I had a couple of things I needed to pick up in Portland, so I asked Sarah and Jason if they wouldn't mind me staying one more day. They reluctantly obliged. I'm kidding; they graciously obliged. No, enthusiastically obliged. No, generously. Anyway, they obliged.
So today I went to a great sporting goods/ outdoor gear store called Next Adventure. If you're in Portland, it's definitely worth a visit. (It's like REI, but with better prices.) I needed to get a lighter-weight sleeping bag––one that was smaller, too. Purchased the Marmot Helium bag.
I also had made the naïve choice to bring my Nikon N90 SLR camera with an extra lens and 6 rolls of film as well as my digital camera. Oops. So at a photo store in Portland I picked up a Canon S95 that would replace both.
I figure the lighter gear as well as the decision to shed my water filter drops about 6 or 7 lbs. from my total weight. And, it allowed me to get that Thermarest off my front rack and into the trunk bag, thereby making my front end a bit less wobbly. Ahh.
While in downtown Portland I found a whole block that had a wooden sidewalk (or is it a boardwalk?):
When I saw this street sign I remembered hearing that Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, had grown up in Portland and used some of the street names and locations for characters and places in the show:
Tonight we all went to a bistro that had great food and probably the best french fries in the world!
Here's a picture I took of Jason with Irie and Ruah:
Excellent move to pick up the S95. I have an S90 and really like it! Amazing quality (better than my DSLR, I swear), and the size is perfect. Just beware the pop-up flash (unless they changed it on the S95; I've almost dropped my S90 several times when the flash popped up).
ReplyDeleteI love your photos, by the way. Keep shooting!