It was New Year’s Eve. Frank and I were headed to Portland to visit our daughter Kate and her boyfriend Dan. Getting up at 3:15 am to get to Philadelphia to catch our 6:50 Southwest flight to Portland, I received a text message at 3:45 that our flight was cancelled. Going to the Southwest website, I rescheduled our flight for the next day. To make a long story short, later that morning I changed that flight for one leaving later that day. It left at 4:50 pm heading to Phoenix and then on to Portland, which wound up adding about 3 hours flight time. To make matters worse, I had unknowingly contacted a travel company thinking it was Southwest and paid a fee for switching the tickets, which I found out later Southwest never does. I guess getting up at 3:15 made my brain even foggier than usual! I did report the problem to our credit card and they will be investigating the charge. I now know that to reschedule you need to go to that airline’s website for the correct contact number. Why do I always have to learn the hard way? Ugh….
Rather than a day by day account, I will show some pictures of the unique things I experienced in Portland.
Here I am climbing a wall at the gym. Kate was an excellent spotter. I should have gone higher. Next time!
I’m feeding Farmer Kate’s chickens dried meal worms. They love them. She now has seven hens. It rained almost every day of our visit. Portland’s climate is a rainforest with temperatures over the winter usually 45 to 50 F. Can you tell from all the moss on this tree trunk? Here we are at Council Crest. It is a high point in southwest Portland with a great views of the city and five surrounding mountain peaks. Of course, it was cloudy!Some of evergreens are huge in Portland. Don’t I look small next to the trunk?This is Bob’s Red Mill flagship store. It is noted for selling natural foods in bulk. So many different choices. Portland is certainly a different market than Berks County, PA.We had lunch at Bob’s Red Mill. I ordered ratatouille soup. It is a French soup with vegetables in a tomato broth. This was a first for me and was quite tasty . This is a replica of Wright brothers plane at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR, about an hour south of Portland. A replica of the Spirit of St. Louis that Charles Lindbergh used to make his solo non-stop flight over the Atlantic in 1927.The Evergreen Aviation Museum houses Howard Hughes’ original Spruce Goose made during WWII, It is so huge that I had to take three different pictures to capture it. The wing span is as big as a football field! It was made to carry cargo and troops but the war ended before it was finished. Harold Hughes did fly it one time in 1947 but the project never advanced from this first model. Here is one of the wings of Spruce Goose. Lunch at Slappy Cakes. Each table had a griddle and making your own pancakes is the draw. We had buttermilk and gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd, chocolate chips, and cinnamon butter toppings. Kate’s hiker friends, Action Pack and Butter Beans joined us for this adventure.
In spite of the rainy weather we had a good visit with Kate and Dan experiencing first hand more of Portland. “Keep Portland Weird” is one of the its mottos. Very fitting since Portland never ceases to amaze me. So unique and so much fun exploring it’s funky side!
