Yesterday I returned home via a pleasant but somewhat delayed flight and a nice shuttle ride with a courteous driver from Skyshuttle. Entertainingly the van door swung open during the ride — a fact that I noticed and pointed out before disaster struck our luggage.
Regardless, now that I've slept 12+ hrs and have had a glorious morning at the farmers' market along with Save-On to replenish my food supply, I am very pleased to be home from wonderful Portland.
Brief comments about my trip:
LSSP:
-Who would have thought that ivy was so pernicious?!
-Food poisoning is no fun!
-The Sandy River is a great swimming locale
-Painting a wet surface becomes difficult
-Apparently I'm not half bad at shoveling mulch
-Talk about some crazy games/icebreakers
-Gotta love orange shirts… really…
-PJ party was awesome
-I'm horrible at trivia… apparently I'm getting old or something…
-yay for Cal-Nev-Ha random dance parties!
-I'm more susceptible to hot/cold temperature changes than I used to be
-s'mores that actually melt!!
-crafts!
-I still rock at Bandu
-I'm pretty good at Sudoku too!
-such a great time… even with the food poisoning frustration.
ICON:
-The joys of putting my fingers in the ring yet again… with a result that I honestly rather don't mind 🙂 All the best to our new International Representative! 🙂 (and I can't say I didn't try… or gave people another option… she will truly do an amazing job!)
-Crazy parties and awesome service fair!
-Meeting the other 5 Canadians!
-Encouraging others in their pursuits
-An awesome International President's reception and fabulous ball complete with a tango with Terry!
-crazy dances
-I actually won at the gambling games at the block party!
-You just gotta see the highlighter party t-shirt…
-Good food at BJs and the Mongolian…
-Very little sleep… and a very long HOD (but not as long as the previous year!)
-hanging with Region B… (and of course with the awesome Region A+… my own region!)
-limboing!
-slow shuttles…
-helipad 🙁 poor weather (though it still was gorgeous) preventing parties on it
-good seats at the sessions
-The Columbia River Gorge
-yes I am from the planet Zorg… really!
-and much much more!! Great times! 🙂
Portland itself:
-OMSI!! 🙂 The Body Worlds Exhibit was FABULOUS!! (as was the whole building really, plus the last non-nuclear powered submarine, and the OMNIMAX)
-And then there was the food court at OMSI — yummy! 🙂
-shuttle adventures and goodbyes 🙁
-Our AWESOME Hostel!! I totally recommend it to anyone! HI-NW Portland rocks!
-We sought out food and found Jakes Seafood which is famous for crawfish!! yummy!!!
-And walked around… in the dark… apparently in redlight-esque district? Apparently I was oblivious or just plain used to downtown-like areas.
-Powell's City of Books!! Even better than their email newsletter! They even had chapbooks!!! 🙂 Great place to pick up gifts and whatnot… especially since there's no tax… who wouldn't want to see a whole BLOCK of books? Millions! And used and new and rare and… (I could go on at length… but I'll end with the fact that Heather would also appreciate the paperback book/pulp styled store map…)
-shopping… which was pretty random… but Ashley made out like a bandit!
-more awesome food, this time at a Persian place!
-walking south… through PSU
-And the crazy statue photos
-and then home we went.
Such great times!