In about 3 weeks, I'll be making my way to Portland, Oregon, and today I had scheduled some trip planning, especially to do some things that are not necessarily related to the conference I'm attending. That conference is the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON for short, for which I created a a PubSub feed). There will be much drunken geekery, and I look forward to that, but 5 days straight is going to feel like a bit much. That said, trip planning so far has consisted of watching the Portland listing for Upcoming.org, and so far only Mainstreet Madness, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, in Hillsboro looks interesting, at least for the time period (early August) that I'll be there. The tournament is a block away from a MAX line stop, so getting there and back after the conference shouldn't be too difficult. Other than that, I was hoping to spend a few more days in the city to hang out with friends and maybe take in some of the sights. I'm even considering taking a 'working vacation' for the entire week afterwards, renting a car, and driving down the Oregon coast.

Is there anything in the Portland metro area I should see? In the Oregon coast? (From what I hear, all I have to do is go there and be wowed. From the stories my friend from the South Coast has told me, I already knew how beautiful it is, and that scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 only confirmed it.) Is there anybody I should meet? I'll be watching Metroblogging Portland and ORblogs Portland, but I really should have started earlier if I was to make any friends there before visiting. Or maybe I already have readers from the PDX?