Unusually warm in Portland

Another early start on Sunday, this time very early, and we caught the 8 a.m. flight from San Francisco to Portland in Oregon. We were pleased to be able to check into our hotel room straight away, and by late morning we were strolling around downtown Portland. We went to the bustling Sunday street market by the river and listened to a jazz quartet as we sipped cool drinks. It was very hot and sunny (30 degrees) and we decided to hire bikes and go for an eleven mile riverside cycle. I was enticed into this venture by the fact that it was a very flat circuit. All started well, in fact I was in tremendously good spirits as we pedalled along the urban but attractive cycleway. However as the miles went on I became increasingly hot and tired. With hindsight, this was probably exacerbated by the eight hour time difference between Scotland and the west coast of America, and by the short and broken sleeps I had had over the previous twenty-four hours. James couldn’t hide his despair at my frequent rest stops. The hot breeze felt like a hairdryer blowing on my forearms and face as I slogged along. However I did manage to complete the cycle, which gave me some satisfaction, and James treated me to a delicious smoothie in a smart wee café. When we returned the bikes, the owner of the bike shop told us that it is unusually warm for Portland. By dinner time we were both so tired that we could hardly keep our eyes open, and it was so good to get to bed!