Portland Day 3: Well Done Day.
10:00 AM. I awake to find Tim and Shaun missing, but there is a note waiting for me. They have gone to get brunch supplies. We are to do a series of tasks before they return, including “be awesome.” On it.
We have planned a Well Done Brunch. Invited: Bowerbirds, Megafaun, Hometapes crew.
We took this project pretty seriously. It’s the first-ever Well Done Brunch. We can’t let the people down. We have menus and everything.
Let me just give you the rundown of what we created.
Iced Coffees.
Mimosas.
Bloody Mary Bar.
Egg frittatas with bacon, white cheddar, garlic, herbs and veggies from the garden.
Blueberry corn pancakes, topped with maple butter.
Curry breakfast potatoes.
Roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary. (compliments of Megafaun Brad)
Fruit salad.
Shaun was busy preparing a brisket to cook for the next seven hours, I played waitress and took everyone’s order, while Tim shelled out frittatas at a blinding rate. I’m not entirely sure how he did it. He has breakfast superpowers.
We ate like champions, then watched the boys play in the water hose. Just a typical day in tour land.
As if this wasn’t enough to call it a day at 4 PM, we all decide to drive to Washington state for the afternoon to play in the river and jump off cliffs. And that we did.
Finally, nighttime arrives, and it’s time to celebrate Adam’s birthday at the Hometapes abode. We run back to Shaun’s house and prepare yet another epic meal: beef brisket with raspberry BBQ sauce, sweet potato salad, brown sugar baked beans, cabbage slaw, gluten-free peanut butter cookies with fresh strawberry compote, and ice cream. This is getting ridiculous.
We head to the celebration. Brad has french braids in his hair. Mark is wearing Beth’s jorts. More eating like champions. Everyone is comatose by the end of it. We decide that the best day ever has to end at some point, and head back to Shaun’s to retire from yet another glorious night in Portland.
So that ends one of the best weekend of my entire life. Can’t we all just stay here forever?
Ode to the Brisket.
Shaun took me brisket shopping.
Such a large mass of meat is worthy of its own blog post.
Portland Day 2: Bowerbirds + Megafaun + Tire Swing
Day 2 began with Tim cooking the most epic breakfast from whatever he could find in Shaun’s kitchen and/or potted herb garden. Tim is known for his epic breakfast making, but this one really took the cake. I think we’ve earned our keep at Shaun’s house.
We spent the afternoon exploring the downtown Portland area with Shaun & Margaret, eating ice cream, touring giant bookstores, and enjoying gourmet happy hour treats (fried kalamata olives for one dollar? yes please).
We eventually head over to Porque No taco shack to meet Megafaun and the Hometapes crew. We are in the land of Hometapes, and we finally meet the staff of the label, including Sarah’s husband and label co-owner, Adam. I had a shrimp-chile-pineapple taco. I’m fairly sure it was the best taco I’ve ever had. Quite sure actually.
We swung on a tire for a bit, then headed to the venue.
The show was at Mississippi Studios. This was a big show, as it’s Hometapes territory, and the turnout was huge. Both bands played one of their best sets I had ever heard them play. The crowd was incredible. I tried to hover near the front and shoot as much as I could.
After the show, we did a quick visit to a neighborhood bar, then headed back to Shaun’s to make obscene amounts of iced coffee and make ridiculously detailed brunch plans until 4 in the morning. Totally normal.
Bed. Epic day of cooking begins in five hours.
Portland Day 1: Surprise BBQ Adventure
Driving out of Utah, we were faced with the decision to drive to Seattle, Anacortes, or Portland. All routes led us through Boise, so we just went to Boise.
I would have liked to see this city, as I’ve only been there for a day before this visit, but we arrived at 3 in the morning and just wanted to get a hotel and pass out. And that we did. We spent a couple of hours in the morning doing some work at an Idaho bookstore-coffeeshop, then headed onward to our destination of choice: Portland.
We chose Portland for a number of reasons.
- The drive was several hours shorter.
- There was no chance of being late to the show, because we’d be an entire day early.
