Monday, May 27 is a great day to relax, fire up the barbie and grill up some great northwest grub. We’re thinking salmon, fresh asparagus, or some local organic beef.

While you do, say thanks to the great men and women who served in our armed forces and made the sacrifices, great and small, to allow us the freedom and prosperity we enjoy on our fine summery day off.

And say hello to summer! Roses, beer festivals and long outdoor hikes can’t be far off now!

(If “long outdoor hikes” seems ambitious, we might suggest two-hour walking tours, which can involve roses, beer, and great food… just sayin’.)

We all know by now that Portland is as cool as it gets, not least because it’s becoming such a huge favorite for indy film and TV producers to shoot hip, leading-edge productions here. We also have some awesome film events like the International Film Festival.

But did you know we are host to the largest animated film festival in the U.S.?

We are, and you can be part of it – this weekend, at the Hollywood Theater on NE Sandy Blvd.

The 150-film, three-day festival (three evenings, two afternoons) starts this Friday night with thirty – yes, thirty! – short films on the first night (two intermissions, so you can tweet highlights to the SocioSphere). Things like:

• A thief who steals famous paintings, eats them, and is physically transformed by what he consumes…
• Two cavemen in search of a fabled mathematical dinosaur…
• A romance of amoebas, as witnessed through the lens of a microscope…
• A young New Yorker who finds the girl of his dreams with help from an army of enchanted paper airplanes…

And lots, lots more!

So, mark it up to yet another chance to do the hippest thing in the country and make your east coast (or Seattle, or L.A.) friends jealous.

Oh, and if you want to buy tickets or find more info, click here.

Does the mother in your life have enough chocolate?

(Hint: The answer is always “No.”)

Well, in case it has crept up on you unawares, we felt you ought to know that this Sunday, May 12, is Mother’s Day. And we have the perfect solution for her insufficient supply and variety of chocolate.

Give her decadence. In particular, Chocolate Decadence. A tour dedicated to all things chocolate.

She’ll thank you for indulging her with chocolate in myriad forms. Be it whipped, melted, or served as a drink, she’ll master the subtleties of chocolate in its various forms and types.

And she’ll remember you as the best son, daughter, husband, etc. EVER.

And if touring with her on Mother’s Day isn’t an option, buy a Gift certificate so you can bring her on one or more of these tours at a time most convenient to you her. We’ll make sure you receive your ready-for-printing (and framing?) certificate well before you surprise her with breakfast in bed on Sunday morning.

The greatest thing about these ideas? You can take care of it right now, so you won’t be panicking on the morning of May 12. Get ahead of the game – Buy now!

Say what you will about the economy – Portland is a “boomtown,” according to the financial whizzes on Yahoo.com.

Portland ranks ninth in the U.S. in a recent study that used a “boomtown” measure that combines population growth and growth in gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation. We were also the top-rated city on the west coast for Boomitude, with Santa Clara, CA coming in twelfth.

Read more here:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-top-12-american-boomtowns-134810207.html

If you got up early this morning and turned your TV to “Good Day Oregon”, you’d have seen some exciting news – and gotten a great sneak peek into our newly unearthed subterranean territory on our Underground Portland and Beyond Bizarre tours.

KPTV “On the Go” reporter Joe Vithayathil took a below-the-streets look at the newly excavated area in a series of segments on the Channel 12 news show, in which a number of topics explored on the tour were introduced – and some of the newly discovered artifacts were revealed.

We recommend you check your cable or satellite provider’s “on demand” archives and take a look at these segments. They’re great fun – and you’ll get a much better idea of what the tour is about from these clips.

Of course, an even better way to explore Underground Portland is to just go on the tour. Or watch our own video clips. But, you knew we’d say that.

Even Seattle loves “Flavor Street.”

Seattle writer Sue Frause usually touts the great stuff about her hometown Emerald City, but in this column she talks about her most recent annual trek to Portland. In the column she mentions how much she loves all of our tours (Thank you, Sue!) but also specifically notes about Flavor Street, “the two-hour tour is a fun way to sample your way through the downtown food carts. Plus, no guilt, as you’re walking all those calories off.”

Great point, Sue! We’ll have to remind our guides to include that on the tour.

Not only was Flavor Street specifically lauded in the column, but we were one of only two recommendations in the “Where to Play” section of the article. Yay, Flavor Street! Yay, Portland food carts!

Are you nerdy enough to live in Portland?

Portland was ranked at No. 2 in a list of the Top 10 Nerdiest Cities in America, according to the real estate blog Movoto. Only Atlanta was considered “nerdier.” Seattle was ranked third.

The rankings were based on several factors, including:

• Number of annual comic book, video game, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy conventions
• People per comic book store, video and traditional gaming stores, computer store, and bookstore
• People per LARPing group (whatever that is)
• People per science museum
• Distance to the nearest Renaissance faire

(Wait… aren’t those things kind of cool?)

We should be proud to be #2 on this list. After all, being ranked #1 is so… mainstream.

Our guests often ask, “Is it appropriate to tip our tour guide? Don’t they get a salary?”

The answer is, yes, it is customary (although never mandatory) to tip a guide who has given you good service, just as it is customary to tip other hard-working professionals in service industries, such as a hotel concierge, a valet, a waiter, or massage therapist.

This is true even though each one of those individuals very likely draws at least a nominal salary from their company. For better or worse, service industries have evolved in this way. Rather than building the gratuity into the base price, we keep the base price low while enabling the direct recipient (the customer) to reward good service when it happens, typically with a gratuity of 10-20%.

On the other hand, it is unprofessional to say the least, and unethical at worst, for a guide (or waiter, or any service providing individual) to request tips outright, or insinuate any wrongdoing on your part if you choose not to tip.

Our advice to you if this happens: politely decline and walk away. And look for tour companies who leave those choices up to you, without pressure.

What is there to do today?

Sometimes the answer to that is, “It depends… what day is it?”

But not anymore. From now on the answer is, “Take a tour of Portland!”

Because no matter what day it is, you can take a fun, fascinating, mind-expanding tour of Portland – be it the best that the city has to offer (http://bit.ly/BestofPDXBl) or the worst (http://bit.ly/ShanghaiTourBl).

We’re running tours daily from now until late fall. And as the days get warmer and longer, we’ll add even more tours and tour times.

Want tickets? Go here.

See you ’round town… every day!

Thirsty? Need a beer, or a glass of pinot?

(Of course. We’re in Portland, right?)

You’re in luck. The nineteenth annual Spring Beer and Wine Fest starts Friday, March 29 and runs thru Sunday, at the Oregon Convention Center.

This year, over 40 breweries, sporting over 80 beers, take center stage, but they’ll be joined by over 20 wineries, nine distillers and a handful of cider makers as well as a variety of vendors of food, chocolate, and merchandise.

Cost starts at $20 for the basic entry package (includes all-day admission, tasting glass and ten tokens), with VIP options running up to $45. But this year, there are two special promotions that could get you free admission!
* Admission FREE to the first 500 guests on Friday, March 29. (It pays to plan ahead.)
* Admission FREE on Saturday for all Hoppity Hops Fun Run participants. (It pays to have fun.)

Find more information and tickets at http://www.springbeerfest.com.