First off, I want to apologize for the long delay. Usually I try to post within a week of my trip ending, but a perfect storm of many things hit, & I am not able to post until now.
This was an unusual trip. Usually, most of my trips center around a state & a chess tournament, or two state s& two chess tournaments. However, I wasn't able to find a tournament in Washington the week before or after the Oregon Open. So, I decided to bookend the trip by visiting Mushroom Kingdom related places.
I ended up going to Seattle first, did the Space Needle on Thursday, a Top Chef Restaurant Thursday Night, & the video game convention PAX West, & Nintendo Live. I then drove down from PAX West directly to Portland to play in the Oregon Open. I spent a little time in & around Portland on Tuesday, then hopped on a Southwest flight Portland to Burbank. I finished the trip with most of two days at Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood before flying home.
If you wish to skip down to the actual Oregon/Chess Stuff, feel free to do so. Otherwise, just enjoy the ride.
Trip Part 1 - Seattle
So, I touched down in Seattle on August 31 roughly 10:00 - 10:15 am local time (which is Pacific Time Zone), & I drove up north to the Space Needle. I thought it was ridiculous of me to schedule an 11:45 am space needle visit since it was "only" 30 minutes driving north of Sea-Tac Airport, but there was a LOT of traffic around the airport. It took me over 30 minutes mostly standing in line to get to a shuttle bus to go to the rental car counter, & then it took another 30 minutes to exit the rental car parking garage. An accident had blocked the exit passageway & reduced traffic to one lane. I began having some flashbacks to the Houston night traffic that I saw.
Traveling Note: Parking Garages in Downtown Seattle are expensive. Look before you leap. Street parking is there, but limited. Have fun with that.
I made my way up to the Space Needle, & it was fun to look around the city from up high, as well as learn things about the construction of the Space Needle while waiting in line. I took some videos & photos from the top & posted them on the following instagram links:
Daytime Views from the Space Needle
View of the Amazon HQ Office, according to the Space Needle
I did take some additional photos that the Space Needle sent to me via email, but I have not yet shared them yet, so you get to see it first here:
Pretty difficult workout, as rowing is my best of the four machines, but I gave it my best. Fun coach & good classmates there.
I ended up going to a place called Kobo Pizza. The restaurant is owned by Top Chef finalist Shota Nakajima, who I was really fond of during his season of Top Chef. It's a small restaurant inside the Redhook Brewlab, so of course I felt nervous about being a dry twit (dry in this case meaning I don't drink alcohol) entering an alcoholic place, but I eventually found it. I had some difficulty with the ordering system. So, how the ordering system works, is you're supposed to read the QR code off the table stand into your phone, & you access the menu that way. The computer stand near by was supposed to be for takeout orders only. But the QR code wasn't working on my phone, so I just indicated to the staff that my order was for here rather than to go.
I ended up sitting at a table occupied by a woman who was visiting Seattle for work, but from Portland. It ended up being a fun conversation over dinner. (Even more fun than the random lunch conversation in Chicago where the woman I talked to joked about diets before revealing she is a dietician from Las Vegas if you remember that.) She was able to give me suggestions for places to do & things to eat in Portland, & I think I ended up taking her advice on at least one of them.
I never posted a picture of my pizza, mainly because I forgot to take one, but I had the Kimchi Pineapple Pie, which was really good. (Side note, if anyone tells you pineapple doesn't belong on pizza, that's fine - give me that person's pineapple pizza lol.).
Friday, September 1 - Nintendo Live
So I had a one-day ticket to PAX West & was lucky enough to be selected to go to Nintendo Live.
It was really huge, & I got to do lots of stuff, including try out Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It was kind of funny that I as Fire Luigi picked Daisy as my character for the 15-minute trial period, but I am sure my character's girlfriend (Yes I ship Daisy & Luigi, & there is canon evidence to boot of their relationship if you look through the video games & the dialogue) would approve as this will be the 4th time I get to main Daisy (Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Mario Party, Mario Golf Super Rush).
