Day one of the road trip. Our plan is to get to Las Vegas by noon on Friday. Today our first stop was Eugene OR. We checked out the Skinner Butte Mountain. Beautiful views. Lots of local taking in the sights with friends enjoying recreational drugs. We also checked out a local secondhand arts shop. Some interesting art and Lily got some markers.
Then we made the quick drive to Springfield to see The Simpson’s murals. We arrived 20 minutes after the art center closed but the workers, standing on the wrong side of a locked door, invited us in to take a picture on the Simpson’s couch and gave us a flier with a map to the murals. Very nice of them! We found what we could and celebrated with some pizza. Also – a nod to the local Springfield newspaper and their listing of activist events and alerts. (I’ve added some non-Simpson art too.)
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Each road trip, especially a family road trip, involves a moment or two of serious discomfort. Lily and I nailed it Tuesday night. It was a long day of driving, up and down the hills and mountains of Oregon. (To be fair it was gorgeous – as the pictures below will attest.) We finally pulled up to our bed and breakfast in Dorris, California – just over the border from Oregon. It’s a very rural town. It’s fine but not really what we expected. The owner and her son are very nice. But there’s not much around.
It was 8:30. By the time we figured out the key to the room (still not really working – and NOT user error) everything in town was closed. We had pizza five hours earlier but nothing before or after. So, we drove to the closest bar about 15 miles away. It’s desert dark with roads like you find going to your friend’s Wisconsin cabin – windy and not well marked. We can’t see the evaluation. I’m driving and driving is something I hate.
Someone driving in front of us pulls over, so we pass them. Then they start following us – right to the bar. (Lily figures they pulled over worrying that we might be a cop and they were in no condition to drive.) There are maybe 10 people there. Bar closes at 10pm and a few folks have already been cut off. Pick-ups parked out front with bumper stickers that don’t match our ethos. I’m having a Diet Pepsi (naturally no Diet Coke) because I have to drive back on the treacherous road in the ditch dark. They have no food. Owner was friendly. One of the 86’ed guys is asking Lily all about her journal. She’s having a Coors Light. The kitchen is not open.
Thankfully, we could get two off sale Coors Lights. Unfortunately, the bag of chips was $3 so we only got one. We had $6 but it’s the principle. We drive back to the B&B. A rabbit runs in front of us. But I miss it. Lily is feeling bad because she has selected the location. I am only anxious about driving, which can present as angry.
We get back safely. Sit on the front stoop with our two beers and just laugh. We’re thinking maybe a casino room tomorrow in Reno!
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Filed under: Oregon
I’m condensing a few days in Portland to one post but starting with the highlight – Lily’s zine reading. Lily’s zine reading. Lily O’Donnell has been in a Portfolio Program at The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC). It’s part creative writing course and part print-making program. She has been picking up skills with things like riso printers and working with an awesome cohort of other artists. I got to meet them all yesterday at a zine reading. The center is an interesting building. The students are bright, creative and motivated. It was fun to see how much they lift each other up and have a genuine respect for each other’s work.
I am really proud of her work and her reading. I had permission to video some of it.
The event was hosted at IPRC but the students did all of the work – and the turnout was impressive. People from as far away as St Paul. There were 75-100 people in the room.
We went out at night. The first night, I went to Lily’s Cinema 21 and watched Friendship. (It’s a weird art house movie that’s been selling out. Or maybe I just don’t get it.) It was fun to meet Lily’s coworkers. They are super friendly and know a ton about movies. And music.
We saw some music including an Enya Tribute night at the Swan Dive. We talked each other into thinking we were big fans because we know where her house is in Dublin, but we didn’t know many songs. I recognized one. We somehow managed to miss Sail Away. We briefly saw Sharon Van Etten too. We went to trivia night as part of a birthday celebration for Lily’s roommate Sav. But we were there too late for anyone to sing their songs. Lily has clearly picked up a lot of good friends in Portland from work, her zine program and just being out in the community. They all had such nice things to say about Lily. (Not surprised.)
