A few more views from on high

August 23, the afternoon found Milton, Kay and me in downtown Portland on the 30th floor of the Big Pink, at the Portland City Grill. After a snack and a drink, I stood up and walked from the bar to the dining room to take a few more photos.


Looking northeast across the Willamette River. The rust-colored bridge is the Broadway Bridge. The sweeping arched bridge is the Fremont Bridge. And in the foreground is the magnificent Union Station which is undergoing some sort of work on its exterior. I altered the photo in Picnik with the exposure and the sharpness tools.


Looking more north than east across the Pearl in the forefront and a sort of light industrial area that brackets the train tracks as the head north out of downtown Portland, not far from the river. See there in the distance where the hills meet the river? Two dark, upright shapes? Just to the left of the leftmost one, there's a dimmer upright shape. And between the two dark, upright shapes there is a dim shape that goes from the dimmer upright shape on to in between the two dark, upright shapes and parallel with the surface of the river. OK. The two dark, upright shapes are part of the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge, a truss bridge with a vertical lift. The dimmer upright shape and the dim shape parallel with the river are part of the St. Johns Bridge, a photo of which is included in my September 19 post. When I rode the SP 4449 on July 3, we crossed the Willamette River using that railroad bridge. Milton and Kay crossed it as they entered Portland. I altered this photo with the HDR-ish effect and put a frame around it.


Looking straight down to the east at Voodoo Doughnuts' original location on the corner of SW 3rd Avenue and SW Ankeny Street. See the tiny people in line from the red truck, along the front of the building and ending almost beneath the pink sign? Those are a few people in line for doughnuts in the middle of the afternoon--that's the hold that Voodoo has on folks, some folks anyway; to tell you the truth there are usually a whole lot more people in line. And the small, almost school-bus-colored items side-by-side in SW Ankeny are actually wooden picnic tables, while the black and white spots farther on are actually umbrellas over additional picnic tables. Portland decided in late July to make this portion of SW Ankeny car-free, a sort of patio area. The bit of a bridge that you can see on the left is the Burnside Bridge. See the MAX train in the trees, about two thirds of the way up from the bottom of the photo? It's crossing alongside the Skidmore Fountain in what's known as Ankeny Plaza. All through those trees where the three cars are parked you'll find the Portland Saturday Market which continues to the white arches topped with bricks and across the street and beneath the rest of the trees. The gray area between the trees and the river is the sort of plaza just south of the rest of the Saturday Market.

A few views of Portland from the 30th floor of the Big Pink

August 23, with Milton and Kay, I enjoyed my city from on high, through these views from the Portland City Grill in downtown.


Looking south along SW 5th Avenue. I cropped and altered with image at Picnik with the HDR-ish effect.


Looking southeast with the Morrison Bridge in the foreground--it's undergoing work to replace the open steel grating on the lift span. I cropped and sharpened the image a little bit at Picnik.


Looking mostly south down the Willamette River. The bridges, from the foreground back--the Hawthorne Bridge, the Marquam Bridge, and then the Ross Island Bridge. This photo has been cropped and sharpened at Picnik.

More views soon.

Bike Delivery, an aside from the fun with Milton and Kay

Seeing the Soup Cycle photo in yesterday's post made me remember I had other similar photos. Here you see a hard-working cyclist from Portland Pedal Power, in downtown Portland on May 19.


He's about to turn left off SW 3rd onto SW Main, heading east on SW Main.


Good driving, if you ask me.

I promised the views from the 30th floor of the Big Pink--sorry to disappoint today, but they're coming soon.

Out and about with Milton and Kay, Tuesday, August 23

Up early, coffee and protein drink, and then to the bus for a ride north of the apartment to try out the Cadillac Cafe on NE Broadway. I found it on the Internet and thought it looked worth a shot, plus it was near a Goodwill that we didn't make on Monday, one we could walk to after brunch.


While we waited across the street from the Lloyd Center, a great big shopping center, to transfer to our third and final bus for the trip, this hard-working young woman road through the intersection on her Soup Cycle.


We boarded the bus, and on the way to NE Broadway, I took this photo of another busy bicyclist.

Here you see my glass of orange juice, Milton's omelette, and my breakfast. Kay got the same thing I did, but with fried eggs. I forgot to take a photo of her plate. I did get two photos of the Cadillac that has its own special space inside the cafe.



We walked to the Goodwill after we ate, then walked over to the Barnes & Noble at Lloyd Center so that Milton and Kay could look for a DVD, "Oregon Splendor," that they'd watched with friends at home. They wanted their own copy to take back to Mississippi with them. There was one copy of it in the store. On the way to Lloyd Center we walked by this sculpture, "In the Tree Tops" by Margarita Leon.


After we left the shopping center, we walked south to the MAX stop so that we could get on board and ride to catch MAX Yellow Line at the Rose Garden and then ride north to Lombard where we boarded a bus that we rode to St. Johns. We got off there and walked a couple of blocks so that we could see the St. Johns Bridge. It's a beautiful bridge.


