Fall Break in Portland

That title is misleading. It was mostly Fall Break in the car, and a day and a half in Oregon.

It's been hard to write about this. I did, after all, move my best friend to a city that is roughly 1,300 miles away. Round trip, this adventure was 2651.1 miles of driving.

brother sister

I went up to Portland with three of my best friends and returned with two. Nobody died, it was just a moving trip. We took two cars and a bike and a lot of stuff and drove up in two days, stayed in Portland for a day and a half, and then took a day and a half to drive back with infinitely less stuff, and one less car and one less person.


The drive itself was far more enjoyable than I would have imagined. We were impatient to get to Portland, but we were able to stay with my friend Shane (who I met at Eva's wedding in August) in Redding, and meet his sister and friends. It was awesome because I don't really know him all that well, but he and his friends got along really well with me and my friends. We drank beer and talked about backpacking and got coffee and oatmeal for breakfast the next morning.

The short time I spent in Portland was categorized by coffee (duh) beer (also duh) and old, lovely friends. It felt like a giant reunion. It was the first stretch of time I had spent with Ben and Raquel and Brenna together, plus Liz and Cassie and Sydney who all moved to Portland earlier this year.

We just spent life together, and it was so so sweet to see everyone like the good ol' days.

family dinner

Then we just left Brenna there (she's doing well--we talk frequently) and headed back to Phoenix. The route we took was very desolate--through the top corner of California and south through Nevada. The sound of my car's tires on the barren road was the perfect soundtrack for our somber drive back.

And I also got to witness a bear run across the road in front of me.

And Ben got a speeding ticket.

And we explored some beautiful, lonely places like Bordertown, CA and Lunning, NV.