<p>The Northern CA picnic was excellent; many of the supposedly 47 new families from NorCal attended. The major topic of conversation--once all the kids were happily disappeared w/frisbees to the lower field: transportation. The flights out of the WW airport are few and very pricey--and they are just about booked already anyway. For those of us who need to fly to Oakland or points south, it makes better sense anyway to fly via Portland rather than Seattle. The only bus shuttle from school to Portland arrives at a parking lot in town at 11 pm Friday. Kids needing to get to PDX then must find a way to do so late at night, only to sleep on the floor or in a chair at PDX the rest of the night, since there are no night flights out--at least not to OAK. </p>
<p>It seems to me there are enough kids who need to get to PDX (Sea-Tac airport would do, I suppose) to justify another shuttle early Sat am which goes directly to an airport and would enable kids to make reasonable connex to afternoon flights out of Portland. Any parents who would appreciate such a service should quickly contact Paul Dennis, who is in charge of the shuttle bus service. His email is: <a href="mailto:dennispg@whitman.edu">dennispg@whitman.edu</a></p>
<p>Given what appears to be a trend toward more CA kids at Whitman--many from the Bay Area--a transportation update seems due. So please contact Paul and encourage him about this!</p>