Portland (and other US stops) – Round One

 

Well, we’re on the plane to London right now.  Last I saw the moving map screen, we were somewhere passing by the tip of Greenland (which is icy; and not Iceland, which is quite green, apparently).  This flight is 7 hours, so there’s finally some time to relax and reflect! 

The US trip was quite eventful, even on the flight up.  Since we flew up to Portland on frequent flier miles, we didn’t exactly get the most… direct flight.  We left San Jose in the evening and headed first to Miami.  In Miami, Jime whipped out the results of some mad Google Fu skills.  You see, we were stuck spending the night in Miami.  Something like 8 hours overnight.  And Jime found us a place to sleep.  A private place.  A QUIET place, insulated from both all the people there and most importantly, insulated from the goddam stupid, repetitive fucking airport announcements that go off every 15 minutes like clockwork ALL FUCKING NIGHT, guaranteeing that everybody else trying to sleep in the airport that night would surely go insane before morning.  You see… Jime’s google fu skills had discovered a website called sleepinginairports.com.  This website describes and reviews the sleeping accomodations in various airports around the world.  So, on this website, Jime discovered that Miami international has a 4th floor that almost nobody ever goes to, especially in the middle of the night.  This 4th floor is quiet and segregated from all the hubub below.  But then it gets even better.  On the 4th floor is also where the airport chapel is.  The airport chapel is a quiet room with a locking door, and that nobody needs between 11pm and 5am.   It was perfect.  We must go back and offer our review back on that site, and thank them for sharing.  Yay for Google Fu!

(Our “private” sleeping quarters.  Jime was cold, so she used a heavy trash bag as a blanket)

Not that our brief Miami stay was without it’s share of excitement… We managed to make it through Customs and Immigration with little to no trouble.  And then we accidentally forgot a bag inside, which Jimena (fortunately) remembered about 30 seconds after we (unfortunately) left the secured area.  It wasn’t our fault though.  We blame the IDIOT security guard (or possibly security rules) in Costa Rica, who would not allow us to take our laptop lock into the plane.  Seriously?  A laptop lock?  That’s a new one.  Well, we actually need that thing, so Jime gave up one of her small backbacks, and checked it in as an extra piece of luggage (which, fortunately, did not cost us any money, because I somehow managed to earn a year of being an AAvantage Gold member, which gives us priority boarding, priority security screening lines, and most importantly, an extra check-in bag allowance each).  Fast forward to Miami… and now we’ve got a bag that we didn’t plan on, and didn’t pack, and apparently didn’t remember.  Fortunately, Jime made nice with one of the guards, so she was able to round up an escort to go back in and get it.  I’m just glad she remembered the thing! 

In related news, they apparently had no issue with the pile of Acetaminophen with Codeine we also had.  But nothing to see here, move along!  Actually, we even ended up bringing double what we paid for because the pharmacy accidentally delivered us a full box instead of a half-box. Then they had the balls to write us later and demand we pay the difference.  Sorry buddy.  We already left the country, and we already delivered what you gave us.  This was an encargo, and we asked for a specific dollar amount worth of pills.  It’s not our fault you can’t count.

After we left our 5-star 4th floor accommodations in Miami, we headed out to Dallas… for a 12 hour layover.  And this is where I had a nice thought of my own.  I reached out to the local CouchSurfing community to see if anybody was up for hanging out with us for the day.  I got a response back pretty quick… from a guy, Aji, that we’d just met at our own dinner table in Costa Rica barely a few previous!  Turns out that not only does he live in Dallas, but lives right next to the airport, and was quite amused by the idea of picking us up and driving us around all day.  What a rock star!  So, shortly after we landed he came and scooped us up and took us all around town.  We had a great breakfast at a local mexican joint, visited a free Asian art museum with a Japanese and Ancient Himalayan artifact collection, took us by the new Opera House, where they even let us in to take a look at the theater (their chandelier is SPECTACULAR, and EVERY INDIVIDUAL SEAT has its own air conditioning vent). 

(Tacos for breakfast with Aji & friend)

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(Personal Air Conditioning!)

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(Aji, walking on water outside the new opera house)

For lunch, we popped over to a place I’d found with some Google Fu of my own… a microbrew-friendly pizza joint.  Apparently it’s well-respected locally for a fantastic local beer selection.  Suffice to say I concur completely.  We also visited a few nifty little shops around town.  We finished our day off with a hummus plate and mint tea at a great, quiet little Moroccan place that he likes.  All in all, that little tour he gave us, and the chance to spend the day in such great company, really made our day special.  It turned a 12 hour layover into something that felt like a planned part of our trip.  What a great day!  And that brings us up to Portland.  

Portland still feels too familiar.  It still feels a lot like home to us.  Despite how long we’d been gone, we slipped into Portland like we’d only been gone for the weekend.  It was only strange to us in the degree to which it was NOT strange to us.

