Friday, July 10, 2009

Our Story Thus Far

I will begin by simply saying Portland, Oregon is astonishing. I love it, quite frankly. I flew in around 4pm today and the adventure never stopped from there! Actually it started before with many enjoyable conversations with many different people. A gentleman by the name of Ramon (his son wants to be a pilot and gets good grades) and Marcus (shoe-shiner in the Seattle airport) were a few among them.
You will be proud of the amount of pictures I took today... because I sure am! Those who follow this know I am not very adept at taking pictures. I'm just not usually that kind of guy. However, aside from the touristy look of it and catching myself walking around Portland with my mouth wide open more times than I can count, they turned out great. I'll post some when I get home.
I realized something again today though. People need to take more chances. We can't settle for what we're handed if it's not really what we want or if we're simply 'comfortable' with it. Get out there! Make mistakes and learn from them. Don't stay comfortable. Nothing great was ever accomplished by those who settled for something less than what was achieved with their best. I left an expo at the Memorial Colesium with some friends I had made on the way over there, when one informed me since he had been in Portland before, we should go to the food court in the mall down the street. It was one of the only places he had been to and known.
But I am in Portland. I have never been here before. Why would I simply walk a block when honestly everywhere I look across the river, there are huge buildings, tall pine covered hills with houses, and awesome architecture you just know is harboring a great hole-in-the-wall place to eat!? No Subway for me, thanks. I actually ate at a random fish taco stand which turned out to be delectable in every sense. The owner is a fisherman and catches fresh fish for it all the time, with varieties of tacos ranging from cod to Pacific Red Snapper (I had that).
I simply took the MAX transportation system down to Old Town and winged it, if you will. Best thing I have done here yet. Get kind of lost on purpose. I saw so much stuff I couldn't put all of it here. At night, in this big city square, they were showing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on a huge screen with hundreds of people watching! There was so much going on wherever I looked. It was similar to San Francisco in the sense of activity level, transportation, certain areas, and even the characters. It's beautiful here, and I will continue to update you as I progress. Good night and good luck.

1 comment:

Brittknee said...

Stoked you're enjoying the city, and able to just explore. Looking forward to hearing about what else you'll find!