- I had noticed a Portland-based design blog had mentioned our coverage of Megafaun. I sent him a message thanking him and informed him that we happened to be on our way to his city. He asked us if we had plans upon our arrival (we did not) and invited us to a BBQ he was hosting. Of course we said yes. Who doesn’t love BBQ-ing with strangers in Oregon? It sounded like an adventure in the making to me.
Nine hours later, we’re driving along the Gorge, surrounded by water and mountains and Christmas trees and windmills that resemble giant bladed alien probes. We arrived at Shaun’s house soon after.
Facts about Shaun:
- He is a Portland-based designer who spent years working with Wieden+Kennedy.
- He is moving to Raleigh-Durham (our hometown) in 10 days to work as art director for Travelocity.
- He was recently in Raleigh staying with my friend Grayson. Hanging out with my friends.
- He is best friends with the owners of Hometapes, Megafaun’s record label, who we’ve been touring with already.
- Basically, we were destined to meet him anyway.
I don’t think I can say enough how freaking small this world is.
So we dove right in. Lots of tasty drinks and grub waiting for us. It was a proper west-coast BBQ, a foodie’s haven. We quickly got acclimated to our new environment and finished up the night crashing our new temporary Portland abode with our new best friends, Shaun and Margaret.
We would end up living here for the next three days.
Karaoke night in Utah.
Night three in Dinosaur, Utah. Back from epic camping adventure. We wanted to see what sort of tasty grub this town had to offer. We had the choice of about two restaurants. We went with logic and naturally chose the Dinosaur Cafe.
I feel it’s necessary to restate how epic the clouds are here. Upon our arrival at the cafe I witnessed glowing rain for the first and likely only time in my life. Glowing!
The cafe was a dive and it appeared to be devoid of any staff when we first arrived. For a minute I was unsure if there was some unsaid method of self-service that none of the regulars were telling us about. Maybe they just wanted to relish in our confusion just a little longer. We finally found the one waitress though. I had an insanely good BBQ sandwich. After our meal, we continued to sit awkwardly for about a half-hour until the waitress finally informed us that we pay at the bar. Now we know for next time.
And then we hit the bar. I say bar singular because there is ONE. I forget the name of it… something saloon. It was karaoke night.
You know how some bars attempt to embody a country-western theme? This bar epitomized everything you could envision a country saloon to be. And it was all real. Totally legit. Old paintings of naked girls in cowboy hats, antiques randomly strewn about the wall, lots of animal heads and horns hanging, and even saloon doors to get to the bathrooms. Country as country can be.
Song material of choice? Backstreet Boys. Spice Girls. It was incredible.
We spent the night drinking more beer that doesn’t work, teaching the bartender fun shot recipes, and watching Utah folk dance to Nelly and Kid Rock between karaoke rounds. This actually sparked my intense desire to have a Bowebirds/Megafaun/WellDoneMedia dance party as soon as possible. Basically the same thing that regularly happens in Raleigh, just in a different setting than the Jackpot. I’ll be sure let you know how that goes once it happens.
I will miss this crazy crazy state of Utah.
Dinosaur Camp.
With Salt Lake checked off on our to-do list, we decide to switch directions and head back eastward for a short hiatus in Dinosaur National Monument. I mean, how often do you get the chance to hang out in Dinosaur? Who could say no to that?
Liz had lots of fun planned for us. Our first objective was camping in Echo Park, which was about an hour and a half of driving through the monument, the last half-hour covering only about a mile’s distance through ridiculous terrain. I’m glad the car survived.
We drank wine and legitimate Ukrainian absinthe, read horoscopes, applied fake tattoos, ate lots of bread and hummus and avocados, cooked gourmet s’mores and listened to Liz serenade us on her guitar til the wee hours of the morning.
We all awoke early the next morning to the sun glaring down on the canyon, forming a nice atmospheric hot-pocket enclosing our campsite. We did some morning exploring until it was too hot to continue, then hopped back in the Dinosaur-mobile and trekked back to home base on the other side of the monument.
COW!
Colorado/Utah driving.
These states are particularly fun to look at. Nine hour drives aren’t so bad when the topography changes drastically every 30 minutes.
