Week 22 - Portland, Oregon ("Keep Portland Weird")

Hello Family and Friends.

The west coast is absolutely beautiful. We spent one night in Spokane, Washington on our way from Glacier National Park to Portland, Oregon. As we were driving from Spokane to Portland, Brett woke me up from napping so that I could look at the landscape. After he woke me up he never stopped talking about how great everything was. Brett was living his best life looking at the train tracks going through the rock face. At one point he said that it was like a life size model train set because of the color of the train and the little towns that the train snaked through. We even got off of the interstate and took the scenic route on Historic Columbia River Hwy in Ainsworth State Park.

Horsetail Falls about an hour outside of Portland

Along the same route we stopped to visit Oregon's highest waterfall, Multnomah Falls. The lodge at the base of the falls was celebrating its centennial year. It was a very unexpected surprise and adventure.

Atlas, Brett, Danielle and Sarah in at Multnomah Falls

There was a great biking trail and numerous walking trails. Wish we could have schedule more time to spend at the falls, but we were here for the city. In hindsight, we should have just checked out the falls, because the city was not very kind to us. Brett called it a very expensive experiment.

The first crazy thing that happened is that Brett left his phone on the streetcar and actually ran after the streetcar to retrieve it. If you guys know Brett at all you know this is hilarious. Brett claims that he has so perfected the art of the stroll that he looks like he is walking backwards. I have seen Brett move quickly on his feet one time and that was when he saw Nathaniel headed towards a pool. I have never seen him move so fast then or since. So to see him run after a streetcar was hilarious! Even when running, his body looks like it is protesting. Sarah and I had a good laugh mimicking his running form. But, hey, he did get his phone back.

The reason we were riding the streetcar in the first place was because we went to visit the Japanese garden. It was amazing. We saw 300 year old Bonsai trees. It was so tranquil that even the exuberant 2 year old couldn't ruin it. We are more convinced that we must get to Japan and experience more of this.

A stair walkway located within the Japanese garden.

Quitescental Japanese Koi fish pond.

The next day we decided we would like to visit the Pittock Mansion. It is a 16,000 square foot home built by some of the original Portlanders. They were instrumental in making Portland the city it is today. We wanted to ride our bikes. So we walked to the car and found Brett's bike stolen. He had forgotten to lock his bike and someone took it. Brett's bike had the baby seat on it so that was a bummer. We made a police report with little expectation of getting our bike back. However, we would not let a little property theft deter us from our adventures for the day. The mansion was beautiful and there was a great view of the city. There was also a plethora of trails that were exactly my speed. They were super well marked and great for taking Bruce on walks as well as runs.

View of the city from the mansion.

Sarah and I taking a little hike on the trails around the Pittock mansion.

For dinner we decided to treat ourselves to a great dessert called a Pizookie. It was heaven on earth.

A medium cookie pie with loads of ice cream: double chocolate ghirardelli, white chocolate macadamia, cookies and cream, and salted caramel.

We did some really good damage, but boy did us old people pay for it (mainly Brett and I).

So after our whole bike episode, Brett decided to park the car right across the street from the hotel and make sure our remaining bike was locked down tight. It didn't help. The next morning, Sarah was taking Bruce for a walk and noticed that our bike rack had no bikes. The perpetrators broke the bike lock and the bike rack to get the bike. After that, Brett was done with Portland. One bike being stolen could happen anywhere. Two bikes being stolen is just a bad area. So now we are driving around with a broken and empty bike rack. People warned us about California theft, but we thought we were okay for Portland. I told Brett that maybe when we get to California they will steal the bike rack off the car (that would actually be helpful for us, since it's useless to us now.)

Portland is not our city. There is a significant homeless population and what is noticeably different is how young the homeless population appears. Even before our bikes were stolen there is this heaviness over Portland. The struggle is real.

Next!