West Siiide

Finally got out of my bubble a bit. I'm back from a week on the west coast, based in Portland at my Brother's apartment-- a forgotten piece of rental property in southeast Portland (though soon to be rediscovered, as their water line needs immediate repair).

I'll pepper this post with ample pictures, but I've uploaded an album on facebook (where it's easy), so you should mosey over there and have a look, too.

I flew from Kansas City to Portland by way of Minneapolis the friday before last. The cheap flight had me up at 4 am, but that's actually when I woke. My alarm was set for five. Still, i kept nodding off on the plane. The whole Pacific Northwest was overcast for the first four days or so of my visit. I didn't get to see much on the flight out, except at one point where the clouds broke. It looked to be the Rockies below, but I had no real sense of geography, thirty-thousand feet up.

The warnings on flights to turn off all electronics are a bit bewildering. Surely airlines won't design a plane that could possibly crash if someone turns their cell phone on at some point. And my physics background tells me that it would be simple enough to shield all signals from the main cabin out. It occurred to me during this trip, though, that the precaution may be more about disallowing eavesdropping than about the safety of the aircraft. That is, a simple radio receiver might be able to pick up the pilots' communications with the airport. Incidentally, I did find my silly phone on at one point on the return flight. The power button must have gotten depressed while in my bag. I turned the phone off and we didn't crash.

Asheville, where I'm from, is semi-tropical rainforest. I like the rain and so it was sort of funny that Sprint's hiring manager used KC's high sunny-day count as a selling point. But I wanted to visit the north west US partly for this reason-- the famous mist and fog, that isn't exactly rain or humidity (at least not in the winter).

Portland, though, was uncharacteristically overcast until i got back from the bay area on wednesday, when things cleared up smashingly and my brother and I got some excellent views of the city by walking up Mount Tabor. But the drive to Seattle and the time while we visited Washington state was rather grey, so I don't have too many stunning pictures from the flight out or from Seattle. A highlight, though, was the red room in the Seattle library.

That library, in fact, is possibly the greatest I have ever visited, built inside a transplendent Koolhaus building. Maybe it's a reflection of a discussion my brother and I had. I've always thought we should have itemized taxes, so you could go down the list and check off military, education, but leave out The War on Drugs and prisons (or whatever). Zack pointed out, though, that this would probably result in a great divide: the libraries and schools of the coasts and the militia of the central states.

So, arrived Friday. Saturday we drove up to Seattle and walked around the downtown (library, Pike Public Market, several blocks in search of a dog park Zack remembered, and drove through Capitol Hill). Sunday we drove out to Astoria so I could for the first time in my life see the Pacific. Drove past the Goonies house, but I didn't particularly notice it. That evening, back in Portland, we went to a local bar and met up with my brother's friends. Monday I flew (at a leisurely hour) to Oakland, CA to spend a day and a half visiting san francisco and a friend of mine from Pinewoods. While there, a friend from high school found me on facebook, so I got to see a good friend I hadn't seen in eleven years.

Tuesday I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) into frisco proper and walked around town all day. I got off at the 24th St Bart stop, walked up Bernal Hill Park, as recommened by my friend's roommate, for spectastic views of the entire area in all directions. Then up Valencia through Mission (which has many murals),

taking 16th street west to Castro. After lunch at Blue, I walked up Market and took Fillmore to Haight, walking Haight several blocks west to Ashbury (where I checked my email and found my friend from high-school had added me). Despite my feets' complaints, they carried me on into the Golden Gate park past the de Young Museum (about a third the length of the park). On the north edge I caught the 29 bus up into the Presidio and got off to walk down to Baker Beach. Here is where I actually touched the Pacific for the first time. Also watched cargo ships coming into the bay (did not see any hit the Golden Gate). After a bit, walked back up the bluffs to the bay side of the Golden Gate Bridge, where i caught the 80 (Golden Gate Transit, express bus) back to the Civic Center BART stop and headed back out to Oakland. I considered taking the ferry across the bay, but it was already 5 or 6 pm and my feet. Oh, my feet.

The next morning i flew back to Portland, nearly missing the flight (the BART stopped in it's tracks a few times on the way there) and forfeiting my pocket knife in order to carry on a bag i was going to check. That was Wednesday. Thanksgiving day, my brother and I got our constitutional walking up Mount Tabor, which has a few good views of downtown Portland and one of Mount Hood. That evening, we joined Zack's friends for thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, two kinds of stuffing (one with pepperoni, I believe), two cranberry sauces, biscuits, gravy, beans, corn casserole, and wines. I supposed there were desserts, too, but I was well satiated by that point.

That's the rough outline of the trip. My brother and I had lots to talk over and covered probably a small percent of it. I could easily spend a month out west and not get bored, but one makes do. I loved every moment of it (except possibly the bits going through security in the airports) and am ready to pack up and head out there for goods. Below is a bit of the view that Bernal Hill affords.