27 DEC 2004 : MONDAY
We basically spent the day packing and preparing ourselves and the house and piglet for our long trip away from home. Amanda gave piglet a whole chicken breast leftover from the holidays (for the relatives, not us) in an attempt to usurp my position as the favored parent! She will not be successful.
Natalie called up at around 9pm and said the Corolla’s left driver’s side tire was flat. Again. She tried to put the spare on, but broke the wrench (due to the cold and poor construction, no doubt). She had the car because she had borrowed it to go see her family in NH and because she would be house-sitting for us when she returned. I headed out to town to assist her. When I arrived we discovered that the Subaru uses different size nuts, so I went off to KMart (which fortunately does not close until 10pm) to get something to get the nuts off. With liberal use of WD-40 and cursing, we finally got the tire off and the spare on. I was going to drive the Corolla back home to Brooktondale, but I decided that it would be better to have Nat drive it up during the daylight tomorrow.
As to why that tire keeps going flat (that side of the car), who can say since the problem is transcending three different tires. Perhaps the rim is at fault.
28 DEC 2004 : TUESDAY
Amanda and I got up way early to do some final preparations. Natalie arrived, and we said goodbye to the piglet and fishes and headed out to Buffalo. At some point it seemed to be a good idea to fly out of Buffalo, but the reasons are escaping me at the moment. Natalie dropped us off at Erika’s place and headed out to Toronto to visit her friend Vic. Amanda gave Erika a couple of scarves (or maybe it was a choice of scarves) that her mom had knitted. Erika gave us a Sylvia calendar! woot! I fiddled about with Erika’s pink IPod Mini that she got from her dad, and it seemed to be a cool if expensive toy. I had considered getting one for Amanda, but only the pink versions were available in Ithaca, and pink is definitely not her color.
Erika wrote Amanda a couple of prescriptions for emergency medicines for her trip to India (antibiotics and antimalarials). We dropped them off to get filled at the nearby RiteAid and then picked up Lainie for lunch at India Gate. Lainie was very pleased with the scarf and hat Amanda had knitted during the holidays. We talked and ate and talked and ate and then it was time for Erika to take us to the airport. We stopped to pick up the prescriptions, and I was glad that I had brought my insurance card because they would have cost $300+ without it.
Oddly enough, we did not have reserved seats even though Amanda had already picked them out online. I guess with all the cancellations during the holidays, we lost them since we checked in “late”… although we did get there with plenty of time. But, never, fear, Continental got someone to give up their seats for us and we were on our way.
The flight to Portland was very long and convoluted. We transferred in Cleveland and Houston and did not get into Portland until 1130pm pacific time or so. On the last leg we talked a bit with a Portland resident who was flying with his family back from vacation in Mexico. He gave us some pointers on things to see and do and talked a bit about Portland itself. Amanda spent most of the last leg sleeping, of course, and I was not awake much longer.
The car rental place ran out of economy cars, so they gave us a Town and Country minivan. I did not find it that bad to drive, but Amanda did not care for it. She drove most of the time while in Portland, though.
After waiting for our luggage, the rental car shuttle (the waiting area outside the airport had though cool though inefficient outdoor heaters), the rental minivan, and driving to our hotel, we did not get to bed until 1:45am pacific time or so, a bit under 23 hours when we got up. The hotel itself was more of an extended stay suite-type place; we had a kitchenette and everything, all for $40 a day since the place had an arrangement with OHSU. We did not do much except bring in our luggage and crash.
29 DEC 2004 : WEDNESDAY
As it did throughout our stay in Portland, it rained and usually rained pretty hard. We got up and putzed about with our luggage and then went off to get bfast and explore the immediate area. We were staying in Tigard, which is south of Portland itself. The hotel had provided a map of the immediate vicinity with various stores and food places noted, but upon driving about the nearly choices were not all that inspiring. We ended up eating at a local/non-chain family restaurant/diner which was perfectly fine.
After bfast we debated going back to our room to do a bit of research on things to see in the area, but decided to just drive into town and wing it. That proved to foolish as downtown Portland did not have good signage, nor did any of the theoretical “points of interest,” and our rental car map was not really all that great. We ended up going to OMSI, one of the few things that was well marked on the map.
