Ranae & Portland

I got back from Portland last night after a quick trip down there. I left on Thursday morning on an 8 AM flight (which, of course was delayed by about a half an hour), got into Portland, picked up my rental car and made it into the office about 30 minutes late for the client meeting I went down there for. The good news is that I wasn't an imperative participant to this meeting, but I always feel a little sheepish when I walk into a client meeting late. Oh, well. These clients are nice people and didn't seem to really mind one bit.

This is the first time I've ever gotten my own rental car when traveling for work; I try to avoid it whenever possible and just take cabs (or town cars if I'm hosting clients on the road) because I am VERY directionally challenged. One pleasant surprise I had when I got into the burgundy Ford Taurus that was to be my rental car in Portland was that it had a GPS navigation system sitting in it, ironically called "Hertz NeverLost." Hmm. Right. We'll see about this "NeverLost" business. I was still very excited to use it, though, because I thought what would be better than having both the written directions and the navigation system to help me get where I want to go? I got from the airport to the office fine, got from the office to my hotel fine (the hotel was literally across the street -- if I messed that one up I was in more trouble than I thought), but I struggled getting from the hotel to downtown Portland for the client dinner on Thursday night.

First, I missed the freeway exit by the hotel -- which really should be hard to miss, but I managed to do it; I then found a way to get on the freeway, traffic was VERY thick, I exited into downtown Portland and then found out that the road both my print directions and GPS wanted me to take was closed for construction. At this rate, I'm already 5 minutes late for the dinner at the Portland City Grill, and I still really have no idea if I'm anywhere near it or not. So, I went over a bridge across the Willamette River -- which is the exact opposite direction of where I needed to be -- made a U-turn, called my colleague who I was meeting with the clients at the dinner to assure her I was still coming but just lost, and then the GPS lady (it was a woman's voice that kept directing me from the GPS unit) worked on recalculating the route, and -- with some guessing and luck -- I found the place, but again about 20 to 30 minutes late. Oh, well. The views of Portland from the restaurant were great, the food was really good, and I got creme brulee for dessert. I LOVE creme brulee. Yum.

After dinner I got lost trying to meet up with some friends for First Thursday in Portland's Pearl District (the GPS was basically worthless to me in this adventure). But, I found them at the Tiger Bar and we went across the street to one of their boyfriend's gallery showings. He's a cartoonist, artist and the comic strip writer of Too Much Coffee Man, and I felt very hip and trendy to be in this tiny, one-room comic gallery with his sketches on the wall, dyed-hair and tatooed hipsters wearing black and piercings milling about, and two cats who just roamed the place amongst all the people. Good news was that all of this was a walking experience, so no reason for me to get lost this time.

Then -- later when I was trying to get back to the hotel -- I got going the exact opposite direction on the freeway from where I needed to go. But, I just exited at the first exit, turned around, and got going the right way again. So, the bad news is that it took me much longer to get places than it should have while I was in Portland (and when I was trying to get back to the hotel I was really tired at that rate); the good news is that at least I know I am really bad with directions and expect to get lost, so I don't lose my patience once it does happen. I just need to learn to pad my travel times a bit better so I stop being LATE to everything. Or, just take a cab.