Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Pacific Northwest Trip 2015 Day 3 Tuesday July 14: Olympia to Portland, Plus Vancouver WA

UPDATED: February 11, 2021

This is the 3rd of a series of posts dealing with my 2015 trip to Portland, Seattle, and vicinity. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of two years later or to add further clarification.  These are indicated by “NOW”.

I turned in before 9 because I was seriously sleep deprived from the night before. Some sounds in the night but overall I managed to get caught up on sleep.

This morning I left at 5:10 am and wandered to the Capitol, then to Capitol Lake. I crossed a bridge to the west side and then another to the east to get some waterfront area photos. I wandered downtown some more. I one section the west-east streetlights were off and the north-south ones were blinking. I walked back to the hostel, passing Sylvester Park along the way. Soon breakfast, maybe another short walk, then to the first of the two larger sections of the trip. Have a great day everyone!

[NOW: The above was written in the morning. The rest was written in the evening. The first bridge was at 4th Ave W, the second at 5th Ave W.]

For anyone wanting to hear about the $4 deal at Oregon Zoo today... I did my best to fit it in but there were other things I was more excited about doing and despite my best efforts to get ahead of the game the timing just didn't work out. Since I don't want to pay $7-$8 extra to go on a different day, well, some other time perhaps. It would have been great to do on my last day in Portland but today I was still in full explore mode.  So, here's what I DID do today:

[NOW: The Oregon Zoo is in Portland, specifically Washington Park].

On a whim I took the free 101 Dash bus (Intercity Transit) around Olympia and chatted with the driver a bit; the bus passed through the Capitol twice. I returned to Ground Inn, got my key deposit back, then walked to the Greyhound. I was early so went across the street for a little bit and then returned to the Greyhound Depot where I found out I had to check in. One woman was upset that the bus hadn't arrived 5 minutes after the schedule time; I pointed out that with Greyhound five minutes late is considered punctual. The bus finally arrived. There were no window seats left so I asked people generally if someone could trade. No takers. One person did finally offer a left side seat after I found a right side seat where I could shoot at the window without getting anyone's head so I decided to stick with that. In Centralia though, the woman I was sitting beside offered to trade so I got a window seat on the right side after all; right is better than left to get sign markers. In Centralia there was a brief layover so I got a pop at the Chevron Station store there. The bus stopped briefly in Kelso before, as expected, arriving in Portland half an hour late.
 
[NOW: Ground Inn is now closed.]

I thought I had missed a 77 but towards the hostel so bought a daypass from a MAX Light Rail machine instead of the bus and therefore just missed the bus.

[NOW: The hostel I stayed at was Northwest Portland Hostel].

I walked to the hostel where I put my stuff in storage before going to the nearby McDonald's. In an effort to try to fit everything in, I ordered lunch to go and then walked east and then dashed to an arriving Yellow Line MAX train (TriMet Transit). I took the train to Delta Park/Vanport Station just in time to see a 4 bus (C-TRAN; all 4/44 buses this day C-TRAN) bus leave. The next one arrived (unlike their CSPAN express buses their regular buses take TriMet passes) and took the bus to downtown Vancouver WA.

[NOW: It’s now the 60 that connects at the above MAX station, not the 4].

I visited Lucky Loan Pawn Shop and Esther Short Park before returning to the bus stop. At that point I  had decided to skip Barnes & Noble but still wanted to visit f.y.e., in part to get the photos of Vancouver from the bus. I therefore took another 4 bus to Vancouver Mall and got a couple DVDs at f.y.e.

A 4 bus was leaving 12 minutes before the 44 so even though it arrived back at Delta Park/Vanport later I decided to take it. But then it stopped at the Barnes & Noble at Vancouver Plaza and I realized I could actually save time stopping at Barnes & Noble. I was too late to get off but I got off at the next stop and doubled back to Barnes & Noble for a quick look and then took the 44 bus to the station.  I took the Yellow line (all remaining transportation this day TriMet) to N Lombard Station and walked to VideoRama, where I bought some DVDs. I took a 75 bus west to another VideoRama that was closing down and bought... too many DVDs, mostly cult classic. The guy handling the DVDs seemed a bit of a stoner and didn't think before purchase to remove the security cases from the DVDs I had stacked, which would have saved me some time had he done so before purchase. They had no bags at all, only a box so I crammed all the DVDs into my backpack just in time to miss a bus. I walked to McDonald's, had dinner, and to a 75 back to north Lombard Station and a Yellow MAX train downtown.

[NOW: The entire VideoRama franchise has now closed.]

I visited Mill Ends Park (world's smallest park, located in the middle of a crosswalk) and Salmon Street Springs, erroneously listed in 2013 trip reports as Bill Naito Legacy Fountain. The water was coming out this time almost looking like a white wedding cake. I briefly returned to Mill Ends Park and then took a Blue Line MAX train to Providence Park Station, the stop closest to the Hostel. It had a different name in 2012. Does anyone recall the old name? Answer Saturday or when someone guesses correctly whichever comes first.

[NOW: No one guessed JELD-WEN Field MAX Station.].

I returned to the hostel to drop the DVDs off, get my bags out of storage, and snag a lower bunk. I walked to Burnside and took a 20 bus to near the waterfront hoping to find the real Bill Naito Legacy Fountain. I left my backpack but recalled it was supposed to be in the area. Much to my shock I found it almost right away despite partly flying blind. It’s an okay fountain with jets from the ground. I walked along Burnside, grabbing a strawberry pop from a convenient store and passing the park with the elephant sculpture that looks more like a camel. I visited Powell's and Everyday Music before returning to the hostel.

[NOW: The park is part of North Park Blocks, and the statue is Da Tung & Xi'an Bao Bao.]

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