Tuesday 20 March 2012

An afternoon in Portland

Not long after my race on Saturday, Thorsten went down to the city and rented a car. He'd been in the day before to inquire about prices, and had decided to rent a car for four days. After a nap, we decided to go do some shopping at Fred Meyer (where Peter usually takes us). Thorsten was nervous about driving at first, but quickly figured out the system and got used to the peculiarities of driving in the US. After successfully shopping, we went home, had a late dinner and went to bed around midnight.

As we were facing another early morning on Sunday, I again couldn't sleep before 3 or 4 am. For some reason I still woke up feeling fine at 8 am; I guess I can thank the long nap for that.

The reason why we were getting up so horrendously early (all is relative) was that we were planning on spending the day in Portland. There, we were going to meet up with my online friend Jennifer.

We left at 9.30, and had a leisurly 2.5-hour drive to Portland. The weather was constantly shifting between rain and sun, and by the time we arrived it had firmly settled on rain. To make things easier for us, Jennifer had suggested we meet at OMSI, a science museum outside of town. Little did she know that as we approached the city the GPS and the signs started disagreeing on where exactly OMIS was. We started out trusting the GPS, and later went hunting for the signs again when the GPS betrayed us. In the end we spent a good ten minutes driving in circles, hunting for OMSI. When we finally arrived, I quickly identified Jennifer sitting on a bench outside the museum.

As usual when meeting online friends (which I have done a few times now) it feels bizarre meeting someone whom I on the one hand (and in one particular way) have known well for years (eight-nine years in this case), about whom I know all kinds of secrets, and who on the other hand is a total stranger. I never get used to that. The brain doesn't really know whether to approach people like this as strangers or friends, seeing as they are both and neither.

It was odd at first, meeting my old friend -- but I quickly got used to it (and I think she did too), and we got along just fine. She had a few ideas about what she wanted to do with us and where she wanted to take us -- but unfortunately, these things were all outside attractions and the rain was pouring down... So we tried to figure out a Plan B, and settled on at least parking the car downtown, and take it from there.

We managed as much, and next on the list was finding a place to eat. Jen took us to a very nice Hawaiian fusion place (though I am not sure what exactly that means), where T had a burger and I had hash browns with duck. Just like Hawaiians do.

The rest of the afternoon we just wandered around rather aimlessly with Jen as our friendly tour guide. We got to see a local market, the waterfront, charming streets and skyscrapers, visited an enormous bookstore (where Thorsten picked up two books: one about sailing and the other about kayaks), and ended our tour with coffee at a big, trendy café.

Around 5 pm we drove Jen back to her home outside the city, thanked her for showing us around, said our goodbyes and started on the long drive back to Tacoma.

Rather impuslively, Thorsten decided to take a detour after an hour or so when he saw a sign advertising Mount St. Helens Visitor's Centre. We arrived after ten minutes or so, and although the centre itself was closed, the park-like area was open, and we could take a nice stroll out on the elevated boardwalk on the water and admire the scenery. Thorsten was trying to figure out if the flat mountain we could see on the other side of the water really was the famous volcano that erupted in 1980 - but decided that Mount St. Helens must be farther away or shrouded in clouds.

After the chilly afternoon walk, we got back into the warm car and started driving again. We were home some time after 8 pm. We had a light dinner, watched a documentary, and went to bed around midnight. Another early morning awaited us.

Roadtrip

Approaching Portland:
A pacman made of post-its!
The waterfront:



Jeniffer and me. Jen looked at the picture on my camera and exclaimed with some disdain "I look like a big grape!"



Tipperary: a long way!


The scenic Mount St. Helen park where we stopped:














Driving back...

1 comment:

  1. I have many memories of Portland. After all that's where I got married,and maybe you'd like to know that Christian and I took Papy and Mamie to mt St Helens many years ago. I still have a cup made out of ashy clay, or so it is claimed to be...
    Congratulation on the race.
    Catherine

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