The system works!

[screamingflea]

I can't believe my good fortune. Yesterday I traveled from Eugene to Portland OR for a seminar given by a very highly regarded author and instructor in his field. He's an international name.

Since I don't have a car I tried to work out several plans to get there. Amtrak was very obliging with its rates and schedules, but getting to the actual classroom in the exurbs was a real sticking point. I asked around among my Eugene friends to organize a car pool, but no one was interested. Finally I got creative and asked the instructor if anyone else who'd signed up was coming in from Eugene.

No, they're all in Portland, he said. I'd better come pick you up at the train station myself. It'll be pretty early so I hope you don't mind having breakfast together on the way.

I'm really glad that exchange happened by email, because for a moment I squealed and squirmed like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Bieber concert. I got to pick his brain all by myself for 2 hours! And he's a hell of a nice guy in spite of (or more likely because of) his Ultimate Alpha Male status. Most highly accomplished martial artists are. We had a lot of fun, and I learned a tremendous amount. My only misgiving was that he refused to let me pay for my food. *sigh* I'm so put upon ... >8)

On the Amtrak bus home, I saw a complete double rainbow that I would have missed if I were driving, and I got some sleep too. If anyone is wondering, Amtrak buses are far superior to Greyhounds. Yet another highly useful piece of information from a very educational day. The whole experience left me scratching my head as to why I ever owned a car in the first place ... and feeling very blessed indeed after the whole experience.

[Reyes]

How great your transportation worked out so well! And 2-hours with the man was a nice bonus:-)

The train ride from Eugene to Portland is a nice one. Just took the kids up there (Portland) last weekend.

[KayLR]

Hey SF! I saw that double rainbow too! It was the brightest one I have seen for...well, forever! Cool that we both saw it. (I'm up here just north of PDX.)

[screamingflea]

Hey SF! I saw that double rainbow too! It was the brightest one I have seen for...well, forever! Cool that we both saw it. (I'm up here just north of PDX.)

Interesting how certain unexpected things bring people together, isn't it? It may sound silly but it was the profusion of rainbows that ultimately convinced me to move to Oregon. I loved everything I saw on my scouting-out visit, but it was driving right through a rainbow on a bridge across the Willamette that convinced me that my decision was formally approved by divine providence. That may be right because after nearly a full year I have no regrets.

[junkman]

I bike past that train station on my way to Powells and have met or dropped off friends there, too. Getting around Portland by bike, bus, or light rail isn’t hard and heading north or south by train is good, too.

Like you, the first time I saw Portland, I fell in love with it. The last two weeks of summer before we headed off to college, a friend and I drove up to Oregon from the Monterey Bay Area, camping all the way. When we got to Portland, we hoteled just off South Park blocks and its tree-lined streets. “What a beautiful city,” I thought. That was 1961. 30 years later, I moved here for work, and in some sense, it was like coming home again. The city looked the same as I remembered it.

But, truth be told, Portland and Oregon will never really be “home.” Barry Lopez, in his book, Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape, puts the matter this way:

“The differing landscapes of earth are hard to know individually. They are as difficult to engage in conversation as wild animals. The complex feelings of affinity and self-assurance one feels with one’s native place rarely develop again in another landscape." (pp. 228-9)

So, me for, though I’ve lived here nearly 20 years, California is still “home”, especially the Redwoods, the summer fogs, the smell of salt air, and to the east, the golden hills of the Coast Range.

[JaneV2.0]

Your trip sounds perfect--a smooth trip, good company, and heavenly blessings!

I've heard that pigeons consider home to be the place they were conceived. Apparently I'm a pigeon, because I feel more at home in the geographical area where I was likely conceived than the one I was born or raised in. Always the odd bird...

I love the Amtrak Seattle-Portland (lately, Edmonds-Portland) run. Business class all the way.