Portland Portals

Three years ago, we were in the Portland area, but never ventured into the downtown area.  This time, we decided to do a day of it to discover what Portland had to offer.

First stop, the Lan Su Chinese Garden.  The post below is entirely dedicated to this lovely place.

Our next stop was for lunch, requiring a 9 or 10 block walk.  This particular part of the Pearl District in Portland has seen much better times.  Instead of seeing a vibrant Chinatown, instead we saw buildings in disrepair or vacated, and lots of homeless people.  It seemed like Portland has a very laid back view on the homeless population, and we saw many people sleeping on the sidewalk, right beside the stops for the light rail and street corners.  Groups were gathered at numerous places on the sidewalks and I was thankful it was daylight and there were 4 of us together.

 This Chinese Elephant statue sits in North Park Blocks.  What once was a nice park is now filled with tents, porta-potties and more homeless people.  It is NOT a place where I would take my grandchildren.  We came past this twice as we walked to different destinations.  The second time we passed there was an ambulance, police car and fire engine.  I am betting that is a normal occurrence for this park now a days.

Jerry and Sandy had gotten all sorts of recommendations from their children as to what brewery they should try while in Portland.  We wound up at Deschutes Brewery & Public House.  The food was excellent and I can't tell you how the beer tasted.  Sandy, Jerry and Don were the tasters, I stuck with my glass of ice water.  Sandy doesn't like hoppy beers (what ever that is), and she was happy with one of them.  I would call that an un-hoppy happy.

Next stop, which happened to be right next to Deschutes, was Powell's Books.  This gigantic bookstore has 3 stories of new and used books.  The clerk at one of the desks said that they have over a million books here.  Of course, the one book we were looking for they didn't have.  What were the odds for that?!

Sandy and Jerry enter into the bottom floor.  There are all genres of books, and they reside in different rooms, such as the orange room, rose room, etc.  This would be nirvana for our daughter, Heidi, an avid reader.  If we brought her here, we may not see her until the next day! Powells claims to be the world's largest independent book dealer, and who am I to argue with them?

I loved this one staircase between the second & third floors.  Read from the top step down.

The large chalk board contained all sorts of information and  certain shelves on each sections had employee favorites.  I was surprised to see an 1960's magazine with the picture of John F. Kennedy on the front.

Also on our list was a visit to Voodoo Doughnuts.  We had been to the one in Denver twice and had told them about the downright delicious doughnuts.  After all, we were in the neighborhood.  Why pass up a chance like this?

 They succumbed, and ended up buying some for breakfast the next morning.  Portland is where Voodoo Doughnuts started, and it has a myriad of unique combinations and flavors.

While we were waiting in line outside of Voodoo Doughnuts, I glanced around and saw this slogan painted on the back of a building.  This unofficial motto of Portland was created with the intention of supporting local businesses.  I know some people who would definitely feel right at home here...

The familiar neon sign was originally erected in 1940 and has changed many times.  Once it was owned by the 'White Stag Sportswear line of clothing.  This current version with Old Town on the bottom  has been up since 2010.

After leaving the downtown area, we drove to the SW section of Portland.  I wanted to get a picture of the Bagdad Theater, which originally opened in 1927. In 1975, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher and Michael Douglas were here for the first showing of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".  It now is a theater and a pub.  You can watch a movie or enjoy a beer at one of the two bars, including one behind the movie screen!

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Don, Jerry, Sandy and I all had places that we wanted to see when we ventured into downtown Portland.  I had one main thing on my agenda: The Lan Su Chinese Garden.  Not only would it provide a lot of photo opportunities for me, I was interested in the history of this little island of serenity.

The garden was completed in 2000, and almost all of the building materials were shipped from China to Portland.  This included over 500 tons of rock.  Sixty five artisans were brought over  and lived here for the 10 months it took to complete the garden.  Lan Su features more than 300 plant species found in traditional Chinese gardens.  It represents the relationship between Portland and Suzhou, its sister city in the Jiangsu province.  The name translates to "Garden of the Awakening Orchids".

As you enter the first garden, the booklet tells you to look up at the two dragonfish on the roof.  They are there to swallow all evil influences and to also protect the building from fire.

 There are numerous doorways and windows situated throughout the garden, allowing you to see a view within a view.  It creates the illusion of infinite space.  Beautiful plants and carefully constructed stone walkways keep your eyes moving to different areas of each garden space.

Jerry took a minute to balance his negative and positive qi (pronounced "chee).  In traditional Chinese medicine, it is essential to have a good balance for a healthy body.  He did look rather refreshed after getting up out of the chair.  I needed one like that during my stressful working days!

 The wood panels below were in Vista F: "Flowers Bathing in Spring Rain".  The intricate carvings are made from gingko wood and represent the sister city of Suzhou.

This is part of the Scholar's Courtyard, a quiet place for reflection and contemplation.  Inscriptions above both sides of the circular moongate remind  people to look for meanings and use our senses in new ways.

