Portland, Oregon, July 11, 2014

The Nike tournament in Oregon, aka the Oregon State Championships, is held over three venues this week; the women’s senior event is being held at the West Hills Tennis Club in Portland, the men’s seniors is at Mountain Park TC and the open divisions are at the Tualatin Hills Rec Center.

I’m playing at West Hills…55 singles and 45 doubles (with Manola Colter). I had a bye in singles but we played doubles at 9:30 and won 60 60. Tomorrow though will be a stiffer challenge in doubles and I start singles.

I took the train in from the airport to Beaverton where I rented a car. It was easy and an interesting ride through downtown Portland.

One of the big benefits of playing this tournament is a trip to the Nike employee store where everything is half off retail. Oregon has no sales tax so it’s pretty fun to go shopping there and for example, pick up a pair of Nike Frees for $50. I ran into Manola there and she was busy shopping for her kids who had each given her a list of things they wanted and she had a Nike employee (who said that was common), helping her out quite cheerfully and effectively.

The weather has been great, highs in the upper 80s and sunny.

I also ran into Nora Harrison and her sister Leyla from Singapore and some folks from Lodi, Susan James and her son Brandon, and Becky Rey who moved to the Pacific NW from Stockton.