Visited Portland for the first time last weekend!
It’s been at the top of my cities-to-visit list for a while and I’ve heard lots of great reviews, so I was definitely excited to finally go. Met up with a group of friends who flew up from California and we had an awesome time.
I’m a sucker for cities with great public transportation and Portland definitely fit the bill. Taking the light rail from the airport, we were greeted by some happy festival goers from the wine festival which was a fun welcome to the city.
Our first stop was Deschutes Brewery which had a great selection of interesting brews. Then a club/lounge that wasn’t unlike anything you could find in a big city.
But later we wandered to get Voodoo Donuts (I was underwhelmed) and accidently stumbled into a strip club. It was right next to Voodoo and from the outside looked like a divey bar. Oops. Portland supposedly has the highest number of strip clubs per capita, so I guess it was probably bound to happen anyway.
Saturday, after missing out on the food truck scene, we grabbed chicken and rice at Nong’s Khao Man Gai restaurant (they’re food truck was closed). Full and satisfied, I caught up with my old Epic friend Rozie and we went up the OHSU aerial tram where at the top, we were greeted by some awesome views of Portland.
All weekend, a goal of our group was to find hipsterland and I think we got close on Mississippi Street, where we just chilled at a taxidermy shop. Later that night, we checked out Powell’s Books, which was basically a giant library. The rare book room was really neat.
On Sunday, I fit in a nice little morning run around our neighborhood and in my quick loop, I surprisingly found a lot of animals. A few minutes to the left of our Airbnb, there was a stable that had horses in the mounted patrol (police horses). And on the other side, there was a pier like Pier 39 in San Francisco, except instead of seals, there were tons of ducks! When I saw that, I had an ah-ha moment about the Oregon Ducks.
The weather was quite moody, as we got touches of fog, clouds, sun, and rain during the weekend. But as the rain steadily came down during my run, I was literally breathing in breaths of fresh air. It felt great. I think I’m going to try really hard to fit a run in during my future trips, like I did here and in Austin.
To close out the weekend, a few of us got some Blue Star Donuts (amazing) and brunch before watching the Super Bowl in the Portland airport, which was an interesting experience.
Overall, I really enjoyed Portland. I think I was expecting a little more weirdness and hipsters everywhere, but there were still lots of interesting places to explore. Plus, all the trees and mountains made for a cool backdrop to a growing city.
p.s. New Jersey (I was there earlier in January) and Oregon are states #37 and #38 in the race.
Looking to find out what the hubbub was all about, I listened to the Serial podcast over the past two weeks.
It certainly made the drive to and from work a lot more riveting.
If you’re unfamiliar, in Serial, Sarah Koenig retells and investigates the 1999 case of a high schooler’s murder in Baltimore. It’s a story that has many twists and inconclusive facts, ultimately leaving you, the listener to decide who was telling the truth and who was lying.
For what it’s worth, I think Adnan did it. He and Jay are hiding more of what they know.
In the age of television, it’s easy to forget the power of spoken word. In it’s own ways, storytelling pushes you into a different level of perception.
Instead of watching a plot unfold, you have to imagine it unfold.
In the recent past, top 40 radio music has dominated my car speakers, but Serial helped introduce an interesting alternative. I think I’ll be tuning in to NPR a lot more and looking for other podcasts in the future.
Last year, I aimed to have a fiery 2014. Looking back, I don’t think it was quite as fiery as I had hoped, but I definitely lit the fire.
I recently celebrated my three year work anniversary at Epic, which is longer than I had originally planned for when coming to Wisconsin. As it was getting closer and closer, the looming milestone pushed me to self reflect and really think hard about where I was and what I wanted.
If I am going to get to where I want to be, I’ll need to make some changes. Things have plateaued, so it’s time to rise and push forward.
I very much still have career dreams of making a big impact on the healthcare industry and am young and bold enough to pursue them.
I’ll always attribute this mindset to the learning environment that my mother put me in at a Montessori-based elementary school. My curious mind was allowed to run free. I can remember my time in Mrs. Lee’s first grade class and truly thinking that I could accomplish anything. It’s a belief I still hold to this day.
Outside of thinking about the future, it’s been a pretty roller coaster year.
Continuing the tour of America, I made my first visits to New York City and Austin, and spent a lot of time in Boston, a place where I can definitely see myself living in the future.
I traveled out to China and Hong Kong for the fifth time, and this time saw things differently through a new mid-20s lens.
I felt loss that hit close to heart, closer than ever before.
And cause I’ve done it the past few years, my travel stats for this year:
- 25 trips (36 trips last year)
- 153 days on the road (177 days last year)
- 77,180 miles (67,835 miles last year)
In 2015, I’ll be making moves, both physically and professionally. Stay tuned!
As much as I dislike the commercialization of Christmas, I think the holidays provide a nice time to give thanks and show appreciation to loved ones and friends.
Living so far away from family has made it that much more meaningful and special to be home for the holidays.
Merry Christmahanakwanza, everyone! And a Happy Festivus for the rest of us!