wilnap

I met Hilary in the lobby of the hotel at about 10:30am. I had taken a walk around the block and had ducked into Columbia sportswear when she called and I popped up the block back to the hotel. We went to breakfast at a small dine in what I think she called “the pearl” neighborhood.

Then we took a trip up the Columbia river Gorge. We drove along and the weather was more or less threatening. It rained quite heavily and broke through sunny as often. We stopped at a beautiful lookout with an odd structure that had been built as the vanguard of a large resort that never materialized.

We then drove further and saw some amazing waterfalls. Jane and I had taken this same drive many years earlier when we were there with Cunningham but I was enjoying the day so much that I didn’t mention this.

We ended up in Hood River. After walking around a bit we found Rebecca Stenn’s brother Ben’s restaurant Celilio, named after some beautiful fall in the Columbia that disappeared when an power damn was built downstream. We chatted a bit and he walked us through his menu. We then chatted about some of the better restaurants in Portland and then he showed us his kitchen.

From there we drove up to Mt. Hood from the east, basically the backside from Portland. We drove along and it started to snow. We drove to the Timberline Hotel on the slopes of Mt. Hood. We arrived in bright sunshine. We walked around and checked out the 1930’s structure and marveled at it’s massive timber structure. We sat in front of a large window looking upon the peak of the mountain and just chatted for less than half an hour. As talked clouds moved in and obscured the mountain. Snow was swirling thickly.

When we left the parking lot was covered in more than an inch of snow. We got in to Hilary’s 1984 Westfalia camper and started down the hill. In very short order the van started to slide alarmingly. We stopped, gathered our composure and tried again. Again it got a little too sideways and we stopped up short. Hilary decided we had to put chains on the tires. We did so and were soon creeping down the mountain quite assuredly.

When we were clear of the snow line we took the chains off and sped into town.

When we got there we had a drink with Ana, Misha and Tei and then went off to dinner with the addition of Tom. We went to a fine old time seafood restaurant called Jake’s. Tei, Hilary, Misha and I shared oysters as an appetizer. Later I had an entry that I can’t remember and isn’t on their daily menu online, although I just had it.

It was a fine time. We all went home to the restaurant and I’m now trying to get myself into bed.

So nice to see Hilary.

We have been here in Chicago for a couple of days. Our first performance is Friday night. Normally we’d be doing the tech on Thursday night but Misha has a fund raiser of some sort that evening. So we are pushing to do the tech on Thursday afternoon. We’re doing that by focusing to day on the normal pre-hang day. It’s just 5pm now and Leo has finished focus. So tomorrow is going to be a breeze.

We had a very easy day of load in. The stage is clean, well equiped and the crew is very good. So things were quite easy.

I had  a slow day. I woke up quite late. I had breakfast/lunch. A soup and sandwich. Then I went to the Art Institute. I wanted to just pop in for an hour or so but when I learned that it was $18 to get in I thought that I should go when I could give it more time. So I just walked around a bit and then headed for the theater.

The home office had sent me a bit of paper work for me to take care of. The show went off without a hitch except that the top of “years later” has a bit of a clip in it that we just can’t get rid of.

After I went to dinner with Sandra, Leo and Jeremy. We went to a Mexican restaurant of a famous TV chef called Topolobampo. We actually wanted to go into the Fonteral Grill the less pricey companion restaurant. But there wasn’t a table available so we went for the top.

We were greeted by the waiter with “Hello, my name is Paco I’m going to be your guide on an extraordinary culinary experience.” Of course later I devised the perfect response “Are you ready for an extraordinary ass-hole customer experience?”

The food was very inventive and beautiful and I’m glad we went there. I had a slow cooked pork that was amazing.

Hilary suggested that we go there I’m glad to be able to report that we made it. I wouldn’t have gone if Sandra hadn’t been into it.

We had a very casual day. We went in at 8am and finished all the technical preparations. I was a bit annoyed at Jeremy because he came in quite late and didn’t seem to be nervous. In the end everything worked out so until the first performance I’m feeling OK.

Jeremy and I went to Lincoln Park and had dinner at an OK pasta place. We then went and had a beer. The trains roared overhead and I made some recordings for Jane.

We went home and Jeremy went to bed and I went out to the Elephant and Castle and met up with some advertizing girls.

We went off to a gay bar. It was OK.

Then I went home.

I woke at 1:30pm! I a haven’t slept that late in a very long time. I had gone to bed at 12:30 at the earliest. I guess it is not surprising given the change in hours and lack of sleep I had traveling from Hawai’i. On that time scheme I woke at 8:30am. Not bad for me.

I wandered the streets for several hours inside the loop. Not very impressed with what I found. It was very commercial and with very few small businesses.

I finally found a small bar