Day 2 - Doing the Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo. Not as early as planned but we made it.

At the Oregon Zoo you can drive right up and park outside the entrance in the nice big ungated parking lot.

It's not until you pay for your zoo admission that they tell you it costs $2.00 for parking. Very sneaky since you're already there and there's no other place to park.

To add insult to injury, they tell you there is NO parking fee AND you get a discount on admission IF you took MAX (public transportation) to get there. Thanks, NOT.

The weather improved as the day went on and it turned out to be an OK day. There were many new exhibits to see and much construction going on to update some old compounds.

My personal favorite animals and exhibits were the elk, wolves, bats, lorikeets, leopard, elephants and polar bears. Between Jamie and us we took almost 200 photos and I was able to condense them down to about 6 pages for the storybook.

The first 2 pages are shown here.

ECO Friendly and Proud of it

Having lived in Portland for almost 30 years I think I can safely call myself an Oregonian. Most everyone knows that Oregonians are all tree-hugging, granola-eating, Birkenstock wearing webfooted folks.

I am no different and now I have an official sign to proclaim my eco- friendly attitude. When we go camping in our self-contained RV, before we even light up the campfire, I will be hanging up my new sign for all to see.

Go Green.

J & J's Portland Adventures - Day 2

Day 2 dawns with me heading off to work early while everyone is still sleeping. A couple of hours later I'm back but no one has made it through the shower yet. This it the day Jamie wants to be at the zoo from the time they open until closing time. What's up?

They get moving and before long we are running out the door with umbrellas and rain coats in hand. This is Portland, after all.

Just as the front door slams shut, Patty and I look at each other and almost in unison say, "Do you have the keys?" Nope. ****Crap****

Being paranoid as I am we don't have a hide-a-key and the only neighbor with a spare key is currently in Eastern Oregon. What now?

Off to the other neighbor to borrow their phone and call a locksmith. A half hour later we are $60 poorer but we have keys and have learned an expensive lesson.

If you are too freaked out to hide a key outside make sure everyone on the block has one. Makes sense to me.

Off to breakfast we go but on the way we detour to neighbor Bill's vintage collectible shop, Rita Deco. Jamie and Patty like checking out his shop and they wanted Jessica to see it also. After Jessica bought a lighted turtle we go across the street for breakfast at Sam's Billiard Parlor.

Sam's is a real working billiard parlor but they serve good breakfast meals at reasonable prices and Jamie likes their fresh-made berry preserves. Last time she was here she took home a pint of their raspberry jam. She says it didn't last long at their house.

Now we were finally headed for the zoo. Zoo news and pictures to follow.

J & J's Portland Adventures

Day 1 - Arrival

Jamie wanted to introduce her sister, Jessica, to dear old dad and the city of Portland. So they packed their bags (many for Jamie and one for Jessica) and headed for the great Pacific Northwest.

Patty and I met them at the airport with a chauffeur-looking sign and a couple of long stemmed roses. Portland really is the City of Roses, you know. Everyone who saw our sign thought we were there to meet royalty or at least some movie stars. When J&J spotted us they cracked up at the sign and it proved to be a great "icebreaker" since this was the first time meeting Jessica. Jessica is really a sweet girl and not anything like Jamie made her out to be. Ha, ha.

After dropping off their bags at home everyone was hungry so we headed to one of Jamie's favorite food spots. Pambiche is a Cuban restaurant with a great happy hour menu and wonderful desserts. We took full advantage of both and had a leisurely late lunch. We got to know Jessica better and discussed what the next week in Portland would be like.

After lunch we had to go by Jamie's favorite Portland bakery, Helen Bernhard's, to order our Easter cake and pick up some goodies for the week. Jamie ordered a 2 layer white cake with lemon jelly filling and lemon flavored French creme frosting with Easter related stuff decorating the top. Pictures to follow on day 6 blog.

Patty bought special iced cookies and later that evening we went to Bill and Steven's (our neighbors) so Jessica could meet them. As usual, they were gracious hosts and accepted Jessica right away. She got the royal tour of their house while we shared the cookies and had coffee/tea.

Back home we made up the futon downstairs for Jessica. The cats went off to bed in the garage and it was lights out.

Memorial for Lori

Patty's friend from childhood, Lori, recently passed away unexpectedly. The family and friends will be celebrating her life with a memorial service this Saturday at the grade school where she taught kindergarten for many years.

Patty will be attending and she asked me to help her create some scrapbook pages she could share with those in attendance

Here is what we came up with. Patty is very pleased.

Lori will be missed by many.

They came, they saw, they ate and they left...

