From Abe with the Timbers Army. Hi Sean- Matt Talley ias setting up a meet and greet at the Bitter End Friday Night. Saturday I have arranged for the discounted admission to the Portland Cheers to Belgian Beers Event to be extended to both 107ist and your folks. Do you have member cards? If so if you could send me the image so I can forward it to the festival organizer. The deal is 2 glasses and 20 drink tickets for $30, (regular price $40, or 1 glass and 10 tickets for $15 (regular price $20) The glasses are glass stemware so folks should plan to bring them back to the hotel before the game, as they won't be allowed into the stadium. More details on the fest are here. http://oregonbeer.org/pctbb/ it's an easy trip by MAX train, though you will have to change trains once. Cheers,
Vancouver pre game is at Doolin's for anyone who hadn't seen it. The Southsiders invited us and we would like to get as many people there as possible. Please join us and help spread the word. I plan on arriving at 4pm and walking toward the stadium around an hour before the game. The bar is around 7 blocks west of the stadium. http://www.doolins.ca/ My wife and I are going to Grouse Mountain on Thursday for anyone that is interested. We are zip lining at 1pm and will be heading up in the morning. We'd be more than willing to go with other KC folks. Email me at benc1357@yahoo.com We leave on the train from Van to Port at 640am Friday morning. Sean has posted Portland stuff. What I know so far is Friday night at The Bitter End which is across the street to the north of the stadium. Saturday still seems to be up in the air. The beer thing that Sean posted above is a bit away from the stadium so some of us may be staying closer to the stadium side of the river. We can discuss on Friday at The Bitter End if we don't work anything out before.
I was late getting in on this trip and I need some help. Does anyone have extra space in their room Friday and Saturday night in Portland?
See everyone at Doolin's Wednesday afternoon before the game. Anyone extending their stay in B.C.? We are going to make our way over to Victoria sometime on Thursday, stay overnight and spend most of Friday in Victoria.
I was gonna stay Thursday but we decided we wanted to spend the extra day in Portland again. Gonna try and pack in as much Canadian adventure into the short period as possible tomorrow.
Head out to the Butchart Gardens if you have time. I am not really a Garden type guy but it was well worth the trip and amazing. http://www.butchartgardens.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Guys, not trying to crash the party or anything, but the wife and I will be out in Portland again for the game sat. If there are any saturday pre-game meetup plans we would like to join you. If not we'll look for everyone up in section 223 ready to paint it blue. C'mon KC! cheers
Meet us at The Bitter End on Friday and we will decide what to do for Saturday. Keep an eye on twitter, facebook and (possibly) here for updates.
Anyone have any news from the Road Trip? How were the venues, the natives? My girlfriend is on a return flight to KC from Phoenix. Says there are a bunch of SKC fans on the flight. Her text: "They don't look defeated."
It was a great time. The Vancouver stadium doesnt feel like a soccer stadium. It is like a large arena. I felt like I was in an expanded Sprint Center rather than a stadium. It's nice but I am glad we arent playing in something like that. It's very large and not intimate at all. We actually outnumbered the Vancouver fans in their own bar because of the Canucks game which is all anyone cared about in the whole city. I am really glad the Canucks one because it made the atmosphere after the game a lot more fun. The Southsiders that were there were very friendly. People in Vancouver are all amazingly friendly. Everyone is outgoing and helpful wherever you go. I have never seen a city that was so alive in it's downtown. There were people everywhere, all the time. I bet there were hundreds of people on any street at any given time. It's a very urban city and I will definitely be back when I can spend a few days. I loved the stadium in Portland. It is probably my second favorite that I have been to behind Livestrong. The fans were very hospitable and I didnt have to buy hardly any drinks when I was at their home bar because they were bought for me. I did walk through the Timber's Army section at halftime and had a girl tell me she was going to kill me but that was the only bad remark on got from any fan on the entire trip. Most people in the stadium were impressed with our numbers and thanked me for coming. I will write more about my trip but right now I am exhausted.
Portland - I was very impressed with the atmosphere at Jeld-Wen. The TA section literally shakes that place. They were very loud. An older facility, but it was clean and I thought it had character. Yeah, it is not grass, but it never crossed my mind during the game. The play of the ball seemed natural. They have a good thing going there. Vancouver - Ok, so the Canucks were playing hockey, so it was difficult to gauge the true atmosphere of their supporters. Watching a game on plastic, indoors in an oversized facility felt odd. Reminded me of the old days when I would watch the Mariners in the Kingdome. I can't imagine that this is a long-term venue. Both - Downtown venues that made use of walking and mass-transit was cool. Their supporters did not give me any issues before or after the games.
On this trip, I used buses, cabs, and even a ferry. It is funny in Vancouver when you ask how to get somewhere and they tell you the distance in walking time. It is 5 minute walk here or a 20 minute walk there. We probably asked people about 10 times how to get places and every single time it came with approximate walking distance. It was never in driving or bus distance. It seems like everyone walks everywhere.
I weighed in a bit ago just out of curiosity, I lost at least 6-7 pounds by just walking everywhere, even though I drank and ate everything in sight. KC needs to step the game up. And you should have brought the threat girl back to my hotel. I'm still looking for my scarf trading girl, little did she know that she also collected my heart.
Yeah, I sure was. A couple of Timber's fans heard it and they looked at my and rolled their eyes and kind of gave me an apologetic look.