Spring Road Trip – Lynden to Portland

Great day for a road trip. I left on a sunny 60 degree spring day, the farmers were out plowing the fields and the trees, they be a bloomin. I left about 12:30 headed south for Portland, my first stop on the way to San Francisco. I started catching up on some podcasts I’ve been buffering up for the trip; today was mostly NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and TWIT (This Week In Tech) TV.

I have concert tickets to see Tim O’Brien in Berkely at the Salvage & Freight Coffee Shop on Thursday night. I was planning on taking my friend Donna who lives in East Bay. I met Donna and her son Ian at the Castle Stahleck Hostel in Bacharach Germany last year and I was looking forward to seeing her again. Sadly though, her sister just passed, so her concerns are elsewhere right now. My thoughts and prayers are with her.

A few weeks ago, Chelsea from the HI – Oregon Postcards blog contacted me and wanted to do little promotion on my blog which was awesome, and she did and we corresponded a little. So, I thought it would be neat to check out the Portland hostels, so I’m staying in the HI Portland- Northwest Hostel tonight and I’ll hit the HI Portland Hawthorne Street Hostel on the way back. When I got here, someone was just starting a presentation on a group trip to Egypt, which was quite nice and educational. The presenter was none other than Chelsea. What a coincidence. We chatted for a few and then I got my hiking shoes on and trekked up to the Rose Garden in Washington Park above Portland. It’s a nice cool evening and it was a great workout.

I’m back at the hostel now winding down and catching up on emails and such. The hostel facilities are quite nice and comfortable and the staff very friendly and helpful. While sitting here in one of the common areas on my netbook, I met and chatted with Christian from Germany. He had been staying with an Aunt in Spokane for some time and for the past 10 weeks has been traveling the US and Canada and is now making his way back to Spokane and then home to Germany. He’s well traveled and seems like a real nice guy. I also met Anna, one of my roommates who has been living in Seattle but is now moving here to Portland. She’s staying here till she finds a place to live. Sitting across from me is Lily, originally from Hong Kong and now living in Seattle, is studying for an actuarial exam later this week here in Portland. It looks like pretty dry stuff and she confirmed it as such. Out the window to my left is a patio where there’s a few folks having a beer and relaxing and chatting. Plenty of people here tonight, but not so many that it’s uncomfortable.

So, tomorrow I’m expecting a 10 hour drive to the hostel at Fisherman’s Wharf, in San Fransisco on the grounds of Fort Mason where I’ll be for three nights. After that, I’m thinking about heading over to Yosemite National Park, but not sure. We’ll see what happens, that’s what I love about these trips.

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