The Portland Zoo, Donuts, and a Mansion!

 

With relatives on both my maternal and paternal sides of the family living there, I really should visit Portland more often!  I always have a wonderful time when I go.  My cousin Nancy and three of her four children (and their children) live in the area, and my cousin Priscilla drove in from Walla Walla for the week. Nancy and her husband do missionary work around the world and always have interesting stories to tell.  So when they invited us to their house for a lovely brunch one morning, we were eager to catch up.  Nancy and her husband had been picking blackberries the day before and she prepared a delicious blackberry cobbler, egg souffle, potatoes, and fruit salad.  While "the ladies" sat around the formal dining room table, indulging and visiting, we noticed Nancy's husband would walk by with various and sundry items, en route to the breakfast room.  Sometimes it was a towel, sometimes baking pans, sometimes sticks with leaves dangling!  We soon figured out what he was doing -- creating fossil prints with the kids!  That kept the children well engaged so we older cousins could really catch up with each other.

Another day we all went to the Oregon Zoo together.  Surprisingly, this also turned out to be one of the best ways we could visit with each other!  Everyone was well entertained and the kids were occupied looking at the animals while we adults visited in small clusters, sometimes with this person, sometimes with that one, so we had some nice one-on-one personal time with everyone. My cousin Becky joined us, too, so got to know the other side of my family better.  Who would have thought the zoo would provide such intimate opportunities?

As for the zoo, it was lovely, complete with a variety of bears, hippos, lions, monkeys, elephants, giraffes, birds, and more.  We had planned to visit the Japanese Garden afterwards, but were all walked out, so grabbed lunch in the food court, then parted ways -- until next time!

Beautiful eagles....

 

We were there for the polar bears' feeding time -- they were beautiful!

 

 Can you see all the parrots camouflaged in the foliage below?

One morning my daughters and I woke early, before anyone else, and made our way to the famous Voodoo Donuts shop.  As we got off the freeway and were following our GPS system, we suddenly got a whiff of the donuts coming in through the car windows.  "I smell donuts!" I exclaimed.  Yes, another block down and there stood the bright pink building with a line already forming to get in!

 

 Fair warning ~ cash only sign:

 

  The weird and eclectic decor of Voodoo Donuts:

 

I don't know what happened to the color here -- the box was actually bright pink, but I took this picture in the wet bar lighting at the hotel and it came out...yellow!

We selected donuts for everyone back at the hotel and Uncle Don's house, based on personality!  Lys tried the Bacon Maple Bar (which made me sick to look at, in all honesty, but she said was actually very tasty).  Some of us had the Portland Cream.  We got a Memphis Mafia for the 50's generation (all of Elvis Presley's fav ingredients -- peanut butter, bananas, and chocolate) .  There were Dirt Donuts for the kids (and the kid in all of us).  We got an Apple Fritter that was the size of a dinner plate for Uncle Don.  There were some donuts with names I can't print here!  For an entire list of the weird and crazy donuts, click here:  Voodoo Donuts.

One other field trip we took in Portland was to the beautiful Pittock Mansion.  It is worth the trip for the beautiful views of Portland as well as the delights in the mansion itself.  A picture is worth a thousand words....

 

 We were fascinated with the standing sewing kit:

 Such tiny waists back then:

 

 Can you see Mt. Hood in the distance below?  It looks like a cloud in the middle, but seemed much closer in person.  We also had views of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams at various times.  It only rained the first two days -- otherwise we had beautiful, clear weather.

 

So ended our Portland vacation.  Wonder where we'll go next year?  Any suggestions?

Portland!

 

Every summer my sisters and I get together and this year was no exception as the city of Portland called to us!  We stayed at a hotel in Vancouver, Washington, very near to where my Uncle Don lives.  His daughter Becky drove in to spend the week as well.  In addition, my sister Linda brought her granddaughter, and my own daughters Ash and Lys flew in from San Francisco.  We gave Uncle Don fair warning that he would be greatly outnumbered by all the women with our chatter and giggles, but he assured us he was up to it!  Don is the brother of my father who passed away two years ago.  Their mannerisms, dry sense of humor, and quiet but wise ways are so similar, we wished we'd had a dollar for all the times we remarked to one another, "He's just like Dad!" 

We visited, played cards, went out to dinner, pored over family photos, hugged, joked, and generally had a ball just being together!  On Saturday night Uncle Don treated us all to a cruise on the Columbia River through the Columbia Gorge.  The problem was -- he came down with a cold and didn't feel well enough to go with us.  Bummer!

