Tulip, close

Sunday evening after the wonderful meal at 3 Doors Down Cafe, we rode along SE 37th to Clinton, then over to SE Division at 21st where I found tulips blooming in all their glory. Come back tomorrow for the wide shot.

ABC Wednesday - O is for oops, odds, over and out

Oops . . . TriMet's sign warns cyclists about the streetcar tracks on SW 11th Avenue.

Odds . . . What are the odds that this fading blossom would land just so among the fern fronds?

Over . . . Construction continues on the new light rail lines on SW 6th Avenue, leading to a pedestrian footbridge over the street.

Out . . . Daytime means the lights on the Made in Oregon sign are turned out.

Corporate landscape--yellow tulips

One among the many aspects of Portland that I enjoy is the variety of landscaping at businesses all around the city. These yellow tulips and their colorful neighbors inhabit a small bed at One Main Place, across the street from the great big hole. Friday the wind blew hard and long, continuing after work when I took this photo. You can see evidence of that on the right where some tulip petals have come loose.

A wonderful evening in Portland

Pat and Mike, our friends from California, came to town for a few days. We picked them up at their hotel so that we could go to 3 Doors Down Cafe for dinner.

Appetizer: Cippolini onions, spring peas, baby carrots, braised hamhock

Entree: Orecchiette with sherry braised ground lamb ragu, green beans, eggplant & mint

Entree: Prawns, basil and English pea risotto
Pat and Mike had the meatballs and bucatini, seen here when I posted about their selection as Portland's Best Meatballs by Portland Monthly magazine.

Mama, Pat and Mike kindly posed on a bench outside the cafe so that I could get a photo. Lamont came to our table for a short visit before the kitchen got busy. And his girlfriend Lindsay came to the restaurant for a few moments, too. It was a wonderful evening filled with good conversation and good food that made for great memories. Pat and Mike are the parents of our dear friend Danielle who hopes to come to visit us later this summer while she's in Portland in connection with her college studies. We are blessed.

Talladega!

This is me, two years ago today, right before the NASCAR race was to begin. I had set the camera on self-portrait and handed it to our friend Ron so that he could point it at me. Not too much later, it started to rain which led to the race's being delayed until the next day.

I entered this photo in the Kodak Best Race Moment Ever Contest and won the grand prize--a trip for two to the last three races of the season in Homestead, Florida, in November, 2006; Leland went with me--we had a blast.

Mama and I got to go to the spring race in 2006 because our friends Kay and Milton helped us get there, then offered their bed in their travel trailer to us for the duration. Milton and Kay stopped on their way up to their seats on Monday, May 1, 2006. The race had been rained out the day before, but we didn't have to go home without seeing it, thank goodness!

Kay and Mama weren't the only ones enjoying the campfire--they just happened to be the only ones in the photo. Weren't we lucky? Our campground was within walking distance of the superspeedway which made it easy to get to the gate. Mama stayed at the trailer while we went to the races--she had just as much fun watching on TV and no physical stress, something she knew she couldn't do.


Here's some information about the Talladega Superspeedway from NASCAR dot com:
Track Details
Completed : 1969
Distance : 2.66 miles
Shape : Tri-oval
Banking : 33° turns16.5° frontstretch2° backstretchFrontstretch : 4,300 feet
Backstretch : 4,000 feet
Seating : 143,231

Kay and Milton's friend Cecil got garage/pit passes and gave them to Kay and me. We were in 7th heaven, let me tell you. This is just one photo of many from those three exciting days. Looking at it again on Saturday, I realized that it sort of foretells the way things are now for three drivers--in the photo, Mark Martin's car hauler is on the left, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s is in the middle, and Kyle Busch's is on the right.

Junior left Budweiser and his No. 8 team at the end of last season. He went to Hendrick Motor Sports, a move which led to the departure of their driver of the No. 5 Kellogg's car, Kyle Busch, to make room for Junior at Hendrick. Mark Martin left the Roush team and now drives the No. 8 for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Junior drives the No. 88 for Hendrick, and Kyle Busch drives the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs.

