Angel's Rest Trail

This past Sunday was yet another beautifully sunny, warm and dry, springlike day in the Northwest.  We decided to take advantage of the great weather and hike a popular trail just outside of Portland known as Angel's Rest.  The end of the trail tops out with a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. Our guide book: Sixty Hikes Within Sixty Miles Of Portland claims that on a nice day one can encounter more dogs on this trail than people on other trails.  It is true.  We invited our friend Nick to hike with us who, coincidently, was dog sitting a very intelligent and well behaved labmix named Keeper.   

Fire restrictions in March?

Samantha and Keeper.

Looking across the Gorge towards Washington State.

Coopey Falls.

The morning had been very foggy but by 10am or so the moisture had burned off.

Nick.

Douglas Firs.

The upper portion of Coopey Falls.

The climb passed through a large area of dead trees that may have been killed by bugs or fire.

Angel's Rest in the background.

My best impression of William Clark.

Flushed or just too much rouge?

Looking south down the Columbia.

Nick and Keeper had to find a different route to the top instead of scrambling up these rocks.

Two huge, loud ravens riding the warm updrafts.

The hike topped out at 1560'.

Looking east towards Hamilton Mt.

Lots of snow over in the Washington highlands.

There were dozens of people quietly sunning themselves on these rocks.

Angel's Rest.

The light was so bright that it haloed everything.

Nick squinting.

The amazing Keeper. 

Nick ...... checking his fly I think.

Moss. 

Heading back down for lunch.

I caught a Garter Snake.  My hands still smell.

The buds are opening everywhere.

 

Samantha displaying a bridge.

Epic lighting that day.

Trillium!

Rocky Butte/Columbia River/Kelly Point Park road ride

From Rocky Butte one can watch the planes take off from PDX with Mt. St Helen's in the background.

Don with bikes.

Sam in front of the staircase leading to the top of Rocky Butte.

The park looks like a castle from below and is probably as solid as one.  It was built with federal funds by the youth conservation corps in during the nineteen thirties.    

Samantha and the Columbia River.

Don swore that he saw cows along the bank of that island last time he took this route.  

The homes of the rich in Vancouver, Washington State.

We came across these two guys practicing their parachute handling skills.  

The confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers aka Kelly Point. 

The weather was cooler and windy but ideal for road biking.

This tree was really cool.

Kelly Point.

The forests along the river are equal aged stands of poplar trees dependent upon floods for seed germination.  The upper rivers are now damned so I wonder what will replace these unique forests.

Joey Bates and new friends

This past weekend Joey Bates came down from Seattle to stay with us.  He was also in town to see an old friend named Gregory who just moved to Portland from San Francisco with his girlfriend Heather. The weather was perfectly bright and sunny and about 60 degrees or so. We spent the day riding bikes in parks and along the river stopping for food or coffee along the way.  Everyone in the city was out of hibernation to enjoy the day.  It was nice.

Laurelhurst Park.

Gregory and Heather's garden.

Portland across the Willamette River. 

Some fearless skateboarding twelve year old.

Mt. Hood to the east.

The river front was swarming with people.

Sam and Joey.

We rode all day.

Joey and Don along the river.

Joey thawing some shrimp for our fondue dinner.

Don preparing some salmon, yum!

Don, Sam, Heather, and Gregory photographed by Joey just before our fantastic fondue feast.

 

Handmade Bike Show

On Saturday we went to a Handmade Bike Show at the Convention Center. There were hundreds of beautiful and varied hand-built bikes. Here are a few of them and some brief descriptions.

This bike had MANUAL gear shifters

This bike was made of steer horns, wood, bamboo, and carbon fiber

This is Don's Bike

This is Sam's Bike

This bike frame is made of hollow hardwood and weighs only 17 1/2 lbs.

These rims were wooden - very classy.

One of our favorites

This bike drew the biggest crowd.

A bike you can ride even in the middle of winter is Michigan or Ohio.

Our favorite Bike Shop

Sam on her Bike

Sushi Night

This past Friday we made Sushi for the first time! Sam got a beautiful sushi set along with a cookbook (from a certain awesome boyfriend, in fact).  There is an Asian Mall called Fubonn near by and there you will find most anything needed for any authentic Japanese, Korean, or Chinese meal. 

The set is in our current favorite color - turquois

Don cutting the Sashimi grade Tuna

Chopping...

Sam with a beautiful scarf from Angela on her head, slicing an avocado. 

We used raw ginger root, and now understand why pickled ginger is used - it tastes much better pickled.

Along with the avocado and ginger, we also used shiitake  mushrooms, red bell peppers, asparagus and wasabi paste. 

We bought Nori(dried seaweed) at Fubonn

Don working diligently on his first roll! The Sushi set included 2 bamboo mats for rolling the sushi

Beautiful roll Don!

Sam's significantly smaller roll is on the left, Don's is on the right. 

Success!! 

Don theatrically eating a roll

Delish

Chocolatefest!

On this chilly Sunday we attended a festival of decadent treats cleverly titled Chocolatefest.  The event was held at The World Forestry Center.  I'm guessing they choose this location because cocoa beans are derived from a tree.

The awesome cross eyed chocolate loving postcard lady on our window sill.

Another awesome not so cross eyed chocolate loving lady in front of a train outside of the World Forestry Center.

The worlds largest truffle.  It weighed something like 250 pounds!  It was super delicious but a little overwhelming.  Samantha had half a piece. Don ate two. 

Future fat person.

Samantha perusing the goods.

All are true.

Oregon Zoo and PNCA featured artist: Joe Sacco

Today we went to the Oregon Zoo.  There was a 100% chance of rain and it was very cold, so we opted out of a hike....as it turns out it didn't rain a drop, and the skies were blue when we arrived back downtown.

Sam at the entrance to the zoo.  There was a beautiful border collie tied up there, we wanted to take it home. We really want a pet dog.

Here is a sleepy mountain goat we saw as we entered the park. Don saw quite a few of these over the summer in Montana. We hope to be out that way soon and see these in their natural habitat.

There were 2 black bears there - both very sleepy.

Sam looking at the salmon.

Don looking at the Salmon. (Sam unfortunately but characteristically forgot her camera and therefore this is the only evidence that Don was even present this day)

We really want an aquarium.

There were MANY different species of duck  -  they were kind of playing follow the leader and swimming one way in a straight line and then the other.

This polar bear was sleeping - the other polar bear there reminded us why we don't go to zoos often. It was taking 5 steps forward, and then the same exact 5 steps backwards. That's all it was doing. There are some animals, large animals that need to hunt and socialize, that just do not belong in zoos. 

This is a bird in the bird sanctuary that kept swooping down close to our heads. Beautiful.

The giraffe during feeding time! 

Blurry, naked mole rats!

These meerkats were piled on each other for warmth. It was adorable.

There was a great display of bats and we witnessed two bats mating aggresively; something we've never seen before.

Lorikeets - very friendly, brave, loud birds.

The world's largest feline.

The sea lions were HUGE. The zookeepers were feeding them and making them do tricks for the crowd of children watching.

Penguins . . . playing?

After the Zoo we stopped by the Pacific Northwest College of Art to see their latest exhibit of graphic artist Joe Sacco. He writes and illustrates  graphic novels about his travels in Palestine, Bosnia, and other war torn countries. The illustrations were beautiful and similar to one of our personal favorite artists, Daniel Clowes (look him up).

Here are some examples of Joe's work.