We passed the famous Multnomah Falls on our way to the Sternwheeler, but only had time for a quick photo opp from the parking lot before needing to hit the highway to Cascade Locks.

We boarded the beautiful Sternwheeler, mesmerized by the rotating paddle and the gorgeous scenery.  We were served a delicious dinner and savored the tasty desserts!  (Our family rule -- when we're on vacation we throw calorie counting out the window!)

 

 

Here's our route:

We went under the Bridge of the Gods, which joins Oregon (on the left below) with Washington (on the right):

It was a "see through" bridge ~

 See the semi truck going over it ~ yikes ~ not appealing to my fear of heights and tall bridges!

There is a beautiful Native American legend about the Bridge of the Gods, Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. You can read about it here:  Native American Legends: Bridge of the Gods.
We also passed many of these crude docks, built by the local Native Americans for fishing per the Columbia River Inter-Tribal fishing rights.

Wind surfers and kite boarders also kept us entertained.  It was really a lovely cruise and all too soon it was time to dock.

 

In fact, we enjoyed it so much that on Monday we took another cruise -- this time on the Portland Spirit along the Willamette River.  And the good news was that Uncle Don was well enough to go along this time!  The wait staff even entertained us with a song or two:

 

 We left the city behind and motored past the hills, homes, and boats of the Willamette River,  It's hard to see in this picture, but there is a row of houseboats in front of the condos below:

 

Portland is a city of bridges ~

 And then the city came into view and we returned to the city shores ~

So far I've been telling you about visiting my dad's side of the family, but we also have relatives on our mom's side of the family in Portland!  Stay tuned for another post about those escapades! 

My daughters adopted two adorable kittens this weekend and have been texting me pictures of them!  Brothers -- aren't they sweet?

Sherlock

 Sisko

Here's Sherlock playing with Ash's shoelace, Sisko is in the background.  So far Sherlock seems to be the ring leader, while Sisko is a bit shyer. 

But "Sisko (Cisco) the Kid" did catch a little of "Breakfast at Tiffanys" on TV on this lazy Sunday morning:

So ends my lazy Sunday morning -- time to get busy around here!  Have a wonderful rest-of-the-weekend!

Portland in December!

Portland, Oregon was my home for awhile back in the 70's. I've always loved the city -- not too big and not too small, as far as cities go. Between the great outdoors and educational and cultural offerings there is something for everyone.

We took a few days off and went up to the City of Roses this past week. With relatives on both sides of my family in the area, some of whom I hadn't seen in years, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting and sight-seeing! My Uncle Don and Aunt Darlene live in Vancouver, Washington, just across the Columbia River, so we stayed in a hotel down the road from them. My uncle graciously loaned us his car so we could get around on our own schedule -- what a treat! My dad had arrived a day earlier so he joined in the reunions as well!  It was especially wonderful to see my cousin Becky and her husband Darryl after several years--we keep in touch through cards and letters, but face-to-face communication reminded me what a fun personality she has.

I also got to visit with cousins Nancy and Priscilla.  Nancy and I see each other every once in awhile, but I haven't seen Priscilla in years, so that was special, too!

Lys wanted to check out Portland State University as a transfer option for next year. The brochure said that it is difficult to tell where the campus begins and the city ends -- so true!


The Visitor's Center on campus:Lloyd's Center still has the ice skating rink I remembered:
We took Dad with us to tour Pittock Mansion which overlooks the city. Each room was enchantingly decorated for Christmas! We were inspired to come back home and decorate our rooms more intricately.



One very cold night we went to The Festival of Lights at the Grotto. This internationally known Catholic shrine is a rock cave carved into a tall cliff. For the Christmas season, the story of Christ is told with lights, a beautiful nativity scene, and choirs singing in the chapel.

Missing from the photos are:
~ The wonderful dinners we enjoyed each night with our relatives,
~ Learning how to play a new card game,
~ Driving through Washington Park, past the zoo, rose garden, children's museum, and so
much more,
~ Our rosy cheeks from staying out in the sub-freezing temperatures a bit too long,
~ The scrumptious breakfasts provided by the Marriot every morning,
~ The welcome warmth of our gloves and scarves,
~ The time spent inside the world's largest new and used bookstore (Powell's!),
~ The delicious taste of Stumptown cocoa and coffee drinks,
~ The bridges criss-crossing across the rivers,
~ Mt. Hood keeping watch over the city,
~ The jokes and teasing and oh so much fun.

I miss it already.

Note: Some of the photos are courtesy of my daughter Ash who has a real eye for photography and a much better camera!