We flew to Portland, Oregon around the middle of July. Charlie and I rented a car and drove north. Our first stop - Joyce and Frank Cerimele's house in Beaverton. Joyce and Frank took us to the Saturday market - a craft fair in downtown Portland.
Joyce, Charlie, and Frank having lunch at the Saturday market.
Here's me, at the market.
Less than a block away from the Saturday market was a Voodoo Donuts. They offer a huge number of odd donut types - bacon topped, cheerio topped, and odder than that. We thought we might try one, but the line to get in to buy donuts was amazingly long. So I just took a photo.
On Monday we took a river cruise on the Wilamette river. The accent is on the second syllable - I'd been mispronouncing it for years.
Our boat - the Portland Spirit
Portland is known as the city of bridges - a view from the boat.
These houses looked normal - but they were sitting on floating rafts - lots of the houses were floating - a kind of house boat
Our last stop before we left was a look at Powell's books. an amazingly large bookstore. It's three stories high, and was in two buildings. New and used books, and every title I could think of and, of course, a lot more. I loved this place.
After our Portland stop, we drove up to Seattle, Washington. Our first meal was at the Hurricane Cafe near the hotel. Really a funky cafe
Hurricane Cafe from the inside.
We walked all over Seattle to see the sights. Below is a photo from Pike's market. We didn't buy any fish, so we didn't see fish tossing. At least we got photos of the fish.
Our next stop north was Glenn and Krysty's house in Vancouver. Kayley was about to turn 5, and we got there just in time for the party.
Kayley likes to dance. Charlie could do this dance.
Nathan at play with me.
Kayley had a birthday party at a local beach. Here's a few photos.
Nathan had a great time.
Kayley on the sand.
Vancouver beaches are spectacularly beautiful.
Nathan's great game!
We had a cake at home.
Kayley's below showing off her birthday Frozen outfit.
After Kayley's birthday, we drove south. We were going to fly home from Portland. To go over the Canadian border we drove through the Peace Arch. One had to stay peaceful, it took an hour to go over the border.
Once we got back into Washington, we spent the night in Olympia, Washington. We arrived in the evening, and had some beautiful views of the capital building and Olympia waterfront.
The next day out of town we drove through Mount Rainier National Park. Gorgeous.
The mountain is so big I thought it was close to Seattle. Very wrong. It's miles away.
The view above is an outwash from melting glaciers.
Lunch at the park.
Ian and Sarah had talked about a great Red Lion Inn in Portland. We spent the night before we flew back to LA at the inn. They were right - it's a wonderful place. The photo below is the view from our room.
On the drive up we stopped at the Tule Elk reserve. We had driven past the reserve for years, and this was the first time we stopped. I was shocked 1.) because the reserve was very close to the highway 2.) because these creatures were huge! Here's some photos I managed to get.
Everyone was really pooped after the first full week of school and work for everyone in Hayward. We kept activities on the quiet. We did drive to a lovely park - Quarry park - for a picnic lunch. There are gorgeous local parks in the East bay area.
Setting up our picnic.
View of the lake formed in the quarry.
Pelicans on the lake.
