Everything's Coming Up Roses

A small sampling of the International Rose Test Gardens. Sorry I can't share the lovely frangrances, too.

Portland Days 5 and 6: Mt. Hood is cold even in summer

No pictures from days 5 and 6 of the trip. Perhaps we had expended our energy for taking photos, or perhaps there just weren't as many opportunities for pictures. On Saturday morning, we checked out the well-known Portland Saturday Fair under the Burside Bridge. Along with the usual kitch and crap was some nice pottery, beautiful framed photographs from around Portland and Oregon, and an artist who did sketches and color renderings of people or their photographs. Now, every good fun park has a caricaturist, but this guy did realistic drawings. They were really impressive. No pictures here, though, as it seemed odd to photograph people in the mini-stores.

Nor did get a good picture of Mt. Hood, despite the fact that we were on it. It was cold and raining and foggy the day we drove up, and when we got up there, some 5000 feet above sea level, it occured to us that a snow-capped mountain is cold in the summer, too. Neither of us was dressed properly, didn't even bring clothes warm enough for the trip, and certainly weren't warm enough to hike around Mirror Lake as we'd hoped. The mountaintop and nearby Government Camp provided a slightly different crowd that the city, country, and beach. There were little kids going for ski or snowboarding camp on their summer vacations, a lot of dredded hippies snowboarding and hitchhiking a ride off the mountain, a lot of of people with really unclear purposes in life. We ate a little restaurant in Government Camp -- a Ratskeller in fact, but unlike any I'd visited in Germany proper. So after driving up to the moutain, we drove down.

In the afternoon we went to a generic suburban mall and saw a movie. I've often wondered if I can return to living in a land of strip malls and planned developments with 300 identical houses after living in such a big city. After all, I grew up in the suburbs (unlike Wes), so it's not unfamiliar. Our moviegoing experience seem to suggest that neither of us would embrace it, though we could certainly pull it off if it made the most sense. Wes has been talking about being at a top 25 or top 50 hospital after Northwestern, which are largely in the top 25 to top 50 biggest cities, so my guess is we won't ever get that far from city life again, even if it is a car ride away instead of a bus.

Saturday night, after a walk, we enjoyed some of the Pelican Ale we took with us after dinner on the coast and watched Hitch on TV. It may seem weird to go on vacation and spend the last evening in a hotel room watching a movie on TV, but it was the exact kind of vacation we needed -- one where there's no expectation that every minute must be filled by sightseeing. Just some downtime.

Ultimately, we both had a really nice visit. We love the area, could definitely see living there, and had some nice relaxation and reconnecting. I dare say not many couples take romantic trips to Oregon, but I highly recommend it!

Portland Day 4: Taking Time to Smell the Roses

Day 4 in Portland involved some local outings. We initially headed for Powells, but then realized we should use the morning for the local gardens, including the Japanese Botanical Gardens and the International Rose Test Gardens. Oregon is, as you may not know, the Rose State. There's an annual Rose Festival in early June (we missed the 100th anniversary by one week) at which a Rose Queen is crowned at the time of the year when the roses are peak.

The Japanese Botanical Gardens, which boasted to be "authentic", -- and for unclear reasons required us to be cautious -- were very pretty. The irises, just about the only piece of color in the whole gardens, were unfortunately not blooming yet, though the bridges, streams, and neatly trimmed greenery were lovely.

I cannot say enough about the International Rose Test Gardens. They were GORGEOUS. There was every color, every fragrance, and every shape was included. Wes and I spent more than an hour just walking up and down aisles of roses exclaiming over them all. Even the neighboring tennis courts' fencing was covered in roses (middle left). And it's not just the gardens. There are roses of this quality and color all over the state. We saw them everywhere. I think I could go to these gardens every day they're in bloom and never become bored. This is a must-see if you ever visit Portland in the summer months. It's enough, by itself, to make me want to move there.

After our morning of flowers, Wes and I went to a wine shop downtown that carried wines from Oregon wineries and did a tasting of Pinot Noirs. We enjoyed almost all we tried and ended up bringing a bottle home with us. We really wanted to visit more of the local wineries and brewpups, but as neither of us drives after even one drink, it made it hard. Plus, our focus seemed to be on enjoying more vigorous aspects of nature rather than hedonistic. Perhaps otherwise in the future. After that it was 2 hours (yes, that long) at Powells for lots of book perusing (we walked from the wine shop, where we'd only had 1-1 1/2 glasses at most, giving us up to 2 or more hours to wear off the effects before driving) before dinner at the elegant Chart House. Billed as one of the best restaurants in Portland, the Chart House overlooks the city, as well as (on clear days) views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Saint Helens. We enjoyed lobster bisque, more snapper covered with crab meat for me and some fish I can't remember for Wes, and the restaurant's famous hot chocolate lava cake for dessert. The meal didn't supercede some I've had in Chicago, but it was good and our one expensive meal while away.

I, unfortunately, totally overate as my fish meal was quite large and spend the evening trying to make my distended belly shrink up. It was, needless to say, a full day (hah!).

True Artistic Vision

A picture I look of Wes on our hike to Cape Overlook. He gave me a huge leaf with a hole in it earlier on the hike, and I put it to a creative purpose.

