Portland

Dinner with Scuba Friends

Friends are chocolate chips in the cookies of our lives. This applies to our friendship with Lynette Feder Yourish and David Yourish. I've known David since the early 80's as were in the same scuba club in Ft. Lauderdale. Lynette joined the club a few years later and they married a few years after that.

We had dinner at their house on Sunday and enjoyed being with them so much. They have 2 lovely daughters, Allya (14) and Zoe (7). Lynette is a professor at Portland State University. David works for a security software company and flies all over the country giving training. He had enough miles accumulated that the whole family flew to Greece for free!

Allya had already gone to a friend's house before we got out the camera so Lynette has promised to send me a photo of her - Lynette, don't forget!

Shopping and Football
Our RV park was about 25 miles south of Portland and the back gate opened up into a great Prime Outlet mall. On Monday, I hit the jackpot in Chico's - between the sale prices, no sales tax, and returning to pay on Tuesday morning so as to get the senior discount - and am pleased with my blouses and jeans. Ed and David discovered they both graduated from the University of Miami (a few years apart). David came over and they watched the Canes beat the Seminoles - in a very close game.

Downtown Portland

We stayed a day longer than we planned so we could go downtown on Tuesday. It's a really nice city with lots of trees and the trams are on electrical overhead cables so it was quiet. Lynette and David forgot to tell us about the greatest feature of all down there -- the food carts! Every ethnic food you could imagine is there. We had an appetizer at a Mediterranean place, then finally settled on a Thai place for lunch. I had a red curry chicken dish with mango and it was one of THE best things I've ever, ever eaten. They cooked it while we watched so it was piping hot and they gave generous portions...mmmm, makes my mouth water just to think about it.

This is our lunch being cooked.

We noticed/learned several things about Portland:

--It is in a valley with black, rich soil that was ideal for the many tree farms that we saw.
--We got diesel for the RV on Sunday but when we went to get gas for the car, an attendant came over. We figured we'd gotten into the full-service lane by accident. Turns out, there is a law in Oregon that only attendants can pump gas.
--Having no sales tax was pleasant.
--A town just south of Long Beach called Tillamook is known for it's dairy products. Lynnette and David introduced us to Mudslide - a flavor to die for! Ed bought some of their cheese last night and we already know it'll be good.

Ilwaco - Fishing Village

Ilwaco -- ill-wac (as in a wok for cooking)-o -- is a town a few miles south of Long Beach. Ed enjoyed looking at all the boats.

He figures this cigarette boat must have come from Florida because they don't use that type of boat here. He was dumbfounded at seeing 3 motors with 350 hp each! This puppy could really MOVE!

He didn't notice this boat's name when he took the photo. 12 years ago, when I was fixing up the art teacher with Ed and we ended up together instead, she said it was "Kismet" (meant to be).

You were right, Anita Orlando!

Cape Disappointment Photos

The forest was full of huge firs and was as thick as a rain forest from all the moisture brought in with the fog.

Even with haze, this was still pretty.

Wish we could have recorded the sound of the breaking waves to go with this.

Too bad the 2 people moved out of the center of this natural frame!

Ship and boat coming up the Columbia River past the jetty.

Enlarge to see about 100 cormorants on this rock.

This cormorant was just quietly observing from the jetty.

Cape Disappointment - Lighthouses and Jetty

Friday was our field trip to the Southern tip of the Long Beach peninsula to Cape Disappointment, a part of Lewis and Clark's trail. We had driven down there on Wednesday but it was very foggy. Friday was cloudy but at least we could see.

In 1788, British fur trader John Meares named the area Cape Disappointment after his inability to locate the river’s mouth.

Cape Disappointment lighthouse (left) is the oldest functioning lighthouse on the West coast.

This is the North Point lighthouse. I thought of you, Hib Casselberry!

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The jetty is at the mouth of the Columbia river. We were flabbergasted as we looked at the unbelievably large rocks that formed this LONG jetty, especially since it was started in 1885!! It took 30 years to get it to stabilize the channel.

Here's what they did: First, a trestle was built with a railroad track out over the area where they wanted the jetty. They brought the rock by barge, then loaded it onto railroad cars.
The railroad cars were designed so that they could dump the rocks from both sides. The trestle track is still under the jetty.

We thought this was simple and simply brilliant!!

Long Beach, WA - A Few Observations

I'd never seen these signs before! Have you? I didn't realize that we might have tsunamis in the U.S.A.

It seemed strange to see firs, ferns, and sea grass growing together naturally. This was at the North Head lighthouse area.

