Travel As a Game

7/2/2013 - Portland, OR

Foursquare has introduced some badges specific to cities: since I visited enough recommended places Portland, I got the Portland Foursquare badge. I have mixed feelings about doing this: it makes my travel a bit less spontaneous, since I'm visiting the places that Foursquare considers interesting. On the other hand, they're places I'd generally visit anyway.

It also doesn't take too much time: I got the Portland Badge within 24 hours of being in Portland by checking in to Powell's, Deschutes Brewery, Ground Kontrol arcade, Voodoo Doughnut, and the Portlandia statue. That's a good 24 hours.

For a perspective on travel as a game, check out this article. 

Pictured: My score on Dr. Mario at Ground Kontrol, the arcade bar in Portland.

Bookquest: Portland, OR

7/2/2013 - Powell's City of Books

Bookquest: Butterfly People by William Leach 

Butterfly People is "a moving elegy for American nature and for America itself as it crossed the threshold of industrialization." Oregon is certainly a very natural state, and Portland itself has quirky people pursuing narrow passions (yes, I am comparing hispters with "butterfly people"). The book seemed like a good fit.

I loved Powell's City of Books. It not only had a whole section on butterflies, it also had sections on gold mining, tectonics, activism, the military industrial complex (which was bigger than the "general military" section), "American Studies - Culture Wars," and what seemed like half a floor of Christianity. 

One staff recommendation gets an honorable mention. In the Pakistan section, among books about war and extremism, there was a book called On Wings of Diesel. The recommendation said: "It may seem as if Pakistan is nothing but bad news, but... CHECK OUT THESE TRUCKS!" Indeed, the book contained many photos of Pakistan's painted trucks.

Farming and Gardening

7/1/2013 - Carnation, WA

My friends in Seattle all have impressive gardens, but one friend has the advantage of living on an organic farm. She and her husband are growing just about everything: staples like wheat and chick peas, familiar vegetables like tomatoes and squash, fancy West Coast things like kale and quinoa, and at least one Indian vegetable that I had never heard of. 

In Seattle, I stayed with three different good friends that I hadn't seen since they married. They really made the city look like a "happily ever after" paradise. I didn't want to leave, and I think it's going to be really unfair to every city that comes after Seattle.

Pictured: The farm in Carnation, WA

Golden Gardens

6/30/2013 - Seattle, WA

I only have good luck with Seattle's weather. My second day in the city was sunny enough to visit Golden Gardens and play beach volleyball. I stayed at the beach with friends for hours. By some miracle, I didn't get sun burned. A beach paradise in a mountain paradise. It doesn't seem fair.

Pictured: Sunset at Golden Gardens

Bookquest: Seattle, WA

6/30/2013 - BLMF Literary Saloon

Bookquest: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

As part of my trip, I'm buying a book in every major city that I visit. At the end, I want to have a bookshelf to remind me of my trip. I'm calling this my "Bookquest." 

I bought Sometimes a Great Notion in Seattle. A brilliant, well-read friend from Seattle recommended it. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest, and the author really brings out the dreariness of the weather. I'm told it's not a very cheerful book. I can't wait to read it!

Mountain Paradise

6/29/2013 - Seattle, WA

I've never seen Seattle's gloom. Every time I've visited, the weather has been perfect. 

My first day in Seattle, I helped a friend pick raspberries in her garden, then we went to a bar in Tacoma to see a band. It was like a fun bar night in Chicago, except that the outdoor bar had a fantastic view of the mountains. A great start.

Pictured: One view from my friend's back yard garden. The other view is Mt Rainier.

Leaving

6/29/2013 - Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL

"At last, with a touch of headache from an eve-of-departure party, I got out of bed on the great day, put on my new kit and tramped south-west under a lowering sky. I felt preternaturally light, as though I were already away and floating like a djinn escaped from its flask through the dazzling middle air while Europe unfolded." - Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts

I thought about just quoting Fermor in this blog instead of actually writing my own posts. I knew that light feeling once I got to the airport.

I had good send-offs in Columbus, Chicago, and Milwaukee before I left on my trip. The morning I left, I had an epic breakfast with my parents in Milwaukee: grits & eggs, coffee, coconut pie from Honey Pie, and toast with my aunt's strawberry and rhubarb jam. My last taste of the midwest was the guacamole from the Frontera restaurant in O'Hare. Then I was off to Seattle!

Pictured: At O'Hare. I've got a backpack and a duffel bag, that's it.