I interrupt this travelogue with a birthday greeting to my brother, Pat, shown here with his daughter shortly after her birth two years ago. Happy 50th, on 09-09-09! How I love numbers........... especially when they present themselves so beautifully. Oh yes, I love my brother as well. :-)
We really came to love Portland and we're quite envious of Youngest Daughter, as she gets to stay! It seems like the perfect city for her. :-) One last thing we had to do..... ...eat one last bowl of Tillamook Mudslide! It's to die for!! One more thing we'll miss about Oregon -- besides that Tillamook Mudslide -- you can't pump your own gas! And why not? Well, the attendants didn't seem to know.
Next up: Spent the night in Boise, where we couldn't see the CU-CSU game, even though we had a huge TV. Incidently, Boise was the home of the current CU coach, before he arrived in Colorado. I think he had more success in Boise. I bet he wishes he was back there! Our one photo of outdoor Boise. Maybe there's actually more to see, but we just didn't have time. It was on to Salt Lake City this morning. Only one glitch on the drive, where we crept along at less than 10 mph for quite a ways. Here's the reason: Yikes! But we've driven over 3,000 miles and this is the first accident we've seen.
We saw many billboards on the highway in Utah, advertising ................Nevada. What? Isn't there anything in Utah they could advertise????
Our SLC hotel is lovely, and even has a library! After checking in and getting our bearings, we walked across the street to Temple Square. It's quite impressive -- and an elder in the church gave us a personal tour. We were filled with questions and learned a lot from this gentleman.
And finally, a view of Salt Lake City in the evening -- from our hotel room.
We watched the news last night and found out that the rain we had yesterday was record-setting! Portland received 3/4 of an inch and apparently the previous high was just .69 inch (in 24 hours) so....... we were in Portland, walking around with our umbrellas, going to the Market, site-seeing on the rainiest day Portland has ever had! Wow!!
So, maybe Portland isn't as rainy as we'd thought?
Saturday is Farmer's Market day in Portland and we were fortunate to be close enough to walk to it this morning. This is THE BEST Farmer's Market I have ever been to. And many other people think so as well because rain....
rain......
and more rain....... cannot keep the people from their market!
Youngest Daughter found herself pondering, and then buying, the kohlrabi which she discovered she loved when her aunt and uncle gave her some that they grew in their Lake Quinault garden.
I think Youngest Daughter has found her Saturday morning activity, especially because it takes place on her college campus and is practically in her back yard! They seem to have every kind of food she needs, so I doubt she'll be seeing the inside of a Safeway for awhile.
We saw lots of other sites as we trudged through the rain-dampened streets. Now aren't we REAL Portlandians, not hiding in our hotel room but rather, grabbing our umbrellas and just heading out the door?!
Today we saw...... a building that was painted like............... a building,
a "skate route" sign,
a cool fountain,
a salmon swimming through the side of a building (on Salmon Street),
the entrance to Chinatown,
and lots of folks dressed up for Kumoricon 2009, Oregon's largest Anime convention. Who knew?
We sure have enjoyed our brief stay in Portland and know that Youngest Daughter will have lots to do and see during her college days here.
One last thing -- a picture of the curious shower stall in our hotel room: It has a cut-out section in the plexiglass wall, presumably so you can stick your hand in to turn the water on. But.............. water from the rain-style shower head hits your body and then shoots right through that hole and onto the floor. Someone didn't design that correctly!
We began the day with breakfast at Mother's Bistro. Great food but ***WARNING*** it is very, very noisy. Even their website is noisy. It's quite popular, but not sure if I'd go back. I spent most of the day just wandering around town while Dear Husband shopped with Youngest Daughter.
I saw: an umbrella-man frozen in time while trying to say something -- probably, "you should always carry your umbrella in Portland!" A couple of elephants,
travel signs, interesting buildings, a beautiful, indoor mall, lots of bamboo, a sign of approaching autumn, pigeons helping to keep the city clean, evidence that some drivers can't read, a restaurant that had trouble coming up with a name,
and I finally made it to the PSU campus. I love these words in one of the campus buildings.
Then on our way over to Youngest Daughters house where she cooked dinner for us and served us here...... in her sparsely decorated living/dining room, we passed by the World Trade Center where we watched a wedding taking place The bride walked down the aisle to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It was beautiful!
I interrupt this travelogue with a birthday greeting to my brother, Pat, shown here with his daughter shortly after her birth two years ago. Happy 50th, on 09-09-09! How I love numbers........... especially when they present themselves so beautifully. Oh yes, I love my brother as well. :-)
