Thursday, February 1, 2007

PDX

My whirlwind tour of the west coast continues: I'm now in Portland.

I'm getting certified to teach a new course at my company and the woman who did the certification today is actually an old friend that I used to work with.

It was great to see her and to catch up. She offices with another old colleague, so at one point, the three of us got a chance to gossip, share old stories and create a couple new ones.

I miss working with these women sometimes -- they are only one of two teams of former co-workers that I'd actually consider working with again. They are both bright, funny and interesting.

Portland is another great city. Very interesting and vibrant downtown filled with coffee shops, restaurants, interesting places to walk and window shop and lots of people.

My hotel is very conveniently located near several Starbucks and also has a pool. I'm going to go and get in a few laps tonight.

My friend told me about a great running path that winds along the Willamette River, located about 5 blocks from my hotel. I got out tonight and ran the path for about 30 minutes. The river is beautiful -- especially tonight because of the huge full moon that was rising above it. It's a 'working river', so I saw a barge pushing some thing out to some where and another huge cargo ship that must have been recently unloaded. There were lots of runners and bikers out even though the temps were "cold". (It is probably in the 40s here).

I shouldn't complain about the cold -- the wind chills are supposed to be awful in Minneapolis this weekend. My running club cancelled the run scheduled for Saturday because of the prediction of -20 below wind chills.

I'll be staying indoors, scrapbooking with my friend Marcia before I go INSIDE to hit the gym.

1 comment:

Mmem said...

Running while in a new town is COOL!!!!!!!!!!!

And near Starbucks, well, does it get any better?

Have a good trip:-)