Soon we retraced our route, bus back to MAX and got off downtown so that we could make our way to the 30th floor of the Big Pink and hopefully get to sit at the windows in the bar at the Portland City Grill where we planned to have something to drink and a little snack to tide us over until supper time. From the MAX car, I took this photo of an art car at a service station. It's a hoot!


Speaking of art, here is a photo of two of the cairns on NW 5th Avenue which are part of the public art that one finds here and there along the MAX lines. I took it from inside the MAX car.

Here's what the TriMet pamphlet has to say about the Cairns:

Christine Bourdette, Cairns, 2008 Silver ledgestone, NW 5th and 6th between Irving and Glisan
My inspiration for Cairns came from the man- made stacks of stones that have historically served as landmarks for navigation, memorials, rituals and commemorative markers all over the world. Travelers on cross-country hiking trails traditionally add stones to cairns as they pass, resulting in animated and sometimes precarious stacks of rocks and pebbles. This evidence of our comings and goings, often in rather comical human form, signify safety and reassurance in the wilderness. In the urban wilderness, finding one’s way through the various stages of hurry-up-and- wait is just as significant. I am fascinated with all the ways my fellow citizens and I learn how to navigate our surroundings. My specific intention for these stacked stone forms was to mark the path to the light rail stations as well as to celebrate points of arrival and departure.
Masonry: Cliff Townsend Masonry, Inc. Oregon City, OR

Oh, before I forget. We got a table at the windows. Come back tomorrow for the views!

Monday, August 22, fun with Milton and Kay

First thing when we got up the majority of the mornings Milton and Kay were in my apartment ... oh, I've not told you that the stayed with me in my studio apartment, have I? Kailey's sweet parents loaned me an inflatable AeroBed queen size double decker mattress. After spending several nights on the train in their sleeping car on the way from Jackson, Mississippi, to Portland, Oregon, both of them agreed they preferred the AeroBed to the train bed. Where was I?

Oh, yes, when we got up each morning, Kay and Milton enjoyed their Stumptown coffee while I enjoyed my Shaklee Vanilla Protein drink. We checked our e-mails and our Facebook, too, plus most mornings we talked about how to do something or other in our G-mail e-mail and/or Facebook. This particular morning Kay said, "We gonna be so damn smart when we get home!" Then we three laughed and laughed. Soon we were ready to walk the tenth of a mile to the Zipcar that I had reserved for our use. Right then Lamont called and said he was walking over from Atomic Auto where he'd left his older model Volvo station wagon for a repair to the front passenger window mechanism. Before you knew it, he met us at the Zipcar, and we were on our way to Genie's for breakfast. Fortification was necessary since Milton, Kay and I had decided to visit as many area Goodwill Stores as we could, looking for London Fog rainwear for women. Kay had passed up buying one when they visited us in May, 2007. She was on a mission.


While we waited for our food, Milton and Lamont intently discussed something--I can't remember the topic, but ...


... the conversation required lots of hand motions.


Milton asked for a glass of milk--we never expected it to be in this sort of glass.


Milton's omelette


Lamont's scramble


Kay and I had pancakes, which turned out to me to be very disappointing. Suffice it to say, I'll buy my breakfast pancakes at the Bijou Cafe from now on.

Once we finished brunch, we dropped Lamont at 3 Doors Down where he needed to place orders with purveyors for all sorts of stuff for the week's menus. Then Kay, Milton and I went to our first Goodwill, a new one on SE Hawthorne. Kay found a couple of London Fog raincoats, one too little, one too big. I bought the too big one because it fit me just right. Now I can look decent in rainy weather if I go out after work. For a good price, too.

The next few hours found us at a Goodwill stores all over.

We started with the Superstore near my office. That's where I found a few paperback books by James Lee Burke, one of my absolute favorite authors, as well as "It's Only a Game" by Willie Morris, beloved Mississippi author, and a wonderful book about Portland, "Papas' Portland." Milton found several rolling swivel desk chairs with arms--he had me try all of them with the idea in mind that we'd come back later and he'd get one for me. Sweet!

Next we went to the Goodwill downtown across the street from the Central Library. I went behind Kay, looking at raincoats and found her a Michael Kors, black with silver and black buttons, mid-length. She bought it and we headed back to the Zipcar.

Next we went to another Superstore at SE 82nd and Powell, the last Goodwill I went to with Mama--she just sat in the car that day and waited for me patiently. I remember her rolling her eyes at me when I walked out with a small cook pot and its lid. "Where are you going to put that?" she asked, thinking our cabinets were already too full of such things. I never got to cook anything in it for her--she died soon after I bought it, but since then I've steamed broccoli in it, cooked a roast and potatoes and carrots in it, things like that. I'm sure she's smiling about that cook pot and its lid now.

