Two Marvelous Days

Good morning, my friends. It's been an action-packed couple of days. I have so much to tell you, so let's get started right away. I'll start with the sewing. After that, I'll tell you about my walk with Matthew along the Willamette River waterfront...that was yesterday. And then, I'll tell you about our dinner Thursday night. Okay? Okay. Here we go.

In the sewing room, I managed to find enough time to finish the top-stitching on the latest two blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. Here's Block #9, the Outhouse.

And here's Block #10, the Loon.

There are 16 blocks in this quilt. Here are the 10 I've done so far.

Turning our attention to yesterday's walk...I met up with Matthew on the east bank of the Willamette River. Matthew lives on the east side. We live on the west side, although we live in a Portland suburb, while Matthew lives in what would be considered the city of Portland. We'd planned to walk the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. I recall when the esplanade was built, but I've never been here before.  Like any city, Portland has its share of graffiti artists. 

Here's a bronze statue of Vera Katz. Sadly, the graffiti artists got to dear Vera too. She was a beloved figure in Portland. You can read a little more about her right here.

This little plaque accompanies the statue.

While I waited for Matthew, I took a couple of pictures from where I was standing. To my left is the Hawthorne Bridge.

Top my right was the Morrison Bridge. Most of the bridges are named for the streets that cross over.

There was a collection of lovelocks. This is just a small sampling of all the ones there.

Broadening my view, this is the west bank skyline.

Turning a little to the right, you can see more of it. Mike and I had dinner in that tall pinkish building on the right side of the image. (I worked in that building about three lives ago.)

Of course, I took pictures of every blooming thing. These white guys were very fragrant. (I haven't tried to identify any of these.)

You'll recognize those California poppies in the image below.

Meeting up with Matthew, we began our trek to the north. That's the Burnside Bridge in the image below.

We took this ramp...

And that led us even closer to the water.

Continuing on, this is the Steel Bridge. The lower deck is for trains. The upper deck is for cars. All the bridges I've shown you so far are drawbridges.

We crossed over the Steel Bridge walkway.

From there, we could look farther north. The red bridge you see there is the Broadway Bridge. Beyond that is the Fremont Bridge. I-405 crosses the Fremont Bridge.

Then we walked along the west bank of the river. This paddle wheeler has a sign indicating it is the Portland Maritime Museum. There doesn't seem to be much activity here, and so I'm not sure this is actually open. I remember when this boat was moved to the waterfront. Originally, I thought it was supposed to be turned into some kind of hotel. Whatever.

Here's another picture from the other side.

As we walked along, I was reminded of the walkways surrounding the St. Louis Gateway Arch. The trees here are cherry trees, and they are spectacular when they bloom in the spring.

There was the usual contingent of Canada geese.

This next one appears to be the HGIC (Head Goose in Charge).

There were a few ducks too.

We came to this...something I've never seen before.

The walkway leads right to the water's edge. You can barely see someone lying on the rock there sunning herself.

Here are a few of the poems we read.

The one above refers to this bridge...it's a pedestrian bridge...no cars, but public transportation does cross over here.

This is the Tilikum Crossing bridge. "Bridge of the People."

From there, we had a good view of the Marquam Bridge. This is where I-5 crosses over.

Looking east, we had a pretty view of Mt. Hood.

From there, we headed back to my car. Matthew was riding his electric skateboard. I loaded him up with a loaf of bread, and we went our separate ways. It was wonderful spending time with him, and the weather could not have been better. 

On my way home, I crossed over the Hawthorne Bridge, just as it was lifting to allow a boat to pass under. Of course, I did. I was delayed here for about 15 minutes.

From there, I headed for home. The rest of my pictures will be of the wine pairing and tasting dinner we attended Thursday night. If you're not into food photos, then feel free to stop reading here. As I mentioned, our dinner was in the building known affectionately by Portlanders as "Big Pink."

And yes...we were going to taste some wine. 

The room was a little crowded, and we were seated at a round table of about ten people...all complete strangers. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but it was an enjoyable evening. While it's a little awkward at first, the folks we were seated with were all about our age, and they'd been traveling recently, so everyone had good stories to tell.

So, I'll just post the little blurb from the menu ahead of the food, and you can see what was served.

At the bottom of the image below, it looks like an oyster, but those were actually mushrooms.

I took a bite of this one before I thought to take a picture, so I cut off that bottom spot. The round object at the back is the "potato fondant."

When I saw this on the menu, I worried a little about raspberry seeds for Mike, but the only seeds were in the loose berries around the cake. It was fine, and it was delicious.

Okay, so that was a wonderful and tiring way to spend a couple of days. We're expecting a week of good weather coming up. Today, Mike and I need to run a couple of errands in town. We're going to take a second walk across that pedestrian bridge in Sherwood. When Sue and I walked a few weeks ago, we were yacking so much, I wasn't very mindful of the bridge. We were halfway across when I realized I wasn't paying attention. So, Mike and I will go back again today and pay better attention as we go. We're planning to get lunch while we're out too.

There's been no time for doing my PT exercises the past couple of days, and so I'm going to do those right away this morning. Probably I'll spend some time in the garden today too. Mike has sprayed all the weeds that he can, but I need to get out and pull a few in areas that can't be sprayed. I'm realizing that with better weather, comes more time spent gardening and less time spent sewing. Also, I have some new blooming things to show you, so I'll take some pictures today. Also, with a string of good weather coming up, I'm looking at Tuesday to set up my sawhorse and plywood tables so that I can sandwich some quilts.

Finally, I have a new sewing project on my list for when I get time for that. You might remember when I mentioned how the headrests on our RV recliners have deteriorated. At the recommendation of one of you, we covered this area with some brown duct tape to prevent it from getting any worse.

While we were in Henderson, Nevada last year, I purchased some of this fabric. For my next trick, I'm going to make some head rests to cover that area. (It's cheaper than replacing furniture, right?) 

I've given this project weeks of thought, and I'm pretty sure I have a handle on how to accomplish it. I'll show you every step of the way. Don't you worry. 

And with that...I'm motivated to get on with my PT exercises. There's much to do today. Time to get going.