travel

I won’t be breaking any records soon

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This weekend flew by.  We went to Oak Ridge for a gig yesterday (pretty drive, but it was hot as hell out there), and then I dragged Christina shopping with me today.  I’ve had more successful shopping trips.  Christina was really good about putting up with me in store after store, thank goodness.  I owe her for that.

We’re traveling for a wedding soon, and I’m starting to feel stress about taking off work.  Combine that with making sure I have everything I’ll need for nearly two weeks away from home, and I’m not exactly relaxed.

The running events have started, though, and that helps.  I spent a couple hours this afternoon watching the coverage online (because NBC on TV SUCKS).  Saw some great races.  I should go running, even if it’s just the pseudo-running I can do right now.

Portland!

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We had about three hours to kill in Portland before the Night Vale show Thursday night, so we did pretty much what you’d expect of us:

  1. We did a quick tour of the downtown library.
  2. We spent about 45 minutes in Powell’s.
  3. We had dinner.

The library is pretty impressive-looking from the outside, and the lobby is lovely.  It has a big sweeping staircase, and the steps to the second floor are (or at least look like) black marble etched with animals and lots of swirling patterns.  Very cool.

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I think these windows were in non-fiction room.  Huge, lots of light, trees outside – beautiful and peaceful.

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The children’s library is named after Beverly Cleary, who – fun fact I just learned – grew up in Portland.  That tree in there has figures from children’s stories carved into it.
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We didn’t spend too much time there because a) we couldn’t check anything out, and b) WE HAD TO GO TO POWELL’S.

Last time we were there, I mentioned being overwhelmed, but in a good way.  This time, that feeling was tinged with anxiety.  There are SO many books, and SO many books I want to read.  How will I ever find the time to read them all?  That idea, that abundance of books – it should feel wonderful, exciting, comforting maybe.  I’ll never run out of things to read (as if that were possible).  Thursday, though, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.  Maybe I just need a vacation.  Yeah, no, I KNOW I need a vacation.

Anyway, we kept that visit pretty short because we were hungry and we had a show to get to.  Dinner was Japanese, shared, really good.  The theater was on the other side of a park from the restaurant, and as we crossed into the park, we saw this sign:

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Eugene has bike routes everywhere.  Portland has skate routes.  Because Portland.  I think the guy on the right is on rollerblades, but it’s hard to tell.  His other foot might be a giant circular saw.

Our Big Day Out: A Photo Essay

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We did make it to the coast, and we did have a wonderfully pleasant day, and with the sun out, temps in the mid-60s felt great.

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We did what usually works out for us: hit the road with a general destination (or at least direction) in mind, and then just see what we see.  You know?  It worked out pretty well.  Our first stop was at the Sea Lion Cave, a place we didn’t know even existed until we noticed it on our handy road atlas.  (Our cell service was pretty much non-existent all day, so we relied on good old-fashioned maps.)

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Apparently, this is where the Stellar sea lions live.  Off to one side was a path to the elevator that takes you down 20 stories to the actual cave (fall and winter home of the sea lions).  Way over in the distance is the Heceta Lighthouse.  We’ll visit that some other trip.

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A similar path in the other direction took us to the lookout where we could see the rocks where about 150 sea lions were sunning or playing in the surf.

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It’s breeding season, and the male sea lions were shouting about it.  Lots of roaring.  They’re a noisy bunch.

We headed further north after that, stopping in Newport for a late lunch and a little browsing.  Newport has a pretty harbor, but it’s a working port and the harborside factories or whatever where they deal with the raw fish and crabs smelled AWFUL.

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Looks nice, smells bad.  But they had a friendly California sea lion willing to pose for his fans.

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After that, we found a mostly empty beach and read for about 3 hours.

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Sunset sent us home.

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Field trip

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Today (Saturday), we are off to the coast.  I think.  We’re certainly going to head in that direction, and then we’ll see what we see.  We decided to make a day of it instead of a weekend because it’s not going to get over 60 degrees, and that is not what I consider beach weather.  If we make it to the coast (and I believe we will), maybe we’ll pretend we’re posh New Englanders who roam the beach in oversize cable knit sweaters and Dockers rolled above our ankles. Except for the oversize cable knit sweaters and the Dockers rolled above our ankles.