I believe I uploaded to my instagram page the PAX West 2023 Stories, which included a few funny videos I got to do. I don't know how to link directly to the story collection, but if you can find my instagram page (thekecmaster), you should see it.
My only regrets were I could have spent more time at Nintendo Live (only an hour), & the line for the pop up shop was already an hour & 15 minutes. It was still better than when my friends made it to Nintendo Live on Monday of that weekend as the pop up store line was 3 hours & the items I would have liked for them to buy were apparently gone. I wrote a note to myself to maximize my next trip to the Mushroom Kingdom as much as possible.
I rejoined my friends to continue walking around the rest of PAX West, & I gotta say, the event is so huge that we walked to different buildings. There were a couple of things that bothered me before I left: 1) We saw all of 1 person cosplaying Mario. Heck, we saw more Warios, Waluigis, Boosettes, & Toads, than we did of Mario!! 2) I didn't appear to find the video game fan artists I was expecting. I brought a binder with me on the trip expecting to purchase video game fan art, but didn't find any! Ah well, there's always another convention I can do so at.
This was my haul from Nintendo Live.
Trip - Part 2 - Foxy Cafe, Tacoma, Washington
I left PAX West just after 4pm & started driving down to Portland from Seattle. I figured that I would visit a bikini cafe /restaurant on my way down, since it makes no sense that I visited a bikini coffee shop in Arizona & none in Seattle where the craze seems to have started. I ended up going to Foxy Lady Bikini Bar. Nothing special, although I forgot to change out of my Fire Luigi costume. I did consent to a few pictures being taken there, so if you see a picture of Fire Luigi at Foxy Lady Bikini Bar...that might have been me.
Additional problem was the overalls got extra smell from smokers outside & some idiot throwing up less than 20 feet near me.
Trip - Part 3 - Portland, Oregon
I continue the drive, & as I get to Portland, I call up the Hotel asking about Parking. They said that Valet Parking was 57 dollars a night (or whatever the amount was, I just know it began with a 5) & do not park in the parking garage behind them as that a car was just stolen the night before. I knew people before the trip told me Portland was bad, but when you have a hotel tell you where not to park because of a carjacking, that can't be a good sign.
By the way, the Moxy, where I stayed at, is a bar first & then a hotel. The bar doubles as the check in point. I walked right by the hotel before realizing this. Oops. Now, I am still dressed up as Fire Luigi, having made the decision to drop my stuff off on the 11th floor (thank you for giving me a high room or bar noises may have kept me awake), I decide to get my signature fake drink, ginger ale with no ice & an orange slice.
Some random woman flags me over...& I wish I had ignored her. After commenting on the Luigi getup for a little bit, she starts talking so explicitly that even porn stars & other adult entertainers would be blushing. I didn't even bother the getting to know the name stage, though I do feel bad for her friend, who was thoroughly horrified. I just looked at my drink & did not finish it, fearing that there was something in it.
Saturday, Sept. 2
I woke up sick - I started coughing quite a bit. I took a quick detour before the first round to a random CVS & bought some COVID-19 tests. Thankfully, it was negative, so I could play. (By the way, getting sick on vacation is no fun - how are you supposed to vacation? You should be getting sick while working, because you can now work from home in some industries.) I didn't play great, but I managed two draws in my first two rounds. The Chief TD held a players-only reminder of the rules, etc. 15 minutes before the start of Round 1. He was explicit & clear, & I felt he would be a good chief tournament director, unlike the person at the 2022 NJ Open who shall remain nameless. We did not have any round start more than 10 minutes late, & we did not have to skip an entire round. (Yes, both of those happened in 2022 at the NJ Open - a 4.5 hour delay for Round 1 on Saturday. Thank goodness I opted to play the two-day schedule last year.)
As I was walking to dinner, I did see a funny sign that I had to take a picture of
They named the app for parking a Parking Kitty App in Portland! That is cute & awesome at the same time. It's just unfortunate that there was some extra graffiti applied to this sign, but man, I know cats & cat lovers out there would love this, as well as any culture that worships cats.