Jamie and Jessica did make it safe and sound. They stayed a week.

During that time we made them get up early every day and them we dragged their weary bodies all over Portland.

We had decent weather and we managed to cram a lot of activities into a short amount of time. Between us we took almost 500 photos and I'm just now starting to sort and edit them. They will be the subject of my first formal hardbound storybook (in scrapbook style) and along the way I will be posting the pages as they are completed.

More to follow, including a photo of a rare sighting at the Oregon Zoo.

Stay tuned. You won't want to miss that.

Jamie and Jessica are coming....

Ok, by now you know that is not a picture of Jamie and Jessica. I didn't have one of Jessica so I threw in one of Jamie and Gabe. Anyway J & J are coming tomorrow for a visit and will be here over Easter.

This will be the first time I've spent any time with Jessica. The only other time we met was at Jamie's high school graduation.

We have big plans and are looking forward to showing her Portland. Pray for decent weather. More to follow (including pics) as it becomes available.

It was the best of times.....it was the worst of times

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was a glorious day. We finally had a sunny day with temps. hovering in the low 70's.

Sorry Dawn, I couldn't help gloating.

We had All-You-Can-Eat spaghetti dinner at St. Rita's Church with Bill and Steven. This is the 4th year in a row for us and the food was especially good. Our waitress was engaging and very helpful.

After dinner I enlisted Patty's help in completing a digital scrapbook layout of her friends, Sheri and Aart (correct spelling, funny eh?). She has known them since 6th grade and they ended up getting married after high school.

Through all the years Patty and Sheri have remained "best friends". Nothing has dulled their friendship. Not the miles; moves; job changes or tragedies. A couple of years ago they even flew to Los Angeles just to be part of the audience on the Dr. Phil show.

Last year Patty was soooooo stressed out about her mother's health and was spending all of her time caring for Grandma Pat. I drove to Albany (where Patty was staying) and stole her away for a day.

We paid a surprise visit to her "best friend" Sheri at her farm. I wanted fresh strawberries (my excuse) but really I wanted Patty to have some "girl-time" with Sheri. I knew Sheri could comfort Patty and give her a caring shoulder to lean on. Sheri did just that, in spades.

We took our camera because I had never been to Sheri's home/farm but had heard a lot about it. We got some great shots and even managed to get Aart to stop long enough to pose for a pic. It was these pics that I wanted Patty to help me scrapbook.

We worked late into the night and got it finished, except for the date when they started the farm. Patty said she would call Sheri and get the date. (Who knows when. They send each other cards all the time but talk on the phone only once or twice a year)

This morning at 8:00am the phone rang. It was Sheri calling. I asked Patty if she had already called Sheri and she said, No. (Freaky, eh?) Sheri was calling to tell Patty that another of their best friends, Lori, had died unexpectedly on Palm Sunday.

It was the best of times.....it was the worst of times.

Patty is pretty torn up. Please keep her and Lori's family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Enjoy the spread of Sheri and Aart, they really are wonderful people.

* * Rest In Peace* *

Lori VanLeeuwen

"Just The Facts, Ma'am"

I already wrote about our recent dinner with neighbors Bill & Steven. I just did a scrapbook page about it with the pics we took and I wanted to share the finished product. Thanks for looking.

"....where the deer and the elk? roam"

Today I scrapped a 2-page spread about the elk viewing trip I took this past February.

For those that don't know, I work part-time at Portland Parks & Recreation in the Senior Rec. program as an assistant van driver and trip leader. We take small groups of seniors on day trips to area attractions. The trip can last up to 8 hours and includes a meal at some nearby cafe/tea room/tavern or deli. If we find a happy hour somewhere that's always a BIG thrill. But I have digressed.

This trip was to the Jewell Meadows Refuge where they feed a resident herd of elk through the winter. You can make reservations to ride along with the volunteer when he feeds them the alfalfa. He has a trailer pulled by a tractor and you go right into the meadow and help him spread the hay from the trailer. The elk like the easy meal and will come right up to the trailer (within 30 feet or so). Any sudden movement or sound will spook them (the elk not the seniors) so you have to be still. Not to hard to do for a bunch of seniors. ; )

These elk are wild and are not fenced in at all. They roam on and off of the refuge and occasionally will get shot during hunting season if they leave the refuge. We got to spend almost 2 hours with the elk before we had to leave.

Afterwards we went to Camp 18 for lunch. Camp 18 is an old logging camp turned restaurant located on Hwy 6 about 18 (imagine that) miles from the coast. More about that later when I do a layout on the trip Patty and I took when we had lunch there. A way cool place with good food and lots of it.

Hope you enjoy the pics.