Trip to Portland for Star Trek in the Park - The Trouble with Tribbles

VooDoo Doughnuts Too

 I've been through Portland, Oregon before, but I've never stayed there until last weekend when I flew there to see Star Trek in the Park. This year they, Atomic Arts, performed The Trouble with Tribbles. We took an early flight, so our first stop was breakfast, where we found the much talked about Voodoo Doughnuts. This was actually Voodoo Doughnuts Too. I had that sad looking maple and the very sweet grape one. There were very sweet, almost too sweet, but I finished both with no problem.

From there we drove to Cathedral Park where the play was taking place just to scope out parking and where we would be sitting. The play began at five and when we got there around 10:30 there were a few people milling about.

Japaneses Gardens

 So since we had time we went to the Japaneses Gardens. For $9.50 you get to wander around this very green and shady garden. It wasn't hot as the clouds were out, and it had rained a little earlier, but still, it was nice to walk in the shade. I took many photos but only posted two here to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Waterfall at the Gardens

 I think we spent about an hour there before heading back to Cathedral Park, located under the St. Johns Bridge you see in the photo below. It was 12:30 and we were one of the first 100 people there. So we set up our blankets near the center, not too far back from the stage. We brought some food so we dove into that first before the long wait. I had forgotten a hat and the Sun, when it was out from behind the clouds, was bright and hot. So I journeyed up towards a farmers market and found a store nearby that sold mens clothes.

Fans at Cathedral Park for Star Trek in the Park

 Back at the park we sat for hours, watching more and more people show up. By the time the play started people were filling in any empty space, including about 10 people with children that squeezed behind us. Before the play they made a few announcements and then began.

Spoke did a really good job too.

They followed the original script word for word, and every scene ended with the actors walking off stage and the audience clapping. The brochure list 20 people in the cast including the extras, but not including the 100's of tribbles that were added to the stage during the course of the play.

Kirk and the Klingons

 The best scene overall was the fight scene between the Enterprise crew and the Klingons. It was very realistic, with fake punches, people flying across the bar and fake glass broken over heads. I took a three minutes video of this, as you can watch here. I had a hard time hearing some of the dialog mostly because the speakers were aimed to the right and left, and we were in the center.

Kirk buried with tribbles

 The funniest scene was when Kirk was buried with tribbles. The people who filled this storage container and then continued to throw tribbles into it and onto Kirk's head must of had lots of fun. I also took a short video of this scene. The play lasted about an hour, and afterwards the cast and crew came out in groups and took a well deserved bow. I was expecting everyone to stand and give a standing ovation, but only a few people did. They deserved it for putting on this play for free with their own time and money. This is the fifth year of the same group doing a play each weekend in August. We saw the second to last performance.

The entire cast and crew of the play

 People were wearing shirts from the previous years play, and when the shirts went on sale after the show I bought one. Also, after the show, the band, or due, The Doubleclicks performed. They played songs they wrote where were all geek/nerd based songs with funny lyrics that only other geeks would understand. They got such an applasuse after their show they did an unexpected encore.

The Doubleclicks

So now it was close to eight, and we all had been awake since 4:00 AM or sooner, but still needed food and beer. For that we chose McMenamins at the Kennedy School, a place and restaurant I had never heard of until that night. I drank three of their beers and my favorite was the Terminator Stout. No photos from this dinner as we were too tired and forgot, plus our phones were running low on  power, much like us.

Me at the Kennedy School

Once we had our fill of food and beer it was back to the hotel. It was getting late and we were all tired. Luckily my flight didn't leave until almost noon, so I got to sleep in some. Got to the airport in plenty of time and 2:30 flight home went by rather quick.

Portland was a very nice town, at least what I saw in less than a day. It was very green, both the trees and their Earth-friendly ways, such as recycling, bike riding and eating healthy. Also, the people were friendly and very "diverse". I'll go back some day and make it out to Mt. Hood and other sites in the city and beyond.