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.