I walked around to one of the places my unexpected dinner partner (by the way, not a date) at Kobo recommended: Jojo, where I ended up getting the Fried Chicken Melt sans Ranch & a non-alcoholic Ginger beer. I loved how the recommendation worked out - fantastic. I then stopped by the Cookie Dough Cafe on my way back to have Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Oreo Pieces on top!.
On my way back to the Moxy, Ms. explicit drunk woman wasn't there, so I felt very relieved. There was a much more attractive woman wearing pink pants, but as she was working the bar/concierge desk, I knew better than to flirt with her. (There is a reason I bring her up & it will come up later.)
Just before Round 3, the Chief TD indicated that they raised prized by 50% due to bigger turnout than expected. Here was a picture of the updated prizes:
On Sunday, I played a game that my opponent kind of made easy for me, winning in 31 moves due to bad piece placement on her part. (Apologies for not using Stockfish - I haven't installed it on my new machine yet.)
In the end, either her Bishop falls or her pawns on the Kingside get wiped out.
At some point in the early stage of Round 3, there were a few disturbances from the open section where supposedly there was a homeless man in the room & someone throwing water in to the air & hitting players. I don't know the full story, but I definitely heard things. Also, someone started kept stealing the extra results posting sheet the TDs posted. Let's back up - The TDs posted one pairing/result sheet on the wall between the U2000 & the Open, & another pairing/result sheet on the table in front of the Open Section. I think it was a mistake for the TDs to let players post the results on the table sheet, as going forward there was always missing results. The Chief instructed players to write results on both pairing/result locations, but that was definitely not done & that paper pairing/results sheet on the table was always stolen in each and every round after!
By the way, I ate at Denny's in between Rounds 3 & 4. Another sign that you are in a bad place - there are signs telling customers not to bring backpacks into the bathroom. I can tell you I have never seen that sign anywhere that I can recall ever being in, like New York, Newark, Cream Cheese City, Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte. It's probably a sign that people are going into the restrooms to do drugs, but man that was unsettling to see.
I played better in Round 4 as well, but I misplayed a situation & ended up having to take a draw. I'm still kicking myself for not grabbing the exchange, but I thought that his Bishop at the time was more dangerous than the Rook. I'll show the position only down below.
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| R4 Bhaskaran-Chen After 24. Be4 |
That night, I noticed that my room, while it had a rotary phone, had a special button - Press Here for bedroom stories.
I was curious as to what bedroom stories would be told, so I decided to press this button. Miss Pink Pants (I recognized her voice from a previous night, just never knew her name) answered the phone & informed me that yeah, the button simply calls down to the concierge desk. No actual stories told. That button was for a prior time. Yeah, I was blushing when I apologized for that unnecessary call the next morning.
On Monday, I lost a heartbreaker in Round 5, which took me out of the prize money, but at least I finished Round 6 with a win, closing out the tournament with a winning record.
I went to Multnomah Falls on Tuesday (Sept. 5). It was a really nice hike to reach the top of the waterfall. I had a hard time taking pictures up top (heights), but I managed a few extra ones I never posted before, so here you go.
From the Parking Lot
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After a quick stop for lunch, I went back to the heart of downtown to go inside Powell's City of Books. It is a fascinating place, with aisles color coded & such. I regret timewise that I only had about half an hour to spend before I needed to get to the airport (& pick up a replacement Nintendo Switch charger, my first lost fumble of the trip, along the way to PDX), but I did manage to pick up four or five books so, I guess there's that.
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| States I have played in - updated 2023.09.23 |
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| Win-Loss State Map - Updated 2023.09.23 |
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| Combined Playing & Results Map - Updated 2023.09.23 |
And with the Chess Maps put up, that officially ends #StateNo35 for #fiftystatesofchess, but if you wish to hear the rest of the trip, read on.
