Portland A

Agate Lane SW
Wednesday, January 4
It is often said that it is the journey, not the destination that is important and this proved true on this first day of traveling the alphabet through Portland. How to choose? A good way of getting out of your normal way of thinking is throwing in an additional random element. I decide to visit the first Portland "A" street that is listed on my city map. Not as easy as it sounds. The first dozen or so (Including A St and A Ave) are not even in the city proper. Finally I get to Agate Lane and try to find it on the map. I am dubious about this. It is a very short residential street in an area with a lot of small curvy streets and apparent dead ends. Probably no sidewalks. But I push on and map out a route.

Hop on the 405 for a minute and then off and am immediately lost. (I'm not usually very good at following maps.) But I'm in an area where I was lost a month ago, so I know better to get further lost in the maze of one-way streets and make my way back to Broadway, which turns into Broadway Dr, a climbing, twisting road that takes me near where I want to be. I get lost among the interior roads, but come across the intersection of Sherwood and Nottingham, so it's worth it. Finally I find Agate after checking the map and realized I had driven right by it. No wonder. It's a narrow street no wider than an alley and it's a dead end. I don't even bother driving down it because on the way I came across a park I want to explore. There promises to be some good views up there.

I drive to the top of Council Crest Park carefully passing about two dozens older woman who are walking on the road. Out of the car and packing my camera I make my way to the viewing area where I see the women are assembling for a photo shoot. One of them calls out and asks me if I will take the picture with her camera. I do. And then she asks me if I want a photo of myself. I agree and squinting into the sun she snaps away. There ensues a discussion of which mountain is which. Is that St Helens...no it's Adams, or is it Rainer? It's a clear day and whichever they are, you can see them all, including Hood. I learn they are the Wednesday Womans Walking group and one asks me if I am visiting Portland, and for a moment I don't know how to answer. I've been here three months, but have just decided to leave at the end of January. It's chilly and breezy at the top, so I stop briefly to check out a statue that caught me eye and then start the trip back.

Once on the main road I see a sign post for Vista Ave, which takes me along a beautiful winding street with stately old homes and at the end I see I've reached the wonderful MacMaster B & B, where I stayed this summer and then just before I moved into my studio apartment. I have become friendly with the owners, Skip and Louise, and am happy that this journey has serendipitously brought me back to where my Portland sojourn began. A few blocks later and I am back in my neighborhood and, keeping in the spirit of the day, visit a new lunch spot, the Stepping Stone on Quimby Ave (the mayor on TV show, the Simpsons, was named after this street--I had just read on the internet this morning--so it must be true!) Then I visit places the I have been at dozens of times before: Food Front Co-operative for a few groceries and the Dragonfly coffee house for a cup of tea. It's warmed up and the sun is out and you can sit outside--a luxury for a boy from Minnesota where you probably couldn't do this (safely) for another few months!