The drive out of Boise was slow. Between morning traffic and construction (which there's been a lot of all over the country) it took quite a while. The 6-7 hour trip on Google Maps took closer to 10 with bathroom/gas stops. It was also a busier trip with far more traffic outside the city than I'd seen in a few days through the longer highway stretches which was nice. I'd come to realize about 1/2 way through the day that I was zoning out a bit. I plan on sleeping in tomorrow which think will be great not only in my getting a little extra rest but also hoping to allow some of the morning traffic to subside. The last couple of hours into Portland were beautiful as it winds and traces the Columbia River and thankfully there were plenty of rest stops. However beautiful it was it was also mindnumbingly loud. Whatever the road was constructed from it was loud. Not so loud though I couldn't enjoy last nights Midnight in The Dessert with radio legend Art Bell. Last nights guest was Dr. Dean Radin, author of Superhuman who credits yoga with enhightening our senses and intuition and believes the yoga practice is primarily meant to strengthen the body for prolonged periods of meditation.
Lucky me I have family in Portland! A sister in law who invited me out to the Northside where her BF was meeting people out. So upon arriving downtown did my hotel search and horrified to see what Portland hotels cost. It's so awful there is no obscenity that can properly describe it. Perhaps future generations of humans will one day invent such a word that I suspect will be so fowl and reprehensible the mere utterance will violently sicken people to their stomachs. That word is Portland hotel prices.
Dropped off my bags, showered off the car and hit the street! Lynne and her BF are in the Northside and weren't going to be heading out until later so figured I'd walk around and if I happened upon something yummy would eat and then cab over to their side of the city afterwards. Turns out the city was so walkable quickly found myself on the Steel Bridge (which reminded me of my Williamsburg Bridge in it's super industrial metalness) crossing the Williamette River (an offshoot of the Columbian) and eventually had walked the few miles to Mississippi Studios. This little stretch of bars and restaurants and shops were very familiar. Very hipster. Maybe even more so than Williasmsburg. In fact Portland felt like a great big Brooklyn in many ways other than the amount of beards and manbuns. It was fantastic to see a couple of familiar faces and to get a couple more suggestions on my trip which have come from all sorts about all sorts.
I've decided to split the drive to San Francisco into a couple of days and take the morning tomorrow to hit a museum and maybe make my way over to the beach where I've been told by a couple of people that there's a great big ridiculous rock off the coast of Pacific City I should see.
430 miles
9+ hours
2 states
1 spectacular drive along the Columbian River Gorge
1 hot dog