What we didn’t know at the time was that the Computer History Museum (aka. CHM) contains the largest and most significant collection of computing artifacts on the planet! So it may not surprise you to hear that they have an Apple-1, the first Google production servers, a Cray-1 supercomputer, and a lot of other great artifacts of the early computer age and beyond.

With over 90,000 objects, photographs, and films (and hundreds of gigabytes of software), in its field this museum has no equal. So, needless to say, we were in for a real treat, and in this article I’m going to reveal the 7 most memorable artifacts I stumbled across that day, including the “Godfather” of the iPhone and a 150 lb. computer that you just HAVE to get your loved one this holiday season.

But we’ll get to that.

1. The Charles Babbage Difference Engine (#2)

When you first walk into the CHM, the Babbage Difference Engine will probably be the first thing you see. This incredible machine (designed by Charles Babbage, the first computer pioneer) is a highly precise mechanical calculating engine, able to solve mathematical expressions completely without the use of electronic components. (There are a LOT of gears.) As if that weren’t enough, it automatically prints an inked hard copy as a record. And all of this was designed decades before anyone had created an electrical computer.

First designed in 1849, this incredible machine consists of over 8,000 parts. The fact that this 11 foot long behemoth even exists is incredible, and only two were ever built (hence #2 in the name). If you want to see it in action, the museum even offers scheduled demonstrations! And even though Babbage never built this machine and died unacknowledged in his time, his machine now stands as a memorial to his work.

2. The Legendary Apple-1

After passing the front desk, I turned the corner and saw shelves and shelves of early computers. And then, at the far end of the room, I saw this unassuming computer behind glass. Even though this unit bares no label, this is an Apple-1. First conceived in Steve Job’s garage in 1976 and designed by Steve Wozniak, the Apple-1 was the first computer ever sold by Apple Computer. (Jobs and Wozniak went into small-scale production when The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled boards.) I wondered if this Apple-1 that was now behind glass might have been one of those original 50. Probably not, but it was amazing to think that something that now looks so simple to us was part of a revolution.

3. The First Google Production Server

Nearby, I stumbled across an interesting tower of a computer. A sign below explained that this was Google’s first production server, one of many servers designed to process the many thousands of search requests per second from Google users. Of course! Only a server could have this many ethernet cables pouring out of it.

Apparently the first Google data center had about thirty of these monsters; and even though they were difficult to repair, they provided Google with its first large-scale computing system which allowed the company to grow quickly at minimal cost.

And today, Google utilizes over a million servers! (Though they’re much, much faster than this early example.)

4. The Cray-3 “Brick”

Speaking of fast computers and cabled monsters, this quirky little box was probably the best example of tons of power packed into a tiny package in the entire museum. Designed in 1993, the Cray-3 “Brick” contains multi-layered circuit boards submerged in fluorinert. This little guy is so fast that a computation that took Cray-3 only 1 second would have taken ENIAC (which was completed in 1947) sixty-seven years to perform! Behold the power of 15 gigaflops. (And that’s fast, especially considering a gigaflop is a billion floating-point math operations per second.)

5. The Omnibot 2000 “toy” robot

In my exploration of the museum, I also came across some computers that tried to be more human-like in appearance and in behavior. Although they usually didn’t do either of these things very well, their attempts were often amusing and charming. The Omnibot 2000 is a perfect example of this.

Hailing from 1985, this little guy spoke, moved, and carried objects. You could give it commands by remote control or feed it programs on magnetic tape. There were even plans to sell optional accessories like light & sound sensors and even vacuum cleaner attachments! But in this case, I think the Tomy Kyogo company got ahead of itself there, considering that it never made any of these accessories.

Still, it’s a pretty cute robot, isn’t it? Wonderfully retro and droid-esque.

6. The Apple Newton

Some of you may not have even heard of this relic of Apple history gone by, but in the early 1990s useful handheld computers were just starting to appear in the marketplace. And by 1993, Apple introduced the Newton, the godfather of the iPhone in a way.

Along with other early attempts at handhelds, the Newton sold poorly. In fact, handhelds only achieved some success when they focused on doing a narrower range of tasks better than their PC counterparts.

I find it somewhat ironic now that the situation has reversed. Handhelds (like the iPhone) have now gotten so powerful that, far from being an accessory, some people now use one as their primary computer.

7. The Utter Joke that was The “Kitchen” Computer

Out of everything in the museum, this one is probably the funniest and least realistic vision for the future computing. Witness the Kitchen Computer featured in the 1969 Neiman Marcus catalog as a computer that allowed housewives to store and retrieve recipes. Above is a picture of that feature. Did I mention that the interface only included binary lights and switches? Or that it cost over $10,000?

Just imagine: it’s Christmas morning, and your wife spends five minutes unwrapping this shiny behemoth of a computer.

“It’s red!” she exclaims. “My favorite color!”
And you reply: “Even though its 150 pounds and no one outside of a computer science department could ever hope to figure out how to store recipes on it, that’s okay, honey! It’s a symbol of our love!”

Clockspeed? 0.6 megahertz.
Thankfully, there’s no evidence that any Kitchen Computers were ever sold.

Verdict

Simply put, the CHM is my favorite museum in Silicon Valley. Actually, it’s my favorite museum in all of California because no other place comes close to having so much of computer history literally at your fingertips. In addition to being family-friendly, it’s probably the best place in the world to learn how the human race went from the abacus all the way to supercomputers, and seeing that history firsthand is a blast! Oh, and when you go, ask about the free tours that are given periodically. I happened to stumble into a tour during my visit, and I really enjoyed it. (These people really know their stuff and are happy to answer questions.)

Obviously there was a lot I wasn’t able to include in this article, including the haunting red & black Cray-2 supercomputer, the famous PDP-8, the Behemoth Recumbent Bicycle, and much more. To check those (and all the photos) out in high resolution, be sure to swing by the photo gallery that accompanies this article. And when you see the photos, keep in mind that the museum has been renovated since I visited it in 2009, so it’s even more stylish and futuristic now than it was when I visited.

— Bonus —

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 32 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 32?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And remember to:
Explore the Computer History Museum photo gallery —>

Next: A Breathtaking View of San Francisco

This article concludes our exploration of Silicon Valley, at least for the foreseeable future. Next, I moved onto San Francisco itself, and in the next article we’ll explore Coit Tower, the breathtaking view of San Francisco from the top, and the best souvenir a traveller could as for.

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Computer History Museum gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under Creative Commons. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Intel Museum Review: 5 Exhibits that Changed How I Thought of Microprocessors
2. Chicago Field Museum Review: Top 3 Exhibits
3. Denver Art Museum Review: Top 5 Sights (Psychedelic Exhibits to Flying Foxes)
4. Apple Campus Store Review: Visiting Infinite Loop
5. Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Review

Basically, it was incredible. The minute we parked, Steve Jobs walked out of the building, shook my hand, and offered me little gingerbread cookies that were in the shape of apples. Then we rode a hovercar around the campus as Steve gave us a personal tour! And afterwards, all three of us got MacBook Airs as parting gifts.

Yep, that all happened… in my dreams.

While we didn’t actually meet anyone famous, it was still fun to see the campus that is the source of so much innovation (and now the most valuable company in the US).

As with Google, you aren’t going to get a tour unless you personally know someone who works there. However, even if you’re like me and don’t know anyone there, you can still check out the Apple Corporate Store which is right on campus.

Stuff You can’t get Anywhere Else…

What’s great about the Corporate Store is that it offers a lot of stuff that no Apple Store has. And let’s be clear. This NOT and Apple Store. It’s the Corporate Store. There are important differences. Namely, it has A LOT of Apple-branded stuff, including shirts, pens, water bottles, and strange things you’d never even guess. I think I even remember seeing branded crayons and a puzzle.

Seriously, crayons.

And since Apple doesn’t sell any clothing in its normal Apple Stores, it was funny to see Apple branded shirts alongside MacBooks in the Corporate store.

Surprisingly, while the store was a bit smaller than the Apple Stores, they still found the space for a row of strange boxes arranged in shelves like books. What could these be? Ah yes! These were holdovers from the time when people used to etch software onto plastic discs and safely seal them in cardboard boxes so that people could buy them, take them home, and put the plastic disk inside the computer.

I know what you’re thinking. “How barbarian!” And you would be right, but this is how it was done in 2009. Those of us nowadays know better though, don’t we? After all, why would we even waste time with discs when everything is available digitally? Plus, it’s a heck of a lot more environmentally friendly to go completely electronic.

By now, the Austrians were starting to get restless. They appreciated the historical value of where we were, but I don’t think they were Apple geeks like I am. And eventually I decided on getting a small blue pen with an Apple logo on it to commemorate my visit. Who knows, perhaps next time I would be visiting a very different Apple Campus than the one I saw on that day.

After buying the pen, there was one more photo that I had to take: the Infinite Loop sign itself. The street is perfectly named since it encircles Apple Campus, and it’s already gained notoriety (including becoming a nickname for the Apple Campus itself), so I was pleased that I had the chance to photograph it for myself.

Conclusion & Looking Forward

To put it in a nutshell, you’re probably only going to enjoy visiting Apple’s Campus if you’re actually interested in the company or the history behind it. This is definitely not an “attraction” like Intel’s museum; and, like Google, this is a living, breathing public company that does not give tours, nor should you expect it to. However, if you have some time in your Silicon Valley exploration (you’re a fan of the company’s products or history, as I am) I recommend stopping by. It’s the best place to get Apple branded everything, and as with all Apple Stores you’re free to use the Macs to browse the web.

