Opera in Portland

Just returned from a pleasant little vacation in Portland. As usual, we stayed at Northrup Station, a kind of retro hip hotel with kitchens, two tvs,lots of purple and orange, great little conti breakfasts, up on 21st on the streetcar line and near some really fine restaurants including Wildwood.
Portland Opera did Rodelinda, the story line is: queen thinks king dead, refuses to marry new king, new king threatens to kill old kings son, queen says ok I will marry you, but only if you kill my son...now it starts to get confusing. Old king comes back (not dead) hides and watches wife betray him by agreeing to marry new king, reveals himself, tossed in prison, escapes with the help of the help, who he stabs by accident, challenges new king to duel, last part mostly singing the same thing over and over for the better part of 20 minutes while wandering around the stage hugging wife, pointing sword at new, now old king, hugging son, shaking hands with stabee, hugging sister (who has hots for new/old king) repeat at least 5 times, bow. Here is wikipidia version (better than mine)
I stayed awake! Even after we had a very big dinner at Morton's, where they bring the cow out and you draw with magic marker the part you want.(vague reference to Restaurant at the End of the Universe). After the third half of the opera was over we returned to Morton's for desert and really old scotch.
The next morning required a visit to Rose's for a BIG breakfast. I had the BISCUITS AND GRAVY, with eggs, ham, and hash browns. Oh boy was it good!
We ended the day walking around the garden and patio show at the convention center. There we found an umbrella with lights, an Ipod port, speakers, and enough big to cover a small house. Needless to say, we bought it (sans Ipod port and speakers) one has to draw the line SOMEWHERE!
All in all a great escape. Nice to be back in Eugene.