Portland again enabled me to do things that I could not have done in any other city, except maybe three that I can think of; San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. What it enabled me was to do a half dozen things, in simple enjoyment, and not burn an once of gas or step inside a car.
It all started last night, the list of events and happenings. I headed out after work for the regular evening of a few beers, intellectual (not faux intellectual like many circles), and intelligent conversation about all sorts of things. From there I headed from the beer establishment, Bailey's Taproom, three blocks away into the Shanghai Tunnels for a beverage or three with some other cohorts and fellow techies. After that I jumped on the #4 Bus and headed home at about 11pm.
I awoke the next day rip roaring to go and get some work done and some code churned out. I boarded the #9 bus across the Ross Island Bridge and transferred to the #35. Again seeing many of the regular faces for the commute. With a short 8 minute trip I arrived at work.
Around lunch time I swung back aboard the #35 for a trip downtown for lunch with a fellow professional. After that I again boarded the south bound #35 and headed back to work for the afternoon hours. Got a ton of code worked out, designed a few things, helped a few people out and departed again on the #35 for my northward leg of my homeward bound trip. I transferred at the 1st & Arthur stop to the #19, for some reason, and then swapped over to the #9 two stops later. One of those sporadic things I do. Both buses travel for a short distance along the same route so I figured it beat standing by all the heavy traffic.
I arrived home in short order, I'm guessing a little longer than normal, the trip weighed in at a mighty 12 minutes from the transfer point.
This is when the number of things I knocked out really ramped up. Upon arriving home I strolled in the front door. I first grabbed a quick sandwich.
Then Joleen and I headed a block away to the open street market. We bought some various items and returned home.
I then had a short phone call related to transit topics. After the phone call I hunkered down and coded a few more lines of code. Straightened out some things, got fidgety and headed out again. This time with laptop in tow.
I strolled down to a neighborhood community center part coffee shop and got some Bolivian French Press.
Then I rolled through this blog entry, enjoyed my French Press, repacked the gear and headed for the #4. I started walking toward downtown, and as I walked up to the first #4 bus stop I came to a #4 arrived. I boarded and headed the rest of the way downtown. I couldn't help really but want to wonder around more so as soon as I got off the #4 I boarded a #9 to get over the Broadway bridge. Possibly to board the MAX and maybe head out to the airport or possibly off to somewhere else. I didn't care, I was just out to explore and for the adventure of it.
I rode the #9, pulled out the wireless to figure out were exactly it travels just as we passed Alberta. I figured Alberta might be entertaining, and realizing the #9 on the northern route just kind of goes off into the nether of northern Portland, I decided I was hopping of this bus. I got off, but had already traveled about 7 blocks north of Alberta, bah, I was out for an adventure so I started hiking back to Alberta.
I got back to Alberta and traversed both sides of the street, first east about 4 blocks and then back west for about 10 blocks. One thing about Alberta, it has gentrified in a massive way. Kind of bothers me, but at the same time I dig it too, it really does look pretty cool with all the more upscale and cleaned up establishments. With a bar every block or so, a restaurant thrown in here and there, some tea and various coffee shops along the way, it definitely is a place worth living around.
After a while I pulled the laptop out to map the next route. I did a transit planner from were I was to were I wanted to go, it directed me to board the east bound #72 bus and get off at either Division and board the #4 or the #9 Powell. I figured I'd go along with the transit planner since that seemed like a nice logical way to go, and it puts me in territory I haven't traveled, albeit under the dark of night.
The #72 arrived punctual, I boarded, and off we all traveled. With the rough crowd, my crazy self, and a spit of insanity I whipped the laptop back out to track my status, do some work, and generally entertain myself since I really couldn't see anything anyway.
Eventually the #72, thugs n' all, rolled up to Division and I decided to jump off and grab the encroaching #4. It arrived in just a few minutes and off I went homeward bound.
Most of this in the course of this in a single afternoon. Something that couldn't be accomplished in the suburbs without either vastly larger amounts of energy and cash. I'll take the urban neighborhoods close to downtown any day, for the civility, for the choices, for the intelligence, for the decreased impact on my wallet. It never ceases to amaze me, Portland.