This summer we had the opportunity to take a relatively (no pun intended) inexpensive trip to Oregon. We'd been threatening for a long time to come to Portland and visit Uncle Paul & Aunt Janene. Well, we finally decided to make good on that and headed out. We flew first class due to accumulated miles and the first two nights here, we stayed with Uncle Paul & Aunt Janene.
Day 1:
Once we landed, we decided to stop at Powell's City of Books. The bookstore is one city block and three stories deep. It claims to the be the world's largest bookstore.
It reminded me of Half Price Books in Dallas. They had several new books but also used books. Similarly to the big HPB on NW Hwy in Dallas, it's overwhelming. Of course HPB isn't nearly the size of Powell's. Afterwards, we walked around a little and found a sandwich snack. It's an interesting part of town. It's in downtown Portland in a section of town called the Pearl section.On a whim, John punched in his grandparents old address into the GPS and we ran by their old house. You couldn't really see anything so we went over to the cemetery that was behind their house. From there we were able to imagine the views from their balcony.
They were amazing. (This is the view from the balcony of his grandparent's old house. I think it's Mt. Hood.)The landscape in Oregon is COMPLETELY different from Dallas. Everything is green and hilly. Lot's of mountains. It's a lot more rural than suburbs of Dallas as well. Downtown Portland reminded me of Austin back in the '80's. The weather was amazing. I got off the plane and in August, I thought I'd need a jacket. In fact, I brought my jacket and used it quite it bit. It was beautiful.
These houses are built right on the side of this hill. Unbelievable. A lot of the homes don't have air conditioning. While we were there, I don't think we needed it.Next stop was Uncle Paul & Aunt Janene's house. Oh my gosh! What a beautiful house. Plus they had these amazing views.
We had a really great time visiting but I think my most favorite times were when we were visiting outside on the patio in the evening. It was incredibly tranquil.On our first night, Uncle Paul & Aunt Janene showed us around their place. They picked fresh vegetables from the garden and made us a wonderful dinner of Chicken Marsala, fresh corn on the cob, fresh cucumber & tomato salad, green beans and carrots as well. Everything was amazing. Then we got to go and see their old house. It's up for sale so we were able to go in and look around. It's a very nice house but I think I like the openness of the house they are in now.
Uncle Paul, Aunt Janene & John.That night, we slept 13 hours. 13!!! We haven't done that since college! We thought we'd still be on Texas time and we'd be getting up around 8 am their time. Nope. We got up at 11 am their time (which would have been 1 pm Texas time). Crikey! We really slept well. We were shocked when we got up.
Day 2:
There was a Chaney family reunion of sorts. All of John's relatives came over for a big barbecue. As it happens, Mom & Dad are up here as well so it was me & John, Paul & Janene, Mom & Dad, Tom & Debbie, Annmarie & Garret, Chris & Kathy, Georgia & Dick, Connie & Steve. Laura, Georgia's daughter was there and so was Dorothy Paris, Aunt Janene's mom. She was a card!
Dad & Uncle Tom.
Mom & Miss Dorothy.
Garret & Annmarie.
The Chaney Brothers: Pete, Paul & Tom.
Then there were all of the grand kids. Hannah & Rachel - Annmarie's girls and Adam, Caleb and Elise - Chris' kids. They were all really cute.
John, Aunt Debbie & Uncle Tom.
John & his cousin, Chris - talking about computers..
Connie (Dad's cousin) and Laura (his niece).
Dad and his sister, Georgia.
Uncle Paul & Georgia's husband, Dick.
Elise. She is just adorable!What a great day. I had a lot of fun getting to know John's family. His cousin's are really funny. I enjoyed them quite a bit. Miss Dorothy was really wonderful. I enjoyed talking with her quite a bit as well.
After everyone left, John, Uncle Paul, Aunt Janene & I all sat out on the patio and sipped wine and just watched the stars come out.
View from Paul & Janene's at dusk.It was really great because usually, when they come to Texas, there are so many people that we never really got any one on one time with them. This time, we had them all to ourselves and it was excellent.
Day 3:
Time for us to leave. It's a switch from family visiting to a road trip or two. Last night, we sat down with Uncle Paul & Aunt Janene and they gave us some suggested road tours to take around Oregon. So this morning, we pack up and headed out. The first trip we decided on was to go to Mt. Hood.
Mt. Hood, on the way up the mountain.We headed out, stopping whenever we saw a great photo op, and there were many. We went all the way up to the Timberline Lodge, which appeared to be a ski resort.
It was just the two of us so we had to improvise to get us both in the picture. That's Mt. Hood behind us.
This was the view from Mt. Hood. I'm not sure if it's Mount St. Helen or Mount Adams but either way, it's beautiful.Then we headed back down and out toward the Columbia Gorge. It was so beautiful. We spent more time at Mt. Hood than we anticipated so we didn't get to spend much time at the Gorge.
The Bridge of the Gods-Columbia River.We did, however, stop at Bonneville Dam. That was really cool. It's a huge structure built by the Army Corp of Engineers and it looks like they have a big hydroelectric plant there.
The next stop was Multnomah Falls. We'd heard from several people that this was a beautiful place and it really was. There were three or four levels that you could climb to.
We went up to the first bridge, which was .2 miles up. Then we started heading up to the next level, which was 1 mile up, but we felt like we were really running out of time so we turned back. I kind of wish we'd stopped there first but that's okay. We got to see a beautiful waterfall.
