OMG, what a week it's been. Today is the 4th of July, and I haven't written in over a week. But it's been one of the most special weeks since I left Atlanta, because the entire time has been spent in the company of friends, and that has been amazing.
I arrived in Portland last Thursday, after I left the wine country. I stayed with Dana and Jerry, the parents of a good friend of mine (Jordan) from college at the University of Texas. They used to live in Houston, but relocated a while ago, and they love Portland. Which meant that they made for outstanding tour guides.
Actually, when I arrived Thursday afternoon, I left them to do some work around the house while I took myself to see a movie. Funny that I was craving such an activity, but after so much sightseeing, it was nice to do something "boring" like sitting in a movie theater. I saw the Karate Kid -- maybe it shows my age, but I preferred the original with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (although I really enjoyed Jackie Chan).
Anyway, after I returned to the house Thursday night, Dana took me out on the town a little bit (Jerry was playing poker with his buddies). We went to ride the tram at OHSU, which provided for a bird's-eye view of the Willamette River overlooking Portland. The weather was fantastic, and the view was spectacular. Portland has so many bridges spanning the river; between the bridges, the river itself, and the abundance of trees, it was absolutely gorgeous. And we were able to see Mt. Hood, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Adams from the top. We stayed up there for a little while, and then returned to our car. Dana took me to an old school converted into a pub/theater/restaurant/hotel, called the Kennedy. It was a very cool place. When we arrived, we heard lots of singing, but no instruments. We went in search of the voices, and found them: they belonged to a community singing group which performs several times a week. The sign describing the group states that they sing from a songbook from the late 1800s, and that "no experience is necessary". The group was large, 30+ people, all sitting in a circle, with a leader in the center. They were singing in 4-part harmony, and it was really cool to listen to them. I've never fancied myself much of a singer, but if I ever live in Portland, it would be really fun to sing with them, for sure.
The next morning, Dana and Jerry took me to see the Columbia River Gorge. It is absolutely incredible to see. Apparently, an ice dam broke thousands of years ago, which unleashed this enormous flood of water westward, out toward the Pacific Ocean. The speed of the water, along with the onslaught of the material washed away with it, carved out the entire gorge. And it is BIG. We drove eastward on the Washington side first and stopped at the Bonneville Dam. The entire Columbia River is apparently dammed for electricity purposes, but in order to let the salmon through to spawn, the Bonneville Dam has built "fish ladders" which simulate the natural entrance into the various fingers of a river. You can go underneath the water, inside a building at the dam, and watch the fish swim through the ladders; in fact, there's a person inside whose job it is, is to count salmon of every variety, to see how well the salmon are doing. We then went outside, and looked from above the ladders; you could see the salmon swimming up against the current of water in the ladders. How hard they work! They literally jump up the ladder as the current washes down over them. What I read is that the current moves at 5-7 mph downstream; the fish swim at 7-24 mph upstream. But there are holding areas, too, where tired fish can go to rest if they need to. And there were plenty of fish in the holding areas, just hanging out, resting and recuperating from what seems to be an absolutely exhausting swim.
After we left the dam, we continued eastward for a while, then we crossed the gorge back into Oregon and went southward to see Mount Hood. The mountain was beautiful, and so large against the greenery of the trees and the blue of the sky. And there's still snow on Mt. Hood, as well! We went to the historic Timberline Lodge at the mountain, and we had lunch there, and then toured the lodge, which is beautiful and rustic, with original furnishings, carvings, and architectural details. I went out into the snow and took a few photos as well, but afterwards, I fell coming down off the snowy hill, and rode the hill down on my bottom in the snow. Oh well, it only LOOKED like I wet my pants....
Anyway, we eventually got back in the car and drove northward again, then back at the gorge, we drove westward toward Portland. This time, we stayed on the Oregon side of the gorge. We saw the kite surfers on the Hood River (there were tons of them!), I gawked at the spectacular scenery of the gorge and river, and we stopped at multiple waterfalls: Horsetail, Bridalveil, Multnomah (the most famous, and enormous), Sheppard's Dell, Latourelle. Eventually, we came to an amazing lookout point with a small observatory on top. It was amazing standing there, just watching the view: the river, the rock formations, the trees, and again, that clear blue sky. Spectacular.
