March 11, 2023 to March 14, 2023
Springing ahead
As we sprint for the exit, our remaining days are a hodgepodge of packing, storage unit shuffling, social engagements, walks when the weather is favorable, and no biking.
Saturday
Saturday is gorgeous, really the finest day since we returned to Portland. With an expected high of above 50, it’s a perfect day for a ride. If only our bikes weren’t all already suitcased for the flight or in storage; and if we didn’t have other, higher priority commitments. Like with Wednesday’s drive to Seattle, today’s fine weather will make way for a drive to Salem to visit with friends before we leave for another season.
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We’re due to leave for Salem at 9:30, which leaves me time to drive down to Caffe Umbria for breakfast while Rachael makes a dash for 24 Hour Fitness. Coffee and croissant firmly fixed in place, I step outside again to get in the car to drive home but am briefly concerned when it won’t unlock. I give it a couple of tries, and then realize it’s not my car. It’s an exact match to mine - same make, model, and color - which is parked at the other end of the block. Different license plate though. I’ve probably got the only A RAVEN license plate in the country.
We arrive in Salem at 9:30 precisely and are greeted at the door by my young friend Frank (Frank is exactly four weeks my junior). He ushers us in where we’re also greeted by his wife Julie. Like nearly all of our friends and family up here, this is the first time we’ve been together in over a year. We had plans to stop in on them in December on the way south, but my Covid diagnosis squashed that plan.
For the next two hours we have an excellent visit, catching up on each other’s lives over tea, coffee, and plates of cold cuts. Afterwards we head down to the basement so that Frank can show off his Bike Friday, new to him since he fractured his hip on a fall from his Bianchi Volpe. He replaced the Volpe after deciding that a Bike Friday would be easier for him to manage. He’s very enthusiastic about it and is happily regularly getting out on the road again.
Great visit! We vow to not let another full year slip by before we meet again.
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1 year ago
The alarm on my iPad reminds us that it’s time to move on. We take our leave and dash over to La Maguerita, a Mexican restaurant we frequented countless times in the decades we lived in Salem, arriving just before our friend Lyn who’s driven up from Eugene to visit with us.
We’re lucky to get to see Lyn, who’s only been back in Oregon for a few days. She just returned earlier this week from a tour of Cambodia with her son. Like with Frank and Julie, we haven’t seen Lyn in over a year either - if I remember right, the last time was on our drive south to Tucson 15 months ago - so there’s much ground to cover here also. Lunch goes quickly, and then we head down to the riverfront for a walk over the new bridge that connects the waterfront to Minto Island.
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On the drive back to Portland we’re reminding each other of the hundreds of times we took this drive home in the years after we moved north while we still worked in Salem and partly telecommuted. For years we would drive down to Salem early in the week, stay at a Travelodge for a couple of nights, and drive home again.
Do we miss that drive in the slightest? No - but I always loved rounding the Terwilliger Curves on a clear evening and briefly seeing Mount Hood fill the sky ahead. It’s that way again this evening. It briefly takes my breath away, and on impulse I propose that we drive up to Terwilliger Boulevard for a decent view. We find a spot to park, get out for a short walk to admire the views - east toward Mount Hood, south along the river toward the Sellwood Bridge - and then Rachael walks ahead a ways, just far enough to reach the 10,000 steps that her new Amazon watch has been counting for her all day.
An aside: I couldn’t remember for certain how to spell Terwilliger, so I looked it up and found this article about the history of Terwilliger Boulevard. I was surprised to learn that it was first proposed to the city by John Olmsted (stepbrother of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.) as part of proposed modifications to Washington Park.
And, as another aside: I wonder how many folks familiar with Portland knew that at one point Washington Park included a bear pit, to house a pair of grizzly bears donated by Richard Wright from his waterfront collection of exotic animals brought here by his seafaring friends. The bear pit originally stood near the northeast corner of the park and eventually led to the creation of the Oregon Zoo.
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Sunday
We’re springing ahead this morning! It’s a little disorienting to wake up while it’s still dark, but it does get us up early enough to appreciate the sunrise.
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With a generally crappy day in the forecast, we spend much of it around the apartment, packing up and otherwise preparing for departure. The main event of the day isn’t until this evening, when we drive over for a get together (and CycleBlaze meetup!) with Bruce and Andrea. We’ve been planning this gathering ever since we returned to Portland, but a variety of conflicts and considerations kept pushing it out. Finally it came together, just in the nick of time.
And, inexplicably, I forgot to take a meetup photo. Having none of my own, I grabbed portraits from their recent journey, To Begin Again.
Monday
Sunday’s weather was bad, but Monday’s was horrible. Wet, wet, wet. Not much to report, other than that we met with Elizabeth to close out our old safety deposit box and open up a new one, because the branch where our old one was located is closing in a few weeks.
Oh, one more thing. When Elizabeth and I left the old bank, I was again briefly perplexed when the car wouldn’t unlock. A day later, and once again I’m trying to unlock a black VW Golf Sportswagen, parked just around the corner from ours. And it’s not the same one as yesterday’s either, because this one has Washington plates! Very bizarre.
So that was exciting. Also though, we ended the day by watching the final episode of season one (and hopefully not the final season) of The Law According to Lidia Poët, a dramatization of the life of Italy’s first female lawyer.
Monday
Departure eve! Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 6, so today is really it. We have to get all the remaining stay-behinders into storage and ready ourselves for tomorrow morning’s 3:30 taxi ride to the airport. And we have one last social engagement - lunch at Jake’s with Elizabeth, before we hand over the keys to the Raven.
First though, there’s one last sunrise to admire and one last trip down to Caffe Umbria for breakfast while Rachael finishes the laundry, piles up her stay-behinders for me to take to storage, and steps out for a last walk south toward Lair Hill.
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1 year ago
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So that’s it. Next stop Palermo, hopefully - although we’re both stressed about whether we’ll make our very tight connecting flight in San Francisco tomorrow morning. If we miss that, we’ll likely be losing a day somewhere between there and Sicily.
And, before we go, a few food photos we’ve been saving up for the end to remind us that there’s more to life than Italian cuisine.
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Have a great tour in Sicily and beyond. It was so good to see you both but of course you and I, Scott, didn't have coffee together enough times. Take care.
1 year ago
Have a great trip to Sicily. Maybe I'll see you there . . . in my imagination.
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