On Thursday, Feb. 15th Frank and I took an 8:30 flight from Philadelphia to Minneapolis, then a second flight on to Portland. Arriving around 1:00 pm Portland time, we had some lunch at the airport. Since Kate and her boyfriend Dan were both at work, I knew we had to get our own ride to her house. Using my newly downloaded Uber app, I put in Kate’s address. Up popped two cars that were near the airport. Selecting Alfredo and his Hyundai Accent we waited. Sure enough in about three minutes time a Hyundai Accent pulled up. Yep, it was Alfredo. He was quite a conversationalist and in no time at all we arrived our daughter Kate’s house in North Portland.
When we entered her house, we were greeted warmly by Kate’s two cats, Scarfy and Freddy. Before long both Dan and then Kate came home. That evening Kate and Dan made chicken fajitas for us. Our meal ended with freshly baked slices of pineapple upside down cake with a pineapple curd that Kate made to celebrate Dan’s Valentine’s Day birthday.
During the night, I work up to a lot of flashing lights in front of Kate’s house. I was so tired that I just rolled over and went back to sleep. In the morning, we learned that the flashing lights were fire engines! The house behind Kate’s had burned. Unfortunately, the woman of the household did not survive. I can’t believe both Frank and I slept through all of this excitement right in the backyard!
On Friday, both Kate and Dan went to work again. After fixing our breakfasts, I went to a nearby public pool for an aqua aerobics class at 9. It was the first time I had even tried this kind of activity, but found that it was a lot of fun. I am sure that I did not get many of the moves correct, but everyone was very helpful and it certainly did get me moving.
On the way to and from the pool, I was amazed at the flowers that were in bloom. Spring definitely has sprung here in Portland.
After I returned from my swimming class and cleaned up, Frank and I headed out for lunch at an Arby’s a few streets away. After lunch, we went shopping in a Goodwill Store. We purchased a Rummikub game but decided against a 1,000 piece puzzle of Oregon’s map because of limited space in Kate’s kitchen area.
We went out for supper. Going past the St. John’s bridge, we stopped at Cathedral Park which is a park under the bridge over the Willamette River. We then went to a German brewery for supper in St. John’s. Frank had a Wurst Trio and I had a pork schnitzel.
Both Frank and I were quite tired, but we still managed to play a rousing game of Rummikub to finish our day! It indeed proved to be a great gift. I won!