As related earlier, we did not take the direct route from Charlottetown to Portland: we left Charlottetown on Monday afternoon, and arrived Portland late on Wednesday evening, more than 48 hours later. But along the way we got to see several old friends, ate some good meals, drank some good coffee, and got microdoses of two cities we hadn’t visited in a long while.

But arrive in Portland we did, last night just after 10:00 p.m., on the Amtrak Cascades train from Seattle. We navigated our way through the deserted and foreboding streets of Old Town and checked into our lovely, minimalist room at The Society Hotel.

We’ve been gradually adjusting to the four hour time zone difference between PEI and the west coast, and this morning we didn’t wake up until 8:30 a.m., which means we’ve come close to reaching a new equilibrium. We ventured out into our new neighbourhood, stopping first in the park by the river to all Ethan to pee, then to Deadstock Coffee, and finally to Mothers Bistro for breakfast.

Fully sated, we then walked up the street to Powell’s Books, suitably overwhelming (most impressive infrastructural feature is a magic-seeming elevator with three doors); I emerged with a foot-high pile of books about type, bookbinding and fashion design (I sense a visit to the post office will be needed). By the time we were ready to leave my friend Oliver–our reason for visiting Portland in the first place–appeared at the end of aisle 939 as appointed, and we headed off with him for an afternoon of adventuring.

Said adventures included a stop at Nuvrei for iced tea and cookies, shoe shopping at Keen and REI (see [wee] Oliver’s new shoes below; they’re made of wool), and a visit to the dog park (where Ethan displayed his typical “you don’t have me on a leash; why is it in my best interests to come when you call me” confounding behaviour).

After a pit stop at Oliver’s house, we rendezvoused with Oliver’s sweetheart Cheryl for a excellent Indian meal at Swagat.

And now we’re hunkered down at our hotel, enjoying our first early evening this week.

This trip has a whirlwind character to it, and we’re certainly in no danger of overstaying our welcome at any juncture; we couldn’t keep up this pace for weeks on end, but as a the-journey-is-the-destination trip it has a lot to recommend it.

Valerie Bang-Jensen and her family are one of the great gifts this blog has given me. As it happened, Valerie’s visit to Seattle overlapped with ours, so we spent a very pleasant afternoon, with her and her daughter Bree, visiting Bainbridge Island.

We had great coffee, a vegan lunch, a visit with my colleagues at Quinn-Brein (complete with projection room tour in their multiplex) and a stunning ferry ride, in sunny 22°C weather, both ways.

Valerie took this photo of our crew.

Public Service Announcement: the CleanTalk service I use to trap comment spam gete is breaking and you will more likely than not encounter protest if you try to comment. I’m on it.

On the way down to the elevator in our hotel this morning I mentioned to Oliver that we were going to get coffee in a building where Amazon also has offices.

“Be careful what you say,” he said, “and don’t mention the New York situation.”

“You mean if we’re talking to anyone who works for Amazon?”, I asked.

“Yes, if you see any Amazonians,” he replied.

“I’m not sure that’s what they’re called,” I told him.

The woman in front of us in the line for the elevator turned around and said, smiling, “Yes, that’s what we’re called.”

We then had a pleasant chat on the way down about what we should see and do in Seattle.

Once we parted company, and were walking down the street en route to coffee, Oliver exhaled and said “Well, that was awkward.”

Exciting news from the provincial government: PEI Transformation From Canada’s Smallest Province To Canada’s Smartest Province:

From high-speed Internet access and full-motion videoconferencing, to remote curriculum delivery and collaborative multimedia software development, this new infrastructure will transform the province into an ideal information technology testbed. Partnerships are being pursued with networking hardware and software firms and content creators. More importantly, unlike broadband networks in other provinces and states, PEI’s will deliver top-speed connections into all parts of the province, not just a neighbourhood here and an industrial park there.

Oh, wait, that’s from 1997.

Here’s the 2019 version of the fantasy:

“This project will allow Prince Edward Island residents and businesses to better connect to the world, do business, and learn,” Premier Wade MacLauchlan said. “It will make our province a national leader in internet quality, and fulfill a promise we made to Islanders in 2017.”

Every government since 1997 has had its own take on addressing this issue; all have failed. I don’t question the motivations of those who’ve tried; I simply believe, with significant historical evidence to support me, that ubiquitous Internet infrastructure is not a problem the market economy has the skills to solve.

We flew Charlottetown-Montreal-Vancouver today; we didn’t leave Charlottetown until 4:00 p.m. and we’re in bed in Vancouver at 11:00 p.m. Such is the wonder of the rotating Earth.

We had but one airport security passage today, in Charlottetown, and it went swimmingly. And the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Upon arrival at YVR we went on a scavenger hunt for the official Dog Relief Area and found it cleverly disguised as a bunch of potted evergreens on a traffic island outside international arrivals. Ethan was unperturbed and had a five minute long pee.

We found our way to the SkyTrain, navigated to the Yaletown station, walked up the hill to Burrard. And are now ensconced inside The Burrard.

We’re exhausted but happy travelers, ready to take on the Pacific Northwest. After a good sleep.

From Archdeacon John Clarke’s blog:

Yes flowers! Last October, all the members of the congregation, as well as several of our nation’s Anglican Bishops, were invited to plant tulip bulbs in the front garden to celebrate our 250th Anniversary! Several other areas of the property were planted too.

Soon, and I hope really soon, these tulip bulbs will break through the ground and show a colourful accent all around our property.

It’s officially called the “World Friendship Tulip” and is an international symbol of peace & friendship. Seems like a fitting flower to have blooming in this our 250th anniversary year.

As the churchyard is essentially our front yard, I’m looking forward to this.

Via Patrick Rhone, a pointer to The ultimate guide to DuckDuckGo from Brett Terpstra.

I’ve been slowing replacing Google’s search with DuckDuckGo’s search on my desktop and mobile over the last year, and the transition is almost complete: even setting aside its significant privacy-enhancing features, DuckDuckGo, after years of forcing me to compromise with weaker search results, is now almost always more helpful than Google, in part because Google’s search is increasingly focused exclusively on helping me buy things.

Special bonus: search this blog in DuckDuckGo by prefixing your query with !ruk, like this:

When I was a summer camp leader at the YMCA in the 1980s, Duck Duck Goose, the children’s game, was a go-to staple for the mid-afternoon activity. I still have “duck… duck… duck… duck… goose!” burned into my brain from those days, and feel a little nervous at the anticipation of it all every time I use the search engine.

My introduction to my friend Harold Stephens came through his book Who Needs a Road?

Published in 1967, the book details his trip around the world in a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Because of geographic and geopolitical conditions in the mid-1960s, the trip had to skip Myanmar, a not-unusual stumbling block for the overlander.

More than 50 years later, he got to rectify this omission, a story detailed in this newspaper article from the UK about one of his traveling companions.

Steve is 92 years old this year, and still every inch the adventurer. The article promises a book on this latest trip will be released later this year; I’m looking forward to reading it.