ok, well what about Portland, Oregon?

My wife has worked for the state of Oregon for over a decade (although she works remotely/in an office in Portland). The benefits (esp. retirement and health insurance) are pretty great.

Meeting some friends here next Thursday to Monday. Any bars/breweries to see live music that don't require tix ahead of time?

Laurelthirst!
https://laurelthirst.com/

you are just barely missing Michael Hurley, sorry to say

Oh, damn!

Thanks for the recommendation. This looks great.

http://www.rontoms.net/sunday-sessions

The Rontoms Sunday sessions are a thing to see, free show, nice venue, not a dive bar, meant to be a sort of showcase for the Portland scene such as it is and they do a pretty good job, have shared a bill with Yuvees who are playing next and they are solid

Many other bars/venues with live music friendly to walk-ins as well, depending on what vibe you're after, happy to make a more specific recommendation regarding style/neighborhood but

https://nearhear.app/

keeps tabs on most of them, with little preview clips of the bands playing

That’s super helpful.

Especially interested in breweries with music in the afternoon or early evening.

Seconding Laurelthirst. Also Turn! Turn! Turn! has bands of all kinds every night.

Interesting question about breweries--not sure why none that come to mind double as music venues. But Migration Brewing's taproom is literally a block from Laurelthirst (and Laurelthirst itself has a great tap list).

yeah drawing a blank on breweries with live music somehow, I guess almost any bar has lots of fancy beer on tap but still, can't even think of one besides Lola's Room? and it seems like they only do music video dance parties lately

the turn turn turn has a very well curated vinyl/cassette shop in the back in addition to the live music, definitely worth a visit

Turn, Turn, Turn sounds very cool. We're meeting friends in Portland, so I may have to pick and choose my battles, but hope I can make it.

Visiting Portland for eight days (from New Zealand) mid-September - my partner lived there for a good chunk of time pre-Covid so will be visiting friends, but taking note of bookstore/music venue/food/etc recommendations upthread. Are any of the well-known big gardens/parks more or less suitable for a toddler?

absolutely, my daughter's fav when she was toddler age (a few years ago) was this:

https://www.portland.gov/parks/westmoreland-park

lots of weird stuff to clamber around on and a very large sandy area with water features? great times, cool neighborhood

she also enjoyed the hike up to "witches castle"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_House_(Portland,_Oregon)

beautiful trail up a creek ripe for investigation, although this was mostly interesting for her I think because I tried to play it down (not really a castle, no witches) and then when we finally arrived there was a straight up coven of witches up there, all in long flowy dresses standing in a circle around candles and fancy bowls of who knows what

I cannot guarantee there will be actual witches if you visit

lol peak Portland

my fave store to dig for cheap used records in is Crossroads, over on the east side

I cannot guarantee there will be actual witches if you visit

― Florin Cuchares

can't rule it out, though... you never know what will happen in a public park. me and my primary went to a group hangout at a public park in pdx late this morning, lovely shady park, even though it was a hot day it was early enough that it hadn't gotten too hot yet, and the shade helped. it was fun. i, uh, don't know how you'd explain it to your toddler, etc, and no, i'm not going to go into more detail than that on a public board, but it was fun.

pdx folx, sorry i've been such a stranger lately... kind of been through some shit, i'm doing better now and am starting to sort of emerge from my shell... anybody who wants to hang out HMU in DM :)

Westmoreland Park looks great - cheers! Partner's v.familiar with the Stone House, apparently.

super cool! yeah, the stone house is pretty famous around here... i haven't been myself.

the city's changed a lot since the recently-passed daytime camping ban. still trying to wrap my head around it.