I posted a full report about my trip to the Portland Comic Con on the Creating Graphic Novels blog. It was a challenge to make the trip happen, but once it came together, I made the most of it. I stayed with my friend Kar-yee Wu and her family, getting to meet her youngsters. Although I’ve stayed in contact with her online (Facebook in particular), it’s been about ten years since we last met face-to-face. So it was good to see her again.
I was a little later getting away on the trip than I’d intended, but once I was on the way I enjoyed myself. However, I’d been up late Thursday night, so I did find myself getting just a little groggy on the drive. I got off the road, and parked to take a 10 minute cat-nap, which helped a lot.
I hit Portland about 3 o’clock in the afternoon (the time the show actually opened), and so encountered Friday afternoon traffic. I also felt I had not done enough research on the layout of Portland, because I didn’t feel quite sure I was going in the right directions. As it turned out, I was doing fine. But the city itself surprised me, being planted on the steep banks of the Willamette River. I think I’d like to go back for a visit, just to see more of the city.
I had a good time at the convention. I even encountered someone who had just purchased Creating Graphic Novels, which was rather fun to find out. But I’m still out of practice taking lots of pictures of cosplayers. I did get at least one good picture, though.
The Beast and Belle sit down for a snack.
After a deal of plodding around the convention (and wishing I had spending money for some of the goodies I saw), and enjoying my visit with Kar-yee, I headed down the road again late Sunday morning. All the locals were marveling about how warm the day was to be. However, when I got out into my car and rolling, what I had not anticipated was that the warmth had created a thick layer of fog. The blanket of fog seemingly covered the whole of the Willamette River valley, limiting visiblity much of the time to about a quarter mile radius. And it lasted all the way from Portland to Eugene.
Climbing up out of the valley just south of Eugene, I emerged into sunlight and blue, cloud-swept skies. In the end, I pulled back into the ranch mid-afternoon.
