Pacific Northwest Trip 2008 Day 12-13 Friday July 31, 2008-Saturday August 1, 2008

LAST UPDATED: October 14, 2025

This is the twelfth and final of a series of posts recalling my third annual trip to Seattle, though at this stage of the trip I thought I had left Seattle for the remainder of the trip and was at the start of this report in Portland. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of five years later or to add further clarification; I use “NOW” to denote such cases.

Got the Amtrak in good time but it was moving slower than usual (at least that's what they say) due to a freight car lowering the maximum speed.  This is apparently what causes the train's engine to conk out, causing an extra 3 1/2 hour delay.

[NOW: I believe this was their Starlight Line. Amtrak still charged for food during the delay and in fact thanked everyone for buying all the food, so arguably they benefited from their screw-up.]

I missed my connection in Olympia but no small amount as a result and didn't want to be stranded there the whole long weekend so took Greyhound busses from there to Vancouver, though that meant getting in at 11:30 (actually 12:20 by the time it arrived).

[NOW: I only have vague memories of Olympia that specific trip, though I’ve since returned three times. I think the train actually stopped in Lacey; I know I took a bus to Olympia from the station.  I was given some critical misinformation from a know-it-all on the train: that there was a Greyhound to Port Angeles (there wasn’t) and that there was no hostel in Olympia (there was).  I had a late lunch somewhere, but mostly just stuck around Sylvester Park where the Greyhound depot was at the time - it has since moved, not wanting to risk another missed connection.  I recall a few Greyhound stops as it got progressively darker, including Seattle, Everett, and Bellingham. The woman at the border seemed a bit puzzled by the amount of stuff I was bringing in but didn’t search my bag. The Vancouver location was Pacific Central Station.]

 

[NOW: The hostel referred to above closed and was replaced by Ground Inn, but that also closed so to my knowledge there is not currently a hostel in Olympia.]

There was no time to notify Vancouver friends on Facebook that I was arriving and I didn't have their numbers handy anyway, not expecting to be in that particular Vancouver this trip.

So went to McDonald's across the street diagonally and then returned to the station, only to learn they're closed 1 am – 4 am.  So I had to find a place that was relatively safe and warm.  I found a warm enough place but I nodded off briefly (probably less than 15 minutes after which my new-ish backpack was gone, with a lot of the DVDs, comics, books purchased as well as probably most my camera memory cards.  Conservative estimate over 10,000 photos lost.  I contacted the police but even though it only just happened they wouldn't investigate (I never saw them patrol either).

 Someone claimed they some a bag being tossed over the fence on the bus/train station property, but since the theft didn't occur there, when I mentioned it to the security guard he got abusive with me.

[NOW: Took the Pacific Coach Lines bus the rest of the way home, including a ferry trip. Leaving out the rest]

Pacific Northwest Trip 2008 Day 11 Thursday July 31, 2008

LAST UPDATED: October 14, 2025.

This is the eleventh of a series of posts recalling my third annual trip to Seattle, though at this stage of the trip I was in Portland, not Seattle. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of five years later or to add further clarification; I use “NOW” to denote such cases.

In the morning I ate breakfast at a chain in this area called Burgerville, then walked downtown, got a daypass, and rode the MAX line to the streetcar.  Despite two drivers during the trip I got wrong info about if I was heading to my next destination correctly (I've definitely found that the metro drivers are a wealth of misinformation in Portland) but finally got a streetcar to my real destination, an aerial tram with a nice view of the city (it goes to and from a hospital). 

 

[NOW: All transportation this day TriMet Transit except the Streetcar, which is run by the Portland government]

Heading back downtown I got a graphic novel by Rob Zombie at the city's oldest bookstore, Cameron's, then took a MAX train to the Mississippi stop.  The place I wanted to go to, a comic shop was further than expected, but I made it there.  Colourful area (dressing, not people).  I asked at the comic shop about a library used book store called Title Wave and was told you won't always find what you're looking for but you'll always find something cool.  True enough: I found a book on comic book artist George Tuska, the first series of Chef, a British show about a cranky chef, and cheap bottles of Vanilla Coke.

[The comic shop was Bridge City Comics, now closed, though Rose City Comics is in the same location. Chef was one of the items that got stolen not long after. Title Wave is now closed but may reopen in the future in a new location].

 

Next it was a free vacuum museum inside a vacuum store.  Small but free, so no it didn't suck.  The next comic shop was closed, so after a bite at Wendy's and a stopover at Rite Aid for batteries, I did a quick visit of some book and comic shops on Sandy Blvd, then a movie place called Movie Madness where I bought DVDs and took photos of movie memorabilia. 

 

[NOW: The Wendy's was likely the one at 2920 NE Sandy Blvd, now closed. The Rite Aid was likely the one at 1814 NE 41st Ave; the entire chain is now closed. The bookstore(s) may have been Honeyed Words and/or Crooked House Books. The comic shop may have been Cosmic Monkey Comics. The Vacuum Museum at Stark's Vacuums is now a lot smaller and does suck.]

I returned downtown and tried to get an all route bus book so I wouldn't be taking back smaller booklets, but they were all out.

