January 13, 2023 - Portland

 

Title:  January 13, 2023 - Portland
Hike Info : Description

Hike Info:

Type: Car

Description:

Today Steven comes to Portland for the weekend. So Sherri and I will spend time in Portland, with Andrea’s car, and pick him up from the airport.

Powell's Bookstore

I hear both Andrea and Lawrence get ready for work-they both are bicycling in the rain to thor ork. I do not get up when they leave, in fact I sleep well past when they leave. But I get up and go into their meditation room and read and have my quiet time, Sherri tells me that she is now up and I go down and have cereal.

There is a discussion about what we want to do. Sherri has found a web site about My Favorite Weird Things To Do in Portland. This gives us ideas of where to go. We end up talking about getting donuts, going to a books store and visiting a park. I am thinking we do not want to get to Portland right at noon, so we delay a little while-a good excuse to read.

Tree at Mt Tabor Park

But wait! There is a surprise for me! Glen, my roommate during my Senior Fall semester in college, calls me. I think I have talked with him only a couple of times during the past thirty years. So glad to hear from him. He is just touching base after I sent him an anniversary card.

Top of Mt Tabor

Sherri makes lunch for us and then we take off. The first thing is to get gas at Costco. Then off we go to Portland. It is raining, but the trip is uneventful, until we miss a turn off. But it is not too much of an issue. We use Google navigation to get us around. We found Voodoo Donuts on Davis Street. Not sure about the voodoo aspect, but their specialty donuts really look good. So we get a dozen of them. We think that the kids will appreciate them.

Now onward to the bookstore-Powell's downtown store. It takes up a block in downtown Portland. The outside does not seem as impressive as Denver’s old Tattered Cover, but the inside is fun, like Los Angeles’ Last Bookstore is quirky. Powell’s has color coded their parts of the areas. Such as the children’s literature was gold. Sherri and I wandered for close to two hours. We did not buy very much stuff,but we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Looking out from Mt Tabor

Our parking meter is about to expire and it is almost 4. So we take off for our final destination: Mt Tabor Park. Sherri has read this is the site of an old volcano. We miss a turn, but it gives us a chance to observe Mt Tabor. We come in on 68th Street. This is on the Warner Pacific University campus. But when we look at it, this part of the Park is a dog park. A friendly Portlander points us to another entrance which might be more conducive for us.

Another Tree

So we get back into the car and go to the west side entrance, on SE Salmon St. It is getting late, and there is a road, so we drive almost to the top. There we get out and walk the rest of the way. With the darkening skies and the mist shrouding the trees, this seems like a pretty special place. Almost a mystical setting at this hour. A place to come back and explore.

But now we need to get down to the car to pick up Steven at the airport.This in itself was a mini-adventure. I decided to return to the car by continuing on with the road, But there were several roads and I was guessing which one to go down. After walking farther than I thought it was, we found the parking lot.

Google takes us down various streets, taking a bit longer to get to PDX than what it said it was going to. But that is OK since Steven’s plane touched down a bit late. When he texted us we were searching for the Cell Call Waiting area. 

 We pickup Steven and head back to Salem. Not sure why, but Google takes us down 205 until we hit 99E rather than I-5. The consensus is that it has a potential for being a beautiful drive, if it was not dark. We get back to Andrea’s place around 7:30. Dinner of ravioli is about ready for us, with a Voodoo Donut desert to top it off. We finish off the night by playing several routes of a new space card game, Space Team, a game of chaos. By the time we hit our bed it is 11 and I am tired.