The unusual rocks in the garden above and the picture below are from Lake Tai.  They are highly prized.  The rocks are formed underwater during the course of many decades.  Acidic waters from the lake erode the rocks, leaving unusual shapes.  The one below looked like someone had drilled holes through the rock.

The small boat anchored in the pond seemed to reflect all the peace and quiet of this amazing place. I'm glad we came!  May you also be blessed with peace and tranquility during your week.

Music to my Ears?

This will probably be the shortest blog I have ever posted.

Remember the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" with John Candy?  That movie came to mind after we were here for a day.  This park is a 15 minute drive from Portland (a good thing), but it also:

1) Backs up to a local highway

2) Not far from Interstate 84

3) Fairly close to the Portland Airport

4) Adjacent to the railroad tracks

Behind the row of trees of the RV's across from us is the railroad tracks!  I figured it must be on a slight incline since the engines are either struggling to push their load up the hill or applying their brakes going downhill.  It is a heavily used set of tracks.  Nothing like waking up in morning to hear the metal against metal screeching in the background!  It's almost as nice as hearing fingernails on a blackboard.

Well, when you are RVing, you take the good spots along with the bad ones.  Looking forward to moving our rigs to a spot near the coast.  : - )

Loosey Goosey

In the small town of McMinnville, Oregon resides a museum that houses one of the most famous planes ever built.  Not only is it monstrous, it was built in the 1940's and only flew one mile!  Yes, I said one mile.  

The Spruce Goose also goes by the name of the Flying Boat, and was built by Howard Hughes during the years of WWII.  It was built for the purpose of flying men and supplies over to support the war effort, but wasn't completed until after the war was over in 1946.

Here is the building that houses the Spruce Goose: 

 This gives you an idea of how large this plane actually is.  If you would drop this over the top of a football field, the wing spans would extend 10 feet over the edge.  Its tail is as tall as an 8 story building!  Not only is that mind boggling, but the plane's body is built out of wood, held together by a special laminating process invented by Howard Hughes.  Seven tons of nails were used during the building process, but once the glue set, they were removed.  The plane was stored for many decades in a special hanger built by Hughes, then moved to a spot near the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California before being shipped in pieces to this spot.

The museum houses many types of airplanes, helicopters and other items related to aviation.

Don is standing in front of a single engine British plane called the Vampire.  It looks like a toy sitting under the huge wing of the Spruce Goose.  This airplane was first flown in 1945, just before the end of WWII.  It did have some quirks: if the engine flared out, there was no ejection seat and no way to bail out.  You were toast.

Here is what the planes looked like when they first started using airplanes to haul mail.  At that time, it was a by guess and by golly system of navigation.  There was no GPS, and no highway system to get your bearings as to where you were, so the pilots had to do their best guess.

The P40 wears the Flying Tiger Paint scheme.

In another hanger, there is a large collection of space travel memorabilia.  There was a lot of information and pictures relating to travel into out space in the 1960's and 70's.  Included was a model of Sputnik, which was the first rocket shot into space by the Russians.  As Sandy and I looked up, we saw a guy (okay, he might have been a dummy) hanging in space directly overhead.  I could have sworn I saw him wave to us.....hmm....

The black spy plane seen below was called the Blackbird.  On July 28, 1976, it set a world speed record of 2,193 miles per hour!  Just think, you could start out in California, blink, and by the time you opened your eyes, you could be in Nevada!  Imagine the jet lag you would have by the end of a trip in this plane!  It could scan over 100,000 square miles of the earth's surface every hour. Totally amazing, even by today's standards.

Acknowledgements go to Sandy and Jerry White for taking all of these pictures (with their cell phones no less).  I did bring my camera along. However, that didn't do me any good since the SD memory card was still in my laptop after downloading the previous day's photos!  The gift shop had no SD cards, but had film to sell.  Who uses film nowadays???  Thanks again, Sandy & Jerry!

No malts at Multnomah.

Just 30 minutes from Portland is Multnomah Falls, which I think is one of the prettiest waterfalls we have had the chance to see.  We visited here on Saturday, and the place was packed with thousands of people going up and down the paths to the bridge, plus dogs of all shapes and sizes.  

Finding a parking spot was a challenge and cars were parked along the very narrow highway half a mile down the road.  In fact, the road was so narrow that we had to pull in one of our side mirrors on the truck so it didn't scrape the rock wall!  Staying on our side of the yellow line was tricky, especially when there were two bicyclists riding abreast on the road ahead of us.  What were they thinking?  

So, not only were there tons of people milling around, along comes a wedding party to be added to the mix!  We were leaving, so I had no idea if the groom and bride manged to walk up the steep hill to the bridge.  Just getting up the huge steps with long dresses on and seeing the photographer scramble around them was interesting sight to watch.  

And as for the title, there were plenty of ice cream cones being licked here but nary a malted milk shake.  Shucks.  : (  I could have enjoyed one of those!

Hooray for LeMay!

Amazing, awesome and amazing!

