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Wednesday evening I tossed some clothes into a suitcase and declared myself packed. Thursday morning Rob asked me several times whether I had a raincoat, an umbrella... guess the weather was forecast to be rotten!
I got up a bit early on Thursday and was able to do some errands in the morning: get breakfast at McD's, get cash AND stamps at the ATM, get protein bars at the 7/11. The flight north was uneventful. We arrived in Hillsboro, Oregon (unique feature: a motor home control tower) and were met at the airplane by Rob's old school chum Dave. Turns out that's where we were staying: Dave's place, the house he and his fiancee just bought in January.
LOVELY home, up on NW Skyline. Spectacular views. WOW. Dave was willing to say what they paid for it and I almost cried. On the other hand, the whole thing IS on stilts. I've been in the SF bay area long enough to be nervous about that.
They have an utterly adorable cat.
Naturally the first thing we did was head in to Powell's. I spent loads of time in the foreign language section. I came away with a book on Devanagari script (for Hindi), a children's book in Hindi for my neighbor's son, a children's book in Swedish for me to study, several books in French for fun, a book on the basics of sign language for me to study... In the end I did wind up taking a couple of sf/fantasy books in English, too, but the foreign language section was my fun for this trip. :-)
We met our gracious hosts at the Burnside entrance and wandered off for food. Some microbrewery place. Wish I could remember the name; yummy food.
Fireworks display over the river after that. Pretty! Unique perspective through a tall pylon of black steel beams. Some drunk high-school kid kept yelling the whole time, despite being asked to quiet down. Wonder whom her mother will sue if this girl sets off fireworks in her hands later on in the evening. There are times, in this increasingly-not-at-all-free-because-we-can't-stand-risks country, when I am amazed alcohol is legal here (much less fireworks).
The adorable cat complained at not being allowed to sleep on our feet. Now THAT'S hospitality!
Friday we saw the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, and a small town on the coast. Every one of these places was quite crowded. There's something jarring about overcrowding in a garden clearly devoted to quiet contemplation. I loved the Japanese Garden nonetheless. It was truly beautiful.
We drove an hour and a half to the coast to see Cannon Beach, and almost bailed out when several orbits around the town gave us no place to park. We had planned to hike a few miles down the beach to see the largish rocks just offshore, but by the time we avoided killing two point six million unruly pedestrians and their dogs and children and baby strollers, we were pretty hungry. We stood in line at a restaurant ("Please Wait To Be Seated") for fifteen minutes, watching waitstaff ignore us, and gave up on that. I honestly believe we would have been seated if we had had a baby or a dog. Oh well. We then found a place that had blackberry ice cream! We never would have seen that if the Lazy Susan Cafe staff had been even close to polite, so in an obscure way I'm grateful to them. Blackberry ice cream is wonderful stuff.
Quick peek at the beach, quick peek in some stores, then back to Portland. Rob had regretted leaving one particular book on the shelves... :-) On the way back up to the house, we stopped in at a Greek restaurant where the food was delicious and the friendly waitress recommended an interesting wine. I flirted shamelessly with her throughout the meal. Ah, sigh. :-)
Saturday we flew down to... um, I forget the name of the town, the airport identifier is Sierra Zero Five, does that help?... for a visit to the world's niftiest petting zoo. I scritched the ears of a nine-week-old snow leopard, a nine-week-old Siberian lynx, and a nine-week-old desert lynx. That desert lynx was a CUTIE. Only forty pounds grown up, too. Dang, I want one. I also got to hold a squirmy, affectionate young "apricot skunk". She was a cutie too, but she pooped all over me, the little devil, so I hosed myself down at the boot washing station. (Oddly enough, skunk poop doesn't smell terrible.) I picked up a myrtlewood-bead necklace for my mom at a local tourist trap shop, and we flew home. Rob quizzed me on C4 calls during the flight.
The terrible weather never did materialize.
Sunday I slept in. YAY! Then we attended the wedding of one of the cofounders of the startup I used to work for. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was full of guys handing each other business cards, and wow I have never before heard a toast like the one given by the mother of the groom. She was almost in religious ecstasy, worshipping her son. Now I am a whole lot more compassionate about his ego; it's not his fault, it really isn't!
And today, hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go. :) Re-greeted the gym on my way in. Boy do I ever need that. Too bad there was no hot water in the shower afterward! Yikes!
Chris is back in town after a week backpacking on the Isle of Skye. He may have had a better time than I did, and I still haven't seen Scotland, but I got to see Powell's and pet a lynx cub and wash skunk poop off my shirt, nyah nyah!
