After spending 11 months living in Oregon, somehow we never looked back after we left Portland and managed to go four years without visiting. That lead to this trip which was the end of my two-year vacation since I start a new job tomorrow. Anyway, with some kickass hospitality from the Birches, we managed to catch up with just about about everyone. Portland is a great place to be on the 4th of July, since it sounds like a freakin war zone with everyone taking the matter into their own hands of providing fireworks shows for the city. After buying a batch that lasted a short while, we found the need to run out and get more which we did right the second time around (although we should have thrown down for this one.)


We accomplished a ton and were involved with everything from giving a mohawk,
checking the people hard at work at Bonfire, acquiring more adidas shoes, hitting Pharmacy and the Dept. of Skateboarding, the Faz barbeque, checking Portland from a sneaky rooftop, culminating with one of the greatest bar experiences I’ve ever had.

I used to live around the corner from the Alibi, which is an old school tiki bar in Portland. The whole time I lived there I always wanted to go and never made it, so it was one of the primary goals of this mission. So we show up, all stoked on the 4th and it’s closed. Not giving up, we swing by for a quick one just before leaving for the airport to come home. Aside from being one of the best bars anywhere, we ended up in some heavy conversation with a drunken disabled Viet Nam vet and his girlfriend of sorts, hearing stories about rescuing POW’s in Saigon. This turned into lots of photos and a quick exit to catch our plane, but we still had enough time to meet a homeless guy just outside the door with his new female dog named Nonuts.