Things You Should (and shouldn't) Do in Portland, Oregon

If you are fortunate enough to be in Portland, Oregon in September, there is a must see event. I'm talking must see, not maybe, not hope we have the time, not I read that there are crowds and the neighbors are annoyed so we're not going, not I don't have my LL Bean blanket and picnic basket set. Just do it. There was a crowd. And lots of kids running around. Especially one rather heavy set kid who kept running through the crowd saying he couldn't get anywhere and finally reduced to sort of wailing grunting moans by the end, but so what? We all did that. No, I would have been killed if I'd done that, but never mind.

Because all that really mattered, to us anyway, was seeing the Vaux swifts go down a chimney. Really. Sarah took this video and I suggest going full screen with it. This was probably the coolest moment. Ok, there were a lot of very cool moments. You really should see this.

This was another moment with the Cooper's hawk coming through. Or the falcon. Teresa can decide but we think it's too small for a falcon. What do I know?

After an hour or so of writing, somehow all my clever bits just disappeared. So! I'm just going to give you a few recaps, between my gnashing of teeth, of what I remember that I wrote. Which isn't much. Ok, here we go.

Vaux swifts are named after...no. I can't do it. I'm just going to let this guy do it for me, and for you, because. Because he's pretty funny and it's all true. The good news is, your reading time will be much shorter. The bad news is, I really had fun writing a lot of useless information . Ugh.

While swifts prefer hollow trees they'll settle for the Chapman School chimney. The school actually got rid of the heating system that used this chimney and between the Audubon Society and some donors, put in another one, so that for the month of September, the swifts could fill this sucker from the basement up. Being slightly claustrophobic, this fact is one I'd rather not thnk about. And can't stop thinking about 

And just know this, too. If there wasn't some stupid science rule that you can't name a species after yourself, these birds would be called Townsend's Swifts. Vaux was a mineralogist and apparent good buddy of Townsend, the real guy who sussed out this particular swift (one species out of 96 if you must know).

One more thing. The Audubon Society woman who was carrying around the DEAD swift in the plastic box, talking to, and I quote - "anyone who looks interested" - which Sarah and I escaped because we are well practiced in the art of becoming invisible around people like that and sometimes succeed - that women? She should not be doing that; telling gruesome stories about the swifts suffocating in the chimney. Oh, but not NOW, she says, like the elixir of modern times has somehow changed physics. Now they all live happy little lives, flying around from sunrise to sunset, eating bugs, never stopping flying, because they have these sort of bound geisha type feet that they can't really use for much. Frankly, it was all the stuff of nightmares.

But the swifts were awesome. Completely jaw dropping (as we wondered if they were pooping tiny little poops on all of us). Too awesome to let an entirely finished post complete with brilliant links suppress me for long. And you thought you were getting off easy today.

All of that swift and people watching was after we went on a long hike we were both pretty sure was going to kill us, but I think I'll leave that for tomorrow. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Hint: it didn't kill us

Have a transformative Thursday. Do something that tires you totally.

There and Here

I'm not sure what the Sasquatch thing is around
here but you might find him anywhere.

I'm getting fuzzy on the 'there' part but I'm learning lots more about the here. As the last stopping spot on this long away from home trip, Portland is turning out to be more island involved that imagined. First, connecting with Chuck from the Marshall Islands. We had a great two day drive up here from Arcata, even with a couple of unexpected happenings. It helps that delays took place in beautiful surroundings, among really helpful people. You know something is going right when the mechanics charge you 100 bucks LESS than the estimate and don't stiff you for a new battery when it would have been easy to do so.  Firestone in Corvallis, good guys!

While the jeep got re-alternated, we wandered around Corvallis. There's a subtle river walk with work going on to have native plantings, with no pesticides, among some cool statuary and a fun fountain that made stripping down to the unders seem like a great idea. Except it was getting cooler again. Babies didn't care. I thought I'd taken photos of a few more park things but...

Apparently my trash bin obsession was more important than statues.

 I wanted badly to get down next to the river and the river walk had a lovely fence designed to discourage exactly that. So we walked over the bridge, which was like going from Joe College world to Joe the Homeless Naked Dude Living in the Woods. In fact, it wasn't like that. It was that.

Following the path going to the riverside was a simple thing, there it was, at the end of the bridge, leading down through a strange little park with an apple tree and blackberries. It was even named, Suzanne E. Wilkins Way, after a girl who apparently was killed crossing the highway.
On one side, the paved path led under the bridge. The other way was a dirt path, with smaller paths leading to the river. Except. Every little path had a homeless person camped there. As Chuck and I picked blackberries, a voice came out of the brush. "You'll get arrested for that! I got busted for living here!" Not...quite the same thing, naked guy. But enough to have us heading the other way, not because of fear of blackberry theft arrest, rather, staying away from really crazy people is a hobby of mine.

We did get to the river, on the other side. The OSU crew team has a dock there and Chuck found the way. I try and find crazy people, he tries and finds a very civilized spot. So did this duck. 

I think crew must be pretty big at OSU

The practice place. 

 And then Chuck went on his way north and I got together with Francie. Francie and Sarah finally meet!

I had to take this shot of a building painted in the colors Francie likes best. 

Palm trees in Oregon., real and not so real.

This is the land of wonderful old neon signs. If you want a clean, cute place to stay around here,
this is a good one!

There is a place called the Barmuda Triangle in Portland, not far from my daughter's house. For some reason, and I can't imagine what reason that would be, we were drawn to this place.

The Space Room is pretty spacey. Strong drinks (but if you like rum, don't go with the well rum, I hear it's pretty awful), great bartender, strange decor. Worked for us! But it was time to move on. We met up with Francie's brother and he took us to Renner's, another venerable spot. A bar and grill that feels like charm without being at all stuffy. Good drinks, good bartenders. 5 *'s

Time with Chuck, time with Francie and this afternoon we're getting together with Lynn and Aaron, who hail from Maine but have lots of Culebra time under their bathing suits. I'm trying really hard to get the 'It's a Small World' song out of my head.

Have a meet mysteriously Monday! Do something mentionable.