My cousin and his wife generously offered us to stay with them in Portland while recuperating from the 17+ hr flight from Singapore. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, I began to feel awake again and we took a walk along the Willamette River near downtown just north of the convention center and the Rose Garden arena. The area has been nicely restored from a commercial/industrial area with modern town houses along the river. It's walking distance to the restaurants in the downtown area. The weather has been extremely hot here in Oregon but at least it hasn't been humid. I will be back down here in a couple of weeks for the BMWMOA rally in Salem followed by a family reunion at a retreat center along the Columbia River. Both the rally and the reunion have a history of high temperatures though I was hoping it would be different this year. And, no, I will not be riding to the MOA rally but plan on camping out.
Across the river were a couple of freighters unloading cargo and one of them must have left port sometime last night as it wasn't there in the morning. This evening, we head back home ending our vacation. My mom has been traveling with us from Singapore where she has been with my sisters family for the last six months. She will be spending most of July with us in Fairbanks before returning to Oregon in time for a family reunion.
Almost home...
Does it feel good to be back stateside? I am sure it'll feel good to sleep in your own bed soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's been almost three weeks since I got back from the Alaska trip and still I don't have an overwhelming itch to ride. In fact, the plan is to trailer the Ural on the upcoming trip to Wisconsin! I know right, the horror of it all, but that's the plan.
Not sure yet, we were only out of the country for two weeks so not long enough to be tired of traveling.
DeleteAfter last summers road trip to Calif. I was far from being tired of riding. In fact I wanted to extend my trip by traveling around the state but was overruled.
You could trailer the V-Strom as you probably won't need the Ural's 2WD. Plus it'll go faster...
There is nothing better than recouping from a vacation (except maybe for the vacation itself). Bringing home so many wonderful memories - memories that will last a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteThis was so different from our normal vacation that it may take a while for it all to sink in. Rarely do we visit cities while on vacation.
DeleteAlmost home. Yes we've been a tad warm in Oregon. Hot weather warning ends tonight though. Maybe it will cool down to a normal temperature of 80 by the time you come back for the rally.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe how warm it was in Portland. What happened to the overcast and constant fog? Hopefully, it'll cool off a little but every reunion has been hot...
DeleteTaking a vacation from the holidays... you got to be kidding me ;-)
ReplyDeleteYep, I think I need a vacation to rest up from the holidays. Fortunately, there is a long weekend coming up...
DeleteRichard:
ReplyDeleteYou always look forward to leaving on a trip, and then you look forward to returning home. It's hard to live out of a suitcase for a long time and not have roots if you have to pack up each day.
All the times I have been down to Oregon it has been hot in July. Hopefully it will cool down a bit this year
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
I don't find it too hard to live out of a suitcase these days though travelling between cities is tiring. Going through airports has become a real pain especially with all of the pretend security. Including immigration and customs, I think we had to go through 6 security checkpoints at the SIngapore airport on the way out.
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