September 24, 2014 Wednesday

After a full day of touring the area on Tuesday we started the tour again this morning.  Portland has one of the largest parks in the U.S.  The Japanese Gardens are part of Washington Park which covers more than 400 acres in Portland.  The Japanese Gardens are 5.5 acres and is designed to promote a peaceful and tranquil experience.  As you would expect, every leaf, blade, bloom, stone, and walkway is cared for individually.  Below are some shots of the park.

At the Koi Pond

Stone Gardens

The city in the distance

We left the Japanese Gardens feeling peaceful and tranquil but we quickly got over it with a lively lunch at the Hall Street Bar & Grill.  In fact, we got into our conversation so much when we realized it was 2:30pm and Lib and I were to meet an old friend at 3!  

Bruce Stern was one of the guys I went through the PhD program with at Arizona State back in the early 70's.  He is one of about four of us who went through the entire program together and we have all remained close over the decades.  Bruce grew up in Portland and after a stint at Illinois he got his dream job back in Portland.  He retired from Portland State University and had a great career serving as an editor of a major journal for several years. He is married to Sheila.  They have two sons and four grandchildren.  Bruce is big into volunteer work and we had to meet with him between three meetings.  It was a great visit with a dear old friend.  We called Paul Solomon and had a good chat while Bruce was visiting us on Cream Puff.

What happened to our thick dark hair we had in the 70's?

After Bruce's visit Louise picked us up again for a mini tour of her condo and then we went to dinner with she and Jeff at a cool place called McMenamins.  This is a restaurant chain that refurbishes historic buildings, like old schools, and turns them into nice eateries.  They brew their own beers and you get a mind-staggering choice of different types of beers.  Oregon is a major beer brewing state and there are many micro-breweries in Portland.  This is very different than what Lib and I observed when we stayed in Tuscaloosa on our boat in the Fall football season of 2010.  There were only Busch Lite cans on the side of the road.  I don't think they sell another brand in T-town.  

We ended another day getting to see some of Jeff's videos he had produced for his outdoor TV show.  We saw a fascinating program devoted to HawkWatch.  The HawkWatch people count the number and type of raptors and correlate the sightings with weather/seasonal conditions.  In this way, they can keep a statistic to help them measure the overall condition of wildlife since raptors are at the top of the food chain.  If the smaller critters dwindle, so do the raptors.  They also have a technique for catching and banding the birds using decoys and nets.  Very interesting and the birds are beautiful.

The second show we watched was devoted to rodeos.  We learned much about bull and horse riding.  Jeff had worked with the folk who breed and keep "bucking stock."  These are animals who are born to buck off the cowboys.  The program covered the thrills and ills of the sport and presented both sides of the issues.  Fascinating sport but its another one of those I don't care to do.  Watching is fine! We thought of  our good Pensacola friend, Jackie Drewett.  In one of our late night conversations we learned what she  enjoyed watching most on TV is bull riding!

We ended our visit with some excellent instruction from Jeff on what to see as we travel down the Oregon coastline.  We take off in the am eager to see sea lions and maybe sight a whale!  We don't meet up with niece and nephew (and family), Mary Elizabeth and French III, until October 4th so we have a week to amble down the Oregon coast!

Many thanks to Louise and Jeff for being perfect hosts!  On to the coast!