That night, Dana and Jerry took me to their eldest daughter's home for Shabbat supper. I had a wonderful time meeting her entire family, and we had a really nice evening of tickle fights (with her two children), good conversation (with the four adults), and a little mah jongg after the kids went to bed. And again, it was so nice to eat a home-cooked meal, after all of the hotel and restaurant meals I've eaten in the past two months.
Saturday morning, we got up and went to the local farmer's market. It was fantastic -- tons and tons of interesting produce, plants and flowers, and baked/prepared goods. I forget sometimes how much I love going to markets like that! After the market, we dropped the food off at their home, and then we went to Pearl Street to the amazing Powell's Bookstore, then stopped in at Voodoo Doughnuts (didn't wait in the hour-long line for one though, boo hoo), and then went to Mississippi Street to eat lunch at a Portland tradition, a pod of food carts. Apparently, Portland has pods like the one on Mississippi Street all over the city! We had our choice of Mexican, sushi, Korean, pizza, eggs, Indian fusion, and several others -- and there were lots and lots of vegetarian and vegan options (although I am neither).
After we ate our fill, we returned to their house, and I packed up and left Portland. I went back across the Columbia River the same way I'd traveled the day before, and went to Camas, Washington, which is only a 3o minute drive from Portland. There, I met up with one of my closest friends from high school, Jay Murray. He's married now (his wife's name is Kris), and he has two children (Aiden and Cassidy) and two chihuahuas (Pippin and Tula), so the house is filled with busy-ness and laughter.
It was a fun couple of days, just hanging out at their house and in their neighborhood, and playing with Aiden and Cassidy, and the other children on the block. And it was fun to see Jay all grown up. Sunday night was amazing, though. Jay is a pilot for Southwest Airlines, and his brother Josh, a consultant by day, turns into a private pilot/flight instructor at night. So Josh took Jay and I out for a flight in his plane. It was totally cool. We flew back over the gorge, then looped around and flew over Mt. St. Helens! It was an outstanding way to see the gorge in a completely different light than I'd seen it by driving (the waterfalls are totally nonimpressive from the air, by the way), and St. Helens was really cool. She's got a crater in the center, obviously, from the eruption, but is having a "bulge" in the crater where lava is pushing up against the crater's bottom. The bulge is growing, and we got a great picture of it! But the best part was just being up in the sky. I forget how much I really love it, until I get up there -- and then I'm completely exhilarated. Too cool.
The next morning, I left Camas to drive to Seattle, and to see my friend Martha from medical school. The last time I saw Martha, I was living in New York City, and she had an infant. Now she has two kids (Mimi and Ian), and they are 10 and 8 years old! It was wonderful to see her and reconnect with her....Martha and I were always able to have really good conversations, and this visit was absolutely no exception. Martha has started her own business as a healthcare advocate, and I've occasionally thought about that career, as well, so we had lots to discuss about, well, everything really.
She also is temporarily displaced from her house (it's being renovated), and she and her husband have rented this amazing apartment on Lake Washington, overlooking Bellevue and Mt. Rainier. We had an outstanding view of the water. Amazingly, though, the mountain was completely invisible! I saw photographs of what the view looks like when the weather is clear, and the mountain is SO large and SO dominant, that it seems unbelievable that it was completely hidden -- but it was. For the entire 4 days I was there. The most I saw of it was the very tip, on Wednesday night; and seeing the top was even more shocking, because then I could tell how large the mountain really was, even though I couldn't see the rest of it.
On Tuesday afternoon, some friends of Martha's invited us to go out on their boat, and they picked us up at the dock at the apartment complex! Which made me feel totally luxurious. We had a really nice (but windy) ride, and saw the gorgeous homes right on the water....rode right past Bill Gates's home itself. The homes are on the water, but the street is above the homes, on top of a hill -- I was surprised to see that most of the homes had escalators which extended from the home to the street!
That evening, Martha took me to dinner at the Dahlia Lounge, one of the really famous Seattle restaurants, and it was great. We were able to dress up a little bit, and the food and conversation were terrific.
