Weekend Fates Portland, Oregon

Well my trip to Portland actually turned out quite well even as the fates conspired against me.

Friday Afternoon
It all started Friday afternoon; well, 1:00 pm to be exact. As indicated earlier, I took half a day off from work so that I could drive down to Portland and make it in time for dinner. So I left work and proceeded to go to the bus tunnel for my commute home. However, the gates into the tunnel were all locked. I tried another entrance a block away and it was closed up tight as well. Now I'm sweating bullets because I had less than a minute to get into the tunnel before my bus was scheduled to arrive. I found a listing that showed the street the bus would run on if the tunnel was closed and so on a whim I went to that stop instead. Even though I was late getting there, the bus was even later. I turns out that the tunnel had been evacuated and all the busses were running aboveground on their weekend routes. This put me only 10 minutes behind schedule so I was relieved.

So, I'm sitting on the bus playing around with my JasJar and one of the kids (college students) facing me from across the aisle asks about it. We all (there were three in his group) end up chatting the entire trip to the University District about the PDA as well as college classes in general. Very nice kids actually (kind of blows the stereotype that they are all punks doesn't it). It was looking to be a good weekend.

Interstate 5
I finally get home, finish packing, load up the car, stop at Starbucks for a coffee to go, and hit the freeway. No sooner do I get on the onramp then everything comes to a screeching halt. The freeway was a parking lot; it took me over 30 minutes just to get from Green Lake to downtown Seattle. Ack! It turns out there was an accident right past downtown that had backed up traffic for miles.

Traffic finally got up to speed after that but came to a halt not much farther south; another accident. Again, we crawl along until we all passed that one, got back up to speed again only to come to a halt again. This seemed to be repeated in ad nauseam. My normal 45 minute drive to Tacoma took me over 2 hours... by that time I should have been past Centralia. All the while, my mood never went south for which I am eternally grateful.

We all finally blow past the last accident and every single one of us sped along at 90 mph for most of the distance between Olympia and Kelso/Longview. Unfortunately, a state trooper entered the freeway just in front of us just before Kelso so everyone slowed down to the obligatory 70 mph. Still, even as the fates conspired against me during that drive, I didn't loose my cool.

By now, I had called my friend Frank (the one I was visiting) to let him know I was not going to make it for dinner. However, he said he'd wait until I got there and we'd still go eat. We were also going to meet up with some friends (Doug and Derek) who were down from Vancouver, BC. When I got a hold of them, they too said it was no problem waiting until I got there even though I suggested just meeting for drinks when I got into town. It was nice that they all still wanted to meet for dinner even though it was going to be 2 hours later than originally planned.

Portland
I pull up to Frank’s place around 7:00 pm (originally was to be 5:30 pm). It turns out that this was the weekend of the Portland International Beerfest so there was no street parking. We ended up squeezing my car in next to his in the parking garage (the spots seemed to be built only for Volkswagen Bugs I think). At one point, the driver's side of my car was less than half an inch from the column. Pretty funny actually. What is not showing in this picture is the fact that there is a concrete wall just behind where I was standing to take the shot; made it impossible to get a straight-in angle.

Friday Night
So the four of us meet up for dinner at the nice little Greek place and then went out to see some boys strip at one of the clubs. The only thing negative about the clubs in Portland is that they still smoke there. I got used to having smoke-free clubs in Seattle and Vancouver so this was an interesting experience.

Saturday
After a late night, Frank and I woke up late Saturday morning; so much for grabbing breakfast. We just walked up to Starbucks (now there’s a surprise). It turns out that Doug and Derek were sitting there drinking their coffee (my, what a small world). After a nice chat, I had to run so I could make it out to the family picnic in time.

The picnic was actually very nice. I got to talk with some cousins that I have not seen in quite awhile as well as some relatives who had come out from Montana. Normally I am not much of a “family” man but I guess as I get older, I am slowly beginning to understand the importance of family. I had originally intended to spend only 3 hours there but ended up staying past 4.

Saturday Night
That evening, all four of us met up again for dinner. This time we went to the Deschutes Brewery & Public House. The place just opened in May and is already a hit in Portland. I do have to say that of all the pubs I’ve been to, this one actually had awesome food… even their basic “pub food” was above par. It turned out to be a cliché night of great food, great company.

After dinner, we all took a walk along the riverfront. The night was warm and the stars were out. Finally, the moon rose above the horizon just as we were going to head back into downtown. By chance, I glanced up and noticed a bright light heading northeast. No flashing light on it so it was not a plane and it was too bright to be a satellite; I concluded it was the International Space Station.

Ironically, the week before I had looked up sighting possibilities in Seattle for the ISS because I wanted to take a look while the weather held out. Little did I know that by accident I would get to see it without having to stay up late or get up early. Very cool!

So after we all debated its identity and after it flew out of sight, we walked through downtown back to the clubs. More drinks and a little bit of dancing later, we parted ways.

I always enjoy spending time with Frank as well as Doug and Derek so the weekend was awesome with all of them in the same city.

Sunday
Sunday, Frank and I grabbed a late breakfast and then went up to his favorite weekend Starbucks. We sat for some time talking over coffee and the newspaper. A nice relaxing day.

I finally got on the road for the drive back to Seattle in the afternoon. The sun was out; traffic was flowing… uh, until Centralia where there were two accidents back to back. I hit more traffic just north of Olympia which lasted all the way through Tacoma. Again, my drive took more than 4 hours (it’s usually a 3 hour drive maximum).

What is up with those travel times? I’d have thought that with gas prices the way they are, there would be less people on the road; obviously not. My next trip to Portland will definitely be on the train.