Portland Tour

Well everyone I actually got out and about this week on my trip to Portland. The picture below was taken today in the Rose Gardens.

I thought these flowers were so beautiful. I want a huge mound of these at home. I love the bight yellow. This was taken outside the Rose Gardens.
This picture was taken in the Japanese Gardens there in Portland. This is one of my favorite places in Portland (along with about 20 other favorite places).
Here is Multnomah Falls. I find this place amazing and I can't go there enough.

Home away from home...

I can already tell this is going to be a great week. The weather here in the Portland area is Sunny Skies mid to upper 70's. The trees and flowers are all in bloom. Hertz upgraded me to a Cadillac DTS and Hilton put me in my standing room (549).

Here are some pictures I took today. The tree below was at the hospital and greeted me when I drove in the parking lot.


When I checked in at the Hilton the kids were all playing in the water in the park across the street. All you can hear are joyous laughs and screams from excited kids.



Another picture of the park.

I love looking out at these trees from my room. Everyone is in the park today on blankets, reading books, having picnics. Seeing this you know that Spring is officially here.

The flowers in the park were stunning in the sunlight. I so love the tulips, and they have already faded at home. It was nice to see them again.

It may be a boring post... But it's so nice to see spring...

5 Days in Portland/Vancouver

This week I have had Stefan with me on my trip to Portland. As I’ve said in a past blog he goes out touring and then tells me about all the great things he has seen. A lot of times he will take me to the best spots of the day after I get off work.

This week we hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls just east of Portland. That was our Sunday trip. The falls are beautiful and I have posted pictures of it before but I never get tired of seeing the falls.

Some times the things Stefan sees I don’t get to see because they are so far away. He went to the Oregon Coast on Tuesday. He was telling me how beautiful the drive was and I’m so glad he got pictures. The trees are so beautiful with the snow on them.

When he got to the coast he went to Cannon Beach. Haystack rock is located here and back in the late 80’s I would go camping on the beach there with some friends of mine that lived in Seattle. He was amazed at the beauty of the Oregon Coast. I told him he has only seen a sliver of what Oregon Coast has to offer. Other areas are the Sand Dunes that are a must see.

I got some great ideas from someone I don’t even know that is following my blog. Beck told me that we needed to go to Pittock Mansion in Portland. Stefan went during the day when he could tour the house and he said its “Move in Ready”. He really loved it and told me about the view. He knew I could not tour the mansion but wanted me to see the view. I have pictures of the Mansion and the view of Portland and Mt. Hood from the Mansion grounds.

Pittock Mansion

View from Pittock Mansion

You could also see Mt. St. Helens from the mansion.

Beck - Thank you for such great ideas what to see this week.

Sunday Ramblings

I’m back on the road to Portland today. This week will be different since I am bringing Stefan along with me. Today he is getting to experience the long journey from South Carolina to Oregon that I’ve been doing almost weekly the past few months.

So far I have watched a movie “Blood Diamond” which is 2 ¼ hours (great movie); taken a nap for 1 ½ hours; I’ve been listening to music over half an hour. This trip just seems to get longer each week. This week I will be on the plane a total of 5 ¾ hours. I am looking at the moving map and we are still over Montana and 1 ½ hours from touch down.

I have brought my scout “Stefan” to find new areas of the Portland area for me to explore. As I wrote last week he goes out and finds all the neatest things and then takes me to see them. This is his first trip to the Pacific Northwest. The weather is going to be chilly and wet the first few days and clear the last few days. So he’ll get the whole Portland experience. I hope he gets to go see some of the cool bridges from Jackie’s blog.

I let him have my favorite seat (1A) I talked about in a past blog. He will be on the side of the plane that has the best view of Mount Hood when we arrive in Portland. I took his seat (my second favorite – Exit Row Window). There is nobody in the middle seat so I have been able to sprawl out more than in a first class seat and with fewer distractions from the flight attendants offering me another beverage. I know they mean well but my bladder is only so big.

This week will be one of the few weeks that I don’t go home to see some new project completed at the house. A few weeks back I came home to see the new fireplace that Stefan built in the downstairs den area.

The remodel really started as moving a door and has morphed into a complete updating of the house (kitchen, floors, bathrooms, laundry room, pouring a concrete driveway, moving walls in the basement to make more rooms). Least to say the cost and time under construction has exceeded what the initial plans were. I know it’s going to be worth it when it’s over. Right now I’m just wondering if it will ever be over. I figure we will be under construction at least another 6-9 months because I’m on the pay as you go plan.

Portland, OR

I have been trying to figure out what to write about today ever since yesterday. I’m in a beautiful area of the country and I just take for granted that everyone knows all about it. So today I will introduce everyone to one of our many great cities. Portland Oregon.

I have been fortunate enough to travel to Portland and Oregon many times in my life. The first time was back in the late 80’s. I will tell you a story about that trip later in this blog.

Portland has roughly two million residents in the surrounding area. Many people do not realize that the city is the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a great place to visit with many activities to choose from. Portland is know as “The City of Roses” and they have the most beautiful rose gardens that sit on the side of a mountain looking over downtown with Mount Hood towering in the background. Just above the rose gardens is a Japanese Garden that is so beautiful to see.

The Columbia River is a monster river that divides Oregon and Washington State. You can’t imagine what Lewis and Clark must have thought when they explored the area.

My room looks out to Mount Hood and the weather this week has been spectacular. Blue skies not a raindrop. Each morning I have been able to watch the sun come up over Mount Hood. The view of Mount St. Helens has been just as clear as anyone could hope for.

Twenty plus years ago when I made my first trip to Portland it was with friends of mine that had moved from Oklahoma City to Seattle. We decided to take a weekend trip to Mount Hood and enjoy a weekend of snow skiing. At the time I was a novice at the sport (which is far better than I am today). I would ski on the Green and Blue runs which are the beginner and intermediate slopes.

My friends had never been snow skiing so I encouraged the four of them (all women) to take lessons. After the lessons which were half a day the three adults of my friends were smart enough to just pull up chairs and drink in front of the fireplace at the lodge. Then there was the teenager and me who didn’t give up quite so easily. I agreed to take her up on a green run and ski down with her.

On the ski run I was making better progress than the teenager (Kristi), so I would stop on level areas on the way down and take a break and wait on her to pass me. This continued many times and each time I’d pull to a stop using a technique of pointing my skis slightly up the hill until I came to a stop. Now this was not the way I was taught to stop, but it was the least effort on my part.

Well on one of those stops I pointed my ski’s too far up hill and started skiing backwards down the hill. Remembering back to my lessons I was told to never fall down hill because you would go head over heels. I thought if I fall going up-hill I’ll break my nose. In this flash that seemed like an eternity I never lost my balance and actually made it to the next level area and came gently to a stop. Kristi was very impressed at my skiing skills and how I could ski backwards and watch her. It was quite a let down when she found out it was not skill but luck.

So this ski trip is one of my many memories of the area. Since I will be here many times this year I will write blogs of things that I’ve seen in the area and hopefully you will feel like you have explored one of our great Pacific Northwest cities.

If you want to see more about Portland here is the link to the visitors web-site.
http://www.travelportland.com/visitors/