Saturday before the Nationwide race, after Joe Nemechek ousted Tony Stewart from the pole for today's Sprint Cup race, I called Kay and Milton on the cell phone so that we could crow a bit together. We're not Tony Stewart fans, not in the least. Later on, drat it, he won Saturday's race. Anyway, like other years, Milton will call me on the cell phone just as the cars cross the start line for the Sprint Cup race today. I'll be watching on TV, but like Kay said to me on Tuesday, "It's not like hearing it in person!" She is so, so right--when 43 cars roar by at almost 200 mph, it's outta sight wonderful.

Milton and Kay had these two flags flying high above their trailer at the campground.

TriMet Bus Stop ID 7963

I took this photo this morning at 7:45 a.m., at SE 82nd & Flavel in Portland going south. Duncan and I were on the way to the vet. He had an inflamed salivary gland excised last Saturday, and we were headed for a check of his stitches. He passed with flying colors--we return next Saturday to get them taken out.


from http://trimet.org
Stop is in Fare Zone 2
Served by 72-Killingsworth/82nd Ave, Stop ID 7936

Amenities
No shelter
Stop is on the near side of the intersection
Traffic signal
Pavement at back door of bus
Curb ramp near stop
Pavement at front door of bus
Schedule display
Crosswalk

By the way, here's what anonymous left at Mama and Me from PDX about near side: Re: nearside, if you are walking in the direction of traffic at an intersection, and the stop is before you cross the street, it is on the nearside. If the stop is after you cross the street it is far side.

Behind the bus stop sign that lets you know the 72 stops here, you see the Checkered Flag. I found at City Search that it is the Checkered Flag II, but there is no mention of the CF I. Here's the one and only review of the place:

Awesome Cheeseburger
5 Star Rating: Highly Recommended 12/02/2004 Posted by bradley soots

If you are wanting a cheese burger that is just wonderful and is one of the best tasting around, you need to try the "Flag" burger or the "Big One". The big one serves at least 2 if not three and comes with delicious garlic fries if you want them. Want a cheeseburger that drips when you eat it, then either will fill your senses.

Pros: Flavorfull food, Great Value for the $, Nice place

Prepared

Wide, corner of SW 2nd and Main

Close, same shot, cropped

Not much on this post--connectivity difficulties took all the energy I had left after a long, long day of work. For a while, I thought I might not even get it back and would miss a day. So glad that didn't happen. Off to walk Duncan and hit the hay.

ABC Wednesday - N is for No, Not, Never

No Antiques--this store closed business soon after I took this photo.


No graffiti--someone painted over it later the day I took this photo; I know because I walked by again the next morning.


No light--someone decided to remove this fixture from Trinity Episcopal, the church with the red doors, a few months after I took this photo.


No man--the rains weakened the man's paper-self and he disappeared from the weathered plywood.


No candy corn--those same rains finished what the climbing vine started when it got too close to the candy corn.


No business--Bee Cleaners has gone from this location at SW 10th and Salmon.


Not there anymore--nothing you see between the fence and the high rise buildings remains.


Not there anymore--and here's why. Yep, the great big hole took the place of this parking lot and led to the demise of the surrounding trees and shrubs. This poster stands diagonally opposite where the same poster stands in the fourth photo down on Monday's post about the assembly of the construction crane. I wonder if it's the exact same poster? I can't remember seeing any others around the great big hole these days.


No, not never--the positive answer to these questions: Will I ever get tired of taking photos? Will I ever go photo-taking without my rolling black bag?


If you're of a mind to, go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place for loads of other ABC Wednesday blogs! You'll need to look at the comments at her blog to find out who is participating this week.

Beauty, wide and close

I have walked by this tall flowering shrub for two springtimes now, on my way to the morning bus or at the beginning of my walk to the second bus, a little over a mile away. I think it's a camellia, but I'm not certain. I do know for sure that it is beautiful and difficult to photograph because the flowers are so white and the leaves are so green.