Portland Day 3: Pacific Coast and the Goonies

On Thursday, Wes and I headed out to the Pacific Coast. We drove to Cannon Beach, as recommended by both the guide book and Wes's residency director, who went to med school in Portland and still owns a condo in Bend. What we didn't know when we went is that Canon Beach features Haystack Rock, prominently featured along with nearby Ecola Park and further afield Astoria in the movie The Goonies. Wes was just sure he'd seen the rock (top right) in the movie. I'd tried to assure him the whole coast was littered with these types of rocks, but he was insistent -- and proved his point by Googling it when we got back to the hotel room.

We had this great idea when we left to ride bikes along the coast. Because it was high tide, we couldn't rent beach bikes. Mike, the guy who owned the bike rental shop (singular, yes), assured us that we could ride along the coast on a paved road. What we didn't realize, but quickly found out, was that the paved road was in fact the road, so we were riding in the bike lane alongside cars and trucks and motorcycles. We did manage to find some scenic stopping points (top left, middle center) in the midst of panting up major hills not to be found in the midwest anywhere. Unfortunately, at one point we decided to trek down a side road of houses to get a better look at the coast. We turned around in some gravel, and I went down hard. Fortunately, I had on my jacket (which I'd jokingly said earlier would protect me when I fell), but I still managed to produce a knot of my forearm and bruise my palm (interesting to see). We made it back to the bike rental shop without further incident, but I was happy to be off the "bike route" and back on foot and in a car. A little further down the coast we did a really short hike through some pretty wooded areas (middle left and right) to see the coastline and surrounding areas.

Another hour of driving or so later -- through Tillamook, which makes its own cheddar and smells like it -- we found Cape Overlook Trail and did another 5-5.5 mile hike. This time it wasn't as hilly, but a bit muddy. We didn't start out until around 5:30pm, and not knowing what our pace would be, I was worried we would get caught out on the trail after dark. Although we managed to make it to the end (bottom center) and back by 7:30pm, both Wes and I were a little spooked by the warnings at the trailhead about bears. We must've looked like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man hiking along looking and listening for bears. The views along the way were once again beautiful and a little scary. It really is straight down off these cliffs to the water!

After we got back, we drove a little further south to the Pelican Pub and Brewery. It's a cute local place that makes it own beer. Since Wes was driving, we decided not to sample there but did take several of their brews back to the hotel to enjoy later in the week. I had some really wonderful snapper, and Wes had fish and chips (something he likes to sample in various places, though not yet in England) made with Mahi Mahi rather than the traditional (for the Pacific) Halibut, since it had been overfished in the area. Both meals were excellent, and it was neat to watch the sun go down over the water.

It was a late night getting back to the hotel, but it felt really nice to take a shower that night after getting covered in mud on the hike.

Portland: Day 2, or What does a fish say when it runs into a wall?

Dam!

The second day in Portland was the beginning of the fitness portion of our vacation, namely hiking along the Colombia Gorge. The river is enormous and surrounded by breathtaking scenes. We drove along a historic highway to see some nice scenes. Our first stop was just at a scenic overlook (bottom center). We took advantage of a little pedestal to get one of only a few pictures of both of us. Then we did a short stop at the Vista House (bottom left). It's pretty, but kind of unclear why it's there. The weather all week was in the low 70s at best, and it made for some really comfortable hiking weather. We decided to do Angel's Rest, which is 5-5.5 miles round trip. First, you go straight up to the highest point in the treeline (bottom right). The you come down. The way up is pretty shaded, but there was no question at any time that we were going up (top left). There were lots of viewpoints to see straight down (middle center), across the river at some beautiful cliffs and periodically trains weaving their way through tunnels through the cliffs. The hike was challenging, but not too intense. We both took our jackets but found we didn't really need them as we worked up a sweat. The scenes from the top (top right) were just beautiful. We even met a really cute beagle with its owner on its way down. It made us wish Lucy were with us, though she's a bit out of shape these days and is slow on long walks.

After the hike, we got back in the car and headed for Multnomah Falls. We had a light lunch at the restaurant there -- Wes had a tuna melt that was really good, while I had some pretty tasty clam chowder and a salad with some kind of walnut viniagrette -- and then did took a short walk to the falls themselves (middle left). There are pictures all over Portland of these falls. Picassa blocks pictures to make these collages, but the full picture that shows the full 600+ feet of falls is really pretty. We walked up to the bridge, but -- obviously -- took the picture from below.

