Thursday, March 5, 2015

2225.Day Four

What to do when in Portland?   It's about a thousand miles away from home so it's good to think about this before you hit the road.  How to balance the combo of taking time to be with Portland familia without being too much under foot, seeing the things that make me feel like I've sort of done what I usually do, and sharing the things I enjoy doing with James.  Thank goodness the last two items have a lot of overlapping areas.

Monday morning - James walks the Girls to school.  Then he and I drive to Milwaukie, Oregon.  Yes, it was named after the town in Wisconson.  At one point in the past it was in competition with Portland to be the stellar city of the state, but the Bridgetown had a deeper port. More commerce, greater import.  There's the history lesson for the day.

Why go to Milwaukie?  Bob's Red Mill.  A store filled with more options in grains than I imagined could exist.  Gluten free heaven. The Disneyland of Grains.  Kasha by the pound.  Green pea flour.  Date sugar.  Organic dark rye flour.  Gluten free biscuit mix.  Hemp protein powder.

We bought some of the first two.

By the way, Bob's is an employee owned business.  On his 81st birthday he "surprised them by giving them total ownership" via an employee stock opportunity.  Good grains, good guy, good business.



On to downtown for some shopping.  Dealt one of Portland's causes for traffic jams.  We don't usually have sigalert set on account of rising bridge.  When you have 11 bridge that connect your downtown to the other parts of the city this is a much more common occurrence.  No need for rubbernecking; only a bit of patience.




On to the Japanese Gardens.  The day was truly brisk so the number of those in the gardens was small.  It wasn't quite having the gardens all to one's self, but there few enough people there that James and I could sit or stop and just take in the beauty.  The gardens were the perfect way to end the tourist part of our day.







All photos by James M. Grimes and Roberta H. Martínez 

6 comments:

  1. I've heard about those gardens. Nice pictures, James.

    Have you tried a day trip to McMinnville? It's small, not a lot there, but it's pretty. There are some cute galleries and the campus of Linfield College is lovely.

    My mother went to school there in the early 1940's, and returned there in the late 1980's after my father died. She lived there until 2004, when she died.

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  2. The gardens are lovely. It was so lovely to stroll and enjoy the afternoon.

    We stayed at the McMenamins in McMinville. Would love to go there again sometime in the future.

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  3. It looks like you're having a nice time. I love that area, from downtown to the Columbia River Gorge. Beautiful! I have cousins who live in Beaverton.

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    1. It was a wonderful trip. The whole area is great fun. That much better for being able to share with the Girls.

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  4. I had a delayed reaction after I posted my earlier comment this morning: You're back! I just saw you yesterday! The coffee must not have kicked in yet.

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    1. Yup. I'm back. By the way, the panel was wonderful. I loved the balance of experiences that were evident in the make up of the panel. You were great.

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