I am back from the vacation that I took to get away from my vacation. I have now reported back to duty in Portland, Oregon, ready to for my continuing travels. I've been having such a blast in Portland and have loved being around friends and family in Pittsburgh, that it has felt like it would be difficult to get back on the road by myself again. But I have a feeling once I get about 10 miles down the Oregon coast on my way to San Diego, I'll be just fine. Plans from here are pretty simple: make my way to Cannon Beach, Oregon on the northern end of the Oregon coast, then go straight down the coast until I almost hit Mexico, then head back inland. This trip was originally going to last until about mid-October. Obviously, I missed that deadline. Then I planned to be finished with the trip by Thanksgiving. It looks like that is not going to happen. Before my trip to Pittsburgh last week, the thought was to finish at Christmas, but even that is on the verge of going out the window. I'm starting to suspect that there will be a day in the future, maybe sometime like next October, when I'll be in Punta Arenas, Chile saying that I'll stop as soon as Thanksgiving comes again. Although, if thats the case, then I either found a Sugar Daddy to fund my trip or have robbed a bank. And being that my free-wheeling ways have felt great, it will probably be the bank robbing idea. Don't worry, I've watched Bonnie and Clyde -- I know just what to do.
A note on going to Florida: my family have definitely passed the test of fantastic vacation-mates. I think I had a concern that I would be awoken out of bed the first morning at 6 or 7 and told that a tour bus would be picking up the family in a half hour to take us to a Colonial village, which would be followed up by a 3 hour session of marathon shopping and topped off with a family throw-down of Scrabble. Instead, it was a lot of freedom to do whatever I wanted (long walks, reading, napping, swimming) at whatever pace. It reminded me why I enjoy being around my family so much.
Following up with the title of this post, when I got back to Pittsburgh, I treated myself to a day of seeing the city's tourist attractions. I've lived there all of my life, yet never have I done such a thing. I applied my research methods that I use when in a new city and applied them to my home town and ended up visiting the Strip District, the North Side, Station Square and walking around downtown (pardon me, dahn-tahn, as the Pittsburghers say.) I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I vow to always take full advantage of any city where I might reside in the future.
Side note: I stayed with my friend, Meredith, and her family in Portland. One morning eating Turkey Bacon with her kids, Winslow and Ellie, I said that a piece of "bacon" looked like a lower-case 'h' (I realize this was a huge stretch.) Winslow identified the "bacon" as a goose riding a baby buffalo. I have been blown away by his genius. There is no other correct identification of this shape. Feel free to share your own shapes of Turkey Bacon in the comments section. We all play this game, right?
The bacon shape is very clear to me. There's a diorama at the Carnegie (as soon as you exit the elevators on the second floor after going through the dinosaur exhibit) The diorama is of a lion pulling a hunter off his camel. The hunter had just shot another lion.The camel's head is raised in horror and agony.Very chilling thing. Scared enough of our Grandkids, so I'll always remember it and thus was able to correctly identify your bacon.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you in Pittsburgh, Sharon. Look forward to your postings as you travel down my favorite state....Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
ReplyDeleteI just checked out that diorama online. I can't imagine standing next to it. In the Arctic part of the museum, there is a diorama of an Eskimo spearing a fish. There is the slightest bit of blood and just that used to spook me. Although, it fascinated me at the same time.