I made a conscious decision to sit on the seat F today so that as we flew into Portland I would hopefully see Mount Hood. Success! It was a clear beautiful day and Mount Hood was spectacular. A great start to my trip.
It is amazing traveling and meeting people from all different places. Today when I landed in Portland airport I was to meet three people to travel with them to Newport. I realized when I was waiting for my baggage that I only had one person's phone number. I called him, Handy, and he told me to meet his wife by the United airlines baggage. Walking over there, the second person I asked turned out to be Cecelia, Handy's wife. I received a big hug. A few minutes later, Anna came back to join us from the car rental place. Second hug of the day. It made me smile that two strangers both hug me in greeting because we are meeting with the shared common goal to be part of the EARTH workshop. With the car rented, we begin to drive south of Portland and east towards the coast. An accident on the road towards Lincoln city persuaded us to take a reroute through the woods. It involved some gravel roads but a beautiful creek and a few miles later with only one turn around we ended up on South 101 headed to it was Cecelia's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean. Just spectacular. I have already seen birds that I would never see in New Mexico. I can't wait to spend more time exploring this place.