Free Range Friday ~ Portland

Before we went swift spying, we jumped on one of the very prompt and very numerous buses that travel all over Portland. The driver had us laughing literally from the moment we got on, a crazy, funny, activist inciting "You couldn't find a phone number to call Tri-Met and almost missed your bus? You go online and write them! The customers run this bus line and if they don't say what's wrong, we can't fix it!" ball of energy. Instructing one wheelchair bound woman how to tell off a bus driver if they didn't let her load up first, asking an older gentleman about the outcome of his daughter's job interview, stern and soft and wild and a great driver. She was like the best waitress/bartender looking-out-for-you next door Mom combined and she deserves a raise, even if she just got one. Are you listening, TriMet?

Sarah picked a stop across the river and in the downtown area that would have us near City Market, a sister store to Pastaworks, her job turf. Stores like this make me a little crazier, with their selections of wines, cheeses, tiny bottles and large of olive oils and vinegars and things I've never used or sometimes even heard mentioned, not even in a book. We wanted to make a small picnic to take with us for our swift watching time. We might not have a blanket but we would have venison pate, a cheese you would love to know the name of but I've forgotten it, with a few dolmas and olives to cut the intensity.

Oops. We'd already eaten the dolmas and the rest was going fast. No knife? No need.
Preparation? Next time. Maybe.

So, we were ready. Neither of us are big eaters (qualifier implied here) and figured we'd take our hike, go watch the birds and have a real dinner later on. Of course, it was only noon. And then, we saw a sign. Simultaneously. It was more like a shimmery on the desert after many days of no water glow. Happy Hour Half Price Sushi. All Day. We looked at each other and said a few meaningless phrases as we stumbled forward, drawn irrepressibly into our our temporary nirvana. And it was good.

Yes, I end up in sushi joints one way or another with every member of my family.
In fact, if you are eating sushi, you might very well be part of my family,
so if I sit down with you, don't be afraid.

This is not what we ordered, but it was so pretty and the
chef was just really nice and so sweet - here it is anyway.

Yes, this looks disgusting. But it wasn't. It's an oyster shooter, which seems to be on menus a lot these days, none at all, even remotely a teeny tiny bit alike. This one has a marinated in something spicy carrot stick with a liquid that tastes very much like the gingery sesame dressing used on seaweed salad (which I always thought I'd drink if I got the chance, now I had the chance), a dab of something I don't know at all and a good sized, great tasting oyster. More than a shot, it took us a few sips to get to the kan-pi! part. 

This is what we got, which I only remembered to photograph after we were babbling about how good it was. Tuna and salmon, a spicy tuna roll - one of the best I've ever had; a spider roll, and that's edamame back there...or the empty pods. most likely. It was all great and all half priced, even my sake! Well, Sarah's sake was not half priced as she likes the cold milky kind that doesn't ever come half priced..
I love her dearly but I will never understand liking that sake. 

I was aiming for the purple house in the background but this guy just seemed more important. He was all curled up, resting, then, as I came to him, he starting rising up...and up...and it was time to take the photo and get down the sidewalk. Bye doggie!

I could take photos all day of the amazing homes, large and small, in neighborhoods
of every description in Portland. But I only took a handful. You're welcome.

Obviously I took this one because of the gardens on every level. It's a weird and not too attractive addition to this pretty classic home but from the inside, I bet it rocks!
And hooray for all the plants!

I thought we'd traveled pretty far up when I took this shot.
However, I was still breathing pretty well,
so that was not true, we'd really hardly begun.

By now, any excuse to stop was welcome and I made up a bunch of excuses. But this one was for real; I had to stop to see this house. I loved the strangeness, the lamp posts, the uh...strangeness. It is not far from the park but still far from the top.
Relatively speaking. Five feet would have been far at that point.

As you can see, we had more than five feet to go. This area was so beautiful , with all of these original and amazing homes, and then here was this great, funky garden that
reminded me of Sean and his fanciful scarecrows. I felt a lot better.
For a minute or two, until I was gasping for breath again.

I took this because of the wonderful stone pillars. Then I noticed the full vertebrae on the porch.  I couldn't exactly climb up on the porch and see what it might have been from but I wanted to do just that.

How much higher can we go? Oh, quite a bit.

I'm putting this in again because Sarah is so much more a better photo than the one of me  doubled over and crying. These stairs just appeared and somehow, my GPS knew they were there. Because that's how we went, via my GPS, through neighborhoods, when Sarah had intended for us to hike one of the trails in Forest Park. We did both. I kept panting how happy I was we were seeing all this cool stuff. But where WAS the top??

This is a really great video about the stairs of Portland.
You may want to watch it if you like this sort of thing.
If you do watch, the house in the middle of the staircase?
That's the one we climbed. They even have a bench there! Very cool.


Back to our regularly scheduled post, wending our way high above Portland proper.

At last! The Pittock Mansion. You may read all about it here and lots of other places but I'm showing you what I saw; the outside. We got there at 4:02 and it closed at 4:00. Which was fine. At that point we had two interests. Water. More water. Nicely, there were water fountains outside for the traveler. Most we saw had taken the easy way, by car. Pshaw! Weaklings! 

Properly watered and having seen the views, we did go down the Forest Park trail, not using the GPS and not getting lost, yea Sarah! Finally we emerged into neighborhoods again and after a bit of new, we were back to where we saw this place. It reminds me of Vizcaya in Miami. If Vizcaya were arranged a bit differently. Sort of. 

The biggest zinnia garden I've ever seen. Personally. I've no doubt there are bigger ones.

We had just walked by a couple of really grand homes, one with a bridge from the street to what would be the third floor from the street below it. A man looked out the door as if we might leap onto the bridge and steal his cocktail shaker. His wife emerged from the car and we called out how lovely their bridge was and how we were admiring it. She nodded nervously and scurried across the bridge to safety. We wondered what on earth they thought we might do. I mean, my god, we had pate with us.

Right beyond the huge homes is this wonderful carport. It does NOT connect with the bridge home people. The apple tree is shedding apples and the goat is ready. 

Portland has a lot of crazy, wacky yard art in many neighborhoods but in this particular neighborhood it was wonderfully unexpected and perfect.

You know what happened next. After the swifts we hobbled to an Irish pub where we quenched our spirits and then caught the bus back home. A different driver, a quiet bus. As it should be. Lovely, lovely day.

Our favorite word for now is 'down'. Our muscles are still sore and we have the grimly smiling satisfaction of saying we'll do that again. Someday.

Have a follow your fate Friday. Do something fearfully fascinating.

p.s. Forest Park is an incredible place and it draws me. I've only been there once now so I looked for something that would tell a bit about it in the way it feels to me. This article comes pretty darn close...and I'm jealous. In the good way. I'll never know it so well, but I will know it better, in time.