The next day (Wednesday), I met one of Nimmi's friends, Jeff Maggioli, out for lunch to catch up with him while Martha took her kids to see Toy Story 3. Afterwards, Martha and I went to buy some groceries, and I COOKED DINNER for the first time since this trip began. I made a lemon pasta which I really like and just a simple salad, bread, and fruit, but it was glorious being in a kitchen after all this time! And that night, I got to spend time with both Martha and her husband Scott, which was really nice, as well.
On Thursday, I played with Ian while Martha had an appointment....turns out, I'm really good at Wii Tiger Woods Golf. I'm sure that means I'm good at real golf too, right? When Martha returned, she and the kids and I went for lunch, then came back to the apartment and continued chatting (I feel like we talked for hours on end!), and then I finally left for Mt. Rainier National Park at 4pm.
I arrived at the Paradise Lodge just before 8pm. But it was an incredible drive, because again, the mountain was invisible! Here I was, driving on the mountain itself, and I totally couldn't see it. In fact, as I got closer to the lodge, I could see why....it was really cloudy and foggy, given my elevation (6000 ft), and the visibility was only 20 feet or so. In fact, I really couldn't even see the lodge. But I finally saw the sign for it, then followed the road, then saw cars in the parking lot, and then followed those to the entrance. It was freaky, being unable to see the lodge until I was right upon it. But I made it, safe and sound.
The next morning, I decided to go for a hike, although I was totally uncertain about how a hike in that continuing fog would go. First I went to the visitors' center, and saw a movie about Mt. Rainier. I found out the secret of the weather; the mountain is so tall that it literally stops clouds which are moving eastward from the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound. The clouds hang out at the mountain, because they cannot continue onward. So the mountain is often cloaked in clouds. And the mountain also "makes its own weather", as a result. After the movie, I asked the tour guide where to go, and she recommended that I leave Paradise and go down the mountain, to Ohanapecosh on the southeast side of the park, and do some hiking over there, which I did. But first, I asked her where the mountain actually was, since I couldn't see it! Too funny, to be at a mountain park, and never actually see the mountain.
I drove eastward to Ohanapecosh, and did a really nice hike, from the Ohanapecosh campground around the Silver Falls Loop, then to the Grove of the Patriarchs, and back to the campground. The falls were excellent and super-powerful. The grove was much cooler than I thought it would be; after all, I'd been a little bit bored at Sequoias, if truth be told. But this grove is made of completely different trees (Douglas Fir, Red Alder, Western Hemlock), and has so many other plants, that I was completely mesmerized by it all.
I left the park around 4pm and then drove back down to Camas. Jay and Kris had invited me to spend the 4th of July with them, and although I initially declined since it would slow down my trip to Alaska, I decided that I'd rather spend Independence Day in the USA than in Canada, so I took them up on their offer. I took the scenic route down from Rainier, and so I drove right past Mt. St. Helens. Again, the weather was cloudy, and so I only got a picture of the base of it -- but that just made it cooler that I had seen it from the air a few days before.
So here I am, back in the Portland area, on the 4th of July, with a wonderful friend and his family. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had so many experiences over the past week:
- Visiting with three wonderful groups of friends (Dana and Jerry, Jay and Kris, and Martha and Scott) and their families
- Driving around the Columbia River Gorge, and visiting Mt. Hood
- Flying over the gorge, and seeing it from the air, along with Mt. St. Helens
- Flying in an airplane, period!
- Taking a spontaneous boat ride
- Learning that Mt. Rainier is a crazy, magical mountain
- Taking a really lovely hike through the woods
It's funny, in a way. I haven't written in so long, and I initially felt guilty about that, but I feel like there's some synergy in these places I've visited and the people I've seen over the past week. I could have written about each of them separately, but it makes sense this way: visits to Portland and Camas, and seeing the gorge from the ground and the air; flying in Portland area and boating in Seattle; and traveling from Seattle back down to Portland area and seeing Rainier and St. Helens in both places. Synergy.
Happy 4th. Enjoy the holiday,
Emily
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