First and Main, I happened on the construction crane installation

Yesterday while doing errands, I decided to go through downtown and take the Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette. I wanted to see that big hole on I've been photographing, on a weekend day. Lo and behold, folks were at work putting up a yellow construction crane. I made a couple of blocks, parked the Buick beside Chapman Square a block and a half from the hole, and set off with my camera around my neck. Unseasonably cold weather wouldn't stop me from hopefully getting some interesting photos.

Here are five of the workers I noticed after I'd snapped a few photos. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, or hearing for that matter. I swear, I could hear something that sounded like a hammer striking metal. Skilled, capable, careful workers for sure.

Situated on SW First was the black crane that picked up the pieces of the yellow crane and took them up into the air. And two more workers are in this photo.

If you look closely, you can see the cables from the black crane to the piece of the yellow crane. You can even see one heading down from the left end of that yellow piece, going out of the photo in the lower left corner.

There's a lot going on in this photo. There's the empty steel plate where the bulldozer sat in my earlier posts about this great big hole. Notice the poster that depicts the finished 15-story First and Main building. And there's another piece of the yellow crane still on the truck, plus a piece on the ground to the right of that flatbed.

In this photo that I took from a raised patio of a high rise building on the opposite corner, you can see both cranes pretty well. In no time, the leaves will be out on those trees, obstructing the view. Maybe I can get a photo from up on the sidewalk of the Hawthorne Bridge which is the opposite direction from where I'm standing now.

Zooming in, you can see the steel wall with the yellow crane behind it which lets you know that the base of the crane is down in the great big hole. Why has that section of the steel wall been left so high above the rest of the wall that surrounds the great big hole? This photo shows something else unique at this intersection at this particular moment. This street is usually one way east. However, the silver car beside the brown steel wall is heading west in the lane made for traffic during the crane installation. The reason this traffic flow reconfiguration took place is all of that equipment on SW First, beyond the great big hole, had to have somewhere to park. Considering how busy this intersection--the eastbound entrance to the Hawthorne Bridge and the westbound exit off the Hawthorne Bridge--is in the morning and evening workday rush hours, installing the crane on Saturday makes all sorts of good sense.

Signs of confusion?

Do Not Enter. No Left Turn. One Way. Left Lane Must Turn Left.

I took this photo while stopped for the traffic signal at SW 10th and West Burnside. Since I didn't plan to turn left onto Burnside, I was in the center lane when I noticed these signs.

Whoa, I thought, these signs could be confusing, unless you know this intersection's quirks. West Burnside is a two-way street, running east and west. SW 10th is one-way, northbound. Coming off West Burnside, going east and to the left of all of these signs, about 50 feet from the traffic signal and at a sharp angle to West Burnside, is SW Oak, a one-way street. Hence, the Do Not Enter and No Left Turn signs followed by the Left Lane Must Turn Left. In other words, do not enter SW Oak here by turning left. However, if you're in the left-most lane on SW 10th, you have to turn left onto West Burnside.

Still confused? You can see this pretty good on Google Maps, but I couldn't get the link to work very well. Put in this and click Search Maps: 1005 W. Burnside Portland Oregon.

The rest of our Byways Cafe visit last Saturday

I believe this is a well-designed sign. The You Are Here dot is a fun idea.

We sat at a table beside the front window, next to the end of the counter. Mama enjoyed a cup of Stumptown Coffee while we looked at the menu. Since we had arrived less than two hours before their 2 p.m. Saturday closing time, Byways had already sold out of biscuits and blue corn pancakes. We ordered buttermilk pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs.

Mama's breakfast

My breakfast--I forgot to take the photo before I had eaten some of it. Both of us were totally pleased with our food, every bit of it.

Memorabilia from most all of the states hangs from the ceiling and on the walls, as well as fills display cases and shelves. It wasn't hard for me to find these two special items.



At some point, we plan to ride the bus to Byways Cafe and get there early enough to try the biscuits. I hope it will be warm enough so that we can sit at the picnic table on the sidewalk. We'll have to wait, but we know it will be worth it. Until then, we'll enjoy our last look at the cafe as we walked to the Buick.