By the time you read this, we’ll have already gone to wherever we’re going.  How mysterious.  How vague and always true.  Unless you’re standing over my shoulder reading it as I type.  But even then, you’re behind me, I’m ahead of you, you’re in my past, and I’m wherever it is I was going to go.

I’ve been listening to Welcome to Night Vale almost every day.  It may be influencing my thoughts.

Sense is overrated

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I can’t decide if 14 states feels like a lot to cross through in five days or not enough, considering we crossed the ENTIRE country. Same with knowing that we’d never been in half of them before. Is that a lot? Not a lot? I have lost all sense of perspective. And all sense. And, since we got here, I’ve been fighting decision fatigue again. It’s kind of scary to waffle between options, knowing the choice you make won’t be wrong (the thing you’re trying to decide on is not that important), but completely unable to choose. I don’t like it. It’s not all the time, and it’s not debilitating. In fact, I think it only happened twice and only Monday morning. It’s still weird, and I don’t have to like it.

Five days in the car. I was ready to give the car a break (my butt was ready to send the seats packing), but at the same time, I wasn’t ready for the trip to be over. It wasn’t restful, and it wasn’t a vacation, but we didn’t have to do anything except drive. Work was a distant memory. It was freeing. We’re still somewhat in limbo, since we don’t have our stuff. I called the moving coordinator Tuesday morning (Day 7 of the 7-14 day window), and she said the driver couldn’t provide an ETA yet, but call again on Friday, and maybe they can provide one. Sigh. No internet yet, either, but the install kit could arrive any day, assuming it has actually shipped. I placed the order Friday night, but I never got a confirmation email. I called them Monday, and they confirmed the order and resent the email. I just realized I never got that email, either. I have to call them again and hope hope HOPE it’s out there and actually on its way. Cross your fingers for us!

Update: the install kit arrived and we have internet!  We still don’t have anything to sit on or at, but we have internet!

Quick stop

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Yesterday, as we drove through the mountains in western Montana, we saw a sign advertising more than 100,000 used books at the Montana Valley Book Store.  You know us.  This is not something we could ignore.

It was in a tiny town, in the middle of the mountains (I don’t know which mountains), and the store was in this white house on the main road.

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The entire first floor had ceiling-high shelves, crammed full of books.  The picture I took only shows one side.

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The basement (slightly scary) ran the length of the house and had all the paperbacks in it.

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It was everything you could want in a used bookstore.  I really like the ones in old houses.  We didn’t stay long, but it helped us get through the rest of yesterday’s drive to Spokane.  It reinforced my growing desire to spend all of my free time in the library, if we ever actually get to Eugene.

(I bought a book, even though I’m not supposed to be buying books.  It’s a science fiction anthology edited by (and with commentary from) Isaac Asimov.  I felt the need to support the store.)

Somebody really sculpted faces into a mountain

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Our plan worked!  We have become shadows of our former selves and are drifting aimlessly through life. Or, the early morning snow cleared out and we got a perfect day for Mount Rushmore.  That’s the plan I meant.

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It was surreal and SO weird.  What a strange thing to want to do!  And how VERY strange to be driving along and all of a sudden see these giant faces in the mountainside.  In person, it’s even weirder than just knowing it’s out there.

I learned something about myself yesterday.  As we were driving up to the park, we caught our first glimpse of it, and THAT’S when it sank in to me that this giant sculpture actually existed.  If you had asked me the day before if Mount Rushmore was a real thing, I would have said of course it is, but when I saw it, just that first glimpse from a moving car, it felt almost like learning that Bugs Bunny is a real talking rabbit.  Mount Rushmore is something I’ve only heard about, only seen in movies, and I guess I never really processed it as real.  I don’t do that with other things I haven’t seen for myself, do I?

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We’re being photobombed by stone heads.  Also, I am incapable of looking at the lens.

Thursday

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Thursday was a big driving day.  We woke up in Michigan (barely in Michigan), drove across Indiana and Illinois (waved to Chicago and got stuck in traffic there), drove across Wisconsin, the entire width of Minnesota, and spent the night in South Dakota.  811 miles.  We had to make up for Wednesday, and we wanted to be able to detour a tad to see Mt. Rushmore on Friday (which, as you’re reading this, we’ve probably already done – I’m writing this Thursday night).  It rained on us almost all day, and we got snowed on as we climbed into Minnesota.