Now I need to back up to shortly after I arrived in Portland.  A really scraggly looking guy suggested I take photos from the roof of a parking lot once the weather was better.  Actually not a bad idea; just shows you can't always judge by appearances.  I finally did that today and got some decent shows, highest being about 10 stories up.  I relaxed at whatever the faux International Fountain is called, visited the Pearl Harbor memorial, then took more photos of Mill Ends Park on my way here.

[NOW: The fountain above is Salmon Street Springs.]

Tomorrow is going to be a daunting day and I won't have time to send an e-mail until the following day.   I'm going to try to set foot in 10 places and if I don't set foot in at least 8, my trip has gone seriously south: Portland Olympia, Lacey (optional), Tumwater (optional), Shelton, Brinnon, Port Townsend (technically optional  but I'll be bored if I stay on the outskirts), Sequim, Port Angeles, Victoria,  So very long day ahead of me tomorrow.

[NOW: As my final blog report on this trip will demonstrate, things didn’t go at all as planned the next day.]

Pacific Northwest Trip 2008 Day 10 Wednesday July 30, 2008 Portland OR, Vancouver WA

LAST UPDATED: October 14, 2025.

This is the tenth of a series of posts recalling my third annual trip to Seattle, though at this stage of the trip I was in Portland, not Seattle. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of five years later or to add further clarification; I use “NOW” to denote such cases.

The basement made the hostel seem darker than it really was so didn't get up until after 8.  Probably needed to catch up on rest anyway.  I visited the locker area and noticed a nearby yellow pages and wrote a few places down; haven't managed to visit any of them yet; hopefully by tomorrow. 

 

[NOW: The hostel was the now closed H-I International - Hawthorne.] 

I bought a daypass and went downtown.  The driver said the pass was good on the bus to Vancouver.  it wasn't so I bought another pass to get there.  And so I visited Vancouver for the first time today.  Well, Vancouver WA anyway.  Portland actually looks a lot less dull in nicer weather, though it'll probably never be a fav of mind. 

 

[NOW: The Portland transit system is TriMet while the Vancouver system is C-TRAN. You can get to Vancouver and travel around Vancouver on TriMet passes, but you have to pay extra for the express bus to Vancouver]

Back to Vancouver: I checked out Fort Vancouver, then went to Vancouver's main mall and bought some DVDs.  I hadn't had breakfast so I had brunch at a pizza buffet near the mall.  Then I worked my way back downtown.  I actually spent more time in Vancouver than I really wanted to, but the dessert pizza was great and it was interesting to see an historic fort. 

 

[I may have bought the DVDs at fye at Vancouver Mall; I think the mall had a different name back then.]

I took a MAX light rail train to the Oregon Zoo and spent 2 1/2 hours there.  A beaver put on a bit of a show, as did the lorikeets.  My camera couldn't pick up the bats in Seattle but it managed to pick up the ones here.  You save a bus by taking transit to the park but the trade-up is that a small pop bottle is $3.  There was a dinosaur exhibit and and a concert, both at extra charge, but I was content to just see the animals.

So not a wide range of things today because my two big excursions ate up a lot of time, but I've been having a better day thus far.  And Portland does look prettier in the sun than in the clouds.  Which is good because I actually got depressed walking around Portland yesterday, even before the computer incident.

This computer at Powell's Technical is giving me problems too so the Internet's being restarted.  Thank goodness for Notepad.  Pasting there and pasting back seems to work.  Luckily this time when it crashed it didn't actually shut down so I was able to move this text to Notepad in time.

[NOW: Powell's Technical has now closed, though other branches exist. Written the next day:]

After I signed off visited Powell's proper, bought a book on comics and a book by John Waters on bad taste, ate at McDonald's again at Pioneer Mall, then returned to hostel.

[NOW: The John Waters book was one of the things that got stolen, as I’ll get to soon. Still haven’t replaced it. That McDonald's has long since closed.] 

My room is co-ed but there was nothing sexy about last night.  As I was dozing off an Asian woman complained that I was making too much noise on the bed (I tend to move about a fair bit when I sleep and was on an older upper bunk).  So I switched bed sides so my head would be resting against a wall and fell back asleep... and got woken up by the same woman complaining about the noise I was making while I was sleeping.  I groggily tried to explain there's not much I can do if I'm asleep but I think I fell on deaf ears.

I dragged myself out of bed, put pants on over my pj's and left a note at the vacant front desk in case she complained about me in the morning).  On the plus side it was the only time I saw Bailey, the hostel's cat but he didn't seem to want to be petted.  I think I saw the woman one more time but this time she changed her mind.

[NOW: So the note was basically to explain that any incident that the woman was upset about happened while I was asleep, thus nothing I could really do much about.]

Pacific Northwest Trip 2008 Day 9 Tuesday July 29, 2008 1st Day in Portland

LAST UPDATED: October 14, 2025.

This is the ninth of a series of posts recalling my third annual trip to Seattle, though with this report I head south of Seattle for most of the rest of the trip. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of five years later or to add further clarification; I use “NOW” to denote such cases.

