Today I flew to Portland for for my first visit. I came here to attend the World Domination Summit. I'm not going to write about that, but my couple of days exploring the city.
The conference had a mobile app, which features the Unconventional Race, a scavenger hunt of sorts. We have to do a bunch of activities including taking a pic of a flight attendant and pilot on our trip to Portland. They were enthusiastic and in fact so much so, they invited me into the cockpit.
I got back to my seat and five minutes later, I saw two girls talking with the captain. I ran up and sure enough, they were also going to the conference.
Whe we got off the plane we talked a bit. Turns out that they had rented a car and were headed to visit
Multnomah falls. I had wanted to go but didn't feel like renting a car to go on my own, so figured I'd have to try to go another time. How serendipitous! I asked if I could join them and they agreed!
It took around 45 minutes and was worth it. Wow. The falls consist of an upper and lower falls. The upper falls is around 470 feet and the lower around 65. It was nice and cool from the mist coming off the falls, and everything was so lush and green. So different from Phoenix!
We walked up the path for a while taking in the views of the falls. It's very steep in parts but so beautiful. It was really worth it.
We headed back and got in just in time for my reservation at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant in the pearl district of Portland. A friend raved about it, so I knew I had to go. I dined with a gal from the conference that I had been trading messages with. What an amazing time! She is really great and I so enjoyed her, and the restaurant was spectacular! The ambience, food and service were all really great. Yum!
Then we went to a pre-conference gathering and met a couple of really great folks. One was from England, and she flew all the way here for a few days to attend the conference. One was from Boulder, but had moved to Amsterdam after last year's conference. I got to meet the guy who created the conference, and lots of other people.
I'm staying at a hostel, which is my first time. It seemed in keeping with the overall plan for the weekend of doing something different. And many of the people staying here are attending the conference. It was fun and different, but not for me. I don't sleep well as it is, and with people coming and going all night, it was a bunch of sleepless nights.
We have lots of great ideas for tomorrow so will see what motivates us. Portland is beautiful and very walkable. There's a lot of great little neighborhoods which gives it a Boston-like feel to me. There is a blues festival going on, and lots of parks to check out.
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