Anyway in that store all I found was a collectible candy tin, one of the ones I love because they are covered with shiny, jewel-colored designs. They're made in England, for the most part. Or should I say they were made in England? I don't know how old they are, but I do enjoy them and use them to store all sorts of things, from dominoes to bungee cords. Kay found herself exactly the London Fog raincoat she wanted and a rain jacket for her daughter.

By then it was mid-afternoon, so we decided to head over to one more Goodwill, the one within walking distance of mine and Mama's apartment. We had to park in the Elephant's Deli parking lot, so while they shopped I went into Elephant's and bought a small snack.


Brussels sprouts, Chinese BBQ pork loin, and some a peanut butter cookie and a chocolate chip cookie, both of which are in the paper bag. I ate a little bit of it and left the rest for Milton and Kay. We didn't need much to tide us over until we had supper. We hadn't made up our mind where to do yet, but it didn't really matter, we just wanted a snack right then.

Somewhere during the afternoon, my phone rang--it was the place where I had left a print to be framed. It was ready! So we stopped off to pick it up on the way to drop off Kay. We also unloaded the rolling black bags that I had taken with us in case we purchased anything heavy, and then got back into the Zipcar to return to the first Goodwill store to see if the office chair was still there. Yes! And Milton got it to fit into the car, too. What good friends they are, Milton and Kay! Every time I sit at my desk, I think of them and how sweet they are!


We rested a bit, then decided to walk over to Ole Ole on East Burnside for supper. We saw this concrete lawn chaise in front of a house. Strange, but that's Portland.


When we arrived at the restaurant, I couldn't resist asking Milton and Kay to pose with the bull out in front of Ole Ole, you know, maybe pay some attention to a specific part of the bull. They didn't hesitate for a second. What a game couple! Look at those smiles!

I took photos of what turned out to be bland, blah Mexican food. What a surprise that was!

Kay's


Milton's


Mine


Another shot of more roses on the front sidewalk of my building. Once we got home, we ate fresh peaches for dessert and settled in for the latest episode of "The Closer" which meant the evening was not a bust, after all.

Swan Island Dahlias, Labor Day, No. 3

One of the neat things you can do at the annual event is buy your choice of cut dahlias. You don't cut them, you select them from water-filled buckets.

Come back soon to find out who cuts these long-stemmed beauties. And for more fun with Milton and Kay.

A bit about the rest of Saturday and on to Sunday, August 21.

About Saturday after we left Cars in the Park, somewhat tired and definitely thirsty, we walked over to Director Park and Violetta where I had a cold glass of lemonade, Milton had a margarita and Kay had some sangria. From past knowledge, I knew that mine would be good, but Milton and Kay took a chance; turned out their drinks were just wet and cold. Anyway, still tired and somewhat hot due to lots of great sunshine in downtown Portland, I suggested that we ride the MAX out to the end of the line and back, then get sandwiches from Subway and take them on home to eat. Well, we made it about 30 minutes on the MAX out towards Hillsboro, got off and rode back so that after we got our sandwiches at Subway and rode the bus home, we walked into the apartment just in time to catch the Saints' game. Unfortunately, Houston beat them 27-14. Rats. But the evening turned out to be just fine because Leland and Kailey came to visit! It was fun being with the two of them and Milton and Kay. Lots of fun. I am blessed.

Here are the photos I took as we waited in line at the Screen Door for Sunday morning brunch, as I watched the kitchen from our table, and as our food appeared on the table. Mighty good food, I might add. Mighty good Southern food. We knew that would be the case because we also ate brunch there in May, 2007, on Kay and Milton's first visit to Portland. That knowledge, plus people-watching, made the 20-30 minute wait fly right by.


Busy, busy kitchen.


My breakfast of scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and potatoes. Oh, and you can see what's left of my first-ever Bloody Mary--spicy goodness. That big glass of iced tea helped cool me off. I couldn't finish all of that delicious food, but every bite I did eat was so fine.


Milton's scramble with toast and grits and a side order of bacon. I cannot remember which scramble he got, though, but he enjoyed it.


Kay's fried chicken with biscuit and gravy and potatoes. She ate all she could, then Milton ate some of it.


Speaking of fried chicken, it's also served atop a waffle. Very popular brunch dish at the Screen Door.

Now for a few more photos.
The Screen Door's sign--I like that yellow and blue. And the part of the line of folks already there when we walked up--about 80 ahead of us.



Flowers we saw on our walk home.


These roses are on the sidewalk to my building's front door.


Once back inside the apartment, we settled in for an afternoon of getting the laundry done and watching NASCAR. Kay and I ended up washing and drying four loads between us. We sort of watched the race, not too excited about it though because that dadgum Kyle Busch won. Anyway, I managed to talk Milton and Kay into letting me make some tuna salad for supper, and then we watched "Secretariat" on NetFlix. A nice afternoon and evening.

Swan Island Dahlias, Labor Day, No. 2

Dahlia September Morn