor concert series where America’s most stunning landscapes replace the traditional concert hall. He takes a 9-foot Steinway grand piano on a flatbed trailer to National Parks, urban greenspaces, working ranches, farms, and historical sites for classical music concerts that connect people with each landscape of Oregon.
To meet the acoustical challenges of performing in the wild, music is transmitted to concert-goers via wireless headphones. No longer confined to seats, you can explore the landscape, wander through secret glens, lie in sunny meadows, and roam old growth forests.
It’s a fantastic experience – so give it a shot if you have an opportunity to catch one of the remaining shows of the year.
I love spooky things and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Imagine my joy when Raven’s Manor, a cocktail lounge designed to look like a haunted mansion, just opened this last month in downtown Portland. I gave it a visit and really enjoyed it.
The partners, Vega and Jared Bradley, have concocted a backstory for the Manor. As the tale goes, namesake Dr. Raven was a prominent elite known for his lavish parties, which were actually a ruse. “All the while,” Vega explains, “he was secretly kidnapping victims and taking them down to his laboratory for human experimentation.”
While the bartenders at Raven’s won’t be in the business of abducting humans, there will be an opportunity to take part in some experiments if you so choose. In a month or two, the bar is scheduled to start accepting reservations for an “Elixir Experience,” where guests are asked to solve clues throughout the property and then use everything from chemistry equipment to cauldrons to create custom drinks.
