Month: February 2016

Well, I have been talking about trying new things and being out of my comfort zone.   My trip home has had it all.    My flight this morning was a 7 am flight to Seattle, then another flight to Phildadelphia at 8:30 with arrival in PHL at 4:30.   I knew I would hit rush hour traffic, but I would deal!

Kate explained, “You don’t need to get to the airport before 6.   Portland is a small airport.  You’ll be fine.”   I had my misgivings.   Frank and I, being very conservative,  always give ourselves the suggested  two hour window.   To make matters worse, my very savvy daughter also convinced me to use my phone as my boarding pass.   “Sure,  I can do that,” I thought.

When I got to the airport the security line was horrendous.   I asked one of the security guards, “Will I make my flight? It starts boarding at 6:20.”   She responded, “You’ll be fine.” Famous last words.    About 25 minutes later, shoeless and sweatshirt less, I scrambled to get redressed and rushed to my gate.   Sure enough, they were still boarding and there were still a few folks even later than me.   Just as I got to the door of the plane, the flight attendant said to me, “You’ll have to check that carry on.   The overhead bins are full.”    That meant I would have to wait for my luggage on the luggage carousel instead of just taking it with me.  No big deal,  a few more minutes won’t be that bad, I assured myself.

Once on the plane, the pilot announced that the plane had a flight maintenance issues but it should be fixed momentarily.   The momentarily turned out to be a bit longer.   We had to exit that plane, board another, making our arrival in Seatlle around 9:1o.  Gone was my flight to PHL.

On the reboarding  of the Portland to Seattle shuttle, I realized that in very tiny print above the scanning code was TSA pre check  (the no wait line).   I could have avoided  the whole security mess and  would have had my suitcase in hand!

Rebooking I was assigned to a noon flight to Chicago, and a 10 pm flight to Philadelphia arriving at 1 am.   Driving myself home that late is NOT a wise choice for me.   Alaska reserved a hotel room for me in Phillie, so I will be getting home tomorrow morning.   I just needed to get a voucher from an agent in Phillie.  Hopefully my suitcase will arrive at 1am.

I tried to get on an earlier flight to Philadelphia that was leaving around 7pm.   “You have to travel with your luggage,” I was told.    Sure, I thought, fat chance it will be in Philadelphia even by 1 am.

1:00 am: No suitcase.     After filing my lost luggage claim, I then searched for an Alaskan Airline agent to get my hotel voucher. 1:45 am:  No airline agent!  Swell. Long story short, I got to the Clarion Hotel at 3 am, paid for the room,  and went straight to bed.

Waking up at 8:45, I checked out and got on the hotel shuttle. Since it went right by  the lot where I parked my car, the driver stopped to let me off.   Hopping into my car,  I headed home with very little traffic.   10:30 am:  HOME AT LAST!

1. Always  allow plenty of time for airport security and print out boarding passes ahead of time!

2. Pay more for non-stops.   Less can go wrong.

4.  Even on carry on luggage  have ID labels visible both inside and out. Take all medications, and essentials in your backpack or purse. Never, never, never  let  it out of your possession!

5.   When all else fails, order a beer, maybe even two!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portland Forecast:  56 and cloudy.   I don’t know when I have been this excited over a cloudy day.  Kate thinks it will be a great day to go snowshoeing on Mt. Hood.  Since it is President’s Day, we opted for an afternoon adventure when hopefully it will be less crowded.

With some time on our hands, we took a long walk through Kate’s neighborhood this morning.  Here is Kate’s house on the right side and her red Toyota Matrix.  The next two pictures are typical houses in her neighborhood, the northeast section of the city.

We hadn’t gone very far, when my daughter said she had to go back and get a few quarters.   I knew I would find out in due time what that was all about.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Who needs Oley Turnpike Dairy for entertainment?  Portland has it all! For a quarter apiece we each fed these three charming goats named Zy, Zanni, and Zilla.   Yep!  There was even a sign introducing them to would be feeders.

This afternoon we were off to Mt. Hood to a snow trail around Trillium Lake.    Kate borrowed boots for me from her friend Bubbles.   Helping me into the snowshoes and tightly securing them, we were off to the lake. Thankfully,  it wasn’t too crowded.  Walking in the snowshoes felt as if I had donned huge moon boots.   I only fell once, a real record for me! Since bringing dogs along on the trail is common,   I had to be on constant look out for dog poop.   As if I didn’t already have enough to worry about!

By the time we got back to the car, I was very, very tired.   I know I used muscles that I previously didn’t know existed.  The fronts of  my thighs in the front are in distress.  Hope I can hobble onto the plane home tomorrow morning!  Wow!  Besides making great memories today, my Fitbit now reads 17,697 steps!

 

 

 

 

Rain again today.   Since we were going to get wet anyway, Kate thought we should go to Silver Falls State Park which is about 50 miles south of Portland.  I had my doubts.  We both put on our rain gear and I added my smart wool socks.  If I got soaked to the core, at least I wanted warm feet.

When we arrived the sign explained that the park was a temperate rainforest receiving 80″ of rainfall a year.   So the rain theme was perfect and as Kate explained, “Waterfalls are waterfalls!”

Most of Silver Falls State Park was made in 1933 by the Civil Conservation Core and the WPA to give men jobs during the depression.   The trails, buildings, and the South Falls Lodge were built during this time.  As the name implies “Trail of Ten Falls”, there are ten falls in the park, four of which you can walk behind.   The whole loop would have been over 7 miles, but Kate took pity on me and we only did about 5 1/2 miles- 13,650 steps on my Fitbit.   My feet were pretty muddy and wet as were my jeans by the time we finished.  I was surprised that I actually felt warm, probably from all that walking and jumping around puddles.

