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Fantastic. Met a couple slap heads. Ate a lot of food. Saw as many sights as I could. Right now I’m stuck on a layover in Denver but that’s what happens when you’re to cheap to opt for the direct flight. Vancouver courts is a great spot. I wish I skated a little harder but I did get a couple easy clips. Although I had a couple bad meals in Portland, I found it very easy to get around and enjoyed the people I met very much. Similar feelings about Vancouver. I’ve already been to Seattle so I made a point of getting out of the city center with my rental car, which was a silver douchebag machine Mustang, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Yeah, overall my experience was great. And now I have a whole other week of vacation at home in Sunny San Diego. I’m kind of inspired to keep the skating going when I get home.
What were the bad meals in Portland? Did we lead you astray?
Nah. I went to a place because of a podcast that I listen to and another place that just won some nationwide pizza award. The very first place I went to is called Cheryl’s. Absolute garbage. I ordered teriyaki salmon, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese. Every item was a crime. The salmon was overcooked, tough, and under seasoned. I don’t think they know what teriyaki is despite it being on their menu. The mac and cheese was watery and gritty at the same time and ugly to look at. As for the mashed potatoes, I don’t think ol’ Cheryl heard about butter or salt either. I’d give it a D+. The plus was for the ranting foodie that talked to me throughout. He was annoying but entertaining. The pizza place is called Ken’s Artisan Pizza. Now before someone tries to call me out for having no taste I want to say I’ve had neapolitan pizza and have enjoyed it on multiple occasions, but this place was not hitting. I like a pizza with a crust that leaves each slice’s structure intact. This one was a floppy falling apart chewy mess. It also had calabrian chiles. Normally fantastic but in this case not so much. They were cut horizontally into ribbons. They were tough, hard to chew, and flavorless. I ended up picking all of them off. There was barely any sauce and the cheese had an off taste. Maybe I don’t know shit about pizza. I thought I knew some things but apparently I don’t because these fuckers won third place in the country for pizza. It didn’t help that the service was relatively bad and even worse, I waited for a single seat at the bar for almost two hours. Even worser, I spilled my $10 beer. Not their fault and they did give me another but I didn’t need another sour taste in my mouth. I give them a D. The sausage saved them from an F.
I have to shout out Screen Door. I went to the location on the Eastside. What I ordered was great and I have every inkling that the rest of the menu is great too. For breakfast I ordered biscuits and sausage gravy. It was the best version of that I ever had, not that I’m eating biscuits and gravy everyday. On my way out of Portland I have Screen Door another go because they gave one in the airport. I got a classic double cheeseburger and fries. It was similar to In-N-Out with it’s perfectly toasted bun and American cheese but with thicker patties. I’m personally a smash burger type of guy because it caramelizes the meat better, but this was no sandwich to sneeze at. Screen Door gets a solid A from me.