They say the neon lights are bright on Burnside.

Like any true Portlandian, my friend is appalled by the gentrification of anything. This makes the Pearl District and downtown area a less than ideal area to have her come hang out with me, but she was gracious enough to do so. We both needed some downtime after The Clown Incident, so she went home to nap, and I went to my room to catch Pokemon.

As both my phone and I recharged, I realised that no matter how many sprinkles it had, one ice cream sammich was not going to sustain me until dinner. My original plan was to hit a food truck, but it was hot out, and I had heard that the swanky seafood joint across the street had a good happy hour, so I decided to check it out.

I ordered happy hour mac & cheese and some peel and eat shrimp thinking that because they were $3.95 they would be tiny plates. Once again, I was Very wrong. This mac made my top five mac lists, and I am kinda an expert when it comes to this particular dish. The shrimp were good too, but man... that mac.

I also got a wacky basil-grape drink that was pretty tasty. Someone put Pokemon lures on the bar, so I wound up sitting there for a few hours catching-them-all and chatting with the bartenders. 

By the time I headed back across the street to change for dinner, the neon-ing had commenced. More on this later. 

I met my friends for dinner reservations at Henry's Tavern on 12th. I had read good reviews and they seemed to have an everyone-pleasing menu, so we decided to try it out. Unfortunately they decided to seat us in the middle of a gaggle of girls who were taking up 3 tables and THE LOUDEST THINGS EVER. We were treated to a lengthy discussion of crop tops, among other things.  I ordered a rootbeer float as an apertif. It was the fanciest float I've ever had, but the gaggle made me wish it was spiked.

That's a whole shot glass of frozen maraschino cherries topped with whipped cream and chocolate. I'm not sure why. I don't think I've ever had cherries in a float, but they were delicious. Weinhard's rootbeer is probably my favourite of all the beers, overall it was delicious. Portland is a crazy foodie city. Everytime I come here, it seems a little crazier as places compete to stand out. Apparently the same thing has happened with strippers here. There are so many of them that they have started to specialise to stand out. As a result, they are all fire dancers.

Dinner was a rare burger that came with mac and cheese on it. It was delicious, but I couldn't even finish half of it after the float, let alone the gorgonzola fries that came with it. I put the remains on ice in my room, then let it ride home in the trunk the next day. I had it for dinner that night, because I live on the edge. No food poisoning has resulted.

This trip back to the room, the neon is bright enough for the TAL HO to be reflected in my room window.

We wound up going out to an 80's new wave video dance party at Lola's room at the crystal ballroom after dinner. It was a pretty good time, and totally packed by the time we left around 11pm, because we remember the 80's and are old.

By the time I got back to my room, the neon was at full strength. There were big blackout curtains, but it was still possible to see my way around by the red light. Apparently there were also earplugs in the nightstands, which I didn't notice until the next morning.

Since sleep wasn't really happening, I decided to go check out the pool, which is open until 1am, and allows people to bring drinks. Its is a salt pool kept at 101 degrees. The alcohol thing sounds like a great idea, until you realise it just means the pool is full of drunk couples trying to covertly copulate. I didn't last very long. 

I made my way back to my room, where I snapped my favourite pictures of the trip.  I am probably going to take the time to actually edit them, because they make me think of Nighthawks.