The grand adventure begins.

It started off fairly uneventfully. The flight over left on time and arrived on time, which is pretty much the norm. I was able to pick up my rental car without much trouble either, but boo to the girl at the counter who tried to upsell me; I got this rate (~ $370 for two weeks) by planning ahead, and you’ll have to offer me something comparable to get me to change (not $100-200 more). Getting to the hotel was quick, and I did have a room waiting for me even at close to midnight (thank goodness; I’ve heard too many horror stories about late arrivals getting their reservations given away).

Started Wednesday with continental breakfast at the hotel, followed by catching MAX downtown. Portland’s newest MAX line ends at Clackamas Town Center, just a 5 to 10 minute walk from where I’m staying. (That brings the total number of MAX lines to four. Yes, all of that while Honolulu has bickered all this time about building its first, and it probably won’t be built for sometime.)

When I got there, I got a bacon maple bar from Voodoo Doughnut (mmmm…), and made my way to the Park Blocks, snapping pictures along the way. I spent most of the half hour before the market opened taking pictures of the fruits and vegetables being put out for display.

After catching the MAX back to the hotel, I decided it’s time for some driving. So off in the car I went, to Seaside on the Oregon Coast. I’ve seen a lot of Seaside over the past few years, what with it being the finish line for the Hood to Coast Relay, but this is the first time that I’ve seen Seaside without the hubbub and ruckus that comes with Hood to Coast. Think of it as Coney Island West. Took a leisurely stroll down Broadway (the main street), snapped some photos, and made my way into a game center where I put down almost $20 playing Skee-Ball. (I think playing the iPod/iPhone app, in a weird way, gave me some practice for the real thing. Maybe.)

My plan was to have dinner at Cannon Beach (which I did, over at Mo’s Restaurant) and then catch the sunset, but I realized that at this latitude sunset happens at 9:00 p.m. So back to Portland I went. Besides, I do have a great photo of Haystack Rock from a previous trip.

Today, I started my day at the flagship location of the Original Pancake House. And it really is a house. Maybe about 15 tables in the whole area. I was able to get a table right next to the fireplace. I ordered one of their signature dishes – apple pancakes. It came out quickly (I was surprised!), and it was monstrous. Maybe about 9 inches in diameter, with apples in the batter, with apple-cinnamon topping on top. I couldn’t finish it all. It occurred to me, though, while I was sitting there…I had gone to Lewis & Clark, which is not too far away, for four years, and I’ve visited Portland five times in the double-ohs. It surprised me that this was the first time I’d ever eaten here.

Made a stop at Pro Photo Northwest (picking up a TTL flash cable for back home), and then decided to spend the day out in the Gorge. First stop was Multnomah Falls. It’s the second highest waterfall in North America, 620 feet high. And you can hike all the way to the top, which I did. Wasn’t really prepared for the big climb – 1.25 miles but with that 600 foot elevation gain. Then coming back down again.

Had some lunch over in Cascade Locks and then headed back to the hotel to take a nap before heading out to dinner with my friend from high school.

The trip’s getting off to a great start and I’m looking forward to the rest of it!

Posted via email from Northwest Passage 2010

In my mailbox today landed a list of the dumbest questions asked by visitors to Banff National Park. Fortunately, I’m not going anywhere near there on my trip, staying in the Vancouver vicinity, but it’s a good reminder of what not to say to stay in the good graces of our Canadian friends.

A sample:

• Did I miss the turnoff for Canada? (while standing in the middle of Banff!)
• Where does Alberta end and Canada begin?
• Is this the part of Canada that speaks French, or is that Saskatchewan?
• If I go to B.C., do I have to go through Ontario?
• How far is Banff from Canada?
• What’s the best way to see Canada in a day?

And my favorite: “Don’t you Canadians know anything?”

Posted via email from Northwest Passage 2010

Here's what I have on tap:

July 13 (day 0): I leave Honolulu in the afternoon, arriving at night in Portland. Most other airlines run red-eyes to the West Coast. Hawaiian's flights leave Honolulu in the afternoon Hawaii time, getting there at night in Portland on Pacific time. Getting in late at night in Portland has never really been a problem for me in the four times or so I've taken Hawaiian. True, it may be 11 p.m. when I get there, but my body still thinks it's 8 p.m. – enough for me to be coherent enough to pick up my baggage and rental car, and settle into my hotel room (or host's home, as the case may be). Then by the time I'm settled in it's time for me to go to sleep, which I can do horizontally.

For some reason, I have trouble enough getting a sound sleep in a seated position – add the jet noise and the general discomfort caused by the seat and it becomes nearly impossible. So Hawaiian's flight schedule works well for me and usually I wake up the next morning with minimal jet lag.