Utah’s topography was particularly epic. We soon found ourselves in the region of Dinosaur. Dinosaur functions as both a city in Colorado and a giant national monument that extends between Colorado and Utah. It is also a glorious haven for dinosaur statues. We picked up our friend Liz and continued on to Salt Lake to catch the end of the Bowebirds‘ set at Kilby Court, the best backyard venue ever.
Other notable fact about Utah: The beer doesn’t work. You can also get in big legal trouble if you are caught with liquor that was not purchased in the state of Utah. You also have to purchase wine at the one state liquor store allotted per city.
But yeah, other than those few alcohol-related differences, Utah is fabulous.
DENVER!
After waking up from an incredible night in Lawrence, Kansas, we said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts of Ample Branches and set off on our 9-hour trek to Denver.
Our directions were simple enough: take two turns, drive 500 miles, take another turn, and you’re in Denver.
Somehow I managed to take ZERO photos from the drive… but I think that was largely due to the fact that we were driving through the desolate expanse of Kansas and eastern Colorado.
It was dark and rainy by the time we arrived, but the city still looked glorious. Our first stop was a coffee shop to do some work and meet up with our beloved friend Nick, who recently moved to Denver from our Raleigh homeland. He was happy and looked great, other than the shoulder he managed to recently dislocate from his body which sort of leaves his right arm dangling. He enjoyed showing it to us repetitively as we drank our coffee.
We then headed to our temporary Colorado shelter, the home of the honorable Matt Slaby. Slaby is a Nordic viking who owns a beautiful house in the hills of Denver. He makes good photos and good wine. He has two cats, both affectionately named “Cat.” He currently has a fish bone stuck in his tonsil. He is also part-owner of Luceo Images, Tim’s photo collective.
We spent night one exploring Slaby’s basement, drinking Slaby’s homemade wine, playing Slaby’s guitars and piano, and harassing Slaby’s cats. A good night at Slaby’s indeed.
Day 2. Tim and Nick went to ride bikes around town, while I caught up on some work I needed to complete for grad school. I ate my first enjoyable salmon dinner of all time at a little Japanese dive, then headed to the venue in which we were supposed to meet up with Bowerbirds & Megafaun.
Well. Tonight’s show presented some complications.
1) Apparently this is some sort of music festival, which apparently justifies a $25.00 ticket price.
2) None of the bands were allowed a guest list.
3) Tim managed to sneak in while helping the Bowerbirds load, and found an extra arm band allowing him unlimited access. I did not.
So I decided that this show I would do without. $25.00 for a show that we have already seen in four states is a little out of my budget, as much as I would have loved to see then again. In addition, Tim was already in, so at least one of us could be collecting material for the blog.
So I went to drink apricot beer with Slaby on a patio elsewhere, where we discussed and exchanged our views on networking and marketing and overzealous wine descriptions.
I headed back to the venue once the show was over to hang out with the folks I had missed. We considered going out and finding some adventure with everyone, but we were a bit tired and wanted to save some money. So we all headed back to Slaby’s where we ended up drinking homemade strawberry wine and playing cards until 2 AM anyway.
Day 3. We woke up late, had one last epic battle with Slaby and his oversized weaponry, and headed on our way. Next stop: Utah.
Megafaun Shenanigans.
Today’s posts are presented by Busy Bee Cafe!
The Busy Bee is one of Raleigh’s newest establishments, nestled in the center of the downtown district. Open 20 hours a day, the Busy Bee functions as a multi-level coffee shop, restaurant, and bar. You can stop by in the morning for fresh baked pastries and renowned Counter Culture Coffee, even stay a while and to use the free wifi and perch at a table in their loft to get some work done. You can enjoy the food menu all day, from tapas sharing plates to gourmet sandwiches to excellent entrees to late-night tater tots (my official post-midnight Raleigh addiction), crafted from local and organic ingredients. And then there’s the bar. Oh, that bar…
The Busy Bee boasts and outstanding selection of microbrews, with a beer, wine, and cocktail menu that changes seasonally. Their second floor bar, also known as The Hive, has its own custom menu for adult beverages, to be enjoyed on their rooftop patio (the only one in downtown Raleigh, mind you) or on the dance floor, usually to the accompaniment of a live band or awesome DJ. The Bee is constantly looking for innovative ways to create unique beverages, and you can usually find a new cocktail infusion being crafted every week. Their drinks are always stellar, and they happen to serve my favorite cocktail of all time: The Sting. It’s a Bee-invented fruit cocktail that involves fresh cilantro and jalapenos. Need I say more.
