Walking In Wuhan

We made our way to Portland late in the afternoon on Dec. 31. After getting stuck on the train outside of Portland for more than 90 minutes, we sucked it up -- thanks 411! -- and took a taxi into downtown Portland where we met up with Q. We made it in time to order a Jamison with ice and ring in the New year. So the last four New Years Eves have been spent in Portland, Chicago, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka -- luckily this year's festivities didn't end with us mocking rich foreigners as it did in 2006.

We watched Nebraska hold off Clemson and headed off to a bar that night called the Kennedy School, which is a school that closed in the 1970s and this group later converted to a series of bars. We got a drink in an old classroom, then wandered through the boiler room which had been converted to a huge room with a shuffleboard table. Farther down the hall was a bar in a small room that sold only hard alcohol. We headed to the auditorium and watched a second-run movie for $3. Easily one of the coolest bars I went to, and how I imagined Open House nights in school must have worked when I was younger.

[ Kennedy School ]

We saw some more of the city and had lunch with two of my former professors from UNL. Even though it rained, snowed and hailed in the three days we spent there, Q made sure we saw everything there was to see. And if you're ever in Portland, make sure and pick up a Vegan Doughnut at Voodoo Doughnut. It was freaking fantastic.





Coming back, our flight was delayed because there was ice on the runways in Oakland. My travel tip of the week: if you ever fly into Oakland, do so from the North because the views are fantastic.