And it’s only poised to get better. By 2015 the disc-shaped Apple Campus 2 should be complete and will no doubt be a billion times more photogenic and marvelous to visit. Seriously, have you seen the concept art for the building? It’s going to be a California landmark.

I just hope they let members of the public visit the park in the center of the disc-shaped structure, because I have a feeling it will be a breathtaking sight.

— Bonus —

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 10 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 10?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And remember to:
Explore the Apple Campus photo gallery —>

Next: We meet the most Incredible (& absurd) Machines Ever.

We conclude our explorations of Silicon Valley with an visit to the world-renowned Computer History Museum. With over 90,000 objects, photographs, and films in its field, this museum has no equal. In our explorations, we discovered a behemoth of a machine (which was the most amazing mechanical device I’ve ever seen), the iPhone’s “Grandfather”, and the most absurd $10,000 Christmas gift you could ever imagine:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Apple Campus gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Intel Museum Review: 5 Exhibits that Changed How I Thought of Microprocessors
2. Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age
3. 7 Surprises from my Googleplex visit: A Self-Guided Tour of Google HQ
4. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Review: The Famous McWay Falls of Big Sur
5. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights

Today I’m excited to share with you my visit to a wonderful free museum in Silicon Valley where I had a chance to meet true artifacts from technology history face to face.

As I said before, I had joined forces with two fellow travellers from Austria to explore the best of Silicon Valley. And, as you can probably imagine, that day we visited many incredible and historical locations, including the Googleplex, Intel’s headquarters, Apple’s campus, and the famous Computer History Museum.

So today I’m going to continue the tale of that incredible day by telling you about our stop at Intel, which turned out to be a bit more welcoming than Google was, for reasons which I’ll get into.

Intel’s Welcoming Vibe

To be frank, I found Intel’s headquarters to be much more inviting than Google’s. Even Intel’s lobby seemed significantly more relaxed and inviting.

Although Intel Museum adjacent to the lobby had a lot to do with that.

A number of things jumped out at me while I explored the Intel Museum, and today I’m going to focus on the top 5 most awesome exhibits, because they changed how I thought about microprocessors forever.

1. The History of how Everyday Objects use Microprocessors

Did you know that, as early as the mid-1970s, Intel’s computers were giving intelligence to traffic lights?

This exhibit is one of the first you’ll see when you enter, and it highlights some practical uses of microprocessor technology that I’d never considered. Some of the displays even seemed to be written in a nostalgic style, possibly because they were written by those who actually worked in the industry during the 1970s when the microchip revolution was occurring.

It’s truly amazing when you stop and think of the unprecedented change that has occurred in the computer industry over the last 40 years, and my amazement only increases when I also consider how that change has rippled out to affect every other industry on the planet. Even the existence of this website is a reflection of that revolution.

Still, it is fun to reminisce about the good old days.

“I think we paid for the R&D in the first five months of shipments. Those were the good old days!”

~ Ed Gelbach, Intel’s first director of marketing
(speaking about the 8080 processor)

2. Illustrations of the Complexity of the early Microprocessors

Have you ever seen the inside of a microprocessor before?

Before visiting the Intel Museum, I hadn’t. And when I saw this huge poster, I just about stopped in my tracks. The photo above shows hundreds of tiny switches (or transistors) inside of a microprocessor. In fact, it’s the “switching” of these tiny chips that allow the microprocessor to work. (I put “switching” in quotes because these switches don’t actually move. They’re electrical and only allow electricity to flow in certain ways.)

The photo above shows only a segment of the entire processor, and if you think that’s cool, consider this: that’s a photo of an early processor. Today’s chips have millions and millions of transistors!

Sometimes I wonder how human beings could ever design these things. Although since computers are used in such a high degree to design modern microprocessor chips, you could almost say that computers have just as much to do with the design of these modern chips as humans do. Truly, computers do design themselves, but they still need some help from us… for now.

3. What a Pentium 4 wafer looks like close up

If you’re not familiar with them, microchip wafers are pretty cool. They’re important because they’re used in a key step in the production of processors. (Not to mention they taste delicious.)

See those colorful squares in the wafer above? Those are dozens of Pentium 4 chips. Think of it as making a batch of cookies. Would you only put one cookie in the oven? Of course not! That would be a complete waste of time if you wanted more than one cookie.

And, believe me, Intel makes a LOT of cookies…
I mean chips…
I mean microprocessors…

Sheesh, what’s the deal with these technology/food crossover words? Wafers, chips… You’d think that computer engineers aren’t fed enough or something. Or is it that they’re fed too much?

Anyway, the batch of cookies analogy applies here because when Intel makes a batch of processors, they etch dozens and dozens of them onto large wafers like this. And since Intel makes millions of processors per year, they find that manufacturing the chips on a grid to be very efficient. That way, the same processes to make a chip can be applied to all the chips on a wafer at once, saving immeasurable amounts of time.

See? It’s just like cookies.

4. The Incredible Multi-Level design of the “Fabs”

All this talk of wafers and cookies is making me hungry. Let’s talk about “fabs”. (And no, I’m not talking about Favored Alcoholic Beverages.)

Far from a source of inebriation, a “fab” is technical slang for a semiconductor fabrication plant. Basically, it’s a magical place were microprocessors are made, including the one that you’re using to browse the web right now.

And while exploring the museum, I came across this detailed model of a fab plant (pictured right) which explains the purpose of each of the four levels of a fabrication plant in detail. Isn’t it incredible how much goes into creating our modern microprocessors?

This fab model was pretty intriguing. For instance, did you know that processors can only be produced at certain temperatures and humidity levels? That’s why, directly above the clean room where processors are produced, there’s a level called the fan deck which carefully maintains temperature, humidity, and air purity. And below the clean room is a “subfab” level where most of the power transformers, pumps, and other support systems are.

As you can see, these multi-level fabrication plants are delicately balanced ecosystems, carefully designed so that microprocessors can be born and live out a long healthy life. Who knows, the next chip Intel makes could end up inside a pacemaker that keeps you alive someday.

5. Excellent Interactive Video exhibits, and much more.

Overall, the amount of thought and care that went into the Intel Museum surprised me. I was impressed at how much effort had been put into retelling the history of the microprocessor, including interactive video exhibits.

One exhibit that sticks out in my mind was an interactive display showing excerpts of Robert Noyce’s journal, one of Intel’s founders. And when I read about the early days at Intel, I was struck at the uncertainty founders of Intel had to endure in those early days. They knew they were on the right path, but it still took time for them to “calibrate” before they began to resemble the Intel we know now. For instance, did you know that Intel’s original name was NM Electronics during their first year?

The founders soon revised the name and decided to call it Integrated Electronics, eventually shortening it to the “Intel” that we know today.

Verdict

Even though I can’t say the Intel Museum is my favorite museum in the valley (that title goes to the Computer History Museum), it’s definitely a fun place to explore. And while the Intel Museum is admittedly rather Intel-centric, it is nonetheless a fun place to visit to experience the history of the microprocessor and the fascinating way that they’re produced.

It can be adequately explored in about an hour and is provided free of charge. In fact, by adding a museum to their headquarters, Intel is helping educate the public, improve public perception (and goodwill) towards Intel, and help put a friendlier face on the company.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my visit to the Intel Museum. I really enjoyed taking the time to explore it. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in all 18 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 18?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Explore the Intel Museum photo gallery —>

Next: Visiting the Birthplace of the iPhone & more

In the next article, we continue our explorations of Silicon Valley with a brief visit to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, the birthplace of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. You could almost feel the brainpower in the air. And while there, we visited the only store in the world owned by Apple that doesn’t sell computers: the Apple Corporate store, which sold more strange stuff than we ever guessed:

See what happened next —>

— Bonus Resource —
Or, for more explorations of great little museums like this one, you can also check out: 15 of the Best Small, Quirky, and Unusual Museums in the US from our friends over at BootsnAll.

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age
2. Chicago Field Museum Review: Top 3 Exhibits
3. Denver Art Museum Review: Top 5 Sights (Psychedelic Exhibits to Flying Foxes)
4. Apple Campus Store Review: Visiting Infinite Loop
5. Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Review

If you guessed Google, then you get a virtual Kewpie doll*, complete with really tiny wings!

And if you haven’t realized it yet, today we’re going to explore Google’s corporate headquarters, known simply as: The Googleplex.

As you may remember, during my entire journey to the US West Coast and back, I didn’t take a car (nor at any point rent a car) to use. Instead, I relied on carpooling, craigslist rideshare, and public transportation, sometimes with amazing results. So how did I end up getting to the Googleplex in this case? Well, an obvious answer is that I could have taken a bus, but the universe had a better opportunity in mind.

How Me and 2 Austrians got to Google

The Flow of Travel swept everyone up that week and proceeded to arrange things into win-win-win situations. My Couchsurfing host was fantastic, and as it turned out she was also hosting a young couple from Austria, as well. They too wanted to explore Silicon Valley. And we soon realized that I knew more about what was good to see in the area than they did, and they had rented a car. They were the wheels, and I ended up being the navigator, wielding my iPod touch which contained the directions to our destinations.

That day we explored many incredible and world-changing places, including Intel’s headquarters (complete with an Intel museum); the Computer History Museum; Apple’s Campus; and, of course, the Googleplex.

When we arrived on that gorgeous Thursday afternoon, we weren’t sure what to expect, and we certainly had no idea that we were going to have a small run-in with Google security… But I’m getting ahead of myself. This story starts simply.

It starts with a bike.

