Portland deserves a second shot...

That's the mixed blessing of flying standby. I had checked the load facters online and knew the first 3 departures to Portland were full, but decided to give it a shot. After a little research of the area, I was looking forward to visiting the Japanese and the classical Chinese gardens. Maybe get a little rollerblading in. The weather was forecasted as 72 and sunny -- Oregonians trying to show up San Diego. There are disappointingly few geocaches around the gardens, so I need to check into that and see why Portlanders are such slackers in the 'cache arena. Maybe they could use a few well-placed letterboxes. Anyway, I was pretty optimistic sitting at the gate (blew through security with no incidences this time, hope I'm not being lulled into a false sense of security) as departure time approached and there had been no requests for passengers to give up seats for travel vouchers. Group A lined up, boarded the plane. Group B lined up, boarded. The agent at the counter was by now avoiding looking in my direction, and I watched group C line up to the "41-45" section and knew my fate. Out came the cell, dialing my personal Blueshuttle service to pick me up. Of course I was a little disappointed to not be on my way to a sun-filled day of garden hopping, stocking up on travel experiences to share on my blog. As I was leaving the terminal, though, I ran into the Southwest station manager, the ultimate travel guru. I aspire to have half as many stamped passport pages as this guy. He was bummed out that I couldn't make any flights out that morning, but had all the insider info on how to get around town on public transport for less than $8/day, where to hit the best sushi bar, about the largest used book store in the country, and the best local pubs. So instead of blondly - I mean blindly - hitting a few spots on my day trip, I'm excited about the more enriching travel experience I'll enjoy when I hit PDX in the very near future.