Poor Lily got in a lot more walking than I think she would usually like to do. As I’m typing, we have already walked more than 10 miles today. The day I arrived (13 hours late), we walked around Lily’s neighborhood and had lunch a Sweedeedee’s – named for a Micheal Hurly song. Lily is/was apparently a big fan and even met him in the neighborhood not long ago. Also, we checked out the museum art and taxidermy. Day two, we walked around the gorgeous Laurelhurst Park; it’s gorgeous. It’s amazing just how tall the trees are. Very different from the Superior Forest in Northern Minnesota. We also walked around park near Belmont and Hawthorne streets. We had some yummy Thai food and did some shopping in book and secondhand stores.
Today we trekked from downtown to Washington Park and all around. We saw the rose gardens, the Japanese gardens (Lily got us in for cheap), the Holocaust Memorial and more. The whole area is beautiful. It’s on top of a hill so you can see mountains in the distance and the higher you get into the park, the more you can look down at the various parts of it. Again, the trees are incredible. They make even something like a Japanese Garden seem more magical. And the air and moisture they give off is healing. (Also makes my hair look good!) There was a waterfall and those of us who live near the Minnehaha Falls are always suckers for a waterfall. I was taking a video as Lily walked toward it and you can hear her excitement when we spied the giant koi fish in the water.
And intermixed with each day – and night – was some amazing street art – mostly graffiti, but some fun public art as well!
Filed under: Oregon
On my last day, we finally got to Powell Books, apparently the world’s largest independent bookstore. I’ve worked in many libraries, and I have to say, none were as large as Powell Books. It’s busy and well organized. It seems like they have a good calendar of events, which always helps. My favorite memory was overhearing a young girl say to her mom, “I found a book on Disney World. (pause) It has everything. (pause) I really like Disney World. (pause) I mean really … I’d like to go there … someday.”
Spent the last day then reflecting on the trip. We had a great time. Lily compared Portland to “New Orlean’s tired uncle, who usually just has two beers now.” It is a place where people seem to live easy. People drive slowly, start conversations and seem nice. I spent a lot of time near and in downtown so I saw a lot of people living in tents. That’s always hard but only because it’s hard to see someone on a rough day. The weather is very Irish, which I had been told before. Lots of misty-rain, which just makes my hair look better.
There feels like a DIY undercurrent in the community. As Lily noted, it’s like third generation fisher families move into town but they still know how to fix a boat or scale a fish. The city is plunked in the middle of amazing nature. I’d say that about St Paul too – but Portland beauty is maybe more obvious, if you like that sort of thing.
Final word – Lily is doing well and always fun to spend a week with a kid. (And just a few pictures from the trip…)
Saturday night ended at El Corazon seeing Ariel Pink. Very fun place. Fun show. Seems like the sort of thing I might do in Minneapolis, which is always a little funny for me since I generally don’t see a ton of live music while on vacation.
Sunday we took a slow drive from Seattle to Portland, stopping whenever and wherever we wanted. We started with Snoqualmie Falls. I had no expectations and was just amazed. I love my Minnehaha Falls, but I’m realizing how “cute” they are after a look at some of these just majestic water falls in the real mountains. Also, the waterfall featured in Twin Peaks. Who doesn’t love a famous waterfall?
Next stop, the cemetery in Renton WA, to see Jimi Hendrix’s memorial. It’s impressive. I’ve been there twice and it was raining each time. So I think the angles are always crying for Jimi. The population the cemetery is very diverse. There’s a grave nearby that has chanting-type music blasting. It aids an interesting dimension.
Next step the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Best thing, I got to get my Chihuly fix. I love his art; there’s great color and movement in most of his work. It’s amazing to think that anything would work in a medium that seems by its nature so fragile. Another impressive piece in the Salmon School Sculpture, which is created with salmon-like, silver hand-blown mini-sculptures hanging from the ceiling in the shape of a salmon. We both saw a lot of works we liked; there’s something whimsical and permanent in art that seems so hard to do.
