Travel Day Whining

Travel day today!  I have a love / hate relationship with traveling.  On the one hand, I love getting to visit new places and experience new cultures.  On the other hand, I HATE traveling TO those places.  I'm just not built for confined spaces for long distances.

Branelle and I headed to Portland, OR, today.  Neither of us had ever been to Portland, so we were both looking forward to spending about a week in the Pacific Northwest.  It's sort of a working / leisure trip.  Nel is presenting a paper she authored at the International Conference on Environmental Systems so we decided to take the opportunity to spend some time in the area (we'll go just about ANYWHERE north of Houston in the summer time).

The day started out OK.  We had an afternoon flight so we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to head to the airport.  We flew out of IAH - which isn't the closest airport to our house - but being a Sunday, there was no traffic so we got to the airport in no time.  Then the fun began:

• The airports in Texas have always been really quick compared to other places with regards to getting through security.  Not anymore.  I'm not sure what has changed, but it felt like being at LAX or MSP.  I think the new scanners have actually slowed the process.  They still don't "randomly" search like other places, but it's slow just the same.  RANT #1:  Why shouldn't the TSA profile at airports?  Since the CIA started tracking highjackings in the late '70s, guess what percentage of highjackers have been Muslim males.  If you guessed 100%, you would be correct.  It's not racism, it's fact!  If accountants start trying to kill every non-accountant in the world for no reason other than they aren't accountants, then I'll support searching everyone with a calculator in their pocket protector.  Nobody hates racism more than I do, but it's ridiculous to watch TSA search a 70 year-old man traveling with his wife and a 20 year-old female college student in flip-flops (which we witnessed last time we flew out of MSP). 

• We flew United.  We had to change planes in Denver with no layover to speak of (they were already boarding the plane from Denver to Portland when we got off the Houston to Denver flight).  The seats on both flights were basically on top of each other.  We were in coach, which we usually are on domestic flights - I figure I can handle anything for a few hours.  I barely fit in the seat!  If not for stealing some of Nel's space next to me, I don't think I'd make it.  To make matters worse, the jack-ass in front of me puts his seat back the whole flight.  RANT #2:  It's rude and inconsiderate.  I NEVER recline my seat in coach.  The guys head was basically 5 inches from my face.  I really wanted to say something but I was afraid that he'd say something smart-assicky back to me and I would LOSE it.  As a rule, if you want to lie down and sleep on a flight, pay for a first class seat.  It's the airlines fault for cramming in so many seats so close together, but when my knees are already touching the seat in front of me and the guy pushes his seat as far back as he possibly can, he deserves to be smacked!

• RANT #3:  Check your bags people!!!   This, too, is the airlines fault.  Since they charge for bags now, everybody tries to save $20 by bringing their suitcase in the cabin with them.  It's ridiculous.  If you can barely lift your "carry-on" over your head and it's nearly impossible to close the bin, it's not a carry-on!  It slows the boarding and de-planeing process down considerably.  We NEVER carry anything more than a briefcase or backpack on the plane. 

When we got to Portland we ran into some of Nel's colleagues who were here for the conference and they were taking the MAX from the airport to our hotel downtown.  I'm fascinated with public transportation (since I grew up without it) so we joined them.  Big mistake.  It took nearly an hour from the time we headed to the train until we reached the hotel and we had to walk about 8 blocks.  We could have taken a cab and been at the door in 10.  The train also got crowded about half way through the route........



  

  ....and I ended up with my luggage in my lap trying to be nice.  We did meet some nice people on the train though - a conference for County Government was apparently in town. 

We checked into the Marriot Portland Downtown Waterfront, also the host location for Nel's conference.  It's nice.  Our room is quite nice, but a little on the small side.  We were starving - it was after 9:00pm in our home time zone and all we'd had all day was some surprisingly good airport pizza in Houston - so we headed out for some dinner.  There was really only one choice once we looked around for places in downtown:

NEL CENTRO

When we saw this place on the map, we couldn't resist for obvious reasons:-).  It turned out to be a great call.  The food was good and the place was very cool.  We ate outside...in JULY!  That's not something we get to do back home.  

They had fire pits all over the patio - a very cool touch.  After dinner we stopped by a Safeway to pick up some contact solution and then walked back to the hotel.  My initial impression of Portland is that it's a very pretty (and very green) city.  I'll report back later in the week after I've had a chance to really explore.

Whine #1:  I hate my knees.