Trip - Part 4 - Burbank
After flying in to Burbank, I tried to call up my hotel to double check if they had a shuttle bus from Burbank airport to the hotel. Unfortunately, the powers of my traveling bad luck decided to strike at that exact point as the phones were out for roughly 15 minutes at the hotel. Hearing no pickups within the 5-7 minutes, I called a lyft instead. When I got to the hotel, they apologized for the communication issue & comped me a pair of water bottles & some snacks, which made up for it.
On Wednesday, September 6, I left the hotel early dressed in my blue Toad Reverse color hat, Super Mario blue shirt, & Super Mario zipper sweater from CrossFit Treehouse (Thanks everyone!) with my blue Toad normal hat as a spare. I got to Universal Hollywood at 7:15 expecting to join a line, but instead I was near the front! It turns out that the hours I read in trip preparation must have been the summer hours & that the park (now in Fall Hours) wouldn't open for early access to Super Nintendo World until 9am. I just asked security if I could wait by the scanning machines & they said sure. At 7:30 they started letting people go through the scanning machines, & you can now take selfies by the Universal Studios globe they set up (pictured below) while waiting for the park to open.
Interestingly, they started making announcements & stuff, & they finally opened the park at 8:30am to the early access entrants. (I played Mario Kart Tour on the mobile phone for most of that time while waiting.) It does take a while to talk down to Super Nintendo World, so they have staggered points - walk to a point, stop, then walk to another point, stop, etc.
You finally get close, & you realize you have reached your destination when you hear the music just before walking through the pipe that takes you in.
Lots of people went straight to the Bowser's Mario Kart Challenge as that line tended to be the longest. I veered left & grabbed a Power Up Band, a colorful watch-like device that keeps track of your actions in the park. So every time you punched a block, or did some other recordable action, you would accumulate points & keys (hopefully) toward a score. One of the games needs three keys to unlock, but you can get a key in more than 3 ways at a time. I think if you do it right you can at least 5 keys going through everything one round at a time. Each of those games, assuming the same wristband starts the game, gets harder as you win at it.
I selected a Toad Power-up Band, as I cosplay Toad the most often, I use Toad the most where speed matters (Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Run), & I have the most Toad Hats (at least 16). They do have Power-Up Bands for Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, & Yoshi. Once you select your band & do the configuration, you join that character's team.
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| The eyes on the end just get me lol. |
Here are a few screenshot pics from the app:
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| Some Stamps are repeatable |
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| Map to help you find things you haven't done yet. |
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| I ended up repeating this all but once, & only because my left arm wasn't registering. |
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| There are some stamps in the 131 I can never get, but that's okay. I ended up getting 19 more on Thursday. |
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| Thursday Mario Kart Ranking...how different it is when you learn where the fire buttons are lol. |
I got really lucky to eat at Toadstool Cafe both days. First two foods eaten on Wednesday. Warning: Reserve quickly as they run out of room!
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| Yoshi's Favorite Fruit and Veggie Salad(VG) |
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| Fire Flower Spaghetti & Meatballs |
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| Toadstool Cheesy Garlic Knots(VG) |
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| Mario Burger (Bacon, Mushroom & Cheese) |
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| Princess Peach Cupcake(VG) |
Hat wasn't edible, but the Crown was.
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| This is the selfie I meant to post online on the gram, but I selected the wrong one. |
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun at Super Nintendo World. I know there were things that didn't work, but overall I think they did a good job to cover the range of the Mario diehards & the Mario rookies.
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| From Thursday, when I wore the reversed color Toad hat! |
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| One of the very few quips - You could play Where's Daisy & Where's Rosalina in this park. |
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| Fire Mario Hat for kicks |
I did also get to see the Studio Tour, though I only took pictures at the cars (See the last three pictures in the post), & Harry Potter World (first few pictures in the post), where I bought a Ravenclaw scarf. I sadly lost my Ravenclaw hat, which annoys me.
I met up with my friend Hya over the break, & we ate at Lucifer's Pizza on Magnolia Boulevard on that Wednesday night.
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| Meat Lover's Pizza |
And that concludes my trip!
