We had a very late checkout from the hotel in San Francisco this morning so Dan and I visited Mels diner for late breakfast where I inhaled the 'Elvis scramble' (managed to resist the hash browns) then it was a long and careful bag pack before departing to Oakland for the final time.

I don't know anyone who doesn't like Portland Oregon, it's a beautiful town in the North West of the US with quite a similar climate to the UK plus it happens to be the self-proclaimed windsurfing capital of America. Once again as we landed we all noticed the effect of the Californian wild fires, an eerie haze hangs over pretty much the entire state and on into Washington State too. Anyway, we always relish coming here and particularly to this beautiful theatre.

It's sheer luxury the be playing chilled-out outdoor venues one minute and then gorgeous theatres the next and tonight at the Arlene Schnitzer the sound onstage was great and the audience were simply fantastic.

An added bonus tonight was that the hotel is literally next door, in fact it's the same block so after the show we were escorted through the back door, through the hotel kitchens and into the service elevator to our floors. As we pulled up to the hotel I snapped this fiery 993RS.

The shiny crew buses

I was reminded of a few things from last night's show reading Isaac's blog, it seems Isaac is attempting to beat Martina Weselowski's show attendance record but we aren't doing enough shows to allow it. The balcony of the theatre is indeed most decoratively adorned and is very pleasant to see from the stage. The small incident involving Paul Crockford during the encores was due to the usual ill-advised security guy who attempted to get one bloke back into his seat whilst everyone around him was happily dancing away. Paul intervened stating that he was 'management' and it was allowed. I could see the security guy didn't believe PC and got on his radio, it was fine in the end.

After the show we kept the hotel bar open later than their 11:00 closing time and the hotel bar staff were very accommodating. Everyone here does seem to be particularly friendly here, a lovely town.