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February 20, 2011
happy hour (n.)
This past week was the highly revered "Reading Break", a week during which Masters students like us, MPubbers, spend six or seven mornings (hopefully) sleeping-in, rest our eyes away from laptop screens, and indulge in a simple thing called "free time".
This year, Ben and I decided to head down to Portland for a few days to get away for a mini-vacay.
The 92 hours we spent there were 100% fantastic, filled with scrumptious food and beer and sights and sounds and tax-free shopping (who knew?! I didn't!)
Of those 92 hours, if we weren't sleeping, we were enjoying the famous Happy Hour, which I have only come to truly understand.
Portland is allll about their dandy discounts, and man, oh, man do they do happy hour justice.
It appears that every establishment has some kind of happy hour deal - and not only that, but a happy hour that spans across about 8 hours of the day, every day of the week. You can get amazing ravioli for $4 (remember, no tax), a cheap haircut, or $9 pitchers without even really trying to plan for it! Ben and I really got to appreciate our senses a bit more.
The lack of sales tax and the great prices just make for a really happy bunch of people. Every waiter we spoke to, every salesperson who rung us in, every person seated nearby, whipped out a napkin and a pen to jot down suggestions of where we should go next.
[the table blow the fold is not scary; it's just ugly - and a game!]
Here are some of the Portland Must-Dos (really, Portland Must-Dine At's)
(I've included some of my own, to pay it forward):
Mix and match, if you dare!
Answers below.
Thank you Portlandians! We like you a lot.
It was such a pleasant experience to be around people who don't seem to have road rage ("rush hour" is pretty happy), and who genuinely want to help out and be NICE. There's this really admirable lacking in cruel ambition; instead, there's a true sense of Zen-like grounded-ness.
Portland, in a nutshell, is a heavenly Vancouver circa the 1980s, before Yaletown high-rises, 778-, and expensive real estate: Before we all became kind of hoity-toity and vain because we live in "the #1 city on the planet."
My fellow Vancouverites, I think it's gone a little to our head; We need to come back down to reality and try to be a little more open, compassionate and conversant with the world around us. Even if we have to deal with HST, it'd be nice to find a little more happy in the hours of our days.
From this point forward, let's bring back the "happy hour" mentality. Let's bring it up in random conversations; let's genuinely smile and not just to be polite; and if we're going to honk at each other in traffic, let's do it to say hi; let's try to make every minute really count.
Cheers!
Answers (but not upside down because I don't know the HTML tag for it..ha!)
This year, Ben and I decided to head down to Portland for a few days to get away for a mini-vacay.
The 92 hours we spent there were 100% fantastic, filled with scrumptious food and beer and sights and sounds and tax-free shopping (who knew?! I didn't!)
Of those 92 hours, if we weren't sleeping, we were enjoying the famous Happy Hour, which I have only come to truly understand.
Portland is allll about their dandy discounts, and man, oh, man do they do happy hour justice.
It appears that every establishment has some kind of happy hour deal - and not only that, but a happy hour that spans across about 8 hours of the day, every day of the week. You can get amazing ravioli for $4 (remember, no tax), a cheap haircut, or $9 pitchers without even really trying to plan for it! Ben and I really got to appreciate our senses a bit more.
The lack of sales tax and the great prices just make for a really happy bunch of people. Every waiter we spoke to, every salesperson who rung us in, every person seated nearby, whipped out a napkin and a pen to jot down suggestions of where we should go next.
[the table blow the fold is not scary; it's just ugly - and a game!]
Here are some of the Portland Must-Dos (really, Portland Must-Dine At's)
(I've included some of my own, to pay it forward):
Mix and match, if you dare!
| A. VooDoo Donuts | B. Bunk Sand- wiches | C. Laurel- hurst Theatre | D. Deschutes Brewery | E. Shanghai Tunnel | F. Henry's Tavern | G. Via Delizia | H. 21st Ave. Grill | I. Elephant Deli | J. Powell's Books (duh!) | K. Rose Arena |
| 1. The Cuban | 2. Heavy Metal | 3. Pineapple brioche with a side of Oe | 4. Visa to China? or fresh-squeezed juice as a vodka chaser. | 5. Maple & Bacon | 6. Shuffle -board + ping pong what! | 7. Bitter Orange Cream Ale & a pretzel! | 8. Free Chalupa? | 9. Italian ambiance for cheap | 10. Super Steak | 11. Mama Leone's soup |
Thank you Portlandians! We like you a lot.
It was such a pleasant experience to be around people who don't seem to have road rage ("rush hour" is pretty happy), and who genuinely want to help out and be NICE. There's this really admirable lacking in cruel ambition; instead, there's a true sense of Zen-like grounded-ness.
Portland, in a nutshell, is a heavenly Vancouver circa the 1980s, before Yaletown high-rises, 778-, and expensive real estate: Before we all became kind of hoity-toity and vain because we live in "the #1 city on the planet."
My fellow Vancouverites, I think it's gone a little to our head; We need to come back down to reality and try to be a little more open, compassionate and conversant with the world around us. Even if we have to deal with HST, it'd be nice to find a little more happy in the hours of our days.From this point forward, let's bring back the "happy hour" mentality. Let's bring it up in random conversations; let's genuinely smile and not just to be polite; and if we're going to honk at each other in traffic, let's do it to say hi; let's try to make every minute really count.
Cheers!
Answers (but not upside down because I don't know the HTML tag for it..ha!)
A5, B1, C2, D7, E4, F10, G9, H6, I11, J3, K8
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