The Matcha and Rum of Portland

I think that the Portland Japanese Garden might be the nicest, most legit of its kind that I've seen outside of Japanland. I was excited to give Big Ern a little tour.

Obviously one cannot tour Japanese gardens on an empty stomach. We had no choice but to beeline directly for the Umami Café on site.

One might even argue that through the window at a cafe while sipping matcha is really the best way to view a Japanese garden.

Ern learned a little about the tea ceremony.

Ern has a few pairs of training chopsticks at this point. Getting him to use them is an entirely different project.

At this point the McMenamins passport has become sort of a curse that I am forced to wander Oregon to break. Like I wished on a monkey's paw that I could get discounts on tater tots at bars and this was the dark version of that dream come true. McMenamins Old Church & Pub was one of the cooler locations, though, I will admit.

Ernie did a fly over tour of the old church. Now it looks like it has transformed into a party venue.

McMenamins John Barleycorns

This is sort of an ongoing experiment on the effects of infinity bar and grills on 1 year olds.

These two were performing some activities only adults with health insurance should be doing at the playground.

Mt. Baker

Zoe and I hit a couple of bars after Ern and his mom went to bed. I love video game bars and I would like to go to each and every one of them. This one was called Retro Game Bar. Very straightforward.

This is one of the more serious video game bars I've come across, though. This was a legitimate library.

Hale Pele is a fun little tiki bar that I would recommend.

I hadn't ordered anything that was engulfed in flames all day so I was excited to try the Volcano Bowl.

Not only was there fire (cinnamon is surprisingly flammable)

but there was even like a tiki head emanating fog and some cool music when the drink was completed. Maybe there was even fake thunder. That part could have been just in my head.

I was ogling their rum collection when I spotted an old friend: 

A bottle of rum from River Antoine Rum Distillery in Grenada. We toured their super manual, old school booze making process, complete with water wheel to squeeze the sugar cane. They made booze so strong that you weren't allowed to bring it on airplanes. This is the first time I've ever spotted this stuff outside Grenada.

"Now when I say, 'Who's da mastah?', you say, 'Sho'nuff!'"

The nice thing about St. Louis is that it continues to give me a lot of positive reinforcement on my decision to leave.