Oregon - Day 1
[First Picture: Portland Skyline]
We got up around 4am. In retrospect, we should have gotten up a little earlier, but we made it to the airport in time. The roads were extremely icy. I think it was about 10 degrees outside. Already before 5am, way before the normal rush hour, there were reports of accidents on the road. But we got there without incident. Once we arrived, my sleepy brain influenced by Jaime's comment made me take the wrong lane to the Big Blue Deck. This turned out to be a fortuitous mistake. Since we were short on time and there is not a great way to turn around without driving a couple miles, we just parked at the expensive but close parking ramp near the Macnamera Terminal.
Inside the terminal, we checked in pretty quickly. Jaime had already picked our seats the night before, but we needed to check our bags. There wasn't anyone in the first class check in line and we actually got waived over to that counter. This was our second bit of good luck (third if you count not dying on the icy roads). Boarding passes in hand, we hit the security line. There were not too many people in line, so we made it to the front pretty quickly. Just as we were about to throw our stuff on the conveyor, they told us one of the two security lines was now closed. This meant that everyone, including both the lowlifes (coach class) and first class lines, had to filter into one line. Why would they close a line right before the morning rush?! Right in front of us was a couple with three young children and a ditzy grandmother that quickly backed up the queue. The family obviously did not have a lot of flying experience, compounding the situation. To top it off, one of the first class passengers pretty much jumped the line. He obviously deserved to be ahead of the common people. It was at that time that we realized that our original driving mistake put us closer to the terminal. The extra 10 minutes or so we saved probably saved us 30+ minutes (that we did not have) in the security line.
After quick water, coffee, and bathroom stops, we made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare (before they started general boarding). Another bit of luck (and a lot of Jaime's thoughtful seat selection the night before) let us sit in an exit row for both of our flights out to Portland. There were the usual idiots who do not seem to know how to board a plane efficiently, but we were seated soon enough. Just before takeoff the captain said that we had to take the plane to be deiced. We were getting nervous about our connecting flight, especially when we did not get off the ground almost 45 minutes late. We landed about 7 minutes late, at least according to the time on our tickets. Oh yeah, it was -4 degrees when we landed in Minneapolis. Burr!!
They layover went well enough with a quick bite to eat at everyone else's favorite Seattle coffee chain. (We're not huge fans.) The second flight was fine. We sat next to a chatty guy from the Minneapolis area. The flight was a little late to get off the ground because there were zero empty seats and they had to shuffle some people around: getting parents with their kids, making sure exit row people were "qualified" to sit there, etc. But take off we did with an uneventful flight. We also sat near a guy we recognized from our first flight who we later found out used to live in Southfield about three miles from our house.
No matter how many times I fly, I'm always fascinated by the scenery below. I did not watch for much of the flight, but we did get to see some wind farms. We also saw some cool mountains: Rainer, St. Hellens, and Adams(?). I always love flying over and seeing the mountains. We also got to see a flock of 50+ geese flying below the plane as we made the approach into Portland. We landed in overcast, foggy weather, but a pleasant 48 degrees. No complaints from us!
Portland's airport is pretty nice. It is a decent size so it has many amenities, but is not very crowded. It is also unusually quiet. Anyway, we got our bags and picked up the rental car. Much to Jaime's joy, they put us in a Charger. We also chatted with the rental guy about our adventures in Scotland where we got the big ass mini-van to drive on tiny Scottish roads.
We drove through Portland on our way out of town. The airport is in a blue collar, but not too scary part of town. I was originally unimpressed, but the downtown looked pretty cool from a distance. A dozen miles or so out of town we stopped for lunch at Jack in the Box. I have not been to one in probably 25 years, ever since they disappeared from the Midwest after a food poisoning incident. The lunch was a non-event, but it made me remember going there as a kid.
Outside of town, the road soon began increasing in altitude. It reminded us of a foggy Upper Peninsula. That impression was reduced the higher we got. I think we got as high as 1,600 feet. Over about 1,000 feet, the fog faded away and snow appeared on the sides of the road. The rolling hills were much larger than relatively flat Michigan. It was a very pretty drive. Unfortunately there were not very many scenic outlooks where we could pull aside to take pictures. The one we found was covered in snow and mud so we kept going. We also tried pulling off at a nature area/campsite, but what we assumed to be a long driveway turned out to be a several mile trek. We turned around after about a mile.
Here is a travel tip: I would strongly discourage taking state road 53 off of US-26. When we first got on, we saw one of those squiggly road signs that mean curvy roads ahead. Underneath it said "19 miles". 19?! How bad could it be? It took us probably a half hour to drive 2-3 miles. I do not think I went over 20 miles per hour and my hands were white-knuckled the whole time. We wished that we had a camcorder with us because no matter what I write it cannot capture how crazy it was. Fortunately it got much better after a couple of miles. Then we reached US-101 not far from the coast and had a nice drive. We also stopped in Wheeler to stretch our legs and take a couple of pictures of Nahelem Bay and the nearby hills.
