tylik

So, having survived Yule and even family Christmas proceedings, early Wednesday morning I packed up my bike and headed over to the train station to ride down to Portland.

Let me mention right off how cool the train-and-bike thing is. (And it works with recumbents, too.) You buy your ticket, and pay an extra $5 to bring your bike. You show up with all your stuff. If you're lucky, a passing conductor will bump you past the front of the line to get your bike stowed -- which means you haul it to the baggage car and they stick it in a wall mounted rack. Then you go find your seat (made much easier if most people are still in line), stow your stuff, and you're set. When you get off, you head up to the baggage car (I was in the car right next to it both times, which I suspect was intentional) and someone helps you unload the bike. And then you're in some other place, and hey, you have your bike.

Trains too are really neat. I actually like flying (and I realize many people don't) but in terms of general accomodations... the seats are bigger, the aisles are bigger, the bathrooms are bigger (designing a form that can be done in a train bathroom is pretty easy), there's no security nonsense to deal with, there's a lot more room for carry-on luggage... and, killer feature for me, there's an electrical outlet in the wall next to every pair of seats. Oh, and you don't have to turn off your phone, and you have a much better chance of being in range of cell reception. There are also lounge and dining cars, but I never visited them, so no clue.

Anyhow, I've been kind of wanting to travel more, and I think train+bike might be a good way to go for leisure travel. Even buying carbon offsets I feel weird about flying, and I'm probably going to be doing enough of that professionally.

Admittedly, you're unlikely to get held up for over an hour because there is a downed tree in front of your airplane. OTOH, considering how messed up travel seemed to be for everyone this holiday, I feel like I got off lightly.

So, I finally made it to Portland, woke up (I had wretched grad-school application induced insomnia the night before) and proceded to go off in search of the house of the friend with whom I was staying.

Portland, by the way, is way, way more bike friendly than Seattle. And I usually haven't found much reason to complain about Seattle. But darn, it seemed like pretty much every major road had a bike lane. And they handle turn lanes and bike lanes intelligently. I actually caught myself at least twice riding in traffic because that's what I'm used to when there was in fact a bike lane on that very street. (In fact, I was having so much fun I backtracked a fair portion of the trip to look for a lost glove and then rode it all over again. And I found my glove.)

So, I met up with my hostess, got introduced to her (beautiful!) house and her (adoreable!) cats, stowed my bike, was fed, and then went off to meet up with K. K and I spent the rest of the day together, which involved tasty Ethiopian food, lots of talk, and ended up with us and my hostess over at her place very late playing doctor. (K is doing well, though it was pretty funny to see him having traded med school straight edge drag for a tie dyed t-shirt and a fluffy mop of hair. It made him look all of about eighteen.)

The next day was biking and shopping, cooking and playing with the kitties and getting introduced to Balkan dance. Whee! Yet another thing to add to the "things to do when I have more time" list. It also included a weird and scary allergic reaction... I'm guessing brought on by a combination of hazel pollen and unroasted hazelnuts, but not really sure. Yikes. So it was a less energetic me that night, and a feeling somewhat convalescent me the next day.

Friday was talking and cooking and kitties and gardening... this is really my kind of vacation. Especially for times when my brain only just starting to come back together after being reduced to something like squash puree. And the beautiful guest room that reminded me of sleeping in a boat (not the barge, like a sailboat or something). And the non-marine plumbing. And the fabulous hospitality. I felt like I was staying at a spa.

Saturday was a nice slow morning and then back on the train. Any possible tedium of the train ride (which was already quite pleasant, my attention split between the scenery and a copy of "Old Path, White Clouds") was allieviated by a very earnest text message and email game of Where's