Tim and I absolutely love this place, and The Bee actually hosted our last Raleigh photography show for the month prior to our phototour. We love everyone involved at The Busy Bee and are so fortunate to always have their support.
Check out The Busy Bee at busybeeraleigh.com!
-H
Our next stop found us in Lawrence, Kansas. I never once thought that this would be a stop on our tour. The only experience I’ve had in Kansas prior to this was when I was touring the country two years ago, frantically driving out of Wichita, straight to Chicago, at 4 a.m., after making the mistake of staying with a man named Hyde, who turned out to be insane. I wasn’t ever planning on coming back to Kansas, with the exception of driving through it on the way to Omaha.
And here we were, sitting in a house a block from downtown Lawrence, drinking beer and playing through stop-motion videos with Megafaun. They were playing a show in town that night and suggested we come along to participate in the shenanigans.
We were all being put up for the night by Kevin Lawrence (of Lawrence) and his bandmates, who had set up the show and were opening for Megafaun. They were planning an epic post-show cookout for us. Beer, beards, and bratwurst. I’m thinking this detour was worth it.
The venue was incredible. Neon illustrations, black lights, pinball machines, spaceships hanging from the ceiling…. it felt like we were all in a comic book. The Megafaun dudes were telling us how talented Ample Brances (Kevin Lawrence of Lawrence’s band) was, but upon hearing them I was really blown away. Their music was so fun and jolly and awesome. And they all multitask quite well instrumentally. I always dig that.
Megafaun’s set was particularly awesome. They had to cater to more of a party crowd, but it worked out perfectly… the set just turned into a giant burly dance party.
We all finished the show up with a giant round of tequila, then marched back toward the house. I was a bit surprised to see it overflowing with people.
And so the shenanigans begin.
We never cooked the brats, but we made lots of new friends, drank more tequila, ate lots of Doritos, and took photos of beards until 5 in the morning. Thank you Lawrence… my views of Kansas have been redeemed.
Hp explores Omaha.
Greetings from Omaha!
This was the first time we actually had a deadline to be in a specific city. We knew that no matter where we ended up in the country prior to this, we needed to be in Omaha by the 22nd, as our friends Bowerbirds and Megafaun, two incredible bands based out of our hometown of Raleigh, were playing a show that night. No traffic jams this time… and we actually made it into town a day early!
This left me the entire following day to explore downtown before the show. The area where I spent most of my time could be compared to Raleigh’s warehouse district or downtown Durham… lots of old warehouses and otherwise giant brick buildings that had been renovated but still retained their integrity. The streets were made of brick and most of the streets had giant wooden awnings installed over the sidewalks with flowers planted on top. Way fun. The weather was a little crumby, but still good enough to snap a few shots.
I stumbled upon a random thrifty antique shop in the midst of my exploring… and was greeted twice by a young hipster lady who seemed too inebriated to realize she had started a conversation with me five minutes prior. I carried on the second conversation as if the first never happened. I’m not sure if she ever realized it. Perhaps that’s for the best.
I met back up with Tim and Alyssa, our lovely Omaha host, and we spent some time drinking coffee and browsing record shops (Saddle Creek Records, founded by Conor Oberst, is based out of Omaha… so you can get a lot of their tunes for cheap here).
Next stop: Meeting up with Bowerbirds & Megafaun. They were playing at the Slowdown, the venue owned by Saddle Creek. The venue was nice… very aethetically pleasing and quiet and completely devoid of smoke or grime. Nice change.
The show was great, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, and the show was well-received. We stayed for a bit to catch up with all of them post-showtime, but we were all so exhausted from our own individual tours that we said our goodbyes early and promised to catch up in Denver, when we all reunite.
Omaha day 2 consisted mostly of pizza, beer, and mustaches. Just you wait and see.
