Portland Visit - 2009

We left San Diego at oh-dark-thirty on the 12th of July for a week visit with Greg. Flight was fine, 2 small screamers in the seats behind us, so no napping on the way. Greg picked us up & stopped on the way to his place to see the Portland Rose garden. An absolutely beeeeyoootiful place. Then he took us to the Japanese Gardens which is only a few steps away. Note to future visitors, the former is free, the latter charges admission. Both are well worth it.

After the gardens we went to lunch at the Elephant Cafe, Greg described it as having a real "Portland vibe". Very cool place & the food was great. We almost bumped into Greg's girlfriend Kristen, turns out that she had decided spur of the moment to take a friend of hers to the same place, they arrived about 10 minutes after we left.

Then to Greg's place, where Nancy gave him the quilt she had made for him. He liked it a lot, then disappeared into his room, came back & gave me an early birthday present (LaDainian Tomlinson jersey) - very cool. Next off to pick up our rental car & get set up at the hotel (and a nap for tired mom & dad).

Nancy & I went exploring on days that Greg worked, getting the lay of the land (and visiting a number of quilt shops along the way). We were thankful to Kristen, she loaned us her portable GPS, which worked great once we got the problems worked out (problems = user errors). We really left feeling we know the geography much better.

One day we visited Greg at California Pizza Kitchen where we met one of the managers. At the end of the meal we were told that the meal was comped - which was a nice surprise.

Without hitting too many details, we were driven around a lot by Greg, including a trip to the coast - where we saw Cannons beach, the Tillamook Cheese factory and an Aquarium in Newport. Kristen went with us, so we got to know her better. Oh - and we ate at a grill at the Rogue brewing company while near the aquarium. We walked into the plant itself, someone came up to Greg and said "can I help you"? He said we were looking for the restaurant, so they told us to go between the vats and upstairs. We literally were walking around puddles of beer, with the overwhelming scent of hops in the air.

During that trip Nancy spotted several quilt shops, and mentioned the same - but Greg would just keep driving and say "wave to them, mom".

While in the downtown Portland area, we saw an Osprey (fish hawk). I have seen nature films about them but had never seen one in person. I can only guess how they can spot fish under water, but it dove into the river & came out with a fish....

Misc notes: Portland was named by Lewis and Clark, one thought it would be a great spot for a "port", the other thought it was a beautiful "land". Good story, but of course it's just fantasy. The true story is a little odd as well. It was named Portland by the toss of a coin between Asa Lovejoy from Boston and Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Francis won 2 out of 3 tosses and chose to name it after his hometown. We'll discuss where Tigard got its name next time.