This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Soon that will be the case for me and my wife.

We landed in Greece yesterday after a day-long trip from Portland, Oregon and will be spending the next 10 days here, the first four in the resort town of Santorini and the next several on a Viking cruise ship.

It took a long time to get here – about 12 hours or so as we flew through the night to reach our destination.

Here are just a few highlights from our first day heading away from our home in Salem, Oregon to Greece:

• Wonder of wonders!  When we got in our Amanda’s Taxi for the drive from Salem to Portland to catch our plane, we learned that our driver volunteers at Salem Free Clinic to provide Spanish interpreting for persons served there.

This is important because the Clinic – a great program that provides free medical and dental care to the underserved – was started by our church in Salem, Salem Alliance.  Now, more than 70 churches in Salem-Keizer cooperate to run the Clinic.

• Hours in the air:  I knew this would be the case, but 10 hours in the air is what it takes to get from Portland to Amsterdam.  So be it.  I got to look at movies for the entire trip, including one called Black Berries, which chronicled the rise and fall of the first phone that allowed remote users to receive e-mails.

This reminded of the time many years when the lobbying and public relations firm I helped to found obtained Black Berries – the first firm in Salem to do so.  And the acquisition enabled us to work anywhere, including, for me, on the golf course.

• Arrival in Amsterdam:  We have been through the Amsterdam Airport on several trips overseas, but, this time, the crowd in the airport was amazing – over-the-top.  We could hardly walk to get to our next gate for the trip to Athens!

• Passport check in Athens:  This was especially imposing.  The line to get through was at least four blocks long!  Yes, four blocks!

I don’t know why, but an especially thoughtful attendant asked us to step outside of the line and go up to the front.  Good for her.  She probably respected us because we are old; or else she thought Nancy looked beautiful, which is true.  Forget me.

• Arrival in Santorini and the trip to our resort from the airport:  We had two previous stops in Santorini off cruise ships, but, this time, we had a 20-minute taxi drive from the airport to our hotel.  We went through areas that can only be described as economically deprived.

A stark contrast our hotel area where, in addition to us, there are thousands of people off the four cruise ships in the harbor just below our hotel room.

• Steps and more steps:  Frankly, this is not a resort for old people who have trouble walking.  There are hundreds of steps u and down a steep cliff.  I stopped counting at 300.  If you go anywhere, it takes exertion to get there.

In America, no one would be allowed to build anything in such an area.  And I have no idea how the workers in Greece did it.

There.  A first day in Greece.  More to come.