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October 30, 2006
TT: West Coast story
I'm writing from Seattle on Sunday night, having finally come to the end of a long, hectic weekend of theater-related travel and adventures.On Thursday I flew to Portland, Oregon, where my traveling companion and I picked up a rental car, headed for Hayden Island, and there took up residence on a yacht. That makes our accommodations sound a bit fancier than they really were: the Grand Ronde Place, the yacht-and-breakfast where I spent my two nights in Portland, is a thirty-four-foot sailboat whose interior is comparable in size to a motor home. The "stateroom," not surprisingly, was a bit on the snug side, but I'd always wanted to sleep on a boat, the owner-host was wonderfully considerate, and all in all we couldn't have been happier. Should you find yourself in Portland and feel like staying somewhere out of the ordinary, I recommend the Grand Ronde Place very enthusiastically.
On Friday morning we drove south to the Gordon House, the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building in the Pacific Northwest that's open to the public. Designed in 1957 and built seven years later, it's a two-story Usonian house that came within weeks of being torn down when a Philistine with too much money bought the lot on which it stood and decided that he'd prefer living in a McMansion. Thanks to a last-minute rescue effort by the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy, the house was dismantled in 2000 and moved twenty-four miles to the Oregon Garden, where it can now be viewed by interested visitors. We spent an hour and a half touring the house and grounds, and--as always--I came away wishing I could live in so perfectly conceived and executed a building. In the evening we saw Portland Center Stage's production of West Side Story, performed in the company's brand-new Gerding Theater, a 599-seat proscenium-stage house located in what used to be the Portland Armory.
At noon on Saturday we took the Amtrak Cascades to Seattle, an afternoon-long train trip through Oregon and Washington that left us with just enough time to dine on crabcakes at the Dahlia Lounge. Sunday, by contrast, was a triple-header: brunch with Mr. Rifftides, a matinée performance of Native Son at Intiman Theatre, and an evening performance of Steve Martin's The Underpants at ACT Theatre.
I'm in transit all day Monday, at the end of which I'll reclaim the Teachout Museum from Ms. in the wings, who's been housesitting for me. (She flew to New York from San Francisco last week to give a couple of concerts, staying at my apartment while I was on the West Coast.) I'll be spending Tuesday and Wednesday hitting a pair of deadlines, opening my mail, and recovering from the events of the past few days. Our Girl, who's been under the weather, will post if she feels up to it, but don't expect to hear from me again until Thursday.
Have a nice week!
Posted October 30, 2006 12:00 PM
