It had been close to two years since I had seen my brother. We are both busy and time just gets away from you if you don't watch out. Bad excuse I know (Tempus Fugit). So we talked and agreed to meet for a weekend in Portland. My brother has a really nice condo in the Pearl District in Portland, and he invited Agnes and I down for the weekend.
I made all the plane reservations back in December long before the new security measures at the airport were put in place. So I was committed to go. The new security measures have just about the same chance of catching bad guys as the old measures did (ZERO) however they are now so onerous as to be totally stupid. They are not looking at the people they are too busy looking to see if there is a secret compartment inside of a magazine. And by the way they just started letting you take books and magazines on to the plane. Books and magazines had been banned until just last week. They had been too busy burning the books before that. As you may recall other groups have tried burning books and it didn't work back then either. So after you have turned out you pockets and every item examined for secret compartments then the RCMP gives you a pat down. Surely the best trained police force in the entire world has better things to do than pat downs to 80 year old grannies! I had better move on before I get carried away on the security idiots.
Saturday morning I got up early and did a run along the river and nearly froze. Although I did manage to cover 8.5 miles I was cold the entire way. It was suppose to be around 45F but it was damp and the wind just cut through me. Running the river route was interesting as Portland must have a dozen bridges and seeing all the downtown sights was fun. I guess if you are going to have all the beautiful green trees and hills you have to have some rain.
The Pearl District in Portland is a really neat part of downtown town Portland which was a warehouse district that was turned into lofts and apartments. There are lots of really neat eating establishments, bars and funky shops. So we had lots of fun cruising from one bar to the next. We found this one place which just opened where they sell these electric assist bikes. So we took a test ride. I was sceptical however within 20 feet I was convinced that they were fun and I mean big time fun. Here is a link: http://www.kalkhoffusa.com/ Even my brother who has not been on a bike in twenty years and is absolutely not into anything physical thought it was fun. They are very fun bikes. I am going to ride my bike from Seattle to Boston this year and riding one of these would sure be an interesting experience.
Later on Saturday we went out to see the new Sherlock Homes movie. I liked it. However it is really set up for the sequel. Maybe that isn't so bad. However the price of popcorn is just ridicules.
We went out for supper on Friday night and Saturday nights and ate so much I thought I would explode. On Saturday I ordered the pork chops and it came and was a double thick chop so that there were two bones sticking out and the chop was easily 7 inches across and 2.5 inches thick. It was easily a 20 oz chop. I had never seen such a big pork chop. It was done perfectly. Even chewing the bones was great.
Sunday we went over and visited my niece and her husband who also live in Portland. It was great seeing them and seeing their new home. It is an older house which they have fixed up and is really cute. I just love character homes.
The check in and security were a breeze. It took less than 10 minutes to do an electronic check in and clear security. The flight home was a direct flight and arrived ten minutes early.
Well tomorrow is a work day so I better say good night.
Terry
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