Another visit to Portland, OR!
I recently went to Portland to visit Kaycie (this post is actually contemporaneous to the trip, which cannot be said about the post for the last time I visited). I didn’t ride a lot of bikes but I did explore.
My flight there was the morning of Thanksgiving and I had the smoothest, easiest trip through security and to my gate, where I drank the world’s most expensive mimosa and journaled. The flight was quick and uneventful (not something that could be said for my return flight), and Kaycie picked me up from the airport, which is just a short drive from her house.
So I know I always go on and on about how I’m a planner, but compared to Kaycie, I am no such thing. From my annual visits to see her, to our cross-country road trip (never mind the solo one she planned and completed a few years ago), Kaycie usually has our time together scheduled pretty well and the relevant information is ALWAYS included in a Google doc shared between the two of us. We’re doing things differently this time! For her last visit to see me in New York, I had nothing planned and it all worked out fine; we did whatever we felt like doing that day. We decided to try this method out again, with a list of things to do and places to see as a loose guide.
For it being the end of November, the weather wasn’t as terrible as it could have been. Even though I opted not to rent a bike for this trip, we squeezed a ride in on one of the Biketown bicycles as we traveled through the city one day.
It’s always nice to be able to ride when I’m here because the Greenways throughout the city make it easy and safe to get around. I will say, the Biketown ebikes have NOTHING on the new (and old!) CitiBike ebikes.
Another day filled with adventure was when we decided to drive through Mount Hood, in November, without tire chains. Kaycie and I have a history with snowy adventures and generally, they do not end well for us. I guess it wouldn’t have been the same without this bit of excitement! She and I usually make good decisions but on this occasion, we decided to keep driving past the flashing warning signs, and the cars and 18-wheelers chaining up on the side of the road. Our logic was that Kaycie’s SUV has 4WD and we’d be able to survive anything. Really, we were hoping that we at least had a better shot of making it over the mountain without tire chains compared to a lot of the small sedans we saw chaining up. Below is a bit of the approach to the peak, with me being unable to film during the most treacherous parts because Kaycie and I were both panicking.
Of course, there was the calm after the storm, once we were on the other side of the mountain.
Moving forward, I am designating myself as the Snowfall Preparedness Captain, lest Kaycie and I meet our peril in the next encounter with snow.
A second day that involved snow, but was far less theatrical, was the drive out to Silver Falls State Park, where we had a snowy (and sometimes hail-filled) hike around a portion of the Trail of Ten Falls. I used to enjoy winter hiking a lot more than I do now, but it’s always a more pleasant experience in the Pacific Northwest, where you’re still surrounded by greenery. Hiking in the winter just outside of New York City means I just walk past a lot of bare trees and dead things, and hope that I don’t slip and bust my butt on some fallen oak leaves.
This was a nice, manageable hike past some beautiful waterfalls and even behind one! It was also one of the first hikes I’ve done since my last couple of years of riding more consistently and I noticed that I was able to hike up elevations much more easily than I have in the past. Wish I could say it was as easy for me to cycle up hills…
Despite not having many plans, this was actually a pretty busy trip! We were out of the house by 10 AM, the latest, almost every morning and often didn’t get back until later that night. A lot of the days are blending together in my head, but one standout day was our visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden, located in the NW of Portland. We took a beautiful, quiet walk around the garden, taking in the architecture and history, and even getting to see the last of the Chrysanthemums on display (if you know, you know).
Other highlights include:
Kaycie getting me to pose with a lot of things. The exhaustion is real in all photos of me from this trip.
Going to an arcade where we played skee ball (duh) and I was reminded that I am NOT good at Dance Dance Revolution.
Taking the mandatory photo booth pictures.
And meeting Kaycie’s kitten, Gladys, for the first time. I spent the week harassing her and having unsuccessful photoshoot sessions.
Above is my farewell to Gladys on the last day of my trip and she wouldn’t even cooperate with me then!
It is always great when I have a chance to get out of NYC because I hate it, LOL. We spent the majority of our time during this trip outdoors, even with the Portland rain! The weather didn’t deter us and we still had such a great time walking, biking, and scooting around the city. This trip marks my fifth visit to Portland so Kaycie and I have decided that next time, we’ll only plan to spend a few days in the city, or we’ll both travel to meet each other somewhere new.
While my flight to Portland wasn’t eventful, it wouldn’t have made any sense if there weren’t some issues on the way home. Just as we were boarding the final passengers, an overhead bin broke and nearly collapsed onto the people below!
It took three mechanics and the pilot to figure out a temporary fix, which in the end, only involved taping it closed anyway. Though this delayed our departure by over an hour, we had an even faster flight back to New York and I was back in my apartment, and being greeted by too many cats, by midnight.