We made a quick stop in Olympia. Lily went to a vintage shop – ironically one I remembered from an earlier trip with Aine. I checked out the local street art.
Eventually we made it back to Portland. We had a nice diner nearly Lily’s work (Grassa?) and we went to two of her favorite bars: the Blue Moon and the Book Pub. Both were nice but a pub that features books, where most of the patrons are readers or writers (and you can tell because they are reading and writing at the pub) is hard to resist.
Day five started in Astoria, we made one last stop to see Astoria Column. I thought it would be like an older water tower. It was much cooler. As the t-shirt indicates, it’s almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. It’s on top of Coxcomb Hill and the views are amazing. We saw a very scary looking bridge that crossed the river to Stevens State Park.
Our next stop was the Peter Iredale shipwreck in Stevens State Park. God love Lily – she drove over the scary bridge. I think she didn’t realize how scary it would be. Part of the problem in that you take a hairpin turn on the elevating ramp to get to it. But we survived. We did get the beach to ourselves. It was really nice.
The on to Long Beach where Lily found a vintage shop that she loved. She got a great haul. Turns out art in Portland is pretty expensive. But the art at the secondhand store in a rural coastal town, is less expensive. We had a nice lunch and then I took a walk on the beach. I suspect it’ll be my last walk on the ocean for a hot minute, so I soaked it in.
Then onto Seattle, which was much farther than we wanted it to be. But we checked in, We checked out some of the basics (Ferris Wheel, gum wall and Pike’s Place) on the way to find a restaurant open past 9pm. We found one. And we found ourselves an Irish pub for a pint or two.
Filed under: Oregon
Day four started Wednesday night at The Pharmacy PDX, a bar that featured a few times in the Matt Dillon movie, Drugstore Cowboy. We happened to be there for burlesque night – a very fun and gender expansion show.
Thursday Lily and I packed up our bags for the coast. The drive to Seaside was gorgeous between the forest and the mountains. The trees are so much taller than I’m used to, even in Northern Minnesota. We saw snow for the first time in weeks. Apparently, it’s been a while for folks here too to see so much snow. Then we got to the beach. Amazing! The sound could lull anyone into a good mood. There was a promenade, that was too far from the water for us, so we went right to the water.
We learned a little bit about clam digging, which looks like a pretty fun work out. People use what I’d call a clam digging auger to dig up the dirt and hopefully a clam. We chased down sand dollars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them on the beach like that before. Also Seaside is the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. So that was pretty interesting.
From Seaside we went north to Astoria, where much of Goonies was filmed. I went to see the Goonies house. The view is amazing and there’s sort of a well-maintained ragtag feel about the area. Astoria is where Clark Gable began his acting career; unfortunately, the theater burned down and the plaque doesn’t photograph well but we saw it. There were so many movie connections in the area. And as Lily noted there were a couple of cinemas and a video store. Lily works at a Cinema in Portland and worked at the Lagoon in Minneapolis. I feel like she could move to Astoria.
My favorite thing so far – the sealions in Astoria. You can’t get very close to them but you can hear them from far away. The last two times I visited Dublin, I didn’t get to see seals so this was a total bonus seeing sealions here!
We had very yummy seafood for dinner and checked out a few of the local breweries. A mellow but fun night. We stayed right in town and it was nice to see there were a few options that were walkable to the city.
Filed under: Oregon
Last night we went to check out Creepy’s – an old town, clown, kitschy bar. It wasn’t busy but the bartender was really nice and the scenery was good. We visited a place next door, with some amazing velvet art. It was a good end to a fun day and great start to day three.
Today Lily and I went to The Grotto. The Wowser! It reminded me of my visit to Kylemore Abbey with Kate in January. It is a Catholic outdoor altar and sanctuary with daily Masses. Constructed in 1924, the sanctuary covers 62 acres, set both at the foot of, and atop, a 110 foot cliff. It is so peaceful with all of the moss and forest smells. It is, as one might guests pretty religious. There are outdoor sculptures for the Stations of the Cross, bas relief vignettes of the joyful and sorrowful mysteries, lots of statues and various shrines. The shrines come from different lands and are each cool, yet unique. There’s a small chapel (St Ann’s) with a few prayer pews and paintings with different renditions of Mary and Jesus; each also coming from different lands. I thought they were fascinating. And a labyrinth, which was very relaxing.