 

It was after 1 when finished and headed for the restrooms. The stone and timber lodge was similar to many of the national park ones built during the depression era.   Finding out they had a cafe that was open, we ordered a cup of beer cheese soup and shared a pulled pork panini and ate in front of a toasty blazing fireplace.   Hiking works up a powerful appetite!

Tonight we are headed to McMenamin’s Kennedy School for supper and a movie.   (Frank, it was the one we ate at years ago with Kelly and Keith Moen.) McMenamin’s  is a chain in the Portland area.  They buy old buildings and make them into restaurants while preserving the original structure.  The Kennedy School has a movie theatre, a soaking pool, and lodging  in it too.  We are going to see the latest Hunger Games movie.

Later:   Back from the movie/dinner experience.   I made the mistake of ordering a salad and beer to eat while we were in the theatre.   I had not seen the seating arrangement ahead  of time.   Can you imagine me trying  to eat a salad while watching a futuristic movie I know nothing about in the dark on a comfy upholstered chair with an end table to my right?  After getting more of the lettuce and fixings on me rather than in my mouth, I abandoned the entree and enjoyed the beer. I should have ordered a slice of pizza!   And can you imagine the next thing I heard was Kate whispering, “Mom, wake up!  You’re snoring.”   Well, what did she expect after that drenching 5 mile hike !

All in all, another day in Portland with daughter Kate taking me out of my comfort zone.  What great writing research!   So much to write about!

 

 

This morning when we got up, we noticed that it wasn’t raining.   Kate thought we should head to the downtown area while it was just cloudy.  So off we went.   She still had some posters and fliers that she wanted to deliver to outdoor gear stores, which are plentiful in this town.

After we were done with the poster deliveries, we went to Powell’s Book Store.   It is an icon of Portland and I had always wanted to take a look.    It was really big and had lots of different book sections.    I almost got a Bill Bryson book for Frank.    I called home to check if he had that book and since he already had all the ones on the shelf, there was no sale for Powell’s!  I did comment to Kate, “Boy, wouldn’t it be great if I could get them to sell my Bunny Brother books.” Unfortunately, I did not bring any with me.

 

Today was Zwicklemania here in Portland.   That meant you could go to a whole lot of breweries, get a tour at each, and try samples of their popular beers.  We stopped at Deschutes Brewery for lunch, but opted for just water with our meal.  A little too early for me for beer.

Kate wanted to stop at a Walmart and Joanne’s  to get supplies to make her own backpack.   She is doing another thru hike.  This one is called The Hay Duke Trail which goes through the desert in Utah and Arizona for about 900 miles.  Leavin mid-March, it will take her and her friend Bubbles about 2 1/2 months.  So we were off to the interstate to get to those stores.

We also stopped at a Fred Meyers grocery store across the Columbia River in Washington state to get whipping cream, angel food cake, and rum so that Kate could try making tiramisu.

Starting her sewing project, Kate had lots of company.   Her cats Scarfy and Freddie hung around as well as her roommate’s cat, Grady.  Cats love material!  It is truly cat heaven here!

Felines watching with interest from left to right:  Grady, Scarfy, and shiny eyed Freddy!

After a yummy home cooked meal of spaghetti squash with tomato sauce  (Frank, you would have hated it!), we watched Squatch’s film about hiking in Iceland.  Kate was  as one of the stars of the film.  She went there for a few weeks last summer while Squatch was filming.   Iceland sure is vast, scenic, and extremely desolate!   We ended the night with small pieces of the scrumptious, homemade tiramisu.

Caught Grady in the act of inspecting my suitcase tonight.  Fortunately he did not confuse it for his litter box!   The cats should sleep well tonight; they have had a very busy day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I arrived late last night on my flight from Philadelphia to Portland. I flew first to Seattle than had a short flight to Portland. Kate picked me up and we got to her house around 11:20 pm.  Since that meant 2:20 EST, we went right to bed!

This morning Kate had to work until about noon.   Then we were off for some Portland exploring.   We headed to The Grilled Cheese Grill.   I will let the pictures do the explaining on this one.   Portland is noted for its food carts and this not only had the cart but a lively painted school bus as well.

It was in the 50’s and rainy.   We ordered our sandwiches and then hopped inside the bus to enjoy them.   This was not my typical veggie wrap, but I managed!  After all this is Portland, so I am trying new delicacies!  The cheese was Tillamook cheddar.

While walking to The Grilled Cheese Grill we passed a Recreational Cannabis store.   We were tempted to go in to give it a try, but held ourselves back.   Certainly not a typical store in Berks County, PA!

 

I was surprised to see signs of spring already.  The trees were beginning to bud and daffodils and crocuses were blooming.   Even some of the bushes were in bloom.  What a pleasant treat from the snow covered fields in our backyard in Blandon!

 

I noticed many of the curbs were moss covered as were some of the trees from the city’s rainy climate.

Kate delivered posters for her hiking club later this afternoon.   Portland is noted for it’s breweries so we stopped at the Base Camp Brewery for to a beer.

Then we went to the Secret Society to listen to a live band playing western  swing music.   I had a bowl of  spicey gumbo that left my mouth smoking.   I downed a whole glass of water but survived!   All in all, certainly a unique day with daughter Kate here in Portland!   Who knows what adventures are in store for us tomorrow?