Burger, A Beer, and Pinball

 Portland, OR

Taking Advantage of Daylight

This afternoon, 5pm to be precise, I left the Airbnb to walk to dinner.  Donna was looking to stay at home and relax with Francis who isn't feeling 100% so I found a few things to do on my own.  My first stop would be Hit The Spot, a very Portland burger place. I walked a mile and a half across The Willamette River and through parts of Portland I haven't really seen yet.  I saw all sorts of bars and places that looked interesting.  One of those interesting looking places was a bar called Creepy's.  It turns out Creepy's was right across the street from my dinner location so I did some research while I waited for my food.  It turns out they have pinball!

My Burger

Hit the Spot used to be a food truck but now they have a brick and mortar location.  You order your food either before you get there, which most people coming in seemed to do, or you can order on a tablet at the counter.  I put in an order for a burger and fries and found a seat near the window.

The burger was great but I wasn't a fan of the crinkle fries (sorry no food pics).  I would go back for the burger though.  While waiting and eating I decided I had enough time to check out Creepy's.  I usually don't like walking into a bar the first time to just play pinball so I abandoned half my fries to save calories for a Vitamin R (Rainier Beer).  I am counting calories now because a month in Vegas took its toll on my waist a little.

Creepy's

Creepy's seemed like a cool place from the outside and it had an Independence Day pinball machine which I haven't played in recent history, so I headed over.

This-a-way to Creepy's

The bar was really cool.  Creepy clowns and dolls as well as creepy portraits.  I like this bar already!

They have a bank of 3 machines that seemed to be in excellent shape.

My Vitamin R was perfect for the situation.

I was there to play Independence Day.

When I walked up to Independence day I noticed 2 quarters on top of the machine.  I was the only one there so took this as an invitation to play. I put the quarters in the machine and suddenly had 4 credits.  There were already 3 credits on the machine.  Cool!  I spent my first game feeling out the shots and figuring out what to do and then I had a great 2nd game earning a Replay for my effort.  I ended up leaving 3 credits on the machine for the next person like me to walk in.  I would like to go back with Donna and play more pinball and show her the Creepy.

I also want to take more photos.  I wasn't able to capture all of it in one short visit.

My Father's Place

The real event for the night was a Pinball Tournament at My Father's Place.  My Father's Place is a Portland institution.  They serve breakfast all day and serve up reasonably priced drinks.  It was described to me as the best Dive Bar in Portland but I don't think I would call it a dive bar.  

The back area where the games were kept was pretty crowded during the tournament.

The tournament was a weekly tournament that moves around to different locations in the city.  Pinball tournaments are interesting because every one is a little different.  This one used a different Pinball Tournament App to run it and, in my experience, you usually just plunge extra balls, but in this tournament you got to flip the flippers one time.  Another difference is that you flipped a coin with our opponent to decide what order you played in.   People usually like to play last because you know what score you need to beat when it is your turn.  The tournament was a 3 Strikes Tournament.  There were 18 entrants and it ran very smoothly.

My first round was on Deadpool.  I had one of the worst games I have ever had but it was a fun round.  The guy I played with opened with the fact that he had just been making Origami with a friend of his before the tournament.  He was really excited about Origami and even had some pictures to show me.  He wanted to make a train out of a dollar bill and was working towards that goal.  

This is the photo he showed me.  Make note that it is a single dollar bill.

The rest of the tournament was fun.  I won 2 rounds so I ended up going out in Round 5.  The two other rounds I lost were inevitable.  I pretty much had no chance to win with my current skills.  I was happy with my showing and very proud of a big win on Theater of Magic.  I believe I ended up tied for 11th out of 18, which isn't as good as I would like, but I would have needed different opponents to advance farther.

It was a good evening of pinball.  Johnny Mnemonic, Sopranos, and Independence Day were new or relatively new machines for me.  I have played them before, but not in recent history and not with the mind set of creating a tournament strategy for them.  I am also not very familiar with Lord of the Rings.  I have a lot of machines to learn and am looking forward to getting better.  On the way out I thanked the tournament director for a well run tournament and told a few players I was familiar with that I would see them tomorrow at Ground Kontrol.  My trip home was on the Street Car.  

That's it for today.  If you missed, The Foodie Adventure Continue, check it out.  We had great food in Portland, as one does.