I’ve been looking through my digital pictures that I’ve been taking while on vacation in Oregon and wanted to share some of the random geek type pictures I took while driving around and getting lost on small two lane roads.

Here is a photo of an interesting door lock at a local Portland, Oregon bank. That’s right, if you need to get into the bank or use the ATM machine after hours, you’ll need to use your ATM card to unlock the door:

Driving down some random street in Aloha, Oregon, I notice a familiar technology logo for a processor company. Yep, Intel’s Aloha Campus:

While in Oregon, I noticed that gas stations don’t want you pumping your own gas which seemed weird to me because I’ve always pumped my own gas. When I asked the gas station attendant about this, he said it was because of safety issues. Interesting indeed. I did snap the photo of the sign below on the gas pump at the Arco gas station while filling up, so maybe this is the safety issue he was talking about?

Most of my friends know that I love classic video games and I even own a few full sized classics myself, so after getting gas at the Arco, we went to a total ghetto arcade called Wunderland. What was really cool was every game took nickels, so basically 5 cents per game. A few did require 3-7 nickels but it was still really cheap to play games.

Next up is a picture of a space age looking pay phone. I’ve never seen one shaped like an egg or green in color for that matter but now everyone can see one because of the photo I took below:

Last but not least is a photo of me next to a yellow road sign which reads “ROCKS”.

This morning I decided that a trip over the bridge and up the Interstate 5 Freeway was in order for a road trip to Seattle, Washington. Enterprise rent-a-car was nice enough to give me unlimited mileage in Oregon and Washington, so why not a road trip right?

As I’ve been doing pretty much this entire trip, I took a bunch of pictures today while in Seattle. Since it took almost 3 hours one way to get into Seattle and I need to be back in Portland tonight, there was only enough time for one stop which was the Space Needle.

The first picture is the view looking up at the Space Needle. This beauty stands at 605 feet high and has an elevation of 730.25 feet above sea level.

Built in 1962, the Space Needle served as the symbol of that year’s World’s Fair. It has since become the symbol of Seattle and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The privately owned Space Needle is managed by the Space Needle Corporation.

Once inside at the observation deck, you have some amazing views. To get a really nice view, there is a sign giving specific directions on what to do:

Once you line your head up against the sign per the instructions (yes I did it), here is the amazing city view:

On the food front, we decided on the Saturday Brunch special which takes place from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. What’s really cool about having any meal at the Space Needle is the Sky City Restaurant rotates 360 degrees, so while you eat, the world actually does revolve around you:

Both the food an view from the table was just amazing. If you ever come to Seattle, Washington, I recommend coming to the Space Needle. It’s worth every penny.

I did pick up a couple of really cool shot glasses for my collection. Yes I know, I have so many collections of “stuff”. It happens.

Tomorrow I’m checking into white water rafting. That should be an adventure for sure.

Today I went to the Japanese Garden in Portland. It was so amazing. If you ever come to Portland, Oregon, I recommend you visit the Japanese Garden.

The Japanese Garden is tucked into a cusp in Portland’s West Hills, situated at about five hundred feet above sea level. It is a haven of tranquil beauty that has been proclaimed one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan.

I took a lot of pictures but I’ll only post a few for now:

These are just a small taste of the pictures I took while visiting the Japanese Gardens.

To find out more about this wonderful place, visit the official Japanese Garden website.

Well today was my first full day in Portland, Oregon and so far this place is great. People always say it rains non-stop but so far it’s been clear blue skies with a nice breeze blowing, so my thought is the locals from Portland just tell native Californians like myself it rains a lot so we won’t move here. Yeah, whatever. I love it.

I’ve been taking a ton of pictures and I still have 7 more days till I go back home, so I’ll be posting a lot. I’m posting smaller versions of the pictures to help on load times but at some point, I will post full size images to my photo gallery once I get it going on the site.

Ok and now on with the photos… first up is a picture of the Inn that I’ll be living at for the next 7-10 days. It’s an amazing place.

The room at the Inn is so nice. It has a view (pictures to come), a huge jacuzzi tub which I’ll be using soon as I’m done with this post and a very comfortable bed. I slept like a rock last night. It also has in-room wireless internet.

Next up is a photo from a local gift shop called Wham. Where else can you find Moses and Jesus action figures? People in Oregon seem to have a sense of humor like me:

Also at this great novelty store, they had a Goonies lunch box, so I had to get that as well with my personal Dashboard Jesus:

While walking around the streets of Portland I came across this crazy sign with a person taking a nose dive on a bicycle:

And last but not least, I’d like to thank the nice people of Portland, Oregon for providing free wireless internet so I could post these wonderful pictures:

Of course I have a lot more pictures to post but for now, it’s off to the jacuzzi tub to relax.

Well there wasn’t wifi on the plane, so no posting from 30,000 feet but I did take some amazing photos from the window.

In the first picture you can see the view I had from my window seat:

Next up is a photo of the Flight Safety Card which will now be added to my collection of Flight Safety Cards:

Once off the plane and on the ground at the Portland International Airport, while I was waiting for my baggage to show up, I noticed a very large, well actually huge revolving door, probably the largest in the World, or at least the biggest that I’ve ever seen:

and last but not least, a very cool looking payphone for my public phone photos collection that has complete TTY support which allows Text Telephone services for the deaf or hard of hearing:

I’ve taken a lot more pictures since I arrived in Portland, Oregon around 3:40 pm and will continue to post more and also take more pictures while here.

An interesting bit of trivia, when I asked the rental car people if I should know anything about local drivers, she replied with:

honestly, we don’t know how to merge into lanes

and not more then 10 minutes into my drive to the hotel, her point was proved to me by some crazy local driver.

I’m glad that I have California driving skills because I’m sure that they will come in handy while in Oregon.

Here I sit at the San Jose International Airport waiting for my flight which will begin boarding in about 45 minutes.

The TSA check point wasn’t too bad. It took maybe 5 minutes to go through once I got up to the metal detector and xray machine. They asked me to take my shoes off. That’s a first for me at an Airport. I guess it depends on the type of shoes you have on.

After getting through the check point and retrieving my laptop, I had a little snack and now I’m posting this message.

I’m hoping the plane will have Wi-Fi. It’s a 50/50 chance since the plane I’ll be flying on is a Boeing 737-400 Jet which according to the website has wifi but because my flight is only 1.5 hours, it might not be available. I did pay $6.95 USD for a 24 hour pass here in the Airport which I’m only going to use maybe 1 hour total. Oh well, I’m a geek and wanted to check email and post.

I really hope that I’ll be able to post from 30,000 feet. That would be cool. Either way I will take pictures from the plane and will post some from the air if I can or once I land. Until next time…