Chi-City v.2
Angus insisted that we start off our second day in Chicago with a proper meal. So we took a quick walk to the Cornerstone Cafe, a cute little spot nestled in the middle of a gargantuan 5-way intersection. I somehow championed a smoked salmon omelette the size of a football. I was comatose by the time I got back to the abode.
Tim and I split ways for the afternoon, and I wandered around with Angus and Adam until evening, when we all met back up at the bean. Oh, that bean. It really is more marvelous than I could have ever imagined.
We said our goodbyes to Adam and Angus for the evening so we could get some shooting done. We quickly found ourselves distracted by really nice grass in the park, sandwiches, and a free concert at the pavilion at Millennium Park. Cellos, violins, MacBooks, and beatboxing. The music was absolutely wonderful and I found myself unable to really function other than laying on the grass and letting all of this soak in. People actually live in this place. This type of afternoon is normal and accessible for them. They can do this whenever they want (minus the winter months). I’m still processing it.
So yeah, I’m completely enamored with Chicago. Glad that’s settled. Now moving on in hopes of falling in love with the next city.
Tour planning updates – 7/8
Hey folks! Welcome to the Well Done Media tour blog!
Tim and I have been hard at work preparing for our tour. We are in separate cities at the moment (he is currently in Raleigh, NC, and I am hiding out in New Bern, NC on a hiatus for productivity), which could have made planning a bit difficult, but we are making huge amounts of progress in very little time! It’s quite exciting.
Right now we are:
• Finishing up building the products page, where we will be posting media for sale that we create on the road. We already have some shots available for purchase in the shop, so take a gander if you’d like.
• Compiling giant lists of media to contact, in the Triangle area as well as the regions we plan to visit on our tour. I’m going to be contacting (approximately) millions of blogs, newspapers, and other online/print media and publications to get some serious coverage on our project, and will be continuing this process on the road.
• Compiling giant lists of potential sponsors… basically comprised of those who I think would benefit most from exposure to our projected public – the hip, youthful, tech-savvy folks who have a love for photography, travel, music, art, food… basically everything that we love and plan to cover while on the road, as well as folks in the Triangle area (that’s Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, NC, for those of you who are unfamiliar), as we’re anticipating a lot of online followers from our hometown region. (If you are interested in sponsoring or donating, however much or little, save me some time by contacting me! helena@welldonetour.com)
• Building a sponsorship profile at groupable.com, this really neat online platform that works as a liaison between those who sponsor and those who want to be sponsored. Genius! Feel free to check out our Groupable profile. You can just as easily find all of the information on our site, however, on Groupable, it all is consolidated quite nicely.
Anyway. Enough about that. I want to tell you a story about this guy named Simon Biswas.
Photocred: Simon Biswas
Simon is a photographer based in Jersey City, NJ. [Check out his incredible portfolio here.]
Simon is planning on driving across the United States on a phototour this summer. He is planning on leaving the same time we are planning to leave. We basically planned the EXACT SAME TRIP without having any knowledge of each other’s existence.
A mutual friend of ours, Adrienne [read her lovely foodblog here], noticed this, and referred him to me. So he emailed me.
It went directly to my spam folder. I never check my spam. I probably haven’t in half a year. And I happened to check it for the first time FOUR HOURS after he sent me that initial email. Fancy that.
So we’ve been exchanging information and plans and advice regarding our separate phototours, and obviously plan on having some sort of epic crossing of paths, because all of this is too crazy not to do something like that.
So far, we’re planning to meet up in NYC, bid him farewell as he begins his leg of the phototour (he is going clockwise, and we are going counter-clockwise). We will meet up again in Little Rock, Arkansas (somehow both of us have a ton of contacts there who all happen to be amazing people), then meet up again in San Francisco. It will be fun to see how our separate tours develop, and I will be regularly keeping all of you posted on where Simon is and what he is doing in relation to where we are and what we are doing.
Read Simon’s photoblog here.
Also:
We’d love to hear your feedback regarding the site, suggestions/recommendations for our travels, good places to go, people to meet, things to see/eat/do… Shoot us an email at info@welldonetour.com or leave us a blog comment. We’d love to hear from you! Seriously!
Ok, that’s all for now. More updates to come!
H
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.