Travels

I woke up Saturday morning looking up at Mount Shasta.  Unlike other Saturdays, in the distant past, this time I remembered how I got there.  It was the first morning of an 8 day vacation, in some ways a glorified road trip.  Over the course of 8 days we traveled more than 1,600 miles.  Little did I know when I looked up at Mount Shasta Saturday morning that this was just the beginning of a journey through truly beautiful country.  But I have to ask, who says vacation is all about relaxing?  We did sleep in a little bit, but our days were full.

Sunday morning I woke up to this view of the ocean on the Oregon central coast.  The drive to the coast was interesting.  We left Mount Shasta Saturday morning in sunshine and blue skies.  By the time we reached Medford Oregon the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and we experienced some drizzle, but no real rain.  Continuing north we stopped in Eugene Oregon, overcast, and just wandered around admiring the city.  Then it was off to the coast.

I don't believe I have ever driven through so much greenery in my life.  From the time we reached Eugene until we arrived at the coast we were driving through forest.  The layers and textures of the different shades of green was breathtaking.  For a boy originally from the desert of Las Vegas it was like being on a different planet.

Just before nightfall Saturday we arrived at our destination, a friend's house on the central coast of Oregon.  Unlike the beaches I ran on during my high school years on Southern California, it was not warm and inviting.  I didn't even touch the water but I'm sure it was COLD!  Still, the beach and the rhythm of the waves has an allure I can't deny.  Unfortunately, as we started to walk along the beach the rain finally came in force.  If not for my coat I would have been soaked, even with it I was wet before I got back to the house.

After waking up to the ocean Sunday morning we headed out for Portland.  Back from the coast to interstate 5 and then north.  The weather report said we would have rain in Portland.  The worst rain was between Salem and Portland.

Our first stop in Portland was the Oregon Zoo.  That's where we met this talented little guy.  You may not be able to tell from this picture but this is a full grown black bear running on this log inside his enclosure.  We spent the day with our umbrella and poncho walking around the zoo watching the different animals.  We watched the fruit bats at feeding time, kind of freaky.

After the zoo we found our way to our room for the next three nights.  After dropping off our luggage it was off to meet a friend for dinner.  Those that have been to Portland may have heard of the "Kennedy School", I never had.  So we had called our friend Cindy and asked where would be a fun place to meet her for dinner.  When she suggested the "Kennedy School" we thought she was talking about a cooking school.  Not quite!

I hope I get all of this right, or at least close.  The Kennedy School was an elementary school in northeast Portland constructed in the early 1900's.  In the 1970's, I think, it was to be demolished and was eventually bought by a private company who left the building intact and "repurposed" it as my wife would say.  It is now a hotel, with at least two restaurants, two bars and a movie theater.  We ate in the courtyard that evening, under the stars, near an outdoor fireplace with a patio heater nearby.  The food was very good and the atmosphere was fun.  The walls of the school are decorated with black and white pictures of former students and staff over the years of the school and supplemented with eclectic art, mostly from local artists.

We enjoyed the Kennedy School so much that Monday afternoon when we found ourselves in the area we went there for a late lunch.  This time we ate indoors, seated at a window where we could watch the rain falling on the courtyard and the beautiful plants.

So, enough of a travelogue.  Portland, and the rest of Oregon, was beautiful.  My wife commented several times that if we had moved there when we were younger we never would have left.  Maybe so.

I do have a couple of comments to include.  Our friend Cindy said, "welcome to Portland the polite".  She was right everyone was very polite, until we were on the freeway coming home and a minivan with Oregon plates and a Jesus bumpersticker gave us the finger as they passed us at 85 mph.

Portland seemed a lot like Santa Cruz north.  We saw more people with dreadlocks, panhandling, and/or homeless than I've seen anywhere besides the Bay area in Northern California.   I don't travel a lot.

The big question is, would I go back to Portland?  Probably.  But, as my wife points out, there are a lot of other places we would still like to explore.  So, it may take several years to get back to Portland but I bet we will.