1. Google Bikes are Everywhere

Besides the Google sign itself, this was the first “Googley” subject we saw. And we soon realized that there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of these bikes all over the Googleplex. We later found out that anyone in the company can ride these bikes from place to place; and since all of them are shared by the company, you never have to lock them up or worry about losing your bike. And I imagine with so many of them, a bike tends to show up right when you need one.

2. Behold, Googley Architecture!

As I’m sure you can imagine, the Googleplex is big. Really big. Over a dozen acres kind of big. The building pictured above is one of the five core Googleplex buildings, and it’s one of the more interesting bits of architecture you can see here. Just think, at the time I took this picture, they could have been writing the first few lines of code for Google Plus…

Oh, and then I found a T-Rex.

3. Meet Google’s Pet & His Flamingo Friends

As a company, Google has an interesting culture. They have a unique spirit, and many people outside the company forget that Google is still relatively young.

Their motto “Don’t be evil.” has been criticized and questioned over the years, but one thing I will never question is their decision to buy a cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and place it in their courtyard. Paleontologists need not fear, though. This is a cast (or copy) of an original skeleton, so if it gets damaged no historical records are lost. And below it there were even plastic pink flamingos stuck in the ground, presumably as food for the beast.

Later, I learned that its name is Stan. Isn’t that nice? I found myself wondering what they’d made it out of. If this skeleton is forged of metal, it would stand up quite well to the elements. Can anyone confirm the material of Google’s T-Rex? (If you have any idea, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!)

4. Google has a garden? What’s next?

Did you know that Google grows food?

One of the surprising things I noticed at Google campus was the Google Garden. It’s a part of their participation in a program called “The Growing Connection” which is a global network of young food producers. Not far from the Google cafe, various plants were being grown using Earthbox, which is basically a special type of planting box that waters the plants from below instead of above. According to a nearby plaque, the Google Culinary Team incorporates (or plans to incorporate) food grown at Google into the Google Cafe menu. Very cool.

5. The Legendary Google Cafe

From the Google Garden, I could see the Google Cafe, a magical place where the food is actually provided to the employees free of charge. It’s even color coded for healthiness: green meaning the most healthy, yellow meaning not so healthy, and red meaning “use in moderation or your kidneys will surely fail”… or something like that. I’m guessing donuts are red, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to see inside the cafe since I didn’t know any Google employees.

6. See Live Searches Coming In

Around this time, I also entered Google’s main lobby. As you might expect, it had an air of charged energy, and I stayed in there just long enough to look up onto the wall to see a projection of the Google searches that were coming in at that very moment. The legend of this wall was what attracted me to the Googleplex in the first place. I had looked forward to this moment for weeks. I would finally get to see some of the inbound searches being typed into Google from all over the world. Quickly, I looked up, reading small words projected onto a white wall. I thought about how these searches had been typed just fractions of a second ago… from all over the world.

Perhaps a half dozen searches were displayed at once onto the wall. Most of them were misspelled, and I remember one of them referencing “hot dogs”.

Hmm.

Alrightythen! So people weren’t searching for the answer to life, the universe, and everything… but that was okay. I had done it. I had seen the live search wall, and that in and of itself was gratifying. (Gosh, I’m a huge geek, aren’t I?)

And of course, not all of the searches could be projected at once. Google processes over one billion search requests every day, so if they were to project all the global incoming searches each second, it would probably fill the side of an entire building. So with that in mind, I’d guess that this was less than 1% of incoming searches.

7. Enter Google’s Sculpture Garden

Another surprise on the Googleplex (and the last key sight you shouldn’t miss at the Googleplex) were a number of stone busts of important figures. One such figure was Sylvia A. Earle (pictured above). If you’re not familiar with her, she’s a well-known oceanographer who has led over 60 expeditions worldwide. Her list of accomplishments is pretty impressive. From 1990 to 1992, she was chief scientist at NOAA; and she was named Time magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet” in 1998. And, perhaps not surprisingly, she was instrumental in adding the ability to display oceans in version 5 of Google Earth.

A Run-in with Security

Before we left, we even got to meet a Google security guy. He was checking on us to see if we were having trouble finding our car, but we knew our car was just ahead. As you can see from the picture, he was riding a pretty snazzy 3-wheeled scooter. I asked him if I could take a picture of him, and he agreed. Thanks, Google guy!

The Verdict

The Googleplex is a cool place to visit, but remember that Google is a publicly traded corporation. So don’t expect free food or a tour unless you have a friend who works there. (I didn’t, but it’s easy enough to walk around and explore for yourself as long as you don’t go into any of the buildings besides the lobby.) However, even without a Google friend there are plenty of things to see and plenty of photo opportunities. The live search in the lobby and the T-Rex stand out the most for me; and I feel lucky to have visited the headquarters of the world’s most visited website on the planet (not to mention my favorite search engine). Definitely recommended if you’re a geek like me.

But, as I said above, that wasn’t all we saw that day. The Intel HQ and the Intel Museum is next in this series, so stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my visit to the Googleplex. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in all 9 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 9?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Explore the Googleplex photo gallery —>

Next: How a museum changed how I thought of Tech History

In the next article, we make a brief visit to Intel, only to discover that they have a free museum right on campus. Inside, we learned firsthand the amazing processes used to create modern chips, saw original artifacts from technology history face to face, and learned about amazing kinds of “wafers” and “chips” that are a bit more crunchy than what your teeth could handle:

See what happened next —>

*The Kewpie doll in question is completely imaginary intended to be enjoyed solely in your mind. Offer void where prohibited. Not valid in the State of Utah. No motorcycles after 3PM.

— — —
All photos from this event are in the The Googleplex (Google’s Headquarters) gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Intel Museum Review: 5 Exhibits that Changed How I Thought of Microprocessors
2. A Visit to crooked Lombard Street & The Pedestrians Who Wanted to Die
3. Top 5 Portland Sights from a Remarkable Walking Tour & An Amazing View
4. Apple Campus Store Review: Visiting Infinite Loop
5. Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age

Today we get a first look at San Francisco, where I discovered a store only for Left-handers, stumbled across an awesome free magic show, felt like I had parade thrown in my honor, and more.

Now, to be completely honest, I’d been here before as a kid, but I’d never had the opportunity to explore it independently. Being there as an adult obviously changed everything. And as it turned out, I’d picked just about the perfect day to begin my San Francisco explorations, and not just because it felt like a parade was thrown in my honor… but we’ll get to that.

Can you eat and juggle at once?

My explorations began at Pier 39, a famous pier that had basically turned into its own street over the years. From candy shops to fresh fruit, there were certainly plenty of things to eat here. And if you wanted to empty your stomach rather than fill it, there was a full-sized carousel nearby, as well.

Towards the end of the pier I spotted a little shop whose uniqueness really caught my eye. They call it “Lefty’s”.

Even though it’s a pretty small place, I really enjoyed checking it out, and not just because I’m left-handed. They had fridge magnets with witty leftish sayings, and left-handed… everything. You name it, and they probably had a left-handed version of it, including notebooks and pencils. (The pencil bit is true. “Left-handed pencils” were for sale. Only in San Francisco could something like this be sold.)

And then there was the magic show.

When I left the store, I noticed a man on a nearby stage performing magic and doing various other feats, as well. And not the kind of feats that make you roll your eyes, either. He was doing some rather fancy stuff, like eating and juggling simultaneously. But the bit that really stuck in my mind was an audience participation activity that I’d never seen before: he created an 8-legged human chair.

How to do the 8-Legged Human Chair Trick

To make a human chair, you start with 4 normal chairs arranged in a circle, pointing four different directions. You then get four victims to sit in the chairs, and you then pull out the first chair. After you pull out the chair, you tell that person to lie down on the person’s lap behind them. You do this with all four chairs and… well, you’ll see soon enough.

I watched the magician pull the chairs out, one by one. And when it seemed as though the four guys were on the brink of utter collapse, he finally pulled the last chair out from under them.

But no one fell. In fact, no one scarcely moved at all.
The 8-legged human chair was supporting its own weight!

The tricky part came when they wanted to get up. All of them were too afraid to get up because each knew they would start a chain reaction that would cause all of them to collapse. So, carefully, the magician told them all to grab his arm for support. They still all collapsed; but, thankfully, it was a graceful collapse onto the stage and painless compared to what it might have been without his help.

Seeing Alcatraz Island

Now that the magic show was over, I wandered over to the north end of the pier and looked across the bay. It seems that my timing was perfect because a magnificent white sailboat was passing near the pier at that moment.

Only today did I realize, while post-processing these photos, that I’d actually taken a picture clear enough to make out the name of this sailboat. In the closest photo (which is in the accompanying gallery), you can clearly make out the name “Naniloa” (which means “most beautiful” in Hawaiian) inscribed on the side.

It was quite beautiful.

And behind this beautiful sailboat was something that was quite the opposite: Alcatraz Island, still looming like a mysterious shadow over San Francisco bay even after all of these years.

A Parade in my Honor?

Having explored Pier 39, I wandered over to Chinatown before I had to start heading back. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explore Chinatown as long as I would have liked due to time constraints, but it did feel as though I’d stepped into a different country. The vibe of the air itself seemed to have changed. And, to my great surprise, just minutes after I’d arrived, a parade began.

Dozens of Chinese drummers marched through Chinatown and a huge float with giant pink lotuses came down the street. See for yourself!

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of the yellow shirts they were wearing had the words “Falun Dafa” on them (which, in and of itself, is an interesting story), but just for fun I decided to pretend that this parade had been thrown in my honor. After all, they had started it just moments after I’d arrived, right?

And the celebration didn’t end there.