We were staying in Rockaway Beach, a little town of only a couple thousand people. It was a cute little place that did not spread much beyond the highway. It reminded me a little of Christmas, MI, but without all the themed decorations. We found our timeshare, a relatively new building right on the beach. We parked the car and went in, or at least tried to. We discovered that there was no office or reception. There was nobody there to check us in. We talked to a guy at the property next to ours and he said that he saw a caretaker there not too long ago and that he might still be inside.
We went back to the car to figure out what to do. Fortunately we had a print out of our reservation that had a phone number. Right before I was about to make the call, the caretaker came out the front door so we went to talk to him. After we showed him our reservation printout, he let us in and told us the code to the lockbox that held the key. He also told us the code for the front door where the elevators and stairs were. He said that we should have gotten a packet in the mail. His wife had sent it out 3-4 days earlier. Being a couple thousand miles across the country, it obviously had not arrived in time.
The building was actually a set of condos with a few units reserved for timeshares. The unit we stayed in was nice, with a view of the beach. The unit was long and narrow, making the layout a little odd. Part of it was that it had a gas fireplace in the middle of the main living room wall which left no room for the TV near the couches. It was a minor complaint.
After settling in, we went out to pick up some supplies from a local grocery store. Since we had a kitchenette, we figured we would get stuff for breakfast and snacks to cut down on eating out. We also picked up a tide chart because, you know, they were free. When we returned to the condo we decided to take a walk on the beach. Using our new chart, we determined that it was not long after high tide. There were a good number of people out walking as well, most of them with dogs. We also saw a good number of jellyfish that had washed up onto the beach. This was a new sight to us freshwater folks.
The rest of the evening was spent in the condo. I called my dad to let him know that we had arrived. We also tried to get the laptop to connect to nearby Wi-Fi. I got on for a short bit by standing outside on the balcony, but it eventually dropped the connection. We had a light dinner of toast, cheese, cookies, and some beer that we bought at a store half a block from the condo. We watched TV and went to bed a little early.
[ Preface] [ Day 2] [ Day 3] [ Day 4] [ Day 5] [ Day 6] [ Day 7] [ Day 8] [ Day 9]
We got up around 4am. In retrospect, we should have gotten up a little earlier, but we made it to the airport in time. The roads were extremely icy. I think it was about 10 degrees outside. Already before 5am, way before the normal rush hour, there were reports of accidents on the road. But we got there without incident. Once we arrived, my sleepy brain influenced by Jaime's comment made me take the wrong lane to the Big Blue Deck. This turned out to be a fortuitous mistake. Since we were short on time and there is not a great way to turn around without driving a couple miles, we just parked at the expensive but close parking ramp near the Macnamera Terminal.
Inside the terminal, we checked in pretty quickly. Jaime had already picked our seats the night before, but we needed to check our bags. There wasn't anyone in the first class check in line and we actually got waived over to that counter. This was our second bit of good luck (third if you count not dying on the icy roads). Boarding passes in hand, we hit the security line. There were not too many people in line, so we made it to the front pretty quickly. Just as we were about to throw our stuff on the conveyor, they told us one of the two security lines was now closed. This meant that everyone, including both the lowlifes (coach class) and first class lines, had to filter into one line. Why would they close a line right before the morning rush?! Right in front of us was a couple with three young children and a ditzy grandmother that quickly backed up the queue. The family obviously did not have a lot of flying experience, compounding the situation. To top it off, one of the first class passengers pretty much jumped the line. He obviously deserved to be ahead of the common people. It was at that time that we realized that our original driving mistake put us closer to the terminal. The extra 10 minutes or so we saved probably saved us 30+ minutes (that we did not have) in the security line.
After quick water, coffee, and bathroom stops, we made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare (before they started general boarding). Another bit of luck (and a lot of Jaime's thoughtful seat selection the night before) let us sit in an exit row for both of our flights out to Portland. There were the usual idiots who do not seem to know how to board a plane efficiently, but we were seated soon enough. Just before takeoff the captain said that we had to take the plane to be deiced. We were getting nervous about our connecting flight, especially when we did not get off the ground almost 45 minutes late. We landed about 7 minutes late, at least according to the time on our tickets. Oh yeah, it was -4 degrees when we landed in Minneapolis. Burr!!
