LAX to Portland, Oregon - LAX Flyaway is Cool!

Terminal 3, LAX

I should fly Alaska Airlines midweek more often. ;-) There's nobody around this morning. How cool it is to go to the airport in Los Angeles and spend no time in lines. Moreover, by taking the FlyAway bus service from Union Station, I didn't even have to spend my morning driving through traffic. These buses run every 30 minutes from Union Station to LAX for $4. They depart at nearly all hours of the day and night and, by using the carpool lane on the 110 freeway, get you to the airport quickly and pleasantly. Now I've just got to kill some time in the airport. Thanks to my new Acer Aspire One for making web connections and blog updating so easy. This little laptop is the first portable computer I've owned that really is small enough for a lap. It weighs only 2.2 lbs, works great, and costs less than $400. The future is now.


When I arrive in Portland it will be raining. It's already raining hard up there now as a winter cold front moves through the area. As much as an inch of total precipitation is expected. It looks like I'll get the proto-typical Northwest experience this weekend, which is just as well. When I was packing I realized that I don't own a raincoat of any sort. Only in Southern California could I get away with living 15 years without one. I brought my snowboaring parka, but it's not really waterproof. I may need to upgrade during the trip. It's a good excuse to do it and the Columbia Sportswear outlet store and flagship store are both in Portland.

It's really nice to not have any specific plans for once. On the other hand, in addition to drinking great microbrewed beer and local wines, and eating organic food, I do have a few places I hope to visit during this quick four day trip:

• Powell's City of Books, one of the world's largest bookstores


• Forest Park, west of downtown, for a hike through rainforest inside an urban area. There are beautiful maps of the park posted at The Art of Geography, a cartography and wilderness photography project


• Hit some of Portland's great happy hours. Check out UrbanDrinks.com, a great tool for finding a happy hour at any time in Portland or Seattle. This could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. Somebody better contact the authorities. :-)


• Columbia Sportswear Outlet


• Wander the neighborhoods in Portland


• Drive to the Columbia River Gorge and, hopefully, see Mt. Hood