After checking out of Fabrizio's lovely mountain escape, we went for a hike at Mt. St. Helens visitor center. We watched a 10 minute naturalist program which was very entertaining, the meanandered the relatively short hiking path through the lush wetlands that surrounded the back side of the volcano. It was neat to see it in the distance, but it would have been really cool if we had more time to explore the whole thing and been able to get up close to it, like we did when we stood atop Kilauea volcano in Hawai'i. There's just nothing like standing on the top of an active volcano that is smouldering. It was interesting that they said that actually Mt. Rainier is the most dangerous volcano right now because of its activity. Fabrizio was even hosting a volcanologist at his place; a nice English lady who said she needed a break from studying volcanoes for awhile :)
Next on the agenda, we checked into the Squirrel's Nest AirBnB in Portland, and it is about as perfect an apartment as you could ever hope to rent or own! Serene, sparkling clean, and so very cozy, we are sad to check out of this beautiful space. They have two kitties here, though so far we've only met one, but she is an elder cat and so extremely sweet that I want to tuck her in our satchel and take her with us ;)
Portland is pretty amazing. I've always heard that Portland will make a person want to relocate, and we definitely caught that bug. It is very similar to Minneapolis in a lot of ways, but less aloof and insecure. People here just seem to radiate this vibe of individuality that doesn't need to compete or judge or be anything other than just being their unique selves. We absolutely love it here, so far. Yesterday was our only full day in the city, however, so we've seen just a bare slice of things. We first went to the giant bookstore, Powell's, which is an entire block and four stories high. It was pretty incredible in there, and we got gifties for Mum and Fi, who are caring for the kitties, and enjoyed looking around in awe of the massive book-nerdiness of the place.
Then we went to take the Aerial Tram, which is this tiny little gondola-type pod that shuttles people from the ground up to the OHSU, Oregon Health and Science University, and apparently was built mainly to shuttle staff up and down, but now also shuttles tourists on a constant rotation. It is pretty scary when the pod goes over this tower thingy; an announcement comes on to warn you to brace yourself for the rocking that occurs as you cross the tower. WOAH! 500ft off the ground and swaying like that on a thin wire is pretty thrilling :) We had lunch down at the bottom at a little Korean-Hawaiian food truck (food trucks are everywhere out here, as are craft breweries) so John had a classic Hawaiian "plate lunch" that brought back memories of our trip to Oahu and the Big Island, and I had a vegan teriyaki rice bowl which was ded fantastic!
Then it was off to Washington Park for a lovely but a bit grueling hike in the 90 degree heat. The park goes on and on and on, and one thing about Portland is that their maps and directions are not as clear as other cities'. Blessedly, they had a free shuttle back to the top of the park, so we enjoyed an air conditioned ride back. Back on the train to the City Center, we stopped for a beer and beer nuts at Deschutes Brewery, which is one of our favorite craft breweries. Then back to the Squirrel's Nest to rest our dogs and watch the latest Game of Thrones again. Another perfect night's sleep was had!
The previous day was the eclipse!! Waking up at 4am and on the road by 4:30, we made the night-lit drive to Salem, the birthplace of John's mum, Jan. John had gotten us tickets to the Salem Vocanoes baseball game, which is a "low A" team (minor league), and they had a whole major event planned. They had scientists from NASA there to answer questions and they had all kinds of great presentations and the vibe there was just so fun and exciting. They opened the parking lot at 5am, breakfast was served at 6, than we just hung out, wandered around the small park until the big event. And what a fucking event. To see that full eclipse was more magical than I could have imagined. The corona was so ethereal, and though we took photos, it could not get the true wonder of it (especially with a tiny iPhone). The moon was solid black against a bright, silvery star-shaped corona (the atmosphere of the sun) backlit the moon. It was truly magical to witness, and we felt so blessed to have been able to make this special trip and share in its wonder together :)
After the game, we checked out Salem to honor Jan (L'Ma). It was really a cool little place, sort of like Winona, MN. We took some photos, wandered the park and then headed down to Corvallis to see my first-stepmom, Nancy, her mom, Ruth and our mutual friend Lee who was visiting from Minneapolis. I had not seen Ruth in 35 years, when I met her in San Francisco when I was 10. See is an incredibly sweet lady, and had fantastic hearing for someone in their 90s! It was great to catch up with them and have dinner over there. We had last seen Nancy when we visited her in DC, so that has been many years. They made us "Yumm Bowls", a really groovy dish of rice, guac, salsa, black olives, pickled veggie salad, teriyaki chicken and this super-delicious sauce called Yumm Sauce that was invented by a local restaurant. It was fantastic to have something besides peanut butter for a change :) After catching up with them, we made the long trek back to Portland. Because of the volume of traffic and construction and an accident, we got back to the Squirrel's Nest in two hours' time. Time to flop into bed!
So now we will be checking out of this lovely little haven and heading for a small road trip along the Columbia River Gorge, which is home to many waterfalls and spectacular sites! I'll try to blog some more tonight when we find a place to crash!
Love & hugs to all,
R&J
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