I've Been to Oregon Now

Last weekend, I ventured out on another running trip. This was the first time I left the greater Houston area since I got back from North Carolina back in June...I was quite tired of traveling, so I swore off leaving Houston until Labor Day. But, my dad was speaking in Portland and my grandmother was going along because it was her 80th birthday. They invited me to come up to do a race, so I backed off my vow to stay put and bought a (rather expensive!) plane ticket. The first challenge was getting to Portland. Since Daddy had a meeting on Friday night, Maw was waiting on me to get there to go eat dinner. When I got to the airport in Houston, I mosied (sp?) on down to my gate. I have a routine during air travel. I park offsite (yay corporate discounts at The Parking Spot!), take the shuttle to my terminal, check my bags, then go through security. I give myself plenty of time because I don't want to be stressed out. However, on Friday, my patience was quite tested. NO ONE at all of Intercontinental Airport was in a hurry. Which was OK because I wasn't really either. But still...hello? You work at an airport...everyone is supposed to be in a hurry. Here are the people who were not in a hurry to get anywhere or help anyone else get anywhere: the attendant at The Parking Spot, the shuttle driver who went to all the obscure terminals first (everyone knows that everybody flies out of terminal C...why are we at terminals E & D first?) before finally getting me to terminal C, and all the Continental attendants at baggage drop (there were 3 attendants and literally 2 of them went on break when I walked up). Seriously. I had lots of time till my flight, but this was driving me insane. Finally got through with that and went through security without incident.

So, back to my routine...once I get through security, I always immediately put my iPod headphones in and put my nose in a book or magazine. This is what keeps me from going postal there in the airport. Because, in case you haven't noticed, there are a lot idiots in the world, and they tend to hang out at the airport. Not necessarily the people working there (although there seems to be an unusually high percentage in their ranks), but mostly the people flying. Who doesn't know that you can't bring liquids on the plane? Who thinks you can walk through security without boarding pass and ID? And, if you have a good reason for not knowing that, like you don't travel much, shouldn't you take 2 seconds to read one of the gajillion signs telling you what to do? OK, I'm complaining a lot. But, really, those of you that travel, do you not notice these things, too?

So, anyway, I got through security and put my iPod on. I brought a Bourne book with me...one of the sequels written after Robert Ludlum died. This one was pretty good. Fortunately, it was quite absorbing. Since I had my headphones on, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but somehow they lost our original plane. The second plane they brought over had mechanical issues (and I was more than OK with not getting on that plane!). So, they flew in a plane from Dallas for us to use. We took off an hour and a half late. The flight to Portland is 4-1/2 hours. I know that it is very far away, but it just seems like 4-1/2 hours is really long. I've flown to California a few times and it never seems to take nearly that long. Oh well. Whatever. So, I got to Portland at 8:00 Pacific time, which is 10:00 Central time (or "God's time" as my Dad likes to call it). Maw had waited for me for dinner, so we went out to eat after that. I was quite wiped out then, but we went to a fantastic seafood place, Salty's, which overlooked the Columbia River, the border between Oregon and Washington. We felt very underdressed there! I had smoked salmon and I think that it may be the best thing I've ever eaten!! We finished up and then went back to the hotel and I crashed.

Saturday morning, we drove a half hour out of Portland to Tualatin for a 5K at the Crawfish Festival. Since I am from Louisiana, the Crawfish Festival concept cracked me up! We never did figure out why there is a Crawfish Festival in Oregon. We talked to enough people while we were there, seems like we could have asked one of them. Oh well. We were in a hurry because I wasn't really sure what time the race started AND at one point we didn't have any way to tell what time it actually was, so we were rushing. Daddy and I ran back to the car for something and, when we got back, Maw had a crowd around her. This is a trait my Dad inherited honestly from her. They both make friends everywhere they go. Really, strangers walk up and just start talking to them. At the race, she made friends with an Indian family who had relatives that went to LSU (I have no idea how this came up in conversation, but that's what she told me). Well, they were so nice and watched the whole race with her and even waited until we finished (long after their son had finished) to cheer for us. So nice! I had handed Maw my camera just before we started the race. I didn't realize that it was hard to use, but I guess it is, because she wasn't sure what to do with it. She stopped the local newspaper photographer and asked him to show her how to use the camera. Here is a picture she took while we were running that she termed "General". Also, here are a couple shots at the race. One of Daddy and me and one of some model boats that were racing in the man-made pond we ran around at the end of the race. Also, Maw with the announcer who wished her a happy birthday over the intercom.

For lunch, we met up with Maradee, who happened to be in Portland for work, and her friend from grad school, Judy. We ate at this great restaurant, Jake's. I ate too much! Maw told a story about our family that took 2 hours to tell and we laughed a lot. She did a great job keeping us waiting for the details. At one point, she was about to tell us a very crucial detail and her phone rang. We really felt like we were on a commercial break! After leaving the restaurant, we went to heaven! Really, we went to Powell's Used and New Books, which I was told is the largest book store in the world. I think that heaven will have a large book store in it. At least that would be heaven to me. I have way too many books, but this was a four-story bookstore that covered a city block...how could I resist? I only bought four books and three of them I've been looking for, so it wasn't a waste! We were there for quite a while! After leaving the bookstore, Judy had to go to take care of her dog, then to work, so Maradee ventured out with us to Mount Hood, which is the tallest something or has the most snow year-round...I don't remember, but there is some distinguishing fact about this mountain. I like to think that landmark statistics are like baseball statistics...there is always something that sounds impressive, but you're not exactly sure what it means in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, we drove an hour to Mount Hood and looked around for a bit, till we got bored (i.e. I made Daddy leave because he was watching a film about the wood used in this lodge and I knew that we would be there FOREVER if I didn't get him out of there!). Here is another example of Maw taking a picture. Maw, I'm sorry...I know you don't mind me poking a little fun at you! We drove back to Portland and went straight to the Bite of Oregon festival, which had a bunch of local restaurant booths, there. It was quite a busy festival. The fun part of it was that they had an Iron Chef competition there. Maradee said that it seemed like the announcers were on crack : ). It was hosted by Guy somebody from the Food Network and these two local morning show DJ's. Fun times. They made it exciting. The two-time defending champion won, so that was kind of boring, but it was all fun to watch!

Sunday, I got up and worked out at the hotel gym. Daddy was preaching at the church he was visiting, but I couldn't go because of the timing of my flight. The flight back was very uneventful and very on time...yay! Of course, it was literally 30 degrees hotter when I got off the plane in Houston than when I got on in Portland, but that's the price you pay to live in the South : ).

I'm also including a couple of random pictures. There were two interesting water fountains...one in Tualatin at the race and one in downtown Portland. And there were some pretty flowers Daddy asked me to take a picture of in Tualatin. Oh, and a picture of Maradee, Judy, Maw, and I under an interesting sculpture in Portland. And a picture of one of the signs on the bike rack at Powell's bookstore. So, enjoy!