Day 22 - Portland

Up early and sorted out some of the things I picked up last night doing Room to Room.

Had arranged to go again to look at two more local collectors homes and view their collections. This will make seven collections in total we have seen since arriving. They are all very interesting and all different. Some brewery collectibles only, others including some other hobbies or interests and others again that both the husband and wife collect together or have different collecting interests.

After visiting these collections our driver who is a local members wife very generously took the five of us in the car to the Kennedy School. 

The Kennedy School.Is a former elementary school in North East Portland. The school ran from 1915 till the 1970’s till changing demographics forced it to close. Built with artistic The school was going to be demolished by local officials but neighborhood opposition saved it. In the early 1990s the McMenamin Breweries bought the property and started to renovate it. When finished the original façade remained but inside was transformed into a unique building including a 57 room hotel, a theater, restaurant, bars, indoor pool and gymnasium, cinema and all walls are covered in artworks, photographs and the schools history.

   

It is an amazing place and would takers to walk around and look at all the items on display. I am sure if I ever get back to Portland I will definitely come back to explore it more.

McMenamin Breweries have done this to many former public style buildings in the Oregon and Washington States.

Coming back to the hotel about 4pm we then went to do some more walking from room to room looking at peoples different items they had for trade and sale.

A little while later my great mate Neil Thomas and his wife Andrea arrived at the hotel. They had already been holidaying in Canada and Alaska for a couple of weeks and are now here for their first American beer collectibles show. 

Between 6pm and 8pm all the attendees can come to a central area and get their show package. This consists of their name badge and name badges for any of their guests, a ticket for them to collect a commemorative can especially designed for the event and (if they are going to attend) a ticket to the Banquet which is held on the Saturday night at the end of the show.

Myself and Bruce Tainton had dinner with them in the hotel restaurant before I showed them around the other collectors rooms looking at all the collectibles on display. They also were able to meet a lot of the American collectors as well as the other international collectors. We walked around for a few hours before they went off to rest up for tomorrow and I kept walking around the room for a while before heading off to bed.