More Confetti than You Can HANDLE

On my way back to the BART station (which is a good local train system), I noticed another celebration going on as I passed San Francisco’s Union Square. Celebratory music was playing, ribbons were in the air, and people were even breakdancing. It seemed like quite a party, and the confetti-level was pretty intense.

From researching later, I discovered that I’d actually passed by the 17th annual Korean Day Festival; and I gotta say, those Koreans sure know how to mash play on a sweet jambox.

Recap

So that was my first taste of San Francisco in years, and it was just a tiny fraction of what was to come. I would return the following weeks and explore the incredible yet little-known Sutro Baths, Lombard Street, Coit Tower, and innumerable other spectacular sights which I’m very much looking forward to sharing with you in the coming months.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my first day exploring San Francisco. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in each of the 27 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 27?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Checkout the Wandering San Francisco photo gallery —>

Next: 7 Surprises from my Googleplex visit: A Tour of Google HQ

Our next stop takes us deep into Silicon Valley to explore the headquarters of the most visited website on Earth: Google. When we arrived on that gorgeous Thursday afternoon, we weren’t sure what to expect, and we certainly had no idea that we were going to see a T-Rex, or have a small run-in with Google security…

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Wandering San Francisco & Chinatown gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. A San Francisco Secret: The Coit Tower View (Review & Photo Essay)
2. A Visit to crooked Lombard Street & The Pedestrians Who Wanted to Die
3. What’s Hidden Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge (Historical Fort Point Review)
4. Is Navy Pier a glorified shopping mall?
5. Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age

It was better.

We had just left Pfeiffer Burns Park, home to my absolute favorite waterfall in the US, the breathtaking McWay Falls; and on our way back north, my aunt and I spotted another captivating park within Big Sur: The Andrew Molera State Park (or AMSP).

As it turned out, this second stop in Big Sur would give me the opportunity to touch the waters of the Pacific for the first time in over four years. And in this article I’m going to recount the time when I charged a huge gaggle of seagulls (and lived), as well as show you the top five most memorable aspects of my visit. Not surprisingly, the first has to be…

1. Big Sur’s stunning coastline

From the road, the AMSP doesn’t look like much, but appearances are deceiving. To get to the good stuff, we followed a trail that led toward the beach. As it turned out, the trek to the beach was at least twice as long as we had thought. Thankfully though, the trail itself was alive with activity. Along the way we saw a deer (which actually had the courtesy to pose for a photo) and crossed a bridge over a fast-flowing river that I later found out was the Big Sur river itself.

After walking for nearly a half hour, the trail opened up onto the beach, and we finally saw the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. Blue waves lapped the pebble-covered shore; and instead of being the warm embrace I mentioned above, the sea air was brisk and cool that day, and the smell of the Pacific sharpened my senses.

Something seemed out of place though. What was it?
Oh yes, how could I possibly forget the…

2. Mysterious, Crude Huts on the Beach

Not pictured in the photo above were the strange, crude wooden huts that we found along the beach. Made primarily of driftwood, they were large enough for one or perhaps two people to squeeze inside, but they certainly weren’t going to keep any rain out. I got inside one, sat down, and looked out onto the crashing waves. In the distance, I heard seagulls.

I wondered what it would be like to actually live here on the beach, to let the sound of the waves become my lullaby and the sound of the seagulls become my alarm clock. I wondered what it would be like for even just a few days. Or, if I were marooned here far into the past, how my perspective of this place would change after being here for more than a week.

Of course, I’m sure they’d never allow it today. The beach isn’t one of the 24 designated camping spots in the park. Still, I wondered who made these huts and for what purpose.

After examining the huts, I began walking along the beach, studying it. In my observations, I was shocked by the…

3. Stunning Patterns in the Sand

Now, I’d walked beaches before. (I was born in California, after all.) But I’d never seen anything like this.

Beneath my feet, the water had created an exquisite pattern of curving lines etched in the sand. Like ancient tree roots reaching deep into the Earth, these curving lines which changed in width and depth were reminiscent of an ancient pattern in geometry of which I had no name for. Perhaps I’d never seen this before because this phenomenon only happens when the beach is littered with small pebbles… Whatever the reason, the effect was very elegant and caught me by surprise.

Something about the river behind me caught me by surprise, too. When I looked behind me, I was greeted with a beautiful sight.

Towering high above the river was mountain peak in the distance that, after doing some research, I can only guess is Post Summit (though I can’t confirm that). That wasn’t the surprising bit though. The surprising bit was the…

4. Crystal clear water of the Big Sur River

When I approached the edge of the river, I instantly knew that this river was special. Even as the river dropped off, I could see to the bottom of it easily. The submersion of the two large stones before me almost seemed to be a lie. They seemed way too defined to be underwater… but they were. In fact, if it weren’t for the reflectivity of the water, I could probably have seen the entire riverbed from where I was standing!

I decided to follow the river north, and it soon curved west again and emptied into the ocean as I’d seen before. And where it was emptying into the ocean, I could actually see where the river had eaten into the side of the beach. I can only surmise that, over time as the beach continues to grow, it gets overtaken by the river periodically, only to eventually reform again.

How many times do you think this cycle has occurred? After all, this river had been here, in some form, for thousands of years at the least.

But of course, the most entertaining element in Big Sur region is the…

5. Fascinating Wildlife (Alive or not.)

Near the river, I began to notice some oddly mesmerizing signs of life, the most interesting of which was the dried-up remains of a large pelican. It was spread out, wings slightly open, and its head was resting on its side. The pelican corpse seemed to fit in with the pebble-covered sand perfectly; and, in the strangest way, I found this dead thing aesthetically pleasing to photograph.

Perhaps if anything stays in one place long enough, it starts to look as though it belongs there. I knew I wouldn’t be there for much longer, though. Soon, it would be time to leave, but before I left, I knew I had to make some time to interact with much livelier subjects.

It was then that I began my approach.

I carefully approached a group of perhaps two dozen seagulls standing near the waves. I came closer and closer, seeing how close I could get before they flew off, but they didn’t seem to mind my presence much.

So, in a crazy moment of wild abandon, I charged at the entire flock.

Suddenly, the entire group took off into the air, flew over the ocean, and circled around, most of them landing on an outcropping of rock that was farther out. (The trick to charging a flock of seagulls is to pay close attention to where they flee and have somewhere to take cover. After all, you don’t want poo in your hair… or worse.)

After a few minutes, a few of the seagulls did return to where they’d been standing. Those few were the brave ones; and henceforth they were known as the Bravegulls.

See AMSP & Pfeiffer Burns in 1 Day

I recommend seeing the Andrew Molera State Park (AMSP) if you have time after seeing the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (which is more photogenic and easier to access). In addition to being considered the most reliable surfing area within Big Sur, overall it’s a wonderful place to relax, observe the local wildlife, and simply enjoy the Pacific. And since the AMSP is only a 20 minute drive north from the Pfeiffer Burns Park, it’s easy to visit both on the same day.

I hope you enjoyed this overview of the AMSP. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in each of the 21 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article.

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Checkout the Andrew Molera State Park photo gallery —>

Next: Last Glimpse of Big Sur (Sunset Timelapse video)

When was the last time you saw a sunset? I mean really saw it. Have you ever seen the last morsel of the sun slowly dip below a watery horizon? See just that in the next article which features a video of an authentic Big Sur sunset…

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Andrew Molera State Park gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Review: The Famous McWay Falls of Big Sur
2. Red Rocks Park (& Amphitheater!) Review: Top 3 Stunning Sights
3. Tenney Park and Lock Review: The Scenic Secret of Madison’s Isthmus
4. 7 Rare Glimpses of Ashland’s Lithia Park (The Jewel of Southern Oregon)
5. International Rose Test Garden Review: Top 10 (& the Best Free Activity in Portland)

Today, you will.

By the time I visited the Big Sur region, I’d already been in California for a few weeks, catching up with relatives in the area. And as it turned out, things worked out better than I could have planned. In all her years of living in California, my aunt had never seen the Big Sur region either, so we decided to make a day trip out of it.

We made our way south, down California’s curvy and breathtaking State Route 1 (also called Highway 1), which runs along the California coast for hundreds of miles; and it came up so fast that we nearly passed up the first park I wanted to see: the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, famous for having one of the only two tidefalls in all of Big Sur. (FYI: A tidefall is a waterfall that falls into the ocean.) And even before we crossed over the small bridge near the entrance of the park, we were given a taste of the visual feast to come.

A Taste of What’s To Come

Later on, we realized we could have parked just beyond the bridge, as we saw some other people do, and avoided parking in the (rather expensive) parking area nearby. After all, it’s legal to park on the side of the road, so when you visit, you may want to check to see if any parking is available just beyond the bridge near the entrance of the park.

To reach the lookout point, you walk through a tunnel that leads under the bridge you just drove over before you parked your car. At the end of the tunnel you can go south or north, left or right. I opted to head north first, down the Waterfall Trail to see McWay Falls in all its glory. The trail itself was etched into the side of the hill; and far below me, the blue sea churned and crashed into rocks lying in the middle of the bay below the falls. I wished I could go down to the beach, but because of the sheer cliffs, there was no way to get to get down without climbing gear.

The Stoic Avis

When I reached a vantage point, I noticed a small blue bird sitting perfectly still, perfectly calm on the wooden fence that was the only barrier between me and the seething currents below. The bird didn’t seem concerned about the seething currents below, or anything for that matter. Instead, it preened itself for a moment, and then looked out to the falls. This bird must have been very used to dealing with humans by now. I approached slowly, and when I was only about one meter away, it still stood there, utterly failing to raise the slightest suspicion towards me. So without even using my camera’s zoom lens, I was able to get this gorgeous close shot of him. And as I continued on, the bird still remained there.

