PDX ( -> DEN -> DCA )

It was a beautiful St. Patty's day morning (in the United States) when I set off. This adventure took 5 years of frequent flying, 2 years of vague considerations, 2 months of magically impulsive decisions, and $10 to get off the ground. I consider myself again fit for travel, and since I hope to be taking much longer journeys in the not-too-distant future, best to test my solo wings again on something unfamiliar, but not foreign. East Coast, here I come. I am test-driving myself. Today, Portland is easy to leave because I am on an exciting adventure into the future, and I know I'll come back.



I'd never been excited about visiting the East Coast before. But, over the years, I have built up some connections there. An old roommate, a random acquaintance-turned-friend, a former teacher, friends-moved-east, ... and if I wait too much longer, I figure they'll start dispersing again, so now was the time to see the world(s) my friends have come to call their own.


I grew up a short drive from the Great Lakes (we could sometimes see Michigan across the water). I'd been out east just twice before - to go to a summer camp in New York. And no, I did not see much of New York besides the summer camp. My Dad spent quite a bit of time commuting to Connecticut while I was growing up. He began when I was part-way through grade school and continued until I was part-way through undergrad. I remember some of our family trips being taken with his frequent flier miles. This is my first trip using my own frequent flier miles. I'd never paid the east coast much mind before. I went west, crossing the Mississippi to set up near the Willamette. After years of mildly shunning the east coast and going farther and farther west - first to college and next, I hope, to study abroad - I'm headed for my father's preferred coast.



It occurred to me (I'm writing this now, though I probably didn't actually think of this until I reached New York City) that although I claim that the stereotypical teenage forms of protest - reacting oppositely to the advice of authority figures - never made much sense to me growing up ( I was lucky in that most of the people offering their wisdom were qualified to give it ), my earlier aversions to the east cost and to large cities may have been some rare vague manifestation of such protest against my father's high opinions of it. I had made it a habit to think uncomfortably of the east coast and to associate it with similarly uncomfortable-feeling large cities.

This time, I have in mind to befriend the cities I meet, and to learn from them.

Well, here we go -




* i am writing after returning to Portland - this entire adventure took place in ~ two weeks of March *