Sacramento Travel Group Meeting - Saturday May 20th @ 10:00 a.m.

Don't save seats for us this month -- we'll be touringTuscany in a rental car (first time driving in Italy!) Lots of great stuff so far, lots to come.

Ed and Lauri

Lauri, would you save me a seat? I'm an excellent navigator, but if I do too much back-seat driving, you can shush me with ready bottles of Chianti...

If I don't hook up with Ed and Lauri, I'll see y'all on the 20th!

Lauri, I have plenty of experience driving in Tuscany. If you provide the airline ticket I would be happy to chauffeur you around. Let me know. 😀

We will be in Portland on Saturday so will regrettably not make this month's meeting. I think I'm supposed to make a follow up trip report to see if Portland is really as dangerous and undesirable as an earlier poster had reported on "Beyond Europe"...

Mona, My friend's daughter is moving to Portland in August for her last year of graduate school and they've never been there. Will be very interested in your observations and feedback!

Mona, I commend your dedication to the Travel Forum. Take lots of sharpened pencils and empty notebooks so you can prepare The Authoritative State of Affairs in Portland. For simplicity, I suggest a short video presentation with lots of graphs, bar charts, a pie chart, and a few 'man-on-the-street' interviews with long-time locals contrasting 'now' with 'then' (in order to understand once-and-for-all the true situation concerning the 'Is Crime and General Ickiness in Portland Really on the Rise?' question). This way, on your Beyond Europe thread response, you can follow-up a short statement with a link to your video.

I assume, of course, that you've already planned your fact-finding trip to Seattle. That will require another video, etc., then yet a third thread response (and another video) containing your conclusions.

Hopefully the good people at RSE will reward your dedication with a travel clothesline or a video from the Bargain Bin.

I think I'm off the hook for replying to an earlier thread that bashed crime and transients in Portland specifically. That thread, which I'd replied to is gone. The only negative information by greg9542 is the Seattle or Portland thread and I didn't even respond to that one. So Eileen no movie making or person on the street surveys for me on this trip but for those of you who are curious or have people moving to Portland, I'll give a little feedback to this thread...

Well bum-er, Mona. All of the 'good' threads go away... ;-)

As Emily Litella would say...

Yep, never mind 😉

Thank you Mona, much appreciated.

Eileen, "All the 'good' threads go away... " Ain't that the truth!

Well, Andrea, looks like it's just the two of us. Unless you've heard back from Lauri & Ed and will be joining them...

But I know better - we'll put a bunch of tables together as always and wait for everyone else to show up!

I'll be meeting up with BG in Roma on Saturday. We'll be ordering wine as you sit down for coffee!
But I'll try to make the gathering in June.
It's being quite the wonderful adventure!
SharYn

As a heads-up, I hope to be there in Nov. so plan accordingly. You have 5 months.

Eileen, I'm sure we will have a big group as we usually do. And if it's not as big, that's okay too.

Sharyn, I can't wait to hear all about your adventures.

Ms. Jo, I've marked my calendar for November. In ink. Now you have to come!

Little report for those heading to Portland in the near future: We're finishing up day 3 in Portland and heading to a family birthday party in Eugene for the weekend. I have walked the streets of Portland from river to Pearl district and and taken tram/MAX'public transportation and haven't seen anything different from when I was here 8 years ago. Loved the Portland State campus area. There were a lot of students, working adults, tourists and the occasional homeless person on the tram. Didn't see graffiti or aggressive panhandling anywhere. Pioneer Square was a construction zone so I didn't get the vibe of what that was usually like but the surrounding streets were busy with shoppers and workers out at lunchtime visiting some of Portland's 500 food trucks. Powell's was great as ever. We had a very nice time.

Last night in a microbrewery we saw a lady leave her purse slung over the back of her chair as she went somewhere. The lady sitting next to her wasn't paying any attention to it. I wanted to snap a picture of how casule and relaxed things were in this large, busy brewpub but I told Eileen this wouldn't need to be a report with interviews and visuals 😉.

Have a great meeting and we hope to see you in two months.

Mona, great report. Sent it on to my friend. Thanks!

Powell's (Portland) is indeed a great place, hopefully you walked a couple blocks from there for the required Voodoo Donuts' visit! They go down way too easy after looking at maps and old books all afternoon.

Back to local boundaries, 'hoping' to stop by Panera tomorrow. Move Day for daughter's college dorm... so depending on number of trips (and aspirin!) it may be ... ahem ... August before the next 'third-Saturday' for me. June calendar finds us in Tahoe (17th, Father's Day Weekend) and July's [15th] in Kauai.

Pull out the card table. Kat makes 3...and I suspect David will sneak in.

Well, I overslept and missed my flight for Pip's Wedding of the Year, so I'll be at Panera this morning. This is why I never cut the tags out of my dresses ;-)

See, Mona - you never know when your trip will turn into a PowerPoint dog and pony show. Always be prepared :-)

Hope you can make it, Matt!

I should be coming at some point today. Off to a late start, and am waiting to hear from my mechanic.

Thanks to those letting us know your plans to attend or not. Larry won't be there. See y'all soon. I'm channeling Eileen. :-)

We're preparing for our final dinner in Tuscany (yum!) just as you guys are starting your meeting. Guess I have to drink one final €2 glass of Chianti in your honor.
Off to Orvieto in the morning.
Monte, have a great trip to Scotland. And Sharyn and Betty, hope you're enjoying Rome.

Lauri and Ed

Lauri, please, have as many glasses of Orvieto Classico as you wish for me 8^D

Andrea, I'll try to rustle up an Honorary Texan pin for you...