The Majesty of McWay

When I reached a more favorable vantage point and looked out at McWay Falls, I became speechless.

I’d seen many photos of McWay Falls before. Heck, I’d even used a photo of the falls as my desktop wallpaper for weeks at a time. But obviously, even the best photo pales in comparison to actually seeing it, which is exactly why you should consider making time to visit Pfeiffer Burns State Park the next time you go to the Golden State.

As you can see from the above photo that I took, this tidefall is absolutely beautiful. The water crashes onto the beach just a few meters from the Pacific Ocean, and the entire scene seems so picturesque almost to the point of being deliberately designed. But the photo above is just a miniscule slice of the whole picture. Sure, the falls themselves are beautiful, but behold how much more extraordinary the scene is when you take it all in at once. I didn’t know it at the time, but that day was my 110th day on the road, and I was about to see what was perhaps the most incredible natural beauty I would see in my entire 150+ day journey.

Taking it All in… At once

At the time, I had no idea this photo would be The One. But the way everything comes together in this picture (the warm tan rocks by the falls, the cool blue bay, and the magenta blooms at the bottom) results in a photo that, out of all the photos I took that day, comes the closest to capturing the dynamic and rare beauty that is within the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. If you haven’t figured it out already, I’ll say it now: The sheer radiance of this place will blow you away.

The Rocky Coastline Northward

McWay Falls, while being the favorite bit I saw that day, is definitely not the only stunning sight you can see at the Pfeiffer Burns Park. As I continued to follow the right-hand path, I came across some spectacular vistas of California’s rocky coastline as it stretched north. These places are on postcards for a reason.

The Mysterious Crumbling Path

In my explorations of the trails, I even tried to reach the falls itself and take a picture from the top if it looking down, but such a trek turned out to be hazardous without climbing gear. However, while I was exploring the area, I did discover a very old path behind the falls that I can only guess once led down to the beach. Except that now, between me and this intriguing path that was neatly carved into the rock, was an impassable ravine. Just beyond where I was standing was a drop off; and about a dozen meters below, water swirled around jagged rocks.

But it looked as though things hadn’t always been this way.

I can only guess that the path was cut off from land-access when the Brown family (who once owned this area and called it Saddle Rock Ranch) gave this land to the people of California as a state park in 1966. According to the agreement, the Brown family requested that beach access be closed off to the public so that it would remain perfectly pristine and beautiful, and indeed it has.

The Cliffs of Insanity are Southward

After I finished photographing the area, I continued wandering around and was pleased to find some well-worn paths that headed south, as well. After passing a bunch of trees that arched over the path like a thatched roof, something scurrying in the sand startled me. What could it be? What if it was a venomous snake? What if the antidote was on backorder?

The small something that was scurrying was actually just a small brown lizard that stood still just long enough for me to photograph it. I felt silly for being caught off guard by such a small creature.

And after all this, I hadn’t even seen half of the entire park. But I’ll leave these sights for you to explore when you arrive there, and instead I’ll leave you with my favorite photo of California’s coast that I took that day. For if you visit McWay Falls, follow the left-hand path, and look south, you will soon see an incredible view of thriving trees (and even houses) that cling to life on the edge of insanely sheer cliffs towering high over the largest ocean on the planet.

And that kind of beauty is what Big Sur is all about.

I hope you enjoyed this overview of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in each of the photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article.

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Checkout the Pfeiffer Burns State Park photo gallery —>

Next: The Time I Charged a gaggle of Seagulls (and lived)

In the next article, we explore the Andrew Molera State Park which turned out to have a lot more in store that I ever would have thought. From mysteriously abandoned huts on the beach to the immaculately clear Big Sur river, there was a lot to explore. And wait until you see the corpse…

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights
2. 7 Rare Glimpses of Ashland’s Lithia Park (The Jewel of Southern Oregon)
3. Red Rocks Park (& Amphitheater!) Review: Top 3 Stunning Sights
4. Tenney Park and Lock Review: The Scenic Secret of Madison’s Isthmus
5. Denver’s City Park Jazz & The Haunted Fountain

The wind had changed by mid-August, and after my Portland explorations had come to a close, I made my way south, this time by way of ride share. And little did I know of the vibrant sights and melodies that awaited me.

After briefly jumping off of the freeway and saying goodbye to my ride share partner (whom I consider another craigslist success), I set foot in Ashland, Oregon; and now that I see the whole journey in retrospect, I often suspect if it was all according to some higher plan that I unconsciously decided to step into, because as it turned out, Ashland fit into my journey just as effortlessly as magnets snap together.

And while I was catching up with some relatives, I learned about Lithia Park, a park that I would soon discover was a centerpiece of the city itself, a centerpiece that I would soon learn might just as well be called the Jewel of Southern Oregon.

Heading to Lithia Park on Foot

Even the walk to Lithia Park was overflowing with green, radiant life. Apparently, late summer is the perfect time to photograph plants in Ashland, because everything seemed to be in bloom. It was the perfect time to explore Ashland on foot. In fact, I was shocked to see how cultivated some of the streets were. As you can see from the photo to the right, you can’t walk down the street in Ashland in the summer without feeling close to nature.

Not unlike Madison in Wisconsin, Ashland is what I would call “cozy-sized”, meaning it’s somewhere between the size of a sprawling metropolis (like Chicago or New York) and a small town. Cozy-sized cities are usually diverse enough to have lots of places to explore, but are small enough to make it pretty easy to walk anywhere within the city. And it didn’t take long to reach the entrance to Lithia Park which was marked by a sign with dozens of bright flowers growing below it. Nearby was a plaque with a map on it, and in the distance I heard faint music.

What makes for a Richer Experience?

The plaque explained some of park’s history, including a very interesting bit about the park’s landscape architect. Apparently, in 1914 the Park Commission engaged John McLaren, who was also the landscape architect of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, to design improvements to Lithia Park. (And, in just a few weeks time, I would have the opportunity to explore that park, as well.)

The point being, they didn’t just hire Bob Joe Landscaping, Inc. to design the park. Far from it, Ashland’s Park Commission recruited some of the very best talent to design what has become a treasure trove of biodiversity in the area. Smart move, Ashland.

After passing the Meyer Memorial Lake, I discovered the source of the beautiful music I’d heard before. To the side of the main path, sitting under a million verdant leaves, was a man playing an exquisitely-crafted cello. Just as the jazz concert had made exploring the International Rose Test Gardens an even richer experience, the presence of his music made appreciating the natural wonders of the park even more enjoyable. After taking a couple minutes to capture that moment with my camera, I gave him some encouraging words and continued down the path.

Yoga under a Red Oak

And so, I began wandering though the park. I soon realized that you couldn’t throw a stick without hitting 17 different types of trees all beside one another, each having a numbered sign below them explaining exactly what they were and what made them unique. From the towering Black Oaks to Ponderosa Pines, this park had an impressive level of diversity for belonging to a city of less than 25,000 people.

Under one red oak, a man dressed in red rested in the shade. Nearby, a woman did what looked like yoga under the warm sun. The air was sweet, the temperature was perfect, and the sky was singing.

From Roman Fountains to Van Houtte

I continued heading south, deeper into the park; and I soon came across a Roman-looking fountain. Doesn’t it look like something out of a Tolkien book? A plaque at its base explained that it was dedicated to John Fregonese who restored the fountain in 1987. I looked down into the water and wasn’t surprised to see a few bucks worth of change at the bottom. What is this strange human compulsion to throw money into bodies of water? Do they really think it grants their wishes? Alas, I digress…

Everywhere I looked, there seemed to be some kind of tree or shrub that I’d never seen before, not that I’d necessarily have a reason to before that moment. After all, I’m no botanist. The English Holly tree (pictured above) stood out to me though. It had vibrant little green berries which were almost certainly poisonous to humans. There was also a purple-leaved plum tree whose leaves were maroon even though it wasn’t autumn, and an amusingly-named “Vanhoutte Spiraea” hybrid shrub.

Vanhoutte? Really? Like Karl Van Houtte?

Then again, considering “van hout” means “wood” in Dutch, perhaps they were simply at a loss for what to name a mere tree.

Is it graffiti or art?

A few minutes later, I came across an interesting piece of what I’ll call art (though you may disagree with me) scrawled onto a nearby shaded seating area. It consisted one arrow pointing up, conveniently marked as “down”, and one arrow pointing down, marked as “up”; and the words “time to rethink” were written between the two arrows.

Now, I usually find graffiti to be an eyesore and thoroughly annoying, but this one was different. I liked how its white ink complemented its surroundings, but I liked how it challenged my perspective even more. Who was I to say which way was truly up or truly down?

After all, there is no up or down in space, and aren’t you (and everyone else) hurtling through space as you read this?

The Wonders of the Japanese Garden

Near to this unusually thought-provoking piece of art was a small Japanese Garden that was nestled within Lithia Park, and even though it wasn’t nearly as large as the Lan Su Garden in Portland, it was a good size relative to the rest of the park. Sure, it didn’t have the range of species and architecture that the Lan Su Garden in Portland had, but it didn’t have the space for all of that, either. And let’s not forget, unlike the Lan Su Garden, this garden relies entirely on public funding, which also allows it to be available to the public free of charge.

Considering those circumstances, it was done quite well; and, after being foiled by a small bird who refused to be photographed, I came across a lovely Fullmoon Maple tree (pictured above) which stood out to me as one of the more beautiful and colorful specimens of Japanese horticulture in the garden. See how the leaves turn reddish on the edges? That coloring is normal for the summer, so just imagine how it must look in autumn!