Next we went to one of the local fish hatcheries. These are all over the area and are used to restock the lakes that are sometimes overfished. There are spawning rooms and pools of little tiny fish all the way up to full size fish. We saw salmon, trout, and even enormous sturgeon. The best part of the hatchery, though, was the museum on the dam. The Colombia has a huge dam along it, but since it's plentiful in salmon, wildlife services had to create a way for them to swim upstream each year. So they built a fish ladder (middle right). Basically, when the fish get to the dam, they approach a series of stairs covered by water. The fish swim to the edge of the stair and literally jump up to the next level. Wes and I must have stood for 10 minutes or more just watching the fish jump from stair to stair (difficult to catch on camera, but fun to watch). Just beneath, you can watch the fish underwater swimming against the current (top middle). Occasionally you'll see a fish fly backwards across the window, worn out by fighting the current. There was some interesting information on the fish's return swim to the birthplace for spawning. Salmon always go back to where they were born to spawn, including those born at hatcheries along the Colombia. But, if the salmon encounter problems along the way, they will find alternatives. When Mt. Saint Helen's erupted some years back, it left the water to littered with runoff for the fish to make it. So when they hit the debris, they just found a fork nearby and spawned there. After the water cleared, they started returning to their original places for spawning. Although it's environmentally unclear to me why the fish return to their birthplace to spawn, it is very impressive.

Portland Day 1: Powells and Around Town

So Wes and I got back from our trip to Portland yesterday, and now it is my happy task to try and choose the very best pictures (from the 170 or more we took) to share. I decided a day-by-day summary would be best, starting with the day we arrived -- last Tuesday.

We left Chicago around 10:15am and got to Portland around noon with the time change. PDX, the main Portland airport, is fortunately much smaller than O'Hare and easier to negotiate. Of course, that didn't mean our arrival was without incident -- the airline didn't get our bags on the flight despite on-time check-in (I highly recommend using online check-in when traveling from O'Hare -- you get your own line to check your bags at the airport, and we managed to circumvent many a long line as a result), and we had to have them delivered to the hotel. Given that they did actually arrive and were in tact, it wasn't a big problem. In fact, it saved us from schlepping two oddly heavy bags (given that we were there for only 5 days) across the airport to the car rental place. We did rent a car for the visit, and Wes had the task of being the one to drive a car for the first time in more than 2 years. He was a little heavy on the brakes, but other than that we did fine.

Since we didn't have bags and were stuck wearing the clothes we traveled in, we decided to walk around downtown Portland, have lunch, and just check things out. For us that means two things -- finding Powells (my thing) and visiting the emergency room at Portland's hospital (Wes's thing). We ended up having lunch down near the Wilamette at a little Panera-type shop. One nice thing about Portland is that there's a lot of locally-owned businesses. You see the occassional fast-food joint, and many of the clothing stores are brand names, but there's a variety of neat little cafes and delis and boutique shops. On this occassion, it was Paradise Bakery, which had a lunch special featuring a really great chicken-salad sandwhich, kettle chips, and one of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had in a store (shout out to mom's cookies).

On this, our first trip to Powells, which lasted a mere 45 minutes since our parking meter was running out, we perused, got the lay of the store, and we each bought one or two books. Wes found a riveting tale about sepsis... The bookstore is AMAZING. I used to think my favorite store in the world was the Container Store, and although it does make me happy, I could spend MUCH longer in Powells. This place is wonderful. It's not much different than your run-of-the-mill big bookstore, except that every price is marked down, some very much so. Powell's has around 750,000 books! It would be very, very dangerous for me to live near this store. We would definitely need more bookshelves. We ended up back there for about 90 minutes later in the week -- at which time I bought a few more books, and Wes got a book on mutual funds -- ostensibly so we can afford my long-term book-buying habits at Powells.

On our way to the hotel a few hours later, Wes couldn't help but swing by the emergency room at the hostpial. This is one of the places he interviewed at for residency, and one of the ones that sent us a letter about a week before rankings were due to let him know they wanted him. Sadly for me, but fortunately for our bookshelves, we opted for Chicago instead. What really excited Wes on this visit, though, was that the hospital had recently finished a ski lift up to the facility. The hospital sits on a hill, and it's not easily accessible by car (I know...). We, in fact, got lost every single time we tried to get back to our hotel while there. They seem to have a built a bypass only to have the city grow past the bypass. Hence, the roads all now bypass this part of the city, and you have to do some doubling back sometimes to get where you're going. I thought Wes was going to wreck the car trying to look at the ski life while driving. The bottom of it is down on the river near some of OHSU's new buildings. We actually walked over there on Saturday afternoon, but the facility was hosting an event and the lift was closed for that. Wes was, needless to say, heartbroken that we went to Portland and didn't get to ride the ski lift to the hospital (who is this man?), but I assured him we could do it the next time we go back.

We ended up taking a walk that evening and reading at the beautiful hotel where we stayed. The town is actually smaller than I imagined, perhaps because Wes kept telling me how not-small it was. Retrospectively, he realized that at the time he was comparing it to Charlottesville, where we were living at the time. Now that we are big city folks, Portland seems, in fact, quite small. The city blocks are about half the size of city blocks here, and the buildings aren't nearly as tall. The only thing bigger are the hills and mountains, which are very noticeable after living in the oh-so-flat midwest.

Around the Worlds in 1 mile or less

Chicago has a really cool exhibit going on right now down near Museum Campus and the lakefront between there and Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. It's a series of large globes that are pieces of art addressing environmental issues. Some are about recycling, some renewable energy, some eco-friendly building types and travel methods, sustainable agriculture, and more. If you live in Chicago, definitely check it out. If not, here are some of our favorites from a walk we took last week before leaving on our trip.