They layover went well enough with a quick bite to eat at everyone else's favorite Seattle coffee chain. (We're not huge fans.) The second flight was fine. We sat next to a chatty guy from the Minneapolis area. The flight was a little late to get off the ground because there were zero empty seats and they had to shuffle some people around: getting parents with their kids, making sure exit row people were "qualified" to sit there, etc. But take off we did with an uneventful flight. We also sat near a guy we recognized from our first flight who we later found out used to live in Southfield about three miles from our house.
No matter how many times I fly, I'm always fascinated by the scenery below. I did not watch for much of the flight, but we did get to see some wind farms. We also saw some cool mountains: Rainer, St. Hellens, and Adams(?). I always love flying over and seeing the mountains. We also got to see a flock of 50+ geese flying below the plane as we made the approach into Portland. We landed in overcast, foggy weather, but a pleasant 48 degrees. No complaints from us!
Portland's airport is pretty nice. It is a decent size so it has many amenities, but is not very crowded. It is also unusually quiet. Anyway, we got our bags and picked up the rental car. Much to Jaime's joy, they put us in a Charger. We also chatted with the rental guy about our adventures in Scotland where we got the big ass mini-van to drive on tiny Scottish roads.
We drove through Portland on our way out of town. The airport is in a blue collar, but not too scary part of town. I was originally unimpressed, but the downtown looked pretty cool from a distance. A dozen miles or so out of town we stopped for lunch at Jack in the Box. I have not been to one in probably 25 years, ever since they disappeared from the Midwest after a food poisoning incident. The lunch was a non-event, but it made me remember going there as a kid.
Outside of town, the road soon began increasing in altitude. It reminded us of a foggy Upper Peninsula. That impression was reduced the higher we got. I think we got as high as 1,600 feet. Over about 1,000 feet, the fog faded away and snow appeared on the sides of the road. The rolling hills were much larger than relatively flat Michigan. It was a very pretty drive. Unfortunately there were not very many scenic outlooks where we could pull aside to take pictures. The one we found was covered in snow and mud so we kept going. We also tried pulling off at a nature area/campsite, but what we assumed to be a long driveway turned out to be a several mile trek. We turned around after about a mile.
Here is a travel tip: I would strongly discourage taking state road 53 off of US-26. When we first got on, we saw one of those squiggly road signs that mean curvy roads ahead. Underneath it said "19 miles". 19?! How bad could it be? It took us probably a half hour to drive 2-3 miles. I do not think I went over 20 miles per hour and my hands were white-knuckled the whole time. We wished that we had a camcorder with us because no matter what I write it cannot capture how crazy it was. Fortunately it got much better after a couple of miles. Then we reached US-101 not far from the coast and had a nice drive. We also stopped in Wheeler to stretch our legs and take a couple of pictures of Nahelem Bay and the nearby hills.
We were staying in Rockaway Beach, a little town of only a couple thousand people. It was a cute little place that did not spread much beyond the highway. It reminded me a little of Christmas, MI, but without all the themed decorations. We found our timeshare, a relatively new building right on the beach. We parked the car and went in, or at least tried to. We discovered that there was no office or reception. There was nobody there to check us in. We talked to a guy at the property next to ours and he said that he saw a caretaker there not too long ago and that he might still be inside.
We went back to the car to figure out what to do. Fortunately we had a print out of our reservation that had a phone number. Right before I was about to make the call, the caretaker came out the front door so we went to talk to him. After we showed him our reservation printout, he let us in and told us the code to the lockbox that held the key. He also told us the code for the front door where the elevators and stairs were. He said that we should have gotten a packet in the mail. His wife had sent it out 3-4 days earlier. Being a couple thousand miles across the country, it obviously had not arrived in time.
The building was actually a set of condos with a few units reserved for timeshares. The unit we stayed in was nice, with a view of the beach. The unit was long and narrow, making the layout a little odd. Part of it was that it had a gas fireplace in the middle of the main living room wall which left no room for the TV near the couches. It was a minor complaint.
After settling in, we went out to pick up some supplies from a local grocery store. Since we had a kitchenette, we figured we would get stuff for breakfast and snacks to cut down on eating out. We also picked up a tide chart because, you know, they were free. When we returned to the condo we decided to take a walk on the beach. Using our new chart, we determined that it was not long after high tide. There were a good number of people out walking as well, most of them with dogs. We also saw a good number of jellyfish that had washed up onto the beach. This was a new sight to us freshwater folks.
The rest of the evening was spent in the condo. I called my dad to let him know that we had arrived. We also tried to get the laptop to connect to nearby Wi-Fi. I got on for a short bit by standing outside on the balcony, but it eventually dropped the connection. We had a light dinner of toast, cheese, cookies, and some beer that we bought at a store half a block from the condo. We watched TV and went to bed a little early.
[ Preface] [ Day 2] [ Day 3] [ Day 4] [ Day 5] [ Day 6] [ Day 7] [ Day 8] [ Day 9]