The Path to Joy and Unity

On my way out, I noticed that, although over an hour had gone by, the man playing the cello was still hard at work, and I hoped that he had gotten more tips in the time I’d been exploring this jewel of southern Oregon.

Clearly, I’d just seen the most beautiful part of the city, but on my way back to my cousin’s place, I noticed something that nudged me to use my camera one last time before leaving Ashland and continuing on to the Golden State.

As I was walking back, I noticed a path leading under a bridge. At the head of the path was a sign that read “The Path to Joy and Unity”, and beyond it I could see paintings on the ceiling of the bridge. I couldn’t resist. I followed the path and discovered some great paintings on display, including a huge montage of Emperor penguins and Polar bears playing in a snowy landscape. I realized this was an outdoor gallery of sorts, and I continued to follow the path which led me out from under the bridge and back into daylight. At the end of the path was a huge wooden statue that reminded me of a totem pole (pictured to the right). As you can see, the statue was pretty epic, and it was an excellent way to finish off my explorations of Ashland.

The Lowdown on What’s Up

If you’re visiting Ashland or even if you’re just passing through, I highly recommend taking some time to visit Lithia Park. It’s beautiful, it’s family-friendly (there’s even a fantastic children’s play area), and it’s free. Whether you stop to snack in the shade of a Red Oak, stretch beside a spiraea shrub, or sit in silence, I can’t think of a better place in the area to sit down and reconnect with nature. After all, where else in Oregon can you see this much biodiversity, have your perspective challenged by graffiti, and possibly even hear Bach cello suites being played in the distance?

And if you’re really brave, don’t just sit in the shade or walk around. Instead, why not hang upside down on one of the trees? After all, isn’t it time we rethink what’s up and what’s down?

Oh, and that sneak we all know as Marco continued to follow me all the way to Ashland. I did some looking around, and this sneaky devil seems to be easier to find in these photos than in past trips. Perhaps he wants to be found? Remember, only 7 photos of the park were included in this article, and a lot more gorgeous photos are in the photo gallery that accompanies it:

Checkout the Lithia Park photo gallery (and find Marco) —>
If you’re new to “Where’s Marco?”, learn how to play —>

Next: The Wonders of Big Sur & McWay Falls

Have you ever seen life cling to wind-torn rocks towering high over the ocean? Big Sur brought these stunning sights and much more. And in the next article, we visit Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where I captured breathtaking views of McWay Falls as it crashes down into the Pacific Ocean below:

Come with me, to McWay Falls —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Lithia Park gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights
2. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Review: The Famous McWay Falls of Big Sur
3. Denver’s City Park Jazz & The Haunted Fountain
4. Red Rocks Park (& Amphitheater!) Review: Top 3 Stunning Sights
5. Tenney Park and Lock Review: The Scenic Secret of Madison’s Isthmus

What if I said you could see not one, but thousands of roses like this, the most amazing roses in all of North America, completely free of charge?

Amazingly, all of this is a reality at the International Rose Test Garden which is tucked away in the West Hills of the City of Roses. That’s right, within Portland’s Washington Park, this world-famous rose breeding facility produces some of the most incredible roses you could ever imagine. The colors alone will blow you away.

Since the story of my visit to the astounding International Rose Test Garden is best told through the photos I took during my visit there, this article is presented as a photo essay. And if you’ve been reading for a while now, you won’t be surprised when I tell you that Marco continued to follow me. (More on that at the bottom of this article.) The photos below are the 10 best glimpses of the Garden that I captured that day. That doesn’t mean they’re all photos of roses, though. As you’ll soon see, the value that the Garden provides goes beyond that of mere roses.

Far beyond.

1. The Most Amazing Hues You’ve Never Imagined

When it comes to understanding the beauty of what I saw at the Garden, this photo is an excellent start. Notice how the orange hues toward the center of the flower give way to more violet hues to the outside of the bloom. This kind of hue variation is only possible through careful crossbreeding, which is what the Garden is designed for. Indeed, the Garden is basically a crossbreeding playground, and the results are often stunning. And they’ve certainly had enough time to perfect their art considering the International Rose Test Garden was founded in 1917 which makes it the oldest continually-running test garden in the United States.

2. Devin Phillips: An Unexpected Jazzy Addition

The Flow of Travel continued to stay with me throughout my time in Portland, the most obvious evidence being that I just so happened to arrive at the Garden at the perfect time: a Saturday during their annual summer concert series. And on that Saturday, I was treated to a truly delicious jazz quartet led by Devin Phillips. Let me be completely clear: none of this was premeditated. I didn’t even know there was going to be a concert that day, but it worked out beautifully.

When I first arrived at the Garden, I sat a while and absorbed the music, but I soon wandered away in order to have as much time as possible to capture what turned out to be the most exotic and incredible roses I have ever seen in my life.

3. Embracing the Garden as a Holistic Experience

I soon realized that visiting the Garden is a truly holistic experience. That is, I started realizing that the whole of all that was around me added up to much more than the sum of its parts.

As I was taking time to photograph this and other roses up close, I could still hear the sound of jazz music as it continued to play in the distance, and I loved the ambiance of the whole experience. With these beautiful sights surrounding me, sweet smells in the air, my hands on my camera, and the quiet, soothing sound of jazz in my ear, Washington Park started to feel like a tiny piece of Heaven.

4. Big Pink: Looking Back in the Opposite Direction

After seeing such a lovely pink rose, I looked up and realized that another pink object was also in my view, Big Pink. You remember Big Pink, don’t you? It’s also known as the Bancorp Tower, and I’d been there just a day before. From the 30th floor I’d seen a spectacular view of Portland and the hills beyond. And now that I was on those same hills I’d seen the previous day, looking back in the opposite direction, I felt that my explorations of Portland were nearing their completion, at least for now. And that felt good, like finishing a delicious meal.

5. The Rose You Wish You Could Eat

The rose pictured above is one of my favorite roses of all time. A member of the class floribunda, the name of this rose is “Rainbow Sorbet”, and it won the Portland’s Best Rose Award in 2008 for being the highest-rated rose by a panel of over 100 judges. And it’s not hard to see why. Before this, I’d never thought of a rose as being delicious, but it looks almost edible.

I mean seriously, have you ever seen a rose like this? It’s almost as if the Spirit of Hawaii courted a mango, and they gave birth to a rose.

Very stunning, especially in person.

6. Otherworldly Blooms of Cone-Shaped Petals

The uniquely cone-shaped petals of this bright magenta rose were amazing to see up close. I’d never seen anything like it on a flower before, and I was surprised that I hadn’t seen it listed as one of the winning roses since it was one of the most unique and beautiful roses in the garden. Almost seems alien, doesn’t it?

7. The Most Delicate Colors Your Eyes Can See

Now these were just incredible. I love how each rose in this entire patch of roses was tinged with a bright fuchsia hue on the edges of its petals. Clearly, these roses are another excellent example of what hybridization is capable of. Unfortunately, the name of this particular type of flower was not recorded at the time of photographing it, so I have no way of knowing it’s specific name. (I would, however, appreciate any help in the comments.) But as Shakespeare is oft-quoted as saying, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Ironically enough, I would soon see the Shakespeare Garden which was just nearby.

8. Shakespeare’s Favorite Flower

After I’d finished wandering around the main garden area, I started discovering smaller sub-gardens. This plaque near the entrance of the Shakespearean Garden featured an engraving of Shakespeare and a quotation by him, stating “Of all flowres methinks a rose is best.” And, perhaps best of all, a recreation of his actual signature was below the quotation.

Speaking of, is it just me or is that signature rather shaky? Of course, we don’t know where this signature was lifted from. For all we know, he signed something while riding on some type of wagon or something, so I’m willing to cut Shakespeare some slack here. After all, who am I to guess what kind of writing implement he was using all those hundreds of years ago?

9. The Beach Fountain: Entertainment for All Ages

Toward the end of my time there, I stumbled upon some kids playing on the Beach Fountain near the center of the park. The Beach Fountain is an odd assortment of boxy modern shapes, and the three boys who were playing around it seemed to really enjoy its odd design. I found myself wondering what I would have thought of this garden if I had first visited it as a child.

I don’t remember being too interested in flowers as a kid, so it’s very possible that, to a child, this fountain is the only source of entertainment in the entire park.

10. The Robertson Tunnel: An Engineering Marvel

Alas, soon it was time to go.

After a short wait beside the famous Robertson Tunnel, I boarded the light-rail and saw very little out the train’s windows as it plunged into the dark tunnel through the ancient basalt rock. After a few miles, the train emerged out the other end of the Tualatin Mountains, and I found myself in the heart of Portland once more. And while the MAX Light Rail system may be taken for granted by some, it struck me as a small miracle that the journey to the West Hills and back could be so easy. That is, it was only easy after a few years of creating the engineering marvel that is the Robertson Tunnel.

As it turned out, that was the final photoshoot that I did in Portland, and I can’t think of a better way to conclude my explorations of the City of Roses. I’d been there for longer than I’d planned, mostly because of the heat wave I mentioned, and it was time to move on.

It was time to head south.

Conclusion

If you visit Portland during the warmer months, you’d be a homunculus if you didn’t consider visiting the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park. Portland isn’t called the “City of Roses” for nothing! Not only is this amazing experience available free of charge; but it’s easy to access via Portland’s light rail, and it takes less than an afternoon to explore. In fact, I only spent a bit over an hour exploring the entire place and shooting all of the pictures you see above.

