May 28th 2009 10:31 20000 feet

It is the strangest thing, the sky is a gauzy periwinkle. Not light, yet not touched with that smudge of darkness that I would expect. I spent the last 2 days in Portland which was a nice break between flights.
Portland was a strange place. It was one of the few cities that I have pretty instantly felt comfortable walking around. Seen from a distance, Eastern cities are high, they try to pierce the sky and shake their fists in defiance. Even the bits of Chicago I saw from a distance were like that, cold high cliffs. Not once did I get that oppressive canyon feel in Portland. It was like the Elmwood area of Buffalo writ large. Portland is low and lazy, lounging between the rivers spreading out not up a lazy dog spreading between the two rivers for an afternoon nap.