I have PVNS: I'm back in the Right Portland... (At least geographically!)

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Today was my final day in ‘the Other Portland…’ at least for this visit. I am a bit of a worrier when it comes to traveling, though I think I am getting better at it… and typically the day on which I am traveling I do nothing else…except get ready for the excursion… today, was very different than that… granted my flight did not leave PDX until after midnight, so I truly had all day here… there… (I am currently on the airplane as I am typing…wanted to record today while it was fresh in my mind… but will then take a nap, I hope, and luckily I have a whole row of seats to myself!) Michael had planned to take me to see ‘His Mountain’… Lady Hood… also known as Mt. Hood in some circles… and as soon as I woke up today I knew it was a hot one… I think the temps peaked at 97 while we were out today… but we got up, I fiddled with my luggage so I would be ready to go when the time came… we drove up to Mt. Hood and she was beautiful! Is beautiful! There is, obviously, still a lot of snow up there… and for a chick from Maine, it was fun to stand in snow, in bare feet, in JULY! We went to Timberline.. a lodge for skiing on Lady Hood and apparently the ‘front’ for the movie, The Shining… which I have never seen… and may now need to watch as a result of being there… People were skiing and snowboarding… in JULY! It was cool to see people taking advantage of their resource… they had the ski lifts running and besides taking afore mentioned skiers and snowboarders to the top of their trails, tourists are allowed to ride the chairlift as well, to see Lady Hood in an up close and personal manner… Mike asked if I wanted to go… after I had refused an option to do so at an earlier stop at which we could have come down the hill on a sliding system which sounded pretty fun… but I was nervous… I had never been on a chairlift and the ones at the Alpine place did not have bars that secured people into the seats… umm… me… Miss I am afraid of heights… is going to get her ass in a chairlift to ascend a MOUNTAIN without some kind of ‘seat belt?’ No thanks…. But at Timberline… the chairlift looked bigger, more rugged… AND it had a bar that came down in front of you while sitting in it… so I considered it… then thought I would not do something like that because I was scared… and nervous… and the thought of it did make my stomach turn… but there was part of me that really wanted to do it… I watched people going overhead on this contraption… and it is something I had never done… and I could tell that the views from the lift and from the destination at the top would be even more amazing…. I told Mike I wanted to do it… but I was scared and he said something like, “Let’s go to the place where they load people and just look.” Mmmhmmm… just look he said… we got there I looked, my donuts from the morning ride were moving around in my stomach A LOT… and I said I wanted to do it.. and before long I had a ticket in my hand… and we were receiving instructions on how to board said chair lift… Mike is a pro as he and his wife are skiers… but I am/was very much a novice… So. The lift operator was kind, my look of terror combined with my Holy shit holy shit holy shit mutterings MUST have been a clue that this chick was scared… he slowed the lift down for us to get in… and just as Mike had warned me there is a bit of a lurch that takes the lift up to the high cable… and we had yet to put the safety bar down… I remember something about wanting the bar and Mike gently told me I had to move over a bit so that the thing would come down properly… move? Holy shit.. I can hardly sit here without vomiting and now you want me to move? Well … without moving there was no bar… with moving… I got the bar.. so I moved… and got the bar… I was scared… Talk about white knuckle driving!!! I was white knuckling it ALL the way to the destination… I don’t remember if I got any pictures on the way up.. I think I tried… but we will see if I was successful… I was concentrating too hard on surviving this near death experience… We got to the top and had to quickly get off the chairlift.. which we did… and there were some picnic tables set up outside and it was very cool to be that close to Mt. Hood’s Summit… I know I got a couple pictures from that point… I enjoyed it… and was excited that I had taken the ride up… but it did not take long before I realized I had to go back down.. and going back down… well… that looked a hell of a lot higher than when we came up… but.. the other option was walking down the mountain, in snow, with flip flops… which wasn’t going to happen… After a few pictures and a bit of self talk… we headed back to the chairlift… and … I was less nervous about boarding the thing… but… man oh man did it feel Higher… Mike got the bar down quickly… and I do remember getting my camera out.. he offered to help with that.. but I was trying to be a big girl and do it myself… I think I got a couple of pictures, but again, I can’t really remember… it was CRAZY … CRAZY I tell you to be above trees… ABOVE trees!! Oh my god! We chatted on the lift, though I cannot recall much of it because I was worrying about my survival….. when we got close to the place where we would get off and our adventure would end… I relaxed a bit… and realized I had lived! I was happy about that… but will say that my knees were a bit wobbly for about 20 minutes or so afterwards! I am very glad I did that… and as Michael pointed out.. now that I Have done it I will have more courage to do it again in the future… true… very true… I stepped outside of my comfort zone a bit... and I am glad I did...
After that adventure we explored more of Mt. Hood’s surroundings and then drove back to Portland via the Gorge… it was beautiful… We chilled at the house for a while before Jane got home and we were going to sail… I think of all the things that we had wanted to do while I was there, sailing was the most important to Mike… and I am sad to say that the wind was not working with us… either there was no wind.. or.. in tonight’s case.. there was too much… so we had dinner at his marina and headed back to the house… He drove me to the airport and was able to sit with me for a while before my plane took off… it was nice… though I was sad because it was time to say good bye for this visit anyway… and I will miss him…

Us on the chair lift... (On the way down, when I realized I had cheated death!)