July 14-16 (days 1 to 3): Portland, part 1. I don't really have a set schedule for most of my first segment. I have dinner scheduled on the 16th with a high school friend of mine who moved to Portland, got married, and started a family. I do plan to visit the campus of Lewis & Clark during that time. It always amazes me how much the campus has changed since I graduated 16 years ago. Besides that, I have a few places on my flexible agenda: visiting Voodoo Doughnut (never been, but have heard a lot about their bacon maple bar – want to try it out in person); Bagby Hot Springs, and whatever else comes to mind. Also to visit restaurant chains that have yet to make the jump across the pond – Olive Garden, Red Robin, Sonic, etc.

July 17 (day 4): Portland to Seattle (by way of Mount Rainier): The plan on the 17th is to check out of the hotel relatively early and hit the road heading north. First stop, weather permitting, will be Mount Rainier National Park for some photo ops and then from there into Seattle. After that, finding someplace to eat, then watching the sun go down on the Space Needle.

July 18 (day 5): Seattle: Hoping to get up early to get a chance to take a picture perfect shot of Seattle from Kerry Park, then planning on visiting Pike Place Market and other places, maybe the Ballard Locks, Woodland Park Zoo, or the Museum of Flight.

July 19 (day 6): Seattle to Vancouver: Making a stop at the Future of Flight Center in Everett and taking the Boeing factory tour, then from there to the Canadian border – a quick stop at the Peace Arch, one of the few places where you can straddle the physical U.S./Canada border – and then on to Vancouver.

July 20-21 (days 7 and 8): Vancouver: What? Vancouver isn't hosting the Summer Olympics? LOL. But there are a few things I plan to do while I'm there…Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain, jogging in Stanley Park, and Granville Island, with some poutine (Canadian-style cheese fries) on the side.

July 22 (day 9): Vancouver back to Portland: Hoping the lines at the border aren't too long, and that I can stretch my legs again in the Puget Sound area before heading back south.

July 23 to July 25 (days 10 to 12): Portland, part 2. This is probably when I'll be spending most of my major souvenir shopping time…zero sales tax, FTW. I also have an early morning photowalk date on July 24 at Oaks Amusement Park for Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk.

July 26 (day 13): Back to reality. Leaving in the morning and arriving back in Honolulu in the early afternoon.

Posted via email from Northwest Passage 2010

I was having some difficulty logging into the Hawaiian Airlines site to view my reservation (I wanted the ticket number so I could put into my tripit.com itinerary). So I called Hawaiian web support – they were kind and courteous. Turned out that the site was undergoing maintenance, but the rep was able to enable my account temporarily so I could see my reservation. It was then that I found out that there were some schedule changes to my original flights…same flight numbers but earlier departure and arrival times.

That meant that since my flight to Portland arrives 30 minutes earlier, I could pick up my rental car that much earlier. (I hit the ground in Portland around 11:00 p.m. PDT so the sooner I can get my rental car and get to the hotel, the better, and the sooner I can get on Pacific time. I hate red-eyes because I have difficulty sleeping on a plane.) So I went onto the Enterprise site, accessed my reservation, and bumped my pickup time up half an hour to 11:00 p.m. I wasn't expecting the originally quoted price to change, but it did. From around $400 for around two weeks to $310.

In a word – SCORE. A penny saved is a penny earned. And saving 9,000 pennies…all the better.

Posted via email from Northwest Passage 2010

So, I was targeting July or August (to plan around my 20th high school
class reunion). By then my tax refund moneys from both federal and
state would be in, and combined with some money I had put away for the
trip late last year, it would pay for the trip. But then came the hard
part – deciding on the dates, finding a pair of dates about two weeks
apart that would give me maximum time and minimum disruption to my
obligations at home.

It was on February 19 that the pieces of the puzzle started coming
together. I found a good roundtrip fare on Hawaiian for July 13 – 26
and took Bing Travel’s advice to book it. Plus, HawaiianMiles allowed
me to chop that fare in half – woo hoo! After that, everything else
fell into place in a matter of a few days; I have my car reserved and
reservations at hotels in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver (at AAA
rates, of course).

Now comes the hard part – deciding what to do while I’m there.
Fortunately, I have five months to think about it.

Posted via email from Northwest Passage 2010

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Posted via web from Northwest Passage 2010

Some of you are angered by the statement I typed above because you think somehow it implicates Jesus. After all, AIDS is a shameful disease, one most often spread through sexual promiscuity or illicit drug use.

Yes.

Yes, but those are the very kinds of people Jesus consistently identified himself with as he walked the hillsides of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem, announcing the kingdom of God. Can one be more sexually promiscuous than the prostitutes Jesus ate with? Can one be more marginalized from society than a woman dripping with blood, blood that would have made anyone who touched her unclean (Luke 8:40-48)? Jesus touched her, and took her uncleanness on himself.

AIDS is scandalous, sure. But not nearly as scandalous as a cross.

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