OMSI was pretty cool. We got a combined ticket to the to museum, an Omnimax movie, and a tour of a decommissioned sub, the U.S.S. Blueback. As far as science museums go, it really really slanted towards kids, but was enjoyable nonetheless. For some reason the place was practically overrun with kids, but that might have been due to the holidays and the fact that it was pouring rain outside. Amanda said that she felt bad preventing some kid from using one of the interactive exhibits, so we tried to give some love to the less popular displays.
The Omnimax movie was visually and audially cool as always. We saw “Forces of Nature” which was pretty much about volcanoes, earthquakes, and tornados. The volcano part was pretty cool, the rest of it much less so. There was a funny part at the end when the credits were rolling that went something like this (or I could’ve dreamt this):
(A tornado swirls wildly in the distance. In front of the shaky handheld camera is a guy filming the tornado beside a truck.)
Guy 01: Give me the (some number) lens!
(Tornado swirls ominously close.)
Guy 02: It’s getting closer!
Guy 01: Ok, let’s go.
(Guy 01 tried to open the passenger door. It’s apparently locked.)
Guy 01: Open the door!
Guy 02: (off-screen) The keys are locked in!
(Tornado looks really really close.)
Guy 01: [bleep!]
The movie experience was a shocking example of people doing whatever the hell they wanted. While waiting to get in the two entrances, people were cutting in line, ignoring the people lane barrier things, and doing whatever to get inside the fastest to get presumably the best seats or whatever. Everyone was supposed to fill in the rows in an orderly manner, but of course people just did whatever. Sad, but perhaps not unexpected.
The sub was pretty cool, too. It was a guided trip, and the guide was knowledgeable (and a former Navy person) and entertaining.
We were at OMSI for a quite a long time, so afterwards we did not do any more exploring but went back to the hotel to eat. We went to a nearby Olive Garden at Amanda’s request even though Amanda always says she will never go back to one. The food was like it pretty much always was. The waitress was cheerful and pleasant and directed us to the nearest grocery store where we went after dinner.
The grocery store was a bit south of where we were staying and proved to be in a large commercial area (we should’ve looked for a place for bfast here). We picked up tea, coffee, and various bfast and lunch items. The lunch was for me since Amanda would be off on her interview the next day.
On the way back we stopped by a Borders and picked up a DVD… the Bourne Supremacy… with one of my spare gifts cards. They had charged me too much as they we in the process of raising its price, so I had to go back get my $3 back. The actually process of doing so was more convoluted than necessary( “Hmm, I can’t put it back on your card… I’ll have to give you another card… no, that’s really stupid, I can just give you one card… no, that’s not going to work, I’ll have to give you another card… no, ok, yes, give me your card and I’ll give you another one with the right amount… right!).
We headed back to the room and watched the movie (which was very good). I started feeling kinda sick; perhaps I caught something from the plane ride. Amanda prepared for her interview the next day and turned in whilst I surfed the net ($3.99 for wireless for the duration of the stay).
30 DEC 2004 : THURSDAY
Amanda got up early and went off to her interview. I had a massive sore throat and could not really talk and was a bit feverish, so I just slept. I eventually got up and tried to do a bit of work, but mainly spaced out, drank tea, and ate Frito twists. There was a bit of sun for an hour or so, but I was a bit too under the weather to venture outside.
By the time Amanda returned at 5pm, I was feeling a bit better, and we decided to go meet some of the residents and other applicants for dinner at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company. There wasn’t anyone around when we got there, but eventually another applicant arrived and we talked a bit. Much later a resident arrived with friends and another applicant. Everyone was very pleasant and it turned out to be an enjoyable evening. Unfortunately, Amanda and I had to pack, so we left a bit early.
31 DEC 2004 : FRIDAY
Our flight out to Oakland was not until 2pm, so we checked out of the hotel and went to see the Japanese Gardens. They were very very nice. There were koi! but it looked a bit cold for them as they were not moving a lot. Eventually, there were quite a few people there, and they were interfering with my contemplation of the gardens, but what can you do, it being a public place and all.
We headed out to the airport and had quite the adventure trying to find a gas station to fill the minivan up before we returned it. Usually, it is not that big a deal to find one near the rental places, but it took us a while to find one. At the airport, we had time to relax and have a bit of lunch. I had a half of Amanda’s hummus wrap that had a bit too much uncooked garlic in it, so I had my usual weird reaction to it (slight fever and other weirdness) so that was not so good. I picked up a nail clipper at one of the airport stores and the sales guys there said to everyone around, “Uh, oh, don’t fly with this guy! He’s got a dangerous weapon!”
… to be continued in a forthcoming SF Recap…