Yep, those words describe the LeMay Family Collection of automobiles and other eclectic items in Tacoma, Washington.  My longtime friend, Helen, suggested that we visit this museum while we were staying in Olympia.  We were here around 4 hours and I ended up taking over 300 pictures!

Harold LeMay started his own garbage collection business and ended up collecting thousands of cars, boats, bikes, trucks and various memorabilia.  Approximately 600 cars are housed here at  the former Marymount Military Academy.  The rest of his collection is spread out over 200 storage places in the surrounding area.

The first room you are ushered into is the former Marymount gymnasium, stocked full of expensive, and fully restored collectible cars.

Above Sandy and Jerry is a Compass Echo house trailer.  The small trailer was built to 1/4 scale of a regular trailer and hauled around to shows so people could see the floor plans.  Now, all you have to do is get on the Internet to view the various floor plan options and pictures of what the inside and outside look like.

How would you like to ride along in this, inhaling the fumes from the car? I don't think you could even be called a backseat driver from here.  Maybe this was the mother-in-law seat!

Below is a 1929 Windsor White Prince Roadster, complete with the Windsor Coat of Arms for the Prince of Wales.  Buckingham Palace objected to this and threatened to sue.  The company went out of business the next year.  Price new was $1485.00, quite a sum for 1929.

This is a 1955 Chevy Nomad "Playbunny Coach".  The top was chopped down 4 inches, then combined with parts from a Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser,  the front end of a Mustang and a Lincoln rear end in the late 1960's.  I think it would fun to drive this one around

Check out the beautiful candy apple red paint job on this chopped 1951 Mercury.  It now sits in the former Marymount pool house.  The pool room has the cars on top and car parts stored in the former heated swimming pool.

Sandy stopped a moment to let Elvis croon one of his favorite songs to her.  Kind of looks like he is singing "Love Me Tender" and Sandy is thinking about a response..

You have to be "old" to remember these ice cream carts!  This was over in one of the corners, but it caught my eye.  Don't think they have any of these on the streets anymore.

Part of the tour was in this cavernous warehouse, with 3 rows of cars stacked up to the ceiling.  Think of how many tires there are in just this building to keep pumped up!

It would be really easy to park this little BMW, which is only 7.5 feet long.  For access to the single bench seat, you have to open up the front door, which is attached to the steering wheel!  I think this would feel like driving in an over sized tin can and it would be downright scary to drive it on our Phoenix streets.  Death wish comes to mind.

This double ugly car is a 1956 Citroen.  Check out the seats!  This would not be the car you would want to use on a cross country trip.

Harrison Ford drove this car in the movie "Indiana Jones".

This Westfalia VW is perfect for some people, but not for Don and I.  It would be a bit cramped to live in for months at a time!

One of the more unusual items was this 1961Civil Defense Shelter, which you could buy and bury in your back yard in case Russia attacked the U.S.  Maybe there are still some of these around in people's back yards.

The olive green car below was driven by Mr. Cunningham on the TV show "Happy Days".    Okay, maybe you aren't old enough to remember seeing the program when it was originally on prime time TV, but the reruns are still around!  Who can forget the Fonz?!

Jerry is looking at the car hauler that Harold LeMay bought just so he could transport the cars he bought back to Tacoma.  There is an interesting story behind this.  Harold purchased these cars at auction in 1999, then drove them back and put the truck, cars and hauler in a storage facility.  Mr. LeMay passed away, and no one else knew where these were.  Last year, his son went to check out some of the 200 places they store cars and found them, just as they were left 14 years previously!  The cars (except for one) have not been moved from the car hauler since the auction.

Olympic National Park

We finally made it to Olympic National Park, one place that I have wanted to visit for many years.  It sits at the northwestern top of Washington, so it is quite a drive from Arizona.  Now, Sandy, Jerry, Don and I have been to the national parks in the far reaches of America:  Acadia in Maine, the Florida Everglades, Saghuaro National Monument in the Southwest and Olympic.  All four corners!

 It took us a bit over 2 and a half hours to drive up to the Visitor Center here, near Port Angeles.  It was a beautiful day, with plenty of sunshine.  We were thankful for that, since we brought a picnic lunch with us.  The map below was at the visitor center, showing us all the stopping places along the perimeter (there is NO road through this enormous park)  Hwy 101 encircles the park, and it would take a full day of driving with no stopping to go around it.

 Fall was in the air, and the Vine Maple by the Visitor Center was showing off its autumn colors.

We drove up a gently winding road to Hurricane Ridge, which gives you breathtaking scenery and a view of the mountain range, complete with numerous mountain tops and peaks.  Yes, it was sunny, but the wind was chilly up there.  We were pleased that we brought our jackets along.

This sign was posted in front of the mountain range at the Visitor Center, allowing us to figure out all the different peaks. Here, winter snow lingers into early summer.

 And to prove that we were there, and not swiping pictures off the Internet, here are actual photos of us in front of Mt. Olympus!