I got up a bit early on Thursday and was able to do some errands in the morning: get breakfast at McD's, get cash AND stamps at the ATM, get protein bars at the 7/11. The flight north was uneventful. We arrived in Hillsboro, Oregon (unique feature: a motor home control tower) and were met at the airplane by Rob's old school chum Dave. Turns out that's where we were staying: Dave's place, the house he and his fiancee just bought in January.
LOVELY home, up on NW Skyline. Spectacular views. WOW. Dave was willing to say what they paid for it and I almost cried. On the other hand, the whole thing IS on stilts. I've been in the SF bay area long enough to be nervous about that.
They have an utterly adorable cat.
Naturally the first thing we did was head in to Powell's. I spent loads of time in the foreign language section. I came away with a book on Devanagari script (for Hindi), a children's book in Hindi for my neighbor's son, a children's book in Swedish for me to study, several books in French for fun, a book on the basics of sign language for me to study... In the end I did wind up taking a couple of sf/fantasy books in English, too, but the foreign language section was my fun for this trip. :-)
We met our gracious hosts at the Burnside entrance and wandered off for food. Some microbrewery place. Wish I could remember the name; yummy food.
Fireworks display over the river after that. Pretty! Unique perspective through a tall pylon of black steel beams. Some drunk high-school kid kept yelling the whole time, despite being asked to quiet down. Wonder whom her mother will sue if this girl sets off fireworks in her hands later on in the evening. There are times, in this increasingly-not-at-all-free-because-we-can't-stand-risks country, when I am amazed alcohol is legal here (much less fireworks).
The adorable cat complained at not being allowed to sleep on our feet. Now THAT'S hospitality!
Friday we saw the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, and a small town on the coast. Every one of these places was quite crowded. There's something jarring about overcrowding in a garden clearly devoted to quiet contemplation. I loved the Japanese Garden nonetheless. It was truly beautiful.
We drove an hour and a half to the coast to see Cannon Beach, and almost bailed out when several orbits around the town gave us no place to park. We had planned to hike a few miles down the beach to see the largish rocks just offshore, but by the time we avoided killing two point six million unruly pedestrians and their dogs and children and baby strollers, we were pretty hungry. We stood in line at a restaurant ("Please Wait To Be Seated") for fifteen minutes, watching waitstaff ignore us, and gave up on that. I honestly believe we would have been seated if we had had a baby or a dog. Oh well. We then found a place that had blackberry ice cream! We never would have seen that if the Lazy Susan Cafe staff had been even close to polite, so in an obscure way I'm grateful to them. Blackberry ice cream is wonderful stuff.
Quick peek at the beach, quick peek in some stores, then back to Portland. Rob had regretted leaving one particular book on the shelves... :-) On the way back up to the house, we stopped in at a Greek restaurant where the food was delicious and the friendly waitress recommended an interesting wine. I flirted shamelessly with her throughout the meal. Ah, sigh. :-)
Saturday we flew down to... um, I forget the name of the town, the airport identifier is Sierra Zero Five, does that help?... for a visit to the world's niftiest petting zoo. I scritched the ears of a nine-week-old snow leopard, a nine-week-old Siberian lynx, and a nine-week-old desert lynx. That desert lynx was a CUTIE. Only forty pounds grown up, too. Dang, I want one. I also got to hold a squirmy, affectionate young "apricot skunk". She was a cutie too, but she pooped all over me, the little devil, so I hosed myself down at the boot washing station. (Oddly enough, skunk poop doesn't smell terrible.) I picked up a myrtlewood-bead necklace for my mom at a local tourist trap shop, and we flew home. Rob quizzed me on C4 calls during the flight.
The terrible weather never did materialize.
Sunday I slept in. YAY! Then we attended the wedding of one of the cofounders of the startup I used to work for. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was full of guys handing each other business cards, and wow I have never before heard a toast like the one given by the mother of the groom. She was almost in religious ecstasy, worshipping her son. Now I am a whole lot more compassionate about his ego; it's not his fault, it really isn't!
And today, hi ho hi ho it's off to work I go. :) Re-greeted the gym on my way in. Boy do I ever need that. Too bad there was no hot water in the shower afterward! Yikes!
Chris is back in town after a week backpacking on the Isle of Skye. He may have had a better time than I did, and I still haven't seen Scotland, but I got to see Powell's and pet a lynx cub and wash skunk poop off my shirt, nyah nyah!
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