Also worth mentioning the number of trees that came down during a recent ice storm. There’s a picture of me below standing by the tree trunk to show how big the tree had been.
The most amazing part (maybe, but it was all so great) was the meditation overlook. The views of the mountains were spectacular and really the first time I was fully able to see the mountains. The overlook was built in 1991 by the family of Marilyn Moyer. I’m pretty sure we saw Mount Rainier in the distance.
I love the story of how grotto began…
The story of The Grotto begins at the end of the 19th century, with a young boy who learned that his mother lay near death after giving birth to a daughter. In tears, the boy ran to the little parish church in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He prayed to the Virgin Mary for his mother’s life, promising that if she were spared he would one day undertake a great work for the church. Both his mother and baby sister survived, and the future Fr. Ambrose Mayer never forgot his promise.
We stopped on the way home at Mt Tabor on the way back. It was a quick look at some more views. Between Tabor and the Grotto, I’ve grown to really like the smell of a forest.
Filed under: Oregon
This living on Pacific Time is tough when the good people of the Midwest are two hours ahead. But I’m adjusting. Day two began last night when we all headed to The Alibi, for tiki drinks and karaoke. I did not sing; the others did. We did start the night (which minds you starts at midnight CST when Lily’s off work) with a fishbowl of cocktail. What could go wrong? Actually. it was a super fun night. The people in our group were great performers and we saw some fairly amazing strangers.
Tuesday (today) I took some pictures of Lily and her regular places – home and work. We had a nice lunch and then Lily went to work.
I took a weird walk for a couple hours. I like Portland but, in my experience, thus far, it’s not a walking city. (I guess most US cities aren’t.) Not that it’s difficult to get to places, there just aren’t a lot of other people walking around.
I walked to Chinatown, which came recommended. It was a sunny day so in the distance I could see the hills and just about see the mountains. It’s gorgeous. Closer to me, I walked through a lot of neighborhoods and got to cross the river (The Willamette) twice. Turns out not much commerce or tourism is happening in Chinatown these days. Lots of folks with nowhere else to go. Some folks were friendly, and no one was aggressive, but hard to take tourist photos without looking like a strange photojournalist trying to capture someone’s not-finest moment.
I did accidentally find the Wishing Tree on Morris St and 7th Ave, which is near Lily’s places. The homeowner leaves paper, string and instructions and people write their wishes on the tree. Apparently the original has inspired other wishing trees to pop up. But this is the original. (Of course I knew none of this before I looked on Google, after seeing the tree!)
Filed under: Oregon
I arrived late on Sunday night to visit Lily in her new home city of Portland Oregon. I had never been here before. We didn’t skip a beat and headed right out to the Lollipop Shoppe to see a few bands. It’s always weird to start a trip in the dark. I liked the place and the music but had no real feel for Portland. Today I got a little better feel.
We went to check out Vintage Merchants, where I scored new-to-me boots and two new-to-me dresses. Lily got some art and clothes. Tyler got some art too. We had super tasty pastries and then Lily went off to work at the taco place. (She also works at a cinema.)
I spent the afternoon walking from one workplace to the next back to Lily’s. The weather does feel like Dublin – wet and chilly but not super cold without the wind. I walked by some very nice neighborhoods and interesting shops. I saw some folks who weren’t living their best day. You know like you’d see in most cities.
Lily lives in a very nice basement apartment. It has some old school charm with wood and hidden space but it’s also very brought and feels modern. The neighborhood feels much the same. Each house is different from the next. Lots of colors and yard ornaments or swing sets. She’s just a few blocks off what seems to be a busier street, which I always like.
Soon we’ll be walking up to meet up with Lily for more adventures!
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