So - my husband and I went to Portland to visit our daughter. We left Ft. Lauderdale airport on Thursday, October 17 in the early morning. After a 6 hour flight (going to the west coast takes longer because of headwinds) to San Francisco and a 4 hour layover (which still wasn't enough time to leave the airport, see Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran and return to the airport - oh well) we continued on to Portland. It was an hour and a half flight from San Francisco to Portland. As we landed we could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helen's and Mt. Hood.
Above is Mt. St. Helens from Council Crest Park in Portland.
Above is Mt. Hood which is the nearest to Portland.
Above is Mt. Rainier from a roadside stop on the way to Cannon Beach, Or.
My daughter met us at the car rental place and we drove to Beaverton, a suburb of Portland to the southwest.
Portland is very hilly and the trees were all changing color. There were brilliant reds, oranges and yellows. It reminded me of upstate New York where I was born as far as scenery. There are more pines in Portland, though.
Above shows all three mountains. To the far left are Mt. St. Helens and Rainier. To the right is Mt Hood - I think.......
Above is the overlook at Council Crest Park in Portland. The mountains on the far right are first in front - Mt. St. Helens and behind it, Rainier:
Above is the view showing Portland in the foreground, Mt. St. Helens and then Mt. Rainier. Below are the signs telling about each mountain.
Mt Hood from Council Crest Park.
Me, my daughter and James, her boyfriend.
Ashley trying to touch Mt. St. Helens for me so I could make a trick picture - it didn't work.
Above is Ashley "touching" Mt. St. Helens.
My beautiful daughter - it's very hard living so far from her!!
A shop on Cannon Beach.
Above is a rose at the famous rose gardens in Portland. More roses below.
Above is in the city of Portland.
The tree right outside our hotel in Beaverton.
More roses and beautiful trees at the rose gardens.
I love seeds and dried pods - I collect them and display them in baskets. I don't know what tree this came from - but I had to bring some home - beautiful.
My daughter being serious.
Sun and shadow on the grass at Council Crest Park.
A Woolly Bear caterpillar!! My daughter yelled at me for picking it up thinking it might sting. Since I got it to crawl on me and never touched it's body - only it's "feet", I was fine. I don't think it stings anyway - I've picked them up before.
A street in Beaverton where Ashley lives. Sigh. Beautiful. I have to remind myself that Portland gets LOTS of rain and clouds - but they sure weren't around when we visited. It couldn't have been nicer or more beautiful.
Last - Cannon Beach. Pictures below - I'd never been to the Pacific Ocean - and now I can say I have.
My toes in the Pacific Ocean - CCCCCOLD!!!!
Cutest hubby ever.
Tillamook Rock lighthouse - uninhabited. Read it's history - WOW!! Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
Cannon Beach main street one way.
Cannon Beach main street in the other direction.
Man against the Pacific Ocean.
Haystack Rock - Cannon Beach.
After this we spent one more day. We went to Powell's (below is not my picture - it is from Powells.com).
Powell's is very unusual. Do not think it is just a bigger Barnes & Noble. It is in an older city building and has multiple floors. Some of the floors step down into other rooms, while some are somewhat slanting. The building doesn't appear that old, yet some of the floors are slanty. The inside has books located by subject in different "rooms" - the Purple room has history, while the Red room has books on art. There are knick-knacks, t-shirts, calendars, stuffed animals, Christmas ornaments - and the piece de resistance for me - used books. Yes - in every area there are new books on the subject at hand - AND used ones. Now - do not think "used" as in dog-eared paperbacks. Think antique, think 1800's, think - wow! I don't think I made it to the "rare book room", but I can look on line, thanking God for the internet.
We also visited the downtown Portland Sunday market on the Willamette river (which I don't pronounce right.) I say it like WILL-amet. It's Will -A-mit. I also have to stop myself from saying "Or-e-GON, instead of OR-e-gun. It marks me as a newbie, an outsider. We bought my daughter some pottery mugs - she loves clay pottery and has taken a class in it. I told her to send to me the things she has made (that she doesn't like) - I'd rather have them than some unknown mug.
After that it was goodbyes, which are always very painful for me, so I just hurry through them - give quick hugs and try to drive away as fast as possible. This is followed by hours of tears at the airport as we wait for our flight. Once we hit San Francisco again, I wasn't crying over missing my daughter, but over having to wait another 3 hours for a flight that left San Fran at 11:10pm, but is really 2:10am our time. By the time we landed in Ft. Lauderdale at 7:30am (4:30am Pacific time - a 5 1/2 hour flight), both my husband and I were zombies. We made it home. Barely. Then my husband fell asleep and I slept for a few hours. I then woke up, vacuumed, emptied the luggage and did laundry, made sure the whole house was straightened and clean, and cooked bacon and eggs for dinner. All this while hubby slept.
I thought - "I'm all set to return to work tomorrow", and went to bed early at 8:00pm. I slept like a log, had a billion dreams, and when I woke up to go to work on 10/22, I could not completely wake up no matter what I did. My husband made me coffee, some of which I drank, but it did no good. I kept falling back asleep in my chair and felt drugged. I finally sent a text message to my co-workers that I'd not make it back to work that day - I could not stay awake - and proceeded to go back to bed and sleep like a bear in hibernation until 1pm. After that I still felt wobbly and tired. Very weird. Why didn't I feel like this upon arriving home after being awake and active for 24 hours? Don't know - but the house is clean, the laundry is done, and I will make it back to normal tomorrow......
Oh - and we DID see a Stellar's Jay - below is not our picture, because we only saw it for a second, but here is a photo of one by Stephen Ting:
