ROADTRIP!!!

I’ve always traveled a lot for my work.  Since I have been a professional planner I have been going places either to conferences, training sessions, or in my later years as a consultant for project work.  Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to travel to Portland, Oregon for a transportation summit put on by an urban advocacy group.  The conference was great and so were the beer and whiskey!

I had big plans to do two nights worth of pub crawlin’ since Portland is home to some of the best craft brews around, although I did find out that they still call them micro brews in Portland.   Guess they are proud of their heritage and don’t feel the need to adopt the current vernacular.  But as it goes sometimes I got sick the first night, so no beer or whiskey for Don! 😦 I ended up watching the last game of the world series in my room and falling asleep in the 8th inning.  I was informed the next morning that the Yankees won.  Way to go Steinbrenner Family, way to buy a World Series!

But I digress, at breakfast I was told that Deschutes Brewery had opened a new brewery in Portland! Previously they were only located in Newport, Oregon at the mouth of the Deschutes River.  OK, so with my one good night here was my strategy, go to the Deschutes Brewery, have dinner, then a flight of whatever they had on tap. Sounded like a great plan until I went into the Urban Farmer Restaurant on a break for a cup of coffee!  This was the restaurant in the hotel I was staying and they had a selection of bourbon and rye and whiskey the likes of which I haven’t seen anywhere!  Living in Idaho my choices are very limited, and I am probably easily impressed, but this looked great.

Change of plans. Stay put and have dinner in the hotel.  That is what I did.  If you get to know the bartender well this is the key to getting heavy pours and free samples.  I actually got invited to his Christmas party for helping him come up with a new holiday drink!  So I will be able to review 2 bourbons, one rye, and two different craft brews based on this one trip!  Next week I travel to Lewiston, Idaho  a small town of about 30,000 in north west Idaho, and the only town in the State to have a Southern Tier distributorship.  Weird huh, none in Boise, but tiny Lewiston has a great brewery!  I’m coming back with at least a six pack!

How about you? What are your strategies for travel?  Do you scope out the good places before you go, or do you just go and see what the local fare has to offer?  How do you get the brews that you love when you hit the road?

-Don