While we were there, we stayed with a couple of our best friends, Lyzz & Jonathan (and their 2 kids, Hayden, who is 9; and Violet, who is 2.5).  Lyzz & Jonathan made us a home in their back room, and were not only gracious and welcoming, but treated us immediately and unendingly like family.  In all honesty, they DO feel more like family than just friends to us.  Even after spending a bit more than 2 weeks with them, we felt just like we belonged there, and really treasured the time we got to spend with them (and are very much looking forward to more on the back end of our trip).  They are officially, and will remain indefinitely, our home in the US (both logistically and emotionally).

Other adventures we had while in Portland…

First and foremost: Jime successfully presented and defended her dissertation!  YAY!!!  This was THE primary driver for both the Portland visit this time, and for the timing of this RTW trip as well. Of course, just passing the Defense isn’t the end of the process.  Even after that presentation, there were of course yet more revisions.  However, this time, they were fortunately somewhat minor (compared to previous rounds).  We celebrated this part with beers at East Burn.

(The crowd at East Burn, dutifully drinking in Jime’s honor)

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(I’m camouflaged, and I have beer)

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(Oh my!  I actually caught Jime drinking alcohol!

In any case, with the ceremonial boozing taken care of and thoroughly enjoyed, Jime got back to work on those revisions and knocked them the FUCK-OUT!  BAM!  And you know what?  She got signed off for content by her advisor and all committee members before we left!  Content?  DONE, bitches!  Of course, that still left formatting.  But she sent the formatting people a preview, and they didn’t have any major changes either.  So, she’s already got her first round of formatting fixes done for them.  We won’t know for a few days probably whether or not those are done, but… suffice to say she can SMELL the finish line from here.  My degree of amazement and pride in this… EPIC achievement… knows no bounds.

Alright, so… other fun stuff in Portland.  Sushi @ Saburo’s.  I don’t care what you say, Saburo’s is the best Sushi place EVAR.  Their fish is fresh, their prices are crazy cheap, their portions are MASSIVE, and we swear the rice must be laced with heroin or something.  Nowhere in Costa Rica even comes close.  There will never be a time in our lives where we visit Portland and don’t go there at least once.  On this particular occasion, we went, joined by Lyzz, in celebration of Jime’s successful dissertation defense, and were absolute, unabashed gluttons.  We got nothing but fancy rolls, and even some extra to bring home to Jonathan.

(The Sushi!)

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(The Lyzz!)

I also got to spend a lot of time with Vanessa, another of my best friends up in Portland.  We hung out a few times, but I think my favorite day was having a Pork Belly Cubano at Bunk, and then taking a drive out through the Gorge, and visiting Crown Point and all the waterfalls.  Sure, it rained on us most of the day, but it was still a great day for pictures.  So green!

(I forget which falls these are, but they sure are perty)

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(Pretty fern, unfurling a new branch)

Speaking of green, btw… we’re just now (as I’m writing this) approaching the coast of Ireland!  Hi Ireland!  Lyzz says “Hi” as well.

Other activities in Portland… there was the Earth Day Useful Goods exchange… a SWAP!  Just for Jime!  One of her favorite things in the world.  We found a few nice things there, but the best find was probably the brand new pair of high-end insoles, in her size, that I found for her, and later found out sell for $40 at REI.  Win!  Just in time for, say, a RTW trip. 

We also got our Vietnam and India visas dealt with.  Since Vietnam offers a loose-leaf visa, instead of only a sticker visa, it meant I didn’t have to send them our actual passports, which meant we could do both the India & Vietnam visas at the same time.  On the India side, we probably wouldn’t have had time to get it done on this short of a visit (they can take up to 2 weeks to process, and that leaves no time for mailing back and forth), but my dad was gracious enough to hand-walk them into the office in San Francisco for us, which saved us PILES of time.  Thanks to that, they got turned around overnight.

Speaking of getting shit by mail, we got all SORTS of new travel gear!  One example of which is the little Asus EEE PC I’m writing this blog on right now.  We also got a neat little camera for having with us all the time (including this flight), to go along with our big DSLR, which will only go on outings where we expect extra fancy scenery or something.  Probably my favorite of the new toys is a French Press Coffee Mug, which I will be using in conjunction with an Immersion Water Heater (dual voltage suitable).  Yes, I brought coffee and a personal coffee maker.  I’m that kind of coffee geek.  Hey, at least I didn’t bring a grinder (don’t think I didn’t consider it, though)!

Lastly, thanks to the graciousness of both Jimena and Lord Peters (Lord Peters for hosting the game, and Jime for babysitting so I could go), I even got to play a round of Mondo Croquet!

Well, I guess we’re about ready to start our decent in a few minutes, so I’ll wrap it up.  Next stop… London!

Cheers!