Sunday, June 10, 2012
The rain gave way to sun today. Oatmeal from a paper cup, orange juice (both complimentary). Dropoff at a nearby Red Line station. I had thought I needed cash to buy my ticket, but it was credit-card-only. $2.40 for an all zones, 2-hour ticket. Light rail in Portland is free in the downtown area. The trains have holders for hanging bicycles. I sat perfectly centered in front of one of the super-large windows and received a tour of downtown Portland. Outside downtown the building scenery changed into expansive vistas of bubbly cumulus clouds against a bright, blue sky. A pleasant surprise: the MAX light rail train has leather seats. It's hard to ride light rail in Portland and not compare it with Muni in San Francisco. Portland has so much more urban smarts than San Francisco that it hurts. Virgin flight 817: uneventful. Patrick picked me up at SFO. Late lunch at Herbivore with Patrick: thai tea and papaya salad for Patrick, large green juice and indonesian noodle salad for me. Food, drink, and service were very good. Our server was Serena. $27.16 before a $5 tip. Home. Long nap. Awoke to the smell of Patrick's homemade minestrone: lentils, quinoa shells, rainbow chard, garlic, tomatoes. Ate a bowl, side of tortilla chips, side of Taiwanese rice wrap that Sam and Patrick made together over the weekend, water. Tried to resolve contact syncing problem with Apple Address Book by adding my iCloud account to Address Book but encountered a problem in which Address Book says "Searching server for the specified user name" with a spinner and it stays like that forever, never finding what it's seeking, and never progressing. I searched for solutions on the web but was unable to find anything helpful. Failure again.