So next time you visit the City of Roses, be sure to take the time to smell a few of them. You’ll be so glad you did.

Checkout the International Rose Test Garden photo album (and find Marco) —>
If you’re new to “Where’s Marco?”, learn how to play —>

Next: The Sheer Vibrance of Lithia Park

What do diversity, redefining up and down, and J.S. Bach have in common? Find out (and see the astounding brilliance of this seldom-discusssed park) in the delightful photo essay that outlines the next step of my journey:

Continue the journey —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the International Rose Test Garden – Portland album. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Lan Su Chinese Garden Review: A Visit that Transcends Portland (& Time itself)
2. Portland Voodoo Doughnut Review: Bacon-Maple bars & Vegan donuts on the menu!
3. Top 5 Portland Sights from a Remarkable Walking Tour & An Amazing View
4. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Review: The Famous McWay Falls of Big Sur
5. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights

All of these options (and much more) are available on the menu at the inexplicably odd shop called Voodoo Doughnut. And on day 77, just a couple hours after I was given a wonderful walking tour of the city, I stepped into this “uniquely Portlandesque” establishment.

At the time, I had no idea it was day 77 of my journey to the West Coast and back. (I only calculated it when I started writing this article.) But in retrospect, a lucky number like that seems very fitting since I accomplished so much on that day: the walking tour; the view from the Bancorp Tower; and, of course, the ineffably amazing Voodoo Doughnut shop.

If you’ve never heard of it before, you should know Voodoo Doughnut is kind of a big deal in Portland.

Even the LA Times has noted that Voodoo Doughnut is an international tourist attraction, and for good reason. Where else can you get an “Arnold Palmer”? (It’s a cake doughnut covered with lemon and tea powder.) Or a “Grape Ape”? Heck, they’ve even got one called “Cock-n-Balls”; but since this isn’t that kind of website, I’ll refrain from showing it here. (But I think you know where to look.)

Experiencing the Voodoo

The shop is rather minimalist for creating such (let’s say “artistic”) food. There’s no seating. You just dart in, order your doughnut, and leave. Actually, I should be brutally honest here. Depending on the time you arrive, you may be waiting in line for a half hour or more. During my time in Portland, I actually saw the line extend to the corner of the block, so the shop certainly has its busy times.

Once you’re in, you’re going to see some weird things.

A lot of weird things.

This charming drawing of a Voodoo master commanding zombie doughnuts into a pink box is a prime example of some of the weird things you’re going to see while visiting the shop. There’s also a painting of a tuxedo-wearing skeleton sitting at a table holding a doughnut in what I can only describe as a death grip. (A photo of that is in the accompanying photo album, and a link is at the end of this article.)

Good Things Come in Pink Boxes

The menu on the wall covers the gamut. I mean REALLY covers the gamut.

Everything is broken down by doughnut category: cake doughnuts, raised doughnuts, fritters, specialties, “potations” (drinks), and an impressive selection of vegan doughnuts. The menu itself has a good sense of humor, sporting such sayings as “The magic is in the hole” and “Good things come in pink boxes.” The second statement referring, of course, to the signature pink boxes that Voodoo Doughnuts come in; and I could see many of them behind the counter, stacked in the “doughnut kitchen”.

Getting to the Nut of the Doughnut

If you’re a lover of doughnuts, or even if you’re just a fan of creative food, I highly recommend you checkout Voodoo Doughnut when you visit Portland. They even recently opened a second location in Portland (called Voodoo Doughnut Too) and one in Eugene, Oregon. And, as any local would tell you, no visit to Portland is complete without a visit to Voodoo. The place has personality, creativity, and most importantly: it has as great sense of humor.

Just be careful about that Bacon-Maple doughnut.

Checkout the Voodoo Doughnut photo album and find Marco! —>
If you’re new to “Where’s Marco?”, learn how to play —>

Next: A Million Stunning Roses

The following day I was treated to a million stunning roses in colors usually found only in dreams, and I didn’t even have to leave Portland to see them. Where did I go? Find out, in the next article…

Continue the journey —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Voodoo Doughnut – Portland album. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. International Rose Test Garden Review: Top 10 (& the Best Free Activity in Portland)
2. Lan Su Chinese Garden Review: A Visit that Transcends Portland (& Time itself)
3. Top 5 Portland Sights from a Remarkable Walking Tour & An Amazing View
4. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park Review: The Famous McWay Falls of Big Sur
5. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights

A friend of a friend offered to spend an afternoon with me to give me a walking tour of downtown Portland. I jumped at the opportunity; and as it turned out, the walking tour gave me a greater appreciation for Portland than I could have ever guessed.

If you were to ask me if my friendly Portland guide had planned our walking route out in advance, I honestly couldn’t tell you. In retrospect, we seemed to come upon something “uniquely Portland” at nearly every turn. But it also felt as though we were wandering freely and not following a set path at all. So in the end, perhaps the reality was that we were doing a bit of both.

We saw so much on that day, so I’ve decided to narrow it down. The following are my top 5 sights from the walking tour that day, including the final fantastic view from the Bancorp Tower. But before I could see this amazing view, I started the walking tour off by seeing…

1. The Car Wash Fountain

To call this fountain’s design playful might be an understatement. It’s fantastically odd; and, although it isn’t obvious from this photo, the design is such that if a breeze were to kick up at the wrong time, a good deal of water would be blown onto the nearby sidewalk. Thankfully, they installed a special sensor that shuts off the fountain if the wind goes beyond a breeze, but I can’t help but wonder if an unexpected zero-to-windy gust has ever had the chance to get someone wet before the sensor shut the fountain off.

Because what’s the point of having a fountain like that if no one gets wet, right?

We then wandered around Portland’s Chinatown where my guide told me all about how men were “Shanghaied” back in old Portland. Basically, they’d be drugged in taverns and smuggled to the docks using tunnels under the city. Apparently, the men would wake up in a stupor on a ship headed to China, which is where the phenomenon gets its name. I was even able to snap a photo of a small entrance to one of these tunnels. That photo is in the gallery, of course.

Although that was mere peanuts compared to…

2. The Stunning “Portlandia” & A Profusion of Pennies

After exploring Chinatown a bit, my guide led me down a side street. I had no idea where we were going; but he’d already demonstrated an excellent knowledge of Portland, so I went with it.

Then, I saw it.

High atop a building was Portlandia, a massive copper statue which I later found out was the 2nd largest copper repoussé state in the US, the first being the Statue of Liberty. (And just imagine how many pennies that could make.)

So what’s a repoussé?

Well, if something is a copper repoussé, it means it’s made of copper thats been shaped by hammering on it from the reverse side. In fact, repoussé is a french word that means “pushed up”; so it makes sense.

The technique worked magnificently for Portlandia, as she kneeled above the street level, seeming to reach out to the entire city of Portland all around her. The artist Raymond Kaskey did a remarkable job creating Portlandia, and unfortunately many people who visit Portland (and even some who live in Portland) have never seen Portlandia because it’s in a rather strange spot.

Because of this, you have to be looking for it (or otherwise accidently stumble upon it) to see it. It certainly doesn’t stick out like the Broadway Bridge does. There has even some been discussion to move it to a more visible position. But those discussions have amounted to nothing, and it appears that the statue will stay at its current location above the Michael Graves’ Portland Building on 5th avenue for years to come. And then again, perhaps it’s better that this statue remain a hidden gem anyway…

Next up was Pioneer Courthouse Square, which was the metaphorical “living room” of Portland itself.

3. An Unexpected Lincoln

Yet on our way to the square, we walked through Portland’s South Park Blocks. (Which I later learned are referred to as Portland’s “extended family room”, so it’s only appropriate that we would walk through them on our way to Pioneer Courthouse Square.)

In the South Park Blocks, we stumbled upon two terrific presidential statues: one of Abraham Lincoln (pictured here), and one of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse.

Was that guy always on a horse, or what? Between the paintings, that “Night at the Museum” movie, and now this. He seems never to be separate from his horse…

Could he have been a closet centaur?

In all seriousness though, the statues were masterfully done. Later, I found out that both statues (as well as two that I didn’t see that day) were commissioned and donated to the city of Portland by Henry Waldo Coe in the 1920s.

If you haven’t heard of him before (I hadn’t), Henry was one of the “who’s who” in Portland starting in the 1890s, not to mention a hunting buddy with Theodore Roosevelt himself. It’s too bad he died a year before his Lincoln statue was completed. That’s not to say he had much to regret though. He led a very successful life; and, after retiring in 1920, traveled extensively throughout 4 continents.

But let’s put our focus back on North America for now, because just after that I finally stepped right into…

4. Portland’s Living Room: Pioneer Courthouse Square

After walking for another 10 minutes or so, we arrived in what’s been called Portland’s “living room”: Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The Square takes up an entire city block and is laid out somewhat like amphitheater. And it really did have a bit of that “living room” vibe. Clearly it was a popular common area; and all around the square people were talking, relaxing, reading, or eating. On one side of the Square was the Pioneer Courthouse Square fountain, which added a good acoustic quality to the space.

But far more interesting was the figure standing in the square… motionless.

For a brief moment, I thought it might be a real person holding an umbrella, merely trying to get my attention.

But of course it wasn’t a person at all. It was a statue!

From reading a plaque set into the brick beside it, I learned that the statue was a gift from Harry H. Schwartz that had been placed there in 1983 and was called simply “Allow Me”.

And from the look on the statue’s face, the name seemed appropriate.

