Portland - Part 2

Saturday morning arrived early for me as I was on the pullout couch. Not the best sleep I've ever had. I also had concerns over where I had left my shoes for some reason. Our morning began around 10am when we headed downstairs to the Arcadian Gardens for a glance at the 'free' breakfast the Embassy was offering. Holy crapola. We found an omelet station and all the major food groups represented. It was like being at an all-inclusive resort. Needless to say - they didn't make any money off the 3 of us that morning. We put away a lot of bacon!

The rest of the day was spent touring the city - including a stop at the the mighty Dick's Sporting Goods. French and Idaho thought I was taking them to the American version of SportChek. Well, anyone who's been to Dick's, knows this is like comparing Chris Mullin to Andre Iguodala. It's not a good comparison. Dick's could be the greatest sporting store of all time!! We spent probably almost an hour soaking up the wicked tax free deals Dick's had to offer. And of course, you could hear us with our many off the cuff comments like, "God I love Dicks" and "Dicks are the best".

The afternoon brought us North Carolina vs. Duke from our room while we discussed a variety of trade offers involving, again, Devin Harris, Marcus Thornton, and Jason Terry. These went nowhere.

At 5pm we went back down to the Arcadian Gardens to continue with the awesome ritual of free binge drinking. We were able to put 4-5 drinks back in the hour we were there. At 6pm we strolled down to the MAX train (free I might add) and headed over to the Rose Garden for the 7pm tipoff between the Blazers and T-Wolves.

Our seats were in section 218. Club Level. The seats were given to me by a buddy of mine who has connections in the Beer Industry. Club Level seats means all your food is included with your ticket. I was thinking this meant I could get a hot dog, some nachos and a coke. Boy, was I wrong. The spread was amazing. Roast beef, shrimp cocktail, garlic mashed potatoes, tempura beans, pizza, ice cream, chocolate bars, licorice, etc. It was a frikkin' smorgasbord of items. Unreal. And the seats were amazing too. About 20 rows up, sideline, and level with the baseline. If you ever go to a Blazer game - its worth the money to get Club Level seats.

The game itself was very entertaining. The T-Wolves were amazing. 40 first quarter points. Love had a monster game. 42 and 10 I think. Wallace, Batum and Crawford also had monster games. Rubio had 10 assists in the 1st quarter and is waaaay better than I thought he ever would be. Martell Webster was re-energized and went for 20 and 8. Joel Pryzbilla received a standing ovation anytime he did anything. But that's not what the 3 of us were most impressed with. We all fell in love with one player. Nikola Pekovic. Dude is a monster. Huge. And scary looking too. From that 1st quarter onwards - we all knew we would be making Arctic an offer for this man. Even if he only had 9pts and 4rebs - we were all going after this beast. He's just fun to cheer for. (More on Pekovic later)

Sunday morning came early as we needed to get on the road by 8am. We were all still in a food coma but each of us did manage to get a dozen doughnuts from the world famous Voodoo Doughnuts at 7am. Left the Embassy Suites at 8:08am and arrived at the Truck Crossing at 12:39pm. One stop at Starbucks in Tumwater. So, anyone who says Portland is too far away - if you can go to Kelowna in 4.5 hours - you can go to Portland in the same amount of time.

Great trip. One of the best I've been on. I can't believe how much stuff we got for free. I highly recommend the Embassy Suites for all your hotel needs. Thank French and Idaho - I enjoyed it. Until next time.