PortlandRL

I got off work early on Friday and went home to take a nap because I'd been sick since Monday afternoon. Once my friend got off work and made it to our house, we (my friend, my dad, and myself) loaded up our things in the RL and made tracks north to Seattle where we were to see comedian Lisa Lampanelli the following evening.

Despite my still under-the-weather condition, the nap did wonders and the three hour drive to Seattle went by easily. I must say the RL is the best road car for the money, hands down. The active cruise control reduces stress greatly, especially in the parts of freeway where traffic gets a little bunched up.

The next morning I woke refreshed and feeling 110% better although still a little congested. The three of us piled into the RL again and did some sightseeing that included a 15-minute ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island (the RL's first boat ride since its voyage from Japan).

After dropping my dad at Pike Place Market, my friend and I took a drive around the area, going north to Bellevue then back down to Seattle where we met up with my dad for dinner and then the Lisa Lampanelli show. She is a riot but definitely not for the kids and not for those who are easily offended.

We left around 10:00 Sunday morning and avoided the rush of after-church traffic in and around Seattle and Olympia. We made it back home to Portland by 1:00 and the whole trip was just a blast.

The RL is (again) a fantastic road car and managed 26.7 mpg through the whole trip. We even pushed it up to 115 for a brief stretch on a flat open stretch of I-5 and even at those speeds, it remained buttoned down and solid as a rock. The seats are very comfortable and all outside noise is well hushed. Here are some photos from our trip:

Downtown Seattle:



My friend (right) and myself (left) on the ferry to Bainbridge Island:



The RL's nav system has no idea what's going on...



Turned over 12K on the trip:



The Seattle skyline from the ferry:



The Space Needle; a must-see tourist attraction. We didn't go to the top as it was $16 per person!



On the way home...cruise at 80 mph:



I-5 South somewhere in Washington, I don't know where exactly...

Ken1997TL

Interesting..

I too went from Portland to Seattle (just north of Everett to be specific) to get a Corgi puppy this weekend.

Took the '02 RL and it rode like a dream. The 60 degree weather and SUNLIGHT (finally) really made it a good weekend.

Great pics by the way!

plastikman

We don't take to kindly to your kind ( you know the Oregon kind ) around here . . . . . . . its a sports thing ! Funny that you would mention this road trip, my girlfriend and myself intend to do the same trip, just the other way around. Next Saturday I will be heading to Portland for the day to do a little shopping and a night at the Marriott by the Waterfront? I think that's the name. Maybe I will take some pics, we shall see. Did you guys have a good time up here?

PortlandRL

Well we don't like your kind bumbling 'round here.

The Marriott downtown isn't a bad place. If you need directions just give me a holler. Maybe we can set up an impromptu mini-meet.

plastikman

It better not be a bad place, or I want a refund ! I don't get to take my RL on all to many road trips, I think the longest one has been to Portland the last time. My 06 only has 9000 miles on it, so as you can see it is only a weekend car. Maybe we can meet up for coffee and have a lil mini meet, that would be fun !

jwaters943

Thanks for the pics. Now, not only do I want an RL even more, but now I need to visit the PNW region again. Portland and Seattle are two of my favorite cities. I especially like the vibe of Portland. It's the perfect-sized city IMO.

neuronbob

Nice pictures. I really miss the West Coast.

black label

The first pic is the only one that has total cloud cover. I can see some blue sky in the rest of the pics. If that's an accurate depiction of the weather you saw on the trip, then it was a good trip to WA.

I've had family living on the same piece of property in Gig Harbor for 100 years, we had a big party last August, beautiful place (weird sales tax laws though).

plastikman

I will take some pics of my trip coming up this weekend to Portland, I will post them when i get back !

plastikman

Well we are back from our Portland trip, shot, but it was still a lot of fun. Did some shopping at the Washington Square Mall in Tigard and also in downtown Portland. One thing that Seattle has in common with Portland is the weird people you will find in the downtown area. I took a couple of pics while I was down there, so here they are . . . . . . . . PortlandRL, hope you don't mind if I post here, didn't want to open another thread, when we basically did the same thing.

Some Pics from our room






The downtown area by our Hotel




My RL in front of the Hotel we were staying at

plastikman

Btw on my way home I had the pleasure of being pulled over, he claims I was doing 72 mph in a 60 zone. I had my cruise set at about 65mph, but I was not going to argue with the officer, that would have gotten me nowhere. I had just exited a 70mph zone a while back and the stretch I was on was a 60 about to change back to a 70, so the officer gave me a break. See if you are courteous to officers it can pay off most of the time, or I just got lucky, either way, I am glad !

SPUDMTN

Portland FTW

Nice to see some P-town RLers (and other members here in the great NW). Did realtime traffic come in handy?

plastikman

When I renewed my XM, I did not renew the traffic. My reason is my RL is a weekend vehicle, I only use it for pleasure, never ever take it out for work. With that said, traffic is always light on the weekends, so to me it would have been a waist of money and I can tune into the traffic channels if I really need to.

PortlandRL

No worries plastikman.

Glad you enjoyed your time in Portland and I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up. Maybe this summer.

Edit: It's weird seeing my town from somebody else's perspective.

xenonhid

Portland Sux!


haha just kidding!


Hey I know intersection! Thats about 2 blocks from westlake in Downtown Seattle!


Did you notice a lot more TL's in Seattle?

PortlandRL

No I didn't...they're pretty popular around here but I did notice you guys have Audis coming out of every oriface...

xenonhid

^^ Oh yeah you're right! LOL, I'm not sure why

plastikman

Yeah, we should really all get together for a meet sometime, its not like we live that far away from each other.

plastikman

German made cars in general, just a hot item around here, I get excited when I see an RL in this area ! Btw I didnt see a single RL while I was in Portland.