In perusing dates-that-are-free choices, I discovered there is a park in North Portland I’d never heard of, much less visited. Matt and I set out to discover it. On the way we found this mystery.
With some treasure. Inside, there were painted rocks with googly eyes.
Though it was a long-ish walk to get there and we got there in time for the last gasps of the sunset, the view did not disappoint.
The combo of Forest Park (the reason the hills on the other side of the river haven’t all been developed with their own twinkling lights) and a working river limits our options for dramatic sunset pictures.
But Mocks Crest Park paid off. I can see why more than one website grumbles about the number of spoony couples during the summer months.
My friend bought tickets to see The Birds at the Zidell Yards Drive-in, but the show was rescheduled because of the smoke we had in September. She’s not a fan of going out on Sundays, so she gave me the tickets. Huzzah!
I do love a good drive-in theater. And I also find myself wishing that the pop-up drive-in theaters could rustle up a drive-in-sized screen. This is the same size screen that is used for movies-in-the-park-type events, where families sit no more than fifty to 100 feet away. The ratio with this screen from the car feels like when I had a 13-inch TV/VCR combo.
The view, though? Great!
Small-screen gripes aside, it was nice to see a movie sitting on a seat that was not my couch.
For a few years now, I’ve been wondering how to get to that park I can see when I drive east on Columbia Boulevard. I finally google mapped it and found it was called Thomas Cully Park. Matt and I went to check it out.
I’m a big fan of this park. It has a great vantage point and lets you see a lot of sky.
It also has some fun design features like this Native Gathering Garden. You can read about these features here.
It also has a fun fitness path surrounding the athletic fields. We partook.
After several months of quarantining, I wanted a day trip. So Matt and I drove to Long Beach, Washington (I’d never been) for a quick day trip.
On the way, we stopped to take in the view and I found this graffiti. I googled “country bike tour 2009” and came up with this website, which probably has nothing to do with these vandals, but was fun to read about.
Look at that sun! Enjoy it now. Also, do enjoy the lovely Rolling Rock litter.
There’s that bridge that heads over to Washington. I’m not sure if I’ve ever crossed it. Today is not the day, though.
The first of many self portraits. Two pair of sunglasses, one mask.
And now we’re in Long Beach. The sun disappeared just as we got close to this lovely tourist town.
Two masks, one pair of sunglasses.
We walked down to get a picture of the crowds. I’m guessing this was a small fraction of the usual number of people here on a July Saturday. Then we walked the boardwalk, which I have no pictures of, but which surprised me by being very far away from both the ocean and the main strip.
Matt says hello from the world’s largest pair of chopsticks. One mask, one pair sunglasses.
After we walked the length of the main drag, we bought fish and chips and found a picnic table. One sunglasses, no mask.
Then we walked back across the boardwalk and drove home. But not before taking one more picture. Two masks, one pair of sunglasses.
Having celebrated our anniversary during quarantine, we knew how to make things work for Matt’s birthday. Takeout from Canard! Those fries were quite good, as was everything.
And then a peanut butter icebox pie with 4 and 2 candles for dessert!
The book said Povey’s name could still be seen in the front steps. It took a bit of squinting, but Matt eventually found it and pointed it out to me. Can you see it? Look at the top step.
Portland has hosted its share of protests focused on racial injustice, police brutality and the killing of George Floyd and others. The Irvington Neighborhood was awash in signs included this Burma-Shave-type message:
Last sign says: Our Minds
We spotted this fella in some side yard bamboo.
Aside from signs, Irvington is awash in Little Free Libraries. I found a big win in this one. Look at all these postcards!
And everyone can use a neighborhood cat review.
Or two.
Cambia Todo Cambia translates as Everything Changes (or maybe Changes, Everything Changes?) You can see a delightful performance here and read the translated lyrics here.
I can tell that the Crystal Garden Apartments were built when Apartments were faaaaaaancy. Guess how!
It’s that plaque telling “tradesmen” to go around to the side.
I found a great site that has a list of apartment houses, including the Crystal Garden Apartments. The same site also has two images of my beloved Rose-Friend Apartment, now torn down, but forever in my heart as my first Portland home. Actually, I’ve now just spent 15 minutes clicking around the site which includes an interactive map with current and destroyed Apartment Houses. There were apparently three other apartment houses in the next block over from my beloved Rose-Friends Apartments. This is a fabulous site and you should check it out. The Apartment House in Portland.
I wonder if the cat at 1538 and the dog at 1530 are aware of each other’s presence.
This gorgeous house has unique window covers on the second story.
Names of Black people killed by police.
I also thought these signs were beautiful despite the sadness that comes with them having to be made in the first place.
This was a great walk! Thanks Portland City Walks!
Aside from our usual frozen pizza, we also played two more games on our pandemic list. 10 Days in the USA was a fun trip. Because when you can’t actually tour the USA, you might as well play a board game about travel.
Guillotine was our second game. Because why not execute some nobles while passing the time at home?
History will (hopefully) soon forget, but Matt is aping the way a certain occupant of the White House awkwardly held up a Bible.
Restaurants in Multnomah County are only open for takeout, so takeout it was for our anniversary this year. We chose Hatyai and had a delicious meal.
The unboxing:
All the delicious flavors!
Our anniversary portrait this year is a closeup.
Normally we would see a superhero movie, and it probably would have been Black Widow, the first female-led superhero movie of the long trail of anniversary superhero movies starring guys. But it was not to be. So we watched Batman Begins which I need to see again because I am watching all of the Christopher Nolan films.
Matt introduced me to Azul today. I really enjoyed the tactile sensations that came along with this game. The tiles were very soothing to the touch. The game was fun too.
We’ve decided our date ritual during this pandemic will be that we buy a frozen pizza at Fred Meyer on Saturday nights. While we were there, I also picked up some lime for the garden.
