Quintessential Portland

We spent Mother’s Day weekend in Portland with Lauren, Jana and Scott.  It was a weekend of small disappointments and mishaps, yet still surprisingly fun.We arrived midday on Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, and used our afternoon while Lauren worked to run a few errands.  The last one was to drive downtown to Penzey’s to pick up a few spices and get my free vanilla, a Cinco de Mayo gift with purchase offer.  Unfortunately we headed into downtown during rush hour and traffic was unbelievable getting into the city. We didn’t get to Penzey’s until 6:01 p.m. and they’d just closed. That was with me jumping out of the car and running the last block. Our first disappointment. I didn’t need the vanilla, but that’s not the point! So close and then to miss it….for a person who looks for ‘signs,’ that was not a good one.

Our Friday was spent picking up Jana and her friend, Andy, from the airport and driving back downtown to walk the 4T: train, trail, tram and trolley. This hike is a great way to experience Portland as you travel all around the city’s Southwest sector, but this was our third time for the hike and probably our last. It took us two or three days to recover from the 4-mile hike that turned into 6+ miles by the time we took a wrong turn on the trail (we’ll call this a small mishap), walked a dozen long blocks to Deschutes Brewery for dinner, and finally limped back to the starting point of our adventure where the car was parked near Pioneer Square. That hike is either getting longer and harder or we are getting older. I’ll let the pictures from the day tell the rest of the story.

Traveled the first T (Train) to the Portland Zoo - reading about the 4T

On the second of the 4T (Trail)

Waiting for the third T (Tram)

Our final T (Trolley)

 Walking to Deschutes Brewery

Scott and his family drove down from Seattle late Friday night with plans to stay through Sunday and celebrate Mother’s Day. Early Saturday afternoon they received a call informing them that their rescue puppy, Jazz, was missing. Ini’s cousin was pet sitting for the weekend and the dog had broken loose when they were out for a walk. Jazz was born to a litter of stray dogs and lived on the street for much of his first year. Scott and Ini adopted him around Christmas and have done a great job training him, but this was his first time separated from the family and he quickly reverted to his ‘street’ ways and ran away. The only solution to this quandary was for Scott and family to pile in the car and drive back to Seattle and help look for the dog. And that’s exactly what they did.Worried and disappointed (again).*

We all piled in our car a little later and went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It wasn’t until we were back home that I realized we could have gone to one of our other favorite adult restaurants for dinner that evening…I originally suggested the Spaghetti Factory because that’s where we always go when we have kids in our group. We’ve been going there since Jana was a wee baby. It is the perfect restaurant for large groups with lots of kids. We’ve celebrated every birthday and Christmas holiday there for 30+ years and our adult kids have carried on the tradition. Not much has changed over the years (except for the addition of broccoli with mizithra cheese to the menu) and we all know our orders by heart.  It took a few bites before I realized the dressing on my salad was not my favorite blue cheese, but some kind of bland buttermilk dressing posing as blue cheese.  I ate it, but it set the course for a less-than-perfect dinner. Now, you have to understand that one of the things that makes Spaghetti Factory such a favorite is that everything is exactly the same every time we go. The bread with garlic butter is steaming hot, the iceburg lettuce salad is icy cold, and every family member always orders the same meal. So, when we go and something is different and doesn’t meet our expectations it’s a crushing blow. After missing out on my favorite blue cheese salad dressing, the rest of the meal just could not come up to scratch. Disappointed again.

Sunday was spent rearranging Lauren’s artwork. She’s a collector of books and collector of art from signed posters and reproductions to fine art she’s bought over the years. (Did I also mention she’s a book collector? That’s a story for another day.) She thought she’d run out of wall space until we did some creative regroupings and unique placements.  This was all part of her purging process and reorganization that’s underway. After reading the book “the life-changing magic of tidying up (the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing)” by marie kondo, she realized that her “life was cluttered with joyless objects” (her words) and has spent the past month going through every room’s drawers and closets and discarding unused and unwanted items so that only those that bring her joy are left. It didn’t take the book for me to realize Verne and I have a similar problem, but after reading my own personal copy (Lauren’s Mother’s Day gift to me), I realize I’ve had no idea how to tackle the horde of stuff we’ve acquired over three decades. Until now. I’m hopeful that the “konmari method” is just what I need to purge about 75-80% of our belongings this year and get us closer to the downsizing I keep promising.

All in all, our trip to Portland was a success. While there were many small disappointments and mishaps along the way, we had a wonderful time seeing Lauren, Jana and Scott for as much time as we were able with each. We did have an unexpectedly funny experience on one of our trips to Portland downtown over the weekend though. Verne was behind the wheel and we were stopped at an intersection. A 55-60 year old bicycler completely decked out in biking attire pulled around next to Verne’s open window, leaned his head in, and said the following in a loud, animated voice:

Sir. Sir. Sir.

2.2 pounds.

2.2 pounds of metal that says Wentworth Subaru Portland surrounding your California state license plate.

Sir. That added weight to your car decreases your gas mileage, increases the wear on your tires and tears up the road, harming our environment.

Two screws, sir! Only two screws and you can recycle that metal here in Portland.

Will you do it, sir? Sir. Sir. Will you commit to taking out those two screws? Do not take it back to California to recycle. Recycle it here in Portland, sir.

And that was our visit to Portland!

*In a good piece of follow up news, Jazz was found and is now home safe and sound with his family.  He is both in trouble and the king of the house all at once.