Miracle happened.  Nothing significant to report.  Everyone well behaved.  I did all my packing last night so no real problems this morning.  Minor difficulties finding my glasses when I woke up but easily solved by turning on bunk light.  Set both watches' alarms at 5 minute intervals but beat them both up by about 5-10 minutes from watch #1.

[NOW: The above was written in the morning at Green Tortoise Hostel. The below is the first of two reports I wrote upon arriving in my next stop, Portland.]

In a piece of crap city the Internet correction is a piece of crap.  It couldn't handle  typing these reports and wiped out everything I just typed.

[NOW: It was at the hostel I stayed at, Hostel International - Hawthorne, now closed, that my report got wiped out after going slow. I've since warmed to Portland a bit, particularly after revisiting it a number of times since.]

I'll try to find an Internet cafe.  Otherwise I can't justify spending money on this sluggish Internet connection, which really should be free given it can't handle simple e-mails. 

Short answer: Portland sucks.  Even Powell's Books is overrated.  I might return home a day early.  Don't bother with this dunghole of a city.  I hate it here.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.

[NOW: Time has been kinder to my recollections of Portland. I considered editing the above but wanted to be true to how I felt back then.]

Pardon typos above.  It's not just my mood.  Words actually take forever to appear on the screen.

[NOW: I edited out the typos] 

Can't wait for this suddenly lousy vacation to be over with.  I should never have added this dunghole of a city to my itinerary.  Barely worth a daytrip if that.

[NOW: See above. Also, the below was written after I found a place to retype my report.  I wrote the report early the next day. Again, I no longer dislike Portland that much.]

I'm paying a bit more and typing this from Powell's Technical Books.  Let's see if I make it through this without anything crashing.  Feeling better today. 

 

[Now: Powell's Technical Books has closed, though other branches of Powell's remain.]

So... on my way to the train station I thought I had lost the memory cards for my last Seattle day.  Luckily they turned up later.  I asked for a window seat on the train.  They gave me the left; right which would have have been better because of the sea and the lack of trains going the other way but still got lots of good shots. 

 

[NOW:  It was an Amtrak train, almost for sure the Starlight Line.]

The trip to Portland took longer than expected, due in part to some delay in Tacoma.   Still at first it was nice to see Tacoma again however briefly.

It was pretty overcast yesterday and Portland looks incredibly dull yesterday, hence part of why I was in such a sour mood.  First impression of the city was everything looked dull.   I walked to the #14 transit stop to get to my hostel.  There was an incorrect number 14 stop a little before; luckily I figured this out. 

They gave me the wrong room initially at the hostel, which seems to be a refurbished cottage.  I'm in one of the basement rooms.  The lockers are in a shed, which doesn't really thrill me; I'd rather the lockers be close to the room.  Walked along Hawthorne and basically confirmed that in Portland music stores are just that (i.e. no movies like most Seattle music stores have).  On a bus a woman claimed that it was against the law to take pics with people in them without permission.  The bus was about to reach the hostel and there was a nearby comic shop to check out, so I got off, confirmed my hypothesis that the woman was incorrect, and bought some comics at the comic shop before returning downtown (my hostel is a ways to the east of downtown). 

 

[NOW: The comic shop must have been Excalibur Comics.] 

I lost my list of places to check out in my final day in Seattle so I mostly just wandered around.  I visited a place that had DVDs for sale, but they were unpriced so I didn't bother looking too closely.

[NOW: I think I visited the now defunct Borders around then as well.]

Just before Powell's Technical there's a cute state of a baby elephant on top of an adult elephant.  A short walk further took me to Powell's (main store).  Huge selection and does take up a full story block.  My problem with it is that it lacks atmosphere, either of a local type or even of a chain like Chapters.  But the selection is quite good and I did buy two, one being a collection of 1970s stories featuring the sons of Superman and Batman.  The stories make no sense even to veteran comic readers (they supposedly take place in the then future, but 1970s hair styles, use of bikers, etc clearly date them to the time they were written). 

 

[NOW: The above statue is Da Tung & Xi'an Bao Bao] 

The old town has some nice architecture.  The world's smallest park, Mills Ends is actually in the middle of a crosswalk.  I would have stepped over it Godzilla style but there was a plant in it that I didn't want to hurt.

The old town has what appears to be a poor man's International Fountain. 

 

[NOW: That would be Salmon Street Springs.] 

I ate at Pioneer Place, not really a pioneer place but a modern shopping centre.  The sad thing is after the drab, dull look outside the mall actually energized me, which malls rarely do even to me.  I ate at McDonald's and then left the mall and comic comics at another comic shop.  

 

[NOW: That McDonald's has closed.]

I decided to walk back to the hostel for exercise.  I used the computer there which was $1 per 20 minutes, buying 40 minutes.  The words couldn't keep up with me, so I was making tons of typos, and when I tried to correct the worst of these typos it crashed and erased everything, which is why I seemed so POed yesterday.

I worked off the stress by going for a walk, then buying DVDs at a Hawthorne branch of Hollywood Video.

[NOW: All Hollywood Video  branches are now defunct.]

Don't want to tempt fate so will cover today separately.