Visit to Seattle and Portland

Last weekend I went to visit an old college buddy of mine from St. Olaf in Minnesota who lives in Portland now. How many of you knew the name of my college? Well Jon is one who knows. That's because he spent 3 years there with me, studying Biology and freezing his butt off during Minnesota winters. Now we both live in warmer climates. So does that say anything about Minnesota winters, or did we just become wusses?

Anyways, I landed in Seattle on Friday, for the purpose of meeting up with Jon, who commutes up there from Portland on a weekly basis. He is doing some kind of neurological research up there. So I landed at the airport around 4 pm, and then took a long bus ride downtown. They have a "dual" system of express and city busses. Of course, Jon didn't point this out to me, and I got on the "slow" bus. I "enjoyed" the long ride past the massive Boeing plants into downtown Seattle (over 1 hr, many stops). After asking the bus driver where the "University Bay" stop is, I got off as instructed. Jon told me to meet him "at a cafe a couple blocks west of the Bay stop near the Amtrak station". Well, the Amtrak station is nowhere near "University Bay", so I had to walk about 20 blocks across town (btw: the "Bay" refers to the underground bus stations Seattle has, where you go down stairs to a "Bay" and wait for your bus. It works pretty well, and if I'd gotten on the bus number that Jon had told me, I would have actually stopped there too). We finally met up coincidentally by looking for each other on the street somewhere near the Amtrak station.

Pressed for time now (we still had to drive 3 hours to Portland that evening), we took the "lightning tour" or Seattle, which started at the Pike Street area (overlooking the port and the mountains beyond). The world's first Starbucks is located there.

Jon and me looking happy to be inside the first Starbucks. This store isn't really as trendy as I thought it would be. Just a plain old coffee trader as far as I can tell (even has an old hardwood floor). The friendly staff even took this picture of us without making us buy their coffee. I will never complain about Starbucks' service again!

After a short driving tour of downtown Seattle, we proceeded to a quick dinner and beer and then onwards to Portland. Personally, I didn't mind, because after all that walking around looking for Jon, and staring at the glass stores and office buildings, I was getting tired of Seattle.

Arriving at their condominium in downtown Portland late in the evening, I was happy to meet Jon's wife, Humaira, for the second time. The first time was all the way back in 1999.

I'd like to thank Humaira here for her wonderful vegetarian meals. I never felt so healthy visiting friends. In the background is the fireboat firing red, white and blue cannons at us, because we were complaining about all the police boats doing nothing.

The next day, Jon, I and Sheba (a Siberian Husky) drove east of Portland along the Columbia River Gorge. This reminded me somewhat of traveling along the Rhine in Germany - except it's bigger, windier (this is a favorite spot for windsurfers) and with more variety of landscape.

Here's an example what I am talking about. Along both sides of the Columbia river closer to Portland, there are many areas that are heavily forested, reminding me of the Black Forest, or the Smokey Mountains.

Then there are also spots - not far from the picture taken above - that look a lot more like Colorado or Wyoming.

Sunday, we stayed around downtown Portland, visiting the rose garden, Japanese Garden, and some stores. I bought a book on the Lewis and Clark expedition, which I was very pleased with. These early explorers enjoy something of a hero status here (we learned about them in school as kids). Jon mentioned that the American Indians might not agree with this view. Well, it's a nice book anyways, and I can appreciate that.

Portland also has some modern streetcars, which is kind of a novelty in the U.S.

The inscription in white on the top of the streetcar says, "Lewis and Clark explored a wild Oregon. Will our children?" I think that pretty much defines Portland right there.

To sum it up, I enjoyed visiting Portland very much, and can recommend it to anybody who does not hate environmentalists, streetside cafes, or ice cream shops. I think I am starting to rant now, so I better stop...

The "Castro Erection"

Friday night I decided to go to the other side of the bay to see a free movie. The show I wanted to see was "Grizzly Man" , a new documentary by the German Director Werner Herzog depicting the life and death of outdoorsman and author Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly People). The movie was being shown as part of the "Green Screen Film Festival", which is how I got the free tickets. Us "eco" types are usually not good profiteers - a fact which I appreciate! To be truthful, I am only "eco" so long as it's cheap. Which is why I ride my bike to work.

So there I was, late as usual, on my way to the theater on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). I got off at Embarcadero station and switched to the "Muni" train and proceeded via the "M" line below and up Market Street toward Castro. I was feeling comfortable, riding the public trains again, like I had for years in Europe. Along the way up Market, passengers kept getting on - mostly men, between 20 and 40. Having snagged a comfortable seat at the first station along the line, I could just sit and people-watch. Which is a reason I like to ride metro trains in the evenings (watching commuters is much more boring). Anyways, the men kept getting on, till the conductor had to yell through the speakers to "make room in back". I don't think this was a problem for many of the passengers! It then dawned on me, this must be some sort of gay festival that I was approaching. In fact, it was just another Friday night on upper Market St. in San Francisco...

Anyways, when the train finally stopped at Castro and Market, about half the passengers, including myself, got off. The Castro Theater is apparently a kind of landmark in San Francisco's gay community. I don't know where "Christopher Street" exactly is, but I assume it's somewhere in that neighborhood. Or, if it wasn't in S.F. then there is a street nearby that carries the name. There are those "rainbow" flags, which I always associated with the peace movement, flying from streetlights up and down Market Street. It's a very interesting and colorful area at about 10 p.m. on a Friday night. Being curious by nature, I would have liked to reconnoiter and check it out ... but alas, I was alone. Bummer! Next time, I'll ask a female companion to come along with me.

The Castro, where the movie was showing, has its own history and story. Apparently, this place, which resembles the Oriental Theater in Milwaukee (it's got a more fancy Spanish facade than the "Oriental"), was ready to be razed by retail developers when a local S.F. businessman got the bright idea to have it declared a historic landmark and keep it preserved. Since then, it's been kind of a local institution of sorts, apparently. The kind of place you'd go to to see the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"...

The movie I saw, about the aforementioned grizzly activist Tim Treadwell, was pretty good. Tim not only went up to Alaska to "protect the bears" - he also filmed himself , and "his" bears, the whole while. There are some really gripping scenes. The most memorable is the "fight" scene, when 2 male bears - he names them "Sgt. Jack" and "Micky", I think - have a big brawl, mauling each other for minutes on end, their jaws clamped around each others' throats. I couldn't believe it was just another of those primitive male fights for breeding rights. This one looked like it was going to be to the death. I won't ruin the suspense and tell you what happens next...

To sum it up, even if you couldn't give a hoot about environmental protection, and think global warming is just the latest scare tactic invented by us lefties to keep you under Big Brother's watchful eye, you should check this movie out. To me, Treadwell represents something typically American : an adventurer, self-promoter, and activist all rolled into one.

p.s. if you're wondering about my choice of words for the title of this post, it comes from Gary Morris' historical description of the Castro. See you next time at the theater!