After attending the Cannabis Collaborative Conference in Portland, I hopped onto a BoltBus for the non-stop ride up to Seattle for CannaCon 2017. Just to make the trip an adventure, there was a rockslide outside of Longview, Washington, that closed I-5, so I accepted the responsibility of being our driver’s navigator while we forged an alternate route up Oregon 30, the Columbia River Hwy. It was nearly midnight by the time I checked in at the La Quinta Inn in downtown Seattle.
Friday morning, I took my time walking the 4 miles to Pier 91, where the event was being held, visiting three recreational dispensaries along the way. Each was a bit different but I noticed right away that none of them showed me the flower buds like we do in Oregon. Everything in the Washington dispensaries exists in sealed packaging. Just not what I have come to experience in Oregon.
The CannaCon 2017 convention was huge, spread over two floors with many exhibitors. Of course, since Pier 91 is federal property, there was no cannabis or cannabis products in the venue. That left a lot more time and energy for interaction around the business of cannabis and how each exhibitor furnished a product or service that could help you and your business achieve success. Since I am a Senior Cannabis Consumer, I was on the lookout for anything that might help me consume.
Dr.dabber is a company that creates and sells tools that help the consumer vaporize extracts (you may recall that they were featured in one of our stoner gift giving guides as well as a review we did). I decided that their new product, Aurora, was worth my investment of money and time to see if it will work for me and my lifestyle. The difficult thing for me when it comes to vaporizing extracts is that I must either go somewhere that has a dab rig, or invest in a dab rig myself. All of the choices I had seen were both cumbersome and expensive. Stay tuned for a review of the Aurora.
Of course, the biggest reason for me to attend an event like this is to meet up with like-minded folks and learn more about cannabis. Anthony Nitowski and I met last year at PDX Weed Week and he noticed me right away at CannaCon 2017 (I am easy to spot). I joined him and his friends for a short bus ride off federal property to find the party bus. Another experience that absolutely solidified for me my love for these events.
By the time I returned to the hotel, I had walked 10.3 miles, had stayed high from about 2pm until midnight, and had had a blast!
Saturday was a bit of a repeat, other than I had to pack and check out of the hotel before wandering over to Pier 91. Luckily, the motel stored my bag for me until it was time to wander back to catch the BoltBus back to Portland. Since I knew that I had to exist in a timed existence, I used Seattle’s public transit system to return to the hotel and from the hotel to the bus terminus, so my walking was limited to 8 miles.
Walking 18 miles in two days while meeting new friends, going on new adventures, and staying medicated the entire time is definitely my idea of retirement. If it is also your idea of retirement, know that it is very, very possible.