The Beutel Blog: Portland

Several months ago Mary and I were discussing summer vacation and one option was going to Portland, OR to watch my younger brother Tim's barbershop quartet perform at the 2012 International Barbershop Convention. We decided that it wouldn't make sense financially to fly 5 people to Portland, rent a car, and get hotel rooms for a week. However, I continued to have a desire to go...Oregon has been one place I've never visited and always wanted to experience! My wife, who is way to good to me, said why don't you just go and me and the kids will stay with my parents. Hmm...considering I could room with the one single member of Tim's quartet, could rent a small (i.e cheaper) rental car...the trip was suddenly looking much more affordable! I help Dad and Mom with some remodeling in the basement for Dad's hired hand and so they offered to help me get my ticket! Even better...the 1st class ticket was the same number of miles as coach ticket! So on July 3rd after work, Mary and the kids whisked me up to the airport for the flight to Portland. My flights went relatively closely to schedule...small delay in Chicago...and I was in Portland around midnight. The quartet had some issues with flights and luggage not making it to Portland!

Wednesday (the 4th), the boys had their first set at 10:00 AM. They still had no luggage. The morning was spent ironing shirts that had been bought after midnight the night before, scrounging up matching shoes, jeans, and suit coats! Despite all the adversity they took to the stage and gave a solid performance in the first round. Soon after the quartet sang Dad and I left and headed South East to Mt. Hood. After a beautiful hour drive we arrived near the ski lifts that took us for a closer look at the peak of Mt. Hood. There was still quite a bit of snow and there were people still skiing.

After a quick trip up on the ski lift and back down we started back down the mountain. We stopped for a late lunch at a local Mexican place that made much (I believe) of their food from scratch. The food was delicious...a huge tamale and pork tenderloin tacos! Yum! After sitting and relaxing in the beautiful air (it was in the high nineties back home most of the week)...we drove back to Portland.

After we got back to the hotel Tim, Melissa, Lincoln, Katy and I headed off to the International Rose Garden. We spent an hour or so wandering the myriad of colors, sizes and scents of roses. It was very relaxing and an amazing reminder of God's artistry (and the creativity that He has instilled in the people who have cultivated the varieties!) That evening we headed back down to the Rose Arena to hear the reading of the Top 20! Thankfully After Hours was called 13th! Hooray...we were coming back on Thursday to listen to another set from our favorite quartet (http://ahquartet.com/).

Thursday Katy and I awoke early to head out on another adventure! We hopped into the rental and headed west! After an hour and a half of driving along beautiful pine tree lined roads we pulled into the quiet town of Cannon Beach! We parked the car and headed to Morris' Fireside Restaurant for breakfast! After some biscuits and gravy for me and a hairy omelette for Katy we headed to the beach.

This beach may have been one of the neatest aquatic excursions I've ever encountered! The tide was low so we saw the tide pools, Haystack rock, bright orange and purple starfish! We also saw mussels, sea anemones, and a Sunflower starfish with 17 points (legs)! After enjoying the beach for a short amount of time we headed back to the town and visited some shops and the bakery. Our time passed way too quickly and it was time to get back on the road back to Portland so we would get back in time to listen to Tim's quartet sing!

We stopped at a fruit stand on the way back and got some delicious fruit!

Back at Rose Arena After Hours put together a remarkable set that many former champions thought would land them in the top ten! We walked to the convention center to look at the merchandise at Harmony Marketplace and then went to a restaurant called Brix for supper. They had a pool table available for free to use while you waited for your food. Dad, Tim, and I shot some pool and then we ate our food. When we got back to the Rose Arena we rushed inside to watch After Hours on the TV screens. They had been selected to sing on the 8 o'clock Portland news. What an honor! After that excitement we headed into the arena to find out if they made the top 10 or not. Unfortunately their name was not called and their quartet singing for the week was over. After receiving their scores they were happy to see that their scores had improved and they were encouraged by that improvement. They once again took 16th in the overall competition! Way to go guys!

Friday was the day of the chorus competition. Since Tim's chorus didn't sing until late morning Dad and I decided to do the Columbia River Gorge Drive. Boy am I glad that we did it! It was beautiful! We started by stopping at a few overlook points and then the last hour or so we stopped at about 6 waterfalls over the course of about 10 miles! Breathtaking! When our time allotment ran out we turned around and hurried back to the city to catch Tim's chorus. They turned in a solid performance.

After they sang, Dad and I went to do a bit of shoe shopping and also grabbed a delicious lunch at Kenny & Zukes. The Reuben sandwiches were amazing!

After lunch we returned to the Rose Arena to listen to Ambassadors of Harmony (they were expected to win....and did!) After listening to them Sheila (who had just gotten to Portland) and I ran over to the Rose Garden and the Japanese Gardens for some afternoon amusement. After that we went back to the Arena and I listened to a few more choruses before heading back to the hotel. Sheila and Melissa had left a touch earlier and were going to take the bus back. After I had been back at the hotel a while I began to wonder how I had beat them back by so much since they had left earlier. I sent Sheila a text and soon found out that their bus had hit a car when turning a corner! Needless to say it took a while for them to get a cab and make it back to the hotel! Ask Sheila about it some time...she'd love to talk about it! After the chorus contest wound down all the singers came back to the hotel where we had an AfterGlow...basically they all come back and sang until the wee hours....these guys LOVE to sing! I stayed around until midnight or so...sang a few tags...and the headed up to the room! After organizing and packing I decided I should shower too so that I wouldn't have to when I got up in the morning. My flight on Saturday morning was to leave around 6:30.

I got up Saturday morning around 4 and headed for the airport. After returning my car I got through security and waited for the flight. Everything went very smoothly and I was back home in HOT Peoria, IL about 10 - 15 minutes early! I think Mary was excited to see me....