I can say with certainty that Ohio rest area bathrooms are WAY nicer than Indiana rest area bathrooms, and there was one in a truck stop barely into South Dakota that was REALLY nice.  For a public rest room.  It had a bench and a plant!

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Yes, I took a picture.

We could have gone farther

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We drove about 530 miles today.  We detoured briefly in Ohio to go see Lake Erie, and we stopped in time to have dinner that wasn’t fast food (Applebee’s is ALMOST fast food – there aren’t a lot of options right off the highway in Coldwater, MI), and now we’re about to collapse.  We’ll need to do better tomorrow, but we can do that.  Especially if we’re asleep soon.

The biggest decision we have to make tomorrow is whether we’re going to drive across North Dakota or South Dakota.  Time and distance are the same.  We’ll have to decide around midday.

Look!  A great lake!  It was windy.

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And a bit gray.  But great!

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I miss my bed

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Of the last 14 days, I have spent only 4 of them sleeping in my own bed.  It would be cool if we could take it with us on short trips.  We were in OR for a few days (2 hotel nights, 3 nights at Will and Christina’s, 1 night on a plane), then home for 3 nights, then up to CT for the weekend (2 nights in PA, 1 in CT), then home for 1 night, and then I came to VA for work, and tonight is my second (and last) night in a hotel.  Don’t get me wrong – none of those nights have been uncomfortable (except the night on the plane), and every single shower I’ve had in hotels and other people’s houses has been better than the shower at home, but – my bed.  My stuff.  Not living out of a bag.

Actually, I slept terribly last night.  Noises from the hallway, noises from the parking lot, noises from the room next door (sick and crying child, I think), went to bed late and got up early – I’m surprised I made it through the day.  I tried the hotel gym this morning.  Ran a mile and a half on the treadmill, did some weights.  They keep that room a bit too warm for me.  The thermostat was set to 70, and it was a muggy, sweaty 70.  I didn’t end up doing much, but I suppose it was better than nothing.  I’ll try again tomorrow.  Tonight, I read.

People are right about Portland

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We spent about 12 hours hanging out in Portland last Monday, before our flight back home, and they were a VERY good 12 hours.  We had a really good day.  We spent the night just south of Portland, planning to sleep in.  That plan was foiled by a garbage truck in the parking lot of the hotel around 7:30am, but we were in no rush.  We checked out around 10, I think, and found an all-day parking spot in a lot downtown a few blocks away from Powell’s (!), which was the BIG reason we wanted to spend a day in Portland.

First, though, breakfast.  I spent 30 seconds googling all-day breakfast places in Portland, and I found a diner that sounded great.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t open, which was a little bit mysterious.  We were well within the hours posted on the door, and it specifically said it was open Mondays…but oh, well.  We took a walk and found another place that worked.  It didn’t look like much – it was travel-themed, Route 66-type, lots of souvenirs from road trips in the 50s, tacky decorative plates on the walls – but the music was GREAT, the waitresses (friendly) were all absent-mindedly singing along (so was I), and the brunch special was this egg scramble that had cauliflower in it.  Who thinks of that?  It was delicious.  Cauliflower, spinach, proscuitto, tomato, avocado on top.  Maybe something else.  SO GOOD.  And while we were there, we got the call from the property management company that our application for the house had been accepted, so YAY!

From there, we walked to Powell’s, and we didn’t come out again for HOURS and it was GLORIOUS.  We’d heard about it for years, of course, and I’ve been dying to see it.  I was not disappointed.  We stopped on every single floor and browsed nearly every single shelf.  It was overwhelming, in the best possible way.  Every shelf was a mix of new books and used books, hardcover and trade and mass market paperbacks, and the selection was varied and enormous.  After we toured the entire store, we stopped in the science fiction and fantasy section.  I didn’t come out of those shelves for at least two hours (maybe three).