I still can't get over the beautiful hanging baskets everywhere.

Crazy for Cranberries

We visited a Cranberry Museum and farm here in Long Beach, WA. I had no idea how much I didn't know about cranberries!

Did you know that cranberries grow on vines that are evergreens? Did you know that they don't grow in water, the bogs are only flooded for harvesting?

Many people don't realize that the West Coast growers produce 25% of the country's total crop of cranberries. The cranberry vines were native to the area. Ocean Spray has a facility here in Long Beach and buys from the local farmers.

These vines do NOT grow in water. You can see the ditches where they flood the bog when it's time to harvest.

Now that I know they only harvest once a year in the fall, I'll be sure to buy a few bags for the freezer at Thanksgiving time. Then I can bake muffins and all sorts of wonderful cranberry foods...well, I used to cook! I do love cranberries!

Virginians Meet in Person

First, I'll give you the "history" and then I'll bring you up to date:

February 22, 2008
This small world never ceases to amaze me! I was looking at the blog of Chris and Jim Guld, scuba diving buddies from when I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. They have links to blogs they're following. I clicked on one called Len's Travels. Lo and behold, he had published a piece that was emailed to him from Eldon Bowman!!

Eldon Bowman is one of my favorite cousins and I couldn't imagine that there would be too many “Eldon Bowmans” in the world. I emailed Len. Sure enough, it was "our" Eldon. Len went to J.M.U. with him and they have kept in touch. Len is from Roanoke, VA, which is about 100 miles south of Harrisonburg.

September 1, 2009
I have continued to check Len's blog from time to time and was pleased to read he'd met a nice gal named Nancy. I saw that they were in Seattle so I emailed them, hoping that we could meet. We went to see them in their Dutch Star where they were staying in Nancy's brother's driveway. They were just delightful and the time passed all too quickly. They are going to be going down the Oregon coast soon so we might be able to meet up along the way.

Nancy Julian and Len Winger

Canadians Kept Ed - Almost

We HAD to go to to Canada after all the trouble we went to to get our passports updated and located. Going over, the check-in with Customs went fine. It was when we got ready to return that the trouble began.

We went to the Victoria Clipper check-in line early (that was a good move) and got our tickets and passports ready. The officer looked at Ed's Canadian passport and asked to also see his Permanent Resident Card (often referred to as a Green Card). He didn't have it!

He had been advised that, just as you shouldn't carry your original Social Security card with you, you shouldn't carry your Green Card either. Neither his US Military ID nor his driver's license helped at all. The card was in the RV in Seattle but that didn't help either.

Ed had read everything on the Canadian passport website and the booklet that came with his passport. Not once did it mention anything about a Resident Card.

The officer said that luckily there was time to take care of the necessary steps but there could be an administrative fine of $545! We were asked to wait in a side office. They let us suffer for about 20 minutes.

Finally, an officer came and filled out all the many forms required. Since it was a first "offense", they gave a one-time waiver on the fine. (We didn't push it, but when we went to Montreal a couple of years ago, no Resident Card was ever mentioned.)

Anyway, I was glad that they let my Canadian Angel Man back into the good 'ole U.S. of A!

Glorious Gardens in Victoria, Canada

We got up at the outrageous hour of 5:30 A.M. (HOW did I DO that for over 30 years?) to catch our hydrofoil ferry to Victoria. My geography knowledge often fails me so if you know this already, skip the next sentence. Victoria is a city on the island of Vancouver. Vancouver is part of British Columbia, one of the 10 provinces (like states) of Canada. Even with the "fast" hydrofoil, it was a 3 hour trip.

The capital building of British Columbia.
The Empress Hotel has been restored to its turn-of-the-century style.The cities up here take such pride in their flowers.

The main purpose of our trip was to see Butchart Gardens.

Robert Butchart began manufacturing cement in Portland. He came to Victoria because there was a lot of limestone and set up a factory. As this limestone was removed, his wife, Jennie, had topsoil brought in. Slowly, she converted this bleak quarry into a spectacular sunken garden.

The Butcharts left the 93 acres to their grandson, who made it world famous. I've seen many gardens but none held a candle to this one. There were flowers everywhere and in the beds were so thick with some of the largest blooms I've ever seen.

There are no words to describe and, although pictures don't do it justice, I'd like to share a few. (I'm sorry Ed didn't take his good camera.)

This is the main quarry and is now part of the Sunken Garden section.

Doesn't this look like a postcard?

My friends-since-first-grade, Lois, Bunny and Sarah would love this place!
I wonder how much Miracle Grow it would take to grow this!