Then, not 60 seconds later, something rather odd happened. A large flock of birds flew high over my head, around in a circle over the square. And then they landed very near where they started, basically going no where in the process. I scarcely had time to think, “Well, that’s new…”, before they suddenly took off and did the same thing again. They flew high over the heads of everyone at the Square and then landed again. They did this at least three times for reasons I cannot fathom.

5. The View from “Big Pink” (The Bancorp Tower)

To finish up our walking tour, we headed over to the US Bancorp Tower, a building that my guide said had a speculator view of the city. Only later did I find out that it was, at 163 meters (536 ft.) tall, the 2nd tallest building in the city. And in this case, 2nd place was fine because the tallest building (which was Wells Fargo Center) was only about 3 meters taller than the Bancorp Tower.

On our way there, he pointed it out to me it’s unique color. Depending on the angle and lighting, the skyscraper seemed to vary between hues of purple to pink and even hints of orange. Clearly, the Bancorp Tower got its nickname “Big Pink” for a good reason: it was one of the oddest-colored skyscrapers I’ve ever seen.

And so we took the elevator up to the 30th floor, home of the Portland City Grill which is often cited as the restaurant with the most amazing view in all of Portland. From there, the entire city of Portland stretched out before us. I could even see straight down Burnside Street (pictured here).

Out another window, I could see Morrison bridge and other bridges beyond as they spanned over the Willamette River. Looking south, I could see all the way down one of the avenues to the green hills in the distance. What I didn’t realize at the time was that on the following day, I would look back from those very same hills. When I visited the International Rose Test Gardens the following day, it was easy to see Big Pink in the distance, and I even captured a few photos from this reversed perspective.

Conclusion & Additional Gems

There’s so much that I wasn’t able to include in this article because I wanted to keep this article relatively concise. But if you haven’t gotten the picture by now, I’ll spell it out: merely walking around downtown Portland is a treat in and of itself.

Tons of extra high-rez photos, including much larger versions of the photos shown in this article, are all in the Portland Walking Tour album. And I hope they inspire you to go on your own Portland adventure. It’s quite a remarkable city, and if you have the means to visit, I highly recommend it.

Checkout the Portland Walking Tour album (and find Marco) —>
If you’re new to “Where’s Marco?”, learn how to play —>

Next: Meeting the Bacon-Maple Doughnut

Coming up next: The strangest donuts you’ve never heard of. (You name it, they probably have it.) Will they turn you into a zombie? Only one way to find out…

Continue the journey —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Portland Walking Tour album. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. International Rose Test Garden Review: Top 10 (& the Best Free Activity in Portland)
2. Portland Voodoo Doughnut Review: Bacon-Maple bars & Vegan donuts on the menu!
3. Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights
4. 7 Surprises from my Googleplex visit: A Self-Guided Tour of Google HQ
5. Lan Su Chinese Garden Review: A Visit that Transcends Portland (& Time itself)

What a city. So creative, so historic, and so wonderfully weird. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

After exploring Seattle to my satisfaction, I was very excited to continue my epic West Coast Journey by returning to Portland before I headed further south. If you’ve been reading Byteful Travel for a while, you already know that I’d been there briefly before I headed up to Seattle. And while in Portland, a unique opportunity presented itself: I met someone interested in hitching up to Seattle. After walking over a mile to a promising ramp, we caught a ride in about an hour.

Now I could either give you the “director’s cut” of the story, or I could share some of the gory details with you, like the bit about how my first attempt to get out of Seattle didn’t work… at all.

I’m going to do the latter here; because I want to emphasize the importance of having a Plan B and being flexible. And if it isn’t already abundantly clear from past articles, setbacks happen all the time; and that’s one of the reasons it is so sublimely helpful to release your attachment to specific outcomes as much as you possibly can. But that’s a pretty hefty topic in itself and deserves its own article.

Entering the Sweet Spot of Suck

Now it just so happened that my last Couchsurfing host in Seattle (who became a friend in the process) was an avid hitchhiker. In fact, he’s an amazing person overall, and he encouraged me to depart from Seattle the same way I’d arrived, through hitchhiking. That morning he even bought me breakfast (a gesture that will never be forgotten), and helped me pick out a good intersection to hitch from. But when I arrived at the intersection, something was off.

The intersection was somewhat of an onramp to the highway (which is what you want when hitchhiking), but something didn’t feel right. No one would stop for me at that location, despite my crafty little sign (a technique that had worked very well for me before).

Now, to be fair, I’d screwed up a bit even before I got to my spot. I’d gotten there rather late for hitching out of a large city. It was around noon by then, and most traffic leaving the city leaves earlier than that. Since I didn’t have a time machine, I decided to take a bus further out of the city, found a new ramp, and even got two rides in succession. But then I got stuck. I’d made it past most of Seattle’s suburbs, but not even remotely near Olympia. I was far enough out of Seattle that most traffic was going the way I wanted, but I wasn’t near an area that had enough traffic entering the freeway.

I had entered the sweet spot of suck.

The Failed Hitchhike that Resulted in… Singing?

To escape the sweet spot of suck, I ended up catching what I found out was the very last bus back to Seattle. I returned back to my friend’s apartment and told him the story. He sympathized, and I started formulating a backup plan.

I could have tried again the next day at an earlier time, but I was feeling rather burnt out from hitchhiking. Had I known what I know now, I might have looked into taking a train from Seattle to Portland; but 2009 was the Dawn of Leveraging Craigslist in my life, so I started by looking there. About a day or two later, I’d found a ride going directly to Portland. I called the number up and it turned out the driver was a rather hip old lady. I met her the next day, and talked with her. I got a very good vibe from her, so I joined her in her journey back the eternally weird city that is Portland.

On the way down to Portland, she told me she needed to stop at the hospital to do her job which was to entertain some of the older patients. I asked her if I might come in and listen. After checking with the hospital, I was allowed to come in and help her, which turned out to be a lot more fun than I would have guessed!

For about an hour, she played guitar, and we sang to disabled people in the hospital. She played some very old folk songs that I hadn’t heard since I was very small, and we had a blast all singing along. Not all of the patients would sing, but I could tell that those who did really enjoyed themselves. The whole experience was an unexpected delight on my journey and a great example of the happy accidents that come to you while travelling.

The Second Rainbow of my Journey

The drive down to Portland was super smooth, and the weather was just about perfect. I had her drop me off next to one of the parks near my Couchsurfing hosts. After paying my share of the (relatively small) gas expense and thanking her, I crossed the street and decided to relax in the park for a moment.

The very moment I entered the park, I looked up and saw a stunning rainbow hovering just a few meters above the ground. Small water droplets from the park’s fountains were creating this rainbow much closer to the ground than a naturally occurring one, but it was a rainbow nonetheless. I had to capture this moment.

I struggled to get my camera out of my pack in time to capture this, the second rainbow of my journey. I pulled the camera out, held the power button down, and yelled at the camera as it had the nerve to take an entire second to turn on. This single second felt like an eternity.

After an eternity, the camera was ready; and as fast as scientifically possible, I aimed and fired. Just a fraction of a second later, the timed fountains turned off and the rainbow vanished.

But I’d snapped the picture in time. I’d captured my 2nd rainbow, and I was so grateful. I almost felt as if Portland itself was welcoming me back through this rainbow appearing to me at the perfect time.

Portland was Quite a Hotspot, Literally.

So excited I was to have returned to Portland — to finally have the chance to explore it in depth. What I didn’t yet realize was that I’d returned at the very beginning of what turned out to be the hottest week of the year.

But sometimes that’s how things work out, so I rolled with it. And while my first few days back in Portland weren’t the most productive days of the journey, I did have fun spending time with my Couchsurfing hosts’ kids, making icy smoothies and going to the park at lunchtime. The temperature easily reached over 100°F with considerable humidity in the air…

So it was basically like Mexico all over again. Good times.

Thankfully, we lived through the sweat-bomb that was the final week of July; and once the risk of bicycle-induced heatstroke became minimal once again, I finally set out and started exploring Portland in greater detail. Best of all, a friend of my hosts (who was also a Couchsurfing member) offered to take me on a bit of a walking tour around Portland. I’d talked to him before, and I knew he was a really smart guy. Turned out he was very knowledgeable about the city, and I jumped at the opportunity. The timing worked out very well, and I felt so lucky and grateful for what was to come.

Rainbow as a Metaphor

Remember, if my attempt to hitchhike down to Portland hadn’t failed, I never would have seen the 2nd rainbow of my journey.

If you’re currently experiencing difficulties or obstacles in your own life, take heart. For without the storm, a beautiful rainbow could never appear!

Next time:
A remarkable walking tour that changed my perception of Portland forever.

Remember Marco?

And, while you anticipate the story to come, why not see if you can find Marco in the photos in the album included with this article? (Yes, he continued to follow me.) And remember, since his suit is usually solid white, he tends to hide in the bright areas in the photos.

For those of you recently tuning in, on this entire trip I was being followed by a very peculiar (and very small) spaceman from another world whose name is Marco. If you’re new to the “Where’s Marco” game, it’s like “Where’s Waldo” or “I Spy”. For tips on how to find him, read this first.

Do you have what it takes?
Checkout the Portland Walking Tour photo album and find Marco! —>

And Now

Continue the Journey —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Portland Walking Tour album. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

1. Portland Voodoo Doughnut Review: Bacon-Maple bars & Vegan donuts on the menu!
2. Top 5 Portland Sights from a Remarkable Walking Tour & An Amazing View
3. International Rose Test Garden Review: Top 10 (& the Best Free Activity in Portland)
4. Lan Su Chinese Garden Review: A Visit that Transcends Portland (& Time itself)
5. How to Get Paid to Travel 1,000 miles (How to use Craigslist Rideshare)