The science fiction and fantasy section (which is enormous and comprehensive) reminded me entirely too much of what our bookshelves used to look like.  It was eerie.  Our personal collection was always heavily SFF, and this section had shelf after shelf of my favorite authors, with whole series represented (very different from your typical bookstore, but very much like what we had).  It felt like the best combination of used bookstore and library, and for the first time, I felt a twinge of regret about getting rid of so many of our books.  Just a twinge.

I stuck to my goals and DIDN’T buy ANYthing.  (John bought three books.)  We went for a wandering walk around the neighborhood, again with a restaurant I’d found online as our intended destination, but when we got there, it was a little fancy for how we were feeling.  There was an interesting looking place on the opposite corner, so we walked in there and were seated immediately.

I don’t remember what John had, but I had the spicy mac and cheese, and it was SO GOOD.  And while we were waiting, they brought us bite-size pieces of grilled cheese sandwich with lemon in it.  Sounds weird?  Was delicious.  The chefs were experimenting, apparently.  Dinner was really pleasant.

After all of that, it was only about 7:15, and we didn’t need to return our rental car until about 9.  We walked back to the car and realized that we’d parked right next to an arcade.  Serendipitous!  So we went into the arcade, John picked up a beer, we changed $5 for quarters, and we played Galaga and Joust and Tetris and Star Wars and X-Men and I-don’t-know-what until we ran out of quarters.  That was our signal to head to the airport, and thus ended our day in Portland.

It was a good day.

Accepted!

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We did it!  We got the house we wanted!  Our application was approved, our security deposit is in the mail (although our jet-lagged brains fought really hard to forget it when we went to get lunch today), and we’re just waiting for them to send the paperwork.  YAYYYYYYY!!!!!

We had a great day in Portland yesterday, and I’ll tell you all about it, but…I can’t.  Not right now.  I worked 7 hours today after our red-eye (maybe not the smartest idea), and I might fall asleep in my sandwich.  Here’s to being more awake tomorrow!

Fruitful trip

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We’ve confirmed that we like Eugene (a lot), we’ve found a great place to live (we’re waiting to hear back about the application), and we did all that pretty early in the trip (found the place on the first day, applied for it on the third), so we’ve been able to enjoy the last two days stress-free!  Actually, we’re still stressed, but it’s mostly about the red-eye back home and how utterly terrible we’re going to feel all day Tuesday.  I mean, really.  Whose idea was it to get on a plane at 11pm pacific time and fly from Portland to Newark and THEN get on another plane to get to Baltimore?  We’re not landing at BWI until almost 10am eastern, and we almost certainly will not have slept.  And once we get home, we’re working (on no sleep) because we were not smart enough to take Tuesday off, too.

I think we need to fire our travel agent.  Next time, we’ll drive.

(Do you get it?  Because next time we’ll be moving and we’ll drive?  I crack myself up.)

No more panic

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The panic is gone (and may have been exaggerated for effect).  I’m just in how-do-I-get-myself-out-of-all-these-work-things mode.  I packed last night (mostly).  Ate some fruit (a lot of fruit – more on that later).  Work is….what it always is, which makes getting away difficult, but I’ll manage it.  I ran this morning, had coffee (decaf!) with Jess this morning, and now I would like to shower, eat more fruit (there’s really a lot of fruit), and finish packing.  THEN I’ll feel better.  My goal is the big sigh of relief when I get in the car.  Although it might be put off in favor of getting to the gate.  Then I can relax.

The all-out pre-trip panic has begun

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Eeeek!  Traveling!  Making decisions!  Big ones that are exciting!  But I can’t be excited because we haven’t left yet and I haven’t packed and we’re making appointments to see places and we’re working tomorrow before we leave and I’ve learned that lesson before and WHY haven’t I applied it yet?

To keep the panic to a minimum, this will be short so I can breathe.  And pack.  And breathe.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be better because I will be packed.  I will be packed.  I will be packed.  (It’s my new mantra.)

Every time

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It’s the day we’re leaving for the holidays.  Time to panic!  Well, panic is a little strong, but I’ve got a deadline looming (we’re trying to leave in less than an hour), so I’m running around like a crazy chicken.  I’m trying to get the urgent work stuff done, trying to pack, trying to clean up a little, and hey – I’m hungry.  I forgot to eat lunch.

[Pause for actual packing]

And…now we’re leaving in 15 minutes.  Yeah.  Sure we are.  Eek!