The view of the Columbia River from the falls.For dinner, we headed back into downtown Portland to a restaurant called Fish Grotto. We were trying to keep it light. We each had a glass of Cabernet from an Oregon winery, which was very good. Then we got a bowl of clam chowder, we split some stuffed mushrooms and for entrees, John got a tasting plate of two scallops. He was really not very happy with those. I got a peach salad that was pretty interesting. Peach slices that were grilled, mixed greens, cheese and nuts. Not bad. Unfortunately, we should have only gotten a CUP of clam chowder so we were stuffed.
Day 4:
Today we headed out towards the beach. We loaded up our backpack and headed down to car to find that it was raining. So I went back up to the room and got our umbrellas and I changed into jeans because it was pretty cold too. I brought a pair of back up shorts in case i got warm.
We had breakfast at this little cafe right across the street from our hotel that was perfect. I had one fried egg and wheat toast and coffee. I was full and satisfied without being completely stuffed. John had the number 1 breakfast from the House Cafe (hash browns, sausage, eggs & toast.) That place was really good and cheap. I think we'll be having breakfast there again.
So we headed out to the beach via hwy 30. The really interesting thing was that we kept going up, up, up in elevation but we were headed towards the beach. I thought that was kind of weird.
Anyway, we stopped in Astoria, which sits on the mouth of the Columbia river and is the oldest community west of the Mississippi. The city was established back in 1806 when Lewis & Clark set up a fort there. 5 years later, fur trappers working for John Jacob Astor established a fur trading post. We stopped long enough to take some pictures and then headed back out.
The Columbia River.
Just some old railroad tracks that I thought looked really cool.
Is this not the most insolent bird you've ever seen? He looked me right in the eye and dared me to try and run him over!The next town we actually stopped in was Cannon Beach. This little tourist town was right on the beach. We had a lovely crab sandwich at a restaurant called Dooger's.
It was not what I expected (the sandwich) but it was really good. We walked around the town and over to the beach for some photos and headed back out.
The Pacific Ocean - Oregon style.
John on the beach - Cannon Beach Oregon.
Haystack Rock.The ride back was equally scenic. We headed back on 26, trying to beat rush hour traffic without missing out on the scenery. For such a small population, this place had lots of traffic.
When we got back to the hotel, I studied a bit and then we hit the happy hour. We had dinner at a place in downtown Portland called Jake's Grille. We were looking for something else near the Willamette River but couldn't even find a place to park, let alone a place to eat.
Day 5:
Today we met back up with Uncle Paul, Aunt Janene, Mom & Dad and headed out to Mt. St. Helen. Very interesting. We stopped about half way up and had lunch
That's Aunt Janene that I cut off there on the left. Then Uncle Paul, Dad, John and mom.Mount St. Helen erupted back in 1980 and basically changed the face of the mountain and the landscape of the area around it.
They had this before and after picture up in the museum. That beautiful peak (on the left) is now a big crater in the mountain.
Mount St. Helen. The elevation was over 3000 feet.Afterwards, we drove back into Portland and we had dinner on the water (the Willamette River). They have a great area there, similar to the Riverwalk in San Antonio but different.
Day 6:
Today is our last day in Portland. So we got up and went into Portland so that we could see a few of the sights.
Our first stop was the International Rose Test Garden. They had rows and rows of roses. It was really beautiful.
I took several pictures of the roses. Here are a couple of them. I didn't note the name of any of them.
The picture doesn't really do them justice. They were a beautiful deep velvety red.
The flowers on all the bushes were big and full. They still actually had a few buds as well.The next stop was the Pittock Mansion. This was the home of Henry Pittock, owner of the Oregonian - the Oregon newspaper. The mansion was finished in 1914 and the couple that lived there, Henry & Georgiana Pittock, were 80 and 68, respectively, when they moved in. The final estate included a 3 car garage, a green house and a servant's quarters on 46 acres of land 1000 feet above Portland. The view is amazing.
The inside was absolutely amazing. They had indoor plumbing, an intercom system, and recessed lighting. The rooms were really nice. It doesn't say how many square feet were there but it has to be huge.
They had a refridgeration room. This particular cabinet was installed in 1928 but in 1914, the room itself was well insulated to keep things cool. There was a cooled pipe rack on the wall that kept the entire room chilled to keep foods fresh.
This is the view from one of the upstairs rooms. It's downtown Portland.Henry Pittock only lived in the house 4 years before he died. His wife lived here a bit longer. The house was inhabited by the family until 1958 when one of the grandson's put it on the market. It was actually scheduled for demolition. The city bought it and restored it and now it's a museum.
After this tour, we met up with mom & dad and went to see his old highschool and his friend Monsignor Tim.
Dad going into his old alma mater. Central Catholic High School.
Monsignor Tim Murphy, a classmate of Dad's, mom & dad.The next visit was to the cemetary where John's grandparents are buried.
It's a very tranquil spot under a big tree.
Next we went to go visit Uncle Red. He's Dad's uncle. He's a very interesting guy. He's 90 and he's very spry and he's very alert. He lives next to John's grandparents' old house. He's friends with the guy that bought it, Jeff. Jeff was kind enough to let us take a tour through the house. He's made a lot of changes. He's done a great job.We headed back to Portland to meet up with Ginny, John's cousin that didn't make the party and her parents, Georgia & Dick. We had dinner at a restaurant on the river.
Dad, Ginny, John, Mom, Georgia & Dick.I had a great view of the river and one of the bridges - I'm not sure which. As the sun began to set, I got some really nice photos.
This is right before dusk.
Right after they turned the lights on. It's still a little light out.
This was about 9 pm. The light reflecting on the water was really pretty.
Portland from the water.Well that's it. The next day we boarded a plane and headed back home. It was a wonderful trip.
