Friday morning in Portland we decided that we wanted to experiment with driving a car2go car, and a desire to visit a Best Buy in the suburbs to look at phones presented a conceit.

We’d previously rented car2go cars in Montreal, where the fleet is almost entirely tiny Smart cars; here in Portland, though, they only use full-sized Mercedes, the likes of which my caste doesn’t allow me to drive otherwise, so there was an added bonus. The rental process was painless: find a nearby car on the app (a block from our hotel), tap its icon, enter the code on the car’s dash and, presto, it’s remotely unlocked, with the key in the glove box.

We drove out of central Portland and into the hills, found the Best Buy, decided the phones on offer weren’t worthy, and drove back downtown and across the river to leave the car and go to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The Achilles heel of using a car2go car is that you need to find a place to park it when you’re done. In theory this should be easy, as any legal street parking spot with allowance of more than 2 hours is eligible. But spots near OMSI were in short supply, so we ended up touring the neighbourhood for 15 minutes before we found a spot. This was not for nought, however, as the walk to OMSI then took us by Sushi Mazi, where we stopped for an excellent lunch.

After lunch we walked through a light rain to OMSI, just 10 minutes away. The museum itself proved disappointing: while the temporary exhibit about the making of Pixar films taught us a few new things, the rest of the museum was tired, interesting exhibits were short on the vine, and the whole place was chaotic, as it was filled to the brim with agitated school break campers. We cut our visit a little short, which didn’t hurt too much, as we’d only paid $10 to enter, leveraging Oliver’s Discovery Centre membership, with its reciprocal admission privileges, for our entry, paying only for the Pixar add-on.

From OMSI we took the train one stop across the Tilikum Crossing Bridge to rendezvous with Oliver Baker; Portland’s transit system is Scandinavian-level good, with simple fare structure, easy payment with a tap, and intermodal transfers.

On the other side we had a snack of tacos at Cha Cha Cha, bought some dog food for Ethan from a local joint and then, once Oliver B. arrived,  we rode the gondola that connects the riverside and hilltop parts of the Oregon Health Sciences University campus together; as I’m a fan of gondolas and funiculars, this was lots of fun.

The hillside campus at the top was shiny, modern, and pleasantly art-filled.

After a ride back down to the riverside, we walked back across the bridge and stopped in for a quick visit at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center; our time was limited, as they were about to close, but it was a good visit nonetheless, and we learned a lot about how locomotives work (knowledge that serves me well as I type this post on the train north to Seattle).

We grabbed a snack at Boke Bowl, walked back across the river, and took Oliver’s car to his house for a follow-up snack for humans and dogs.

Our final adventure of the day was a showing of Captain Marvel at the lovely Moreland Theatre, which sported excellent popcorn, loganberry cider, and comfortable seats. Oliver B. dropped us back to our hotel around 11:00 p.m. where we retired to bed almost immediately given our fun-filled program for the day.

The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals is located in a purpose-built ranch-style house west of Portland.

The washroom near the phosphorescence room is a bona fide residential washroom, in resplendent pink, complete with shower, tub, and dual sinks.

And an Automatic Bathroom Ventilator.

Our friend Oliver took this photo of us yesterday as we were walking over the Tilikum Crossing Bridge in Portland.

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.