Still hungry.

Update: In case you were wondering, we left around 4:45.  Close enough.

Everyone’s a comic

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I’m home!  The flight was a little bumpy, otherwise uneventful.  Not full.  The flight attendants were practicing their stand-up routines, but one of them liked my hat, so I’ll give them a pass on that.

We spent much of the day watching more Supernatural episodes.  Season 1 Sam and Dean were such babies!  We’ll have to work that show back into our regular TV rotation.  I’ve missed the Winchester boys.

Oh, hey, I learned a new joke on Thanksgiving that is my new favorite joke, but I can’t write it down.  The joke is in the delivery.  I have a video of Christine doing it, but John just pointed out that I took that video in portrait mode, not landscape, so I can’t post it online.  I’ll be laughed off the internet, possibly with tomatoes thrown at me.  You want to hear it?  You’ll have to come see me.  Or call me.  Skype is also good.  We’ll work it out.

Hoping to miss the Thanksgiving travel craziness

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Thanksgiving Travel: the general rule is don’t do it if you don’t have to.  And if you do have to, give yourself lots of time, or go in the middle of the night, or go last week.  We’ve dodged it in past years by hosting (which comes with its own complications).  This year, we’re dodging the worst part of the travel (we hope) by traveling ON Thanksgiving.  I’m flying to KY and John is driving to Emily’s house around midday on Thanksgiving Day (today).

With a flight at a time many people are already eating Thanksgiving dinner, I’m hoping to avoid all the airport drama.  And I’ll still make it in time to have Thanksgiving dinner at a normal time (dinner time).  And someone else will do the cooking.  (I planned it that way.  I’m very sneaky.)

Wish me luck!

Home!

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We are home again!  And contrary to my expectations, I don’t think I’m jet-lagged.  It was about 2am when I fell asleep, and I got up at 8 to start working.  I was tired this morning, but no more than the usual amount after being up so late.  And now I feel fine.  I’m sure you’ll sleep better tonight knowing that I’m not jet-lagged.  You’re welcome.

No excitement on the way home, which was nice.  I still had the middle seat of three on the flight from Portland to Chicago, but the guy on the aisle kept to himself, right up until the plane landed.  He looked over, shook my hand, and said, “It was nice chatting with you.”  Great guy.

Finally tried Dutch Bros. coffee on our way to the airport – that stuff is pretty good.  I’m not sure we did anything else particularly Oregonian…barely even dressed up for Halloween, not that that has anything to do with Oregon, although the people in Will and Christina’s town certainly went all out.  The guy who won the costume contest was dressed as Edward Scissorhands, and the runner-up was David the Gnome (or maybe she was the Travelocity gnome – I don’t think she told us).  There were some Day of the Dead zombies, a hippy, a guy wearing the big yellow construction thing Ripley wears as armor in Aliens, a viking, Thor, and a couple of swing-dancing steampunk fairies who made their very cool metal wings themselves.  John wore a Superman shirt with a cape, and I wore my new TARDIS hoodie.  Not all that Halloween-y, but who cares when you’re really there to see the band?

The band (the Elena Leona Project) played three nights in a row, including Halloween, and they are pretty darn good.  I have video, but I’ve given them to Elena to post on YouTube on her channel if she wants to.  (The sound from my phone is pretty terrible, so she might not.)  I’ll provide links if she does.  John had a great time (and I did, too, at all three gigs), but I think the Halloween one was the most fun.  People danced!  Yay the band!  Details later.  Different post.

Who needs normal? What IS normal?

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I know that Portland is supposed to be weird (I’ve seen Portlandia), but I hadn’t really heard that about the rest of the state.  I suppose it stands to reason that everywhere else might be a bit quirky.  That was confirmed one of our first mornings here.  We went to Eugene for breakfast (Off the Waffle) and to check out the area, and on our walk from the car to the restaurant, we passed a street musician playing the recorder.  That’s a little weird (you don’t see a lot of recorder-players around DC), but not totally off the wall.  The guy had a little animal crate next to him and a double pet dish with food and water in front of his feet, and a CAT eating out of the dish.  No leash or anything.  Just a cat eating at the feet of a dude playing the recorder on the sidewalk in downtown Eugene.

I like Eugene.