2011 will go down in the history books as a monumental year.

I bet you think I’m going to start waxing poetic about my Timbers again. I probably am, but not in this post.

No, kids, 2011 will be known as the year Trader Vic’s returned to the Rose City. Long may he reign.

I’ve been waiting to make a trip to Vic’s for years. I remember it from my adolescence, the thatched awnings and tikis that decorated Vic’s original Portland location on Broadway in the center of the city. I wanted to go there so bad, but it just never happened and that incarnation of Vic’s closed in the mid ’90s, only minutes after I was old enough to partake of one of their signature Mai Tais.

Thankfully, someone picked up the mantle and brought Vic’s back to Portland. I went twice the first week they were open and then again a month later for my birthday. I’m not sure I ever need to drink another Mai Tai. But if I do, it’ll be a 1944 from Vic’s.

But what on Earth does Trader Vic’s have to do with October? Seriously. If you don’t know, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.

Yes, that’s Adam Sandler.

I find this slightly more disturbing. Yes, that’s the Grateful Dead.

We still miss you, Warren.

There you go. Proof that I can link any two disparate subjects through the catalyst that is October.