TriMet Bus Stop ID 5020

I've decided to start a series of photos, an intermittent series I suppose I should call it, that involves TriMet stops. Here's the first one which I decided to make into a black and white photo using iPhoto.



I took this Tuesday at about 5:45 p.m. as I waited to catch the #15. Instead of going west towards home, I traveled east to Nostrana to meet Lamont so that we could eat dinner where Leland and Lindsay were working. Fun, great company and great food.

From http://trimet.org:
SW Salmon & 5th in Portland going east, Stop ID 5020
Español (this is a link on the Web page)
Stop is in Fareless Square
(each of the following is a link on the Web page)
TransitTracker (Next Arrivals)
TransitTracker (Next Arrivals) in a new window
Schedule Information now
Schedule Information at another time
Find closest stops to SW Salmon & 5th

Served by
(each bus listed below is a link on the Web page)
15-Belmont
15-NW 23rd Ave
18-Hillside
51-Vista
63-Washington Park

Amenities

Shelter
Stop is on the near side of the intersection
TransitTracker arrival display
Traffic signal
Lighting at stop
Pavement at back door of bus
Curb ramp near stop
Pavement at front door of bus
Sidewalk near stop
Schedule display
Crosswalk

I've got to wonder, just what does "Stop is on the near side of the intersection" mean?

Precariously perched on a plate

After work Wednesday, I noticed that the dozer had been relocated to the north, almost into the corner. I got off the bus and walked back to that corner so that I could get a good look at the plate beneath the treads. I very much wanted to cross the street and get a really close photograph. However, the sidewalk is closed beside the excavation, affording no where to stand out of the traffic. Good sense reigned, and I stayed safe taking my photo from where I stood.

ABC Wednesday - M is for Mound, Mounted, and Massive

The last street-level mound of dirt in the excavation of the First and Main building's future home. I took this photo last Friday after work.

When I rode the bus by on the way to work Tuesday morning, I could tell that the mound no longer reached the top of the steel inserted into the ground, the steel that made the walls to hold the shape of the excavation. I noticed this because a welder's sparks, situated right where the dirt had been on Friday, caught my eye. I immediately thought, "They're welding parts of that steel together, parts that had been covered with dirt until now." So after work I stopped to get another look. Imagine my shock when I saw this piece of heavy equipment sitting there, appearing for all the world to be mounted on top of the narrow steel wall. In looking closely, I believe I see a sort of steel shelf beneath the treads.

The excavation of an entire city block for a 15-story building is makes for a massive hole in the ground.


If you're of a mind to, go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place for loads of other ABC Wednesday blogs! You'll need to look at the comments at her blog to find out who is participating this week.

On the wall at Byways Cafe

How about this great souvenir? It's one of a whole lot of stuff on display at Byways Cafe on NW Glisan, in Portland's Pearl District. Mama and I stopped there for brunch Saturday--outta sight good home-cooked buttermilk pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. More photos later in the week. Here's a bit I found about the swell little cafe at City Search:

Editorial Review for Byways Cafe – by Rachel Bellacera

The Scene
Kitschy and fun, Byways feels like a blast from the past with its vinyl banquettes, 3-D viewfinders, friendly servers and soda fountain. The crowd is mixed: 20-somethings nursing weekend hangovers, young families and Pearlites converge for hearty, satisfying breakfasts and lunches.

The Food
The Pearl's own greasy spoon transcends diner fare by improving on the classics. At breakfast, try the Mt. Rushmore Hash, a mix-mash of potatoes, spicy corned beef, melted cheese and hot peppers. Amaretto-infused French toast is pure indulgence; creamy, aromatic brioche topped with honey butter is well worth the 15-minute wait. For lunch, attempt the juicy, 1/3-pound hamburger with tasty homemade potato salad, or the Crater Lake Cobb salad, which is done with spinach instead of lettuce and doused in crumbly blue cheese. Don't miss the sweet treats: Chewy brownies, piping-hot scones and cookies have a loyal following.