Great Views, No Photos

Yesterday (Monday) was Martin Luther King Jr day and I had the day off from work. I made plans with Melissa and Erica to go over and see their new place on the river in North Portland. We had planned to go biking along Marine Drive.

As it turned out, the UPS people said they would be delivering Sami's new projector for the home theater between 10 and 2 pm. The note from UPS said that someone would have to be home to sign for the package. So I agreed to wait. I was really hoping they would come early.

On Sunday Sami and I did yardwork and cleaned up the area along the south side of our garage. The old stairs and other wood from the hot tub had just been sitting there since last fall. Anyway, we took the stairs apart and loaded them up into the truck so we could plant the free grapes on the south facing wall of the garage.

So, I used Metro's online tool to find a recycler. Apparently there aren't a lot of places that take treated wood. I found one in Vancouver, WA that was accepting treated wood and not charging any fees either. Vancouver is just across the bridge so it should only be a 15 minute drive or so from the recycling center to M & E's new place.

Unfortunately things didn't work out quite so easily. I waited until 2:50 PM and the package from UPS didn't arrive. I finally gave up on it. Driving east on 26 and north on 405 was no problem, but as soon as I got on I-5 north, traffic stopped. It was horrible. Around 3:45 Melissa called me to see where I was. I told her I was stuck in traffic and trying to take the wood to the recycling center. She said "Oh, you have wood? do you have any that we could use for a gate for our deck?" I told her yes, I'd stop by the house first so she could grab what she needed for the dog gate.

I got off the highway and ended up turning the wrong way on Marine drive. I realized that traffic was only getting worse and called Melissa to tell her that I was sorry and I didn't think I could get to her place and the recycling center by 5 PM. I tried to get back on I-5 north but there was so much traffic in front of me that I couldn't see the sign and ended up on the wrong lane. Ironically I ended up going the right direction on Marine drive and found myself in Melissa's neighborhood. So I stopped by and dropped off some wood for the gate. Then Melissa got in her car and led me to the exit to get back on the highway. It took 30 minutes just to get up the ramp to the highway. By the time I was finally moving again, it was 4:50 PM. Fortunately I had a good idea of where the recycling center was and so I didn't make any more wrong turns.

At 5 PM, I realized I was going to be too late. I knew I was nearby, but not there yet. I remembered I had called the recycling center earlier to confirm that they took treated wood. So the phone number was still stored in the memory of my phone. I called them and asked if they were closed already, explaining that I'd gotten stuck in traffic. The girl who answered asked me how far away I was. I told her I was in front of the Lowes. She said I was only a couple blocks away and agreed to hold the gate open for me. So lucky.

When I arrived, the girl told me they couldn't take the 2x6 beams with the joist hangers on them because it was too much metal. I said ok, and figured oh well, at least I'd only be carrying the three beams home with me. I started unloading the wood from the stairs and a man in a blue truck drove up. He said "Hey, I saw you going north on I-5 and figured you were heading up here... I was wondering if I could have those 4x6 beams you're getting rid of. I could really use them for this deck project I'm working on." I said "Great! I'm happy to get rid of them, I'm glad you can use them". And so he loaded them up into his truck and I was able to leave the recycling center with mine completely empty.

It was nearly 6 PM by the time I arrived back at Melissa & Erica's place. So it was already dark and I didn't get take any pictures of the houseboats or the sunset on the water. I was pretty disappointed, although it was cold yesterday, it was very sunny and Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens looked stunning covered in snow. There was also a full moon that started rising while the sun was still in the sky. A perfect day for taking photos, but I didn't get any. Actually I tried to take a couple while I was sitting in traffic, but my windows were too dirty for the camera to focus properly. And my arm was too short to roll down the passenger side window in the truck.

Dinner was wonderful. Erica made her first pot roast ever, and it turned out great. I'd brought over a basket of stuff I'd canned during the summer for a housewarming gift and we ate some vanilla pears for dessert.

I'd brought over some of the lettuce and spinach seeds that I planted last week and after dinner Melissa and Erica each started a tray. They should grow well on the nice sunny deck if Star (the dog) doesn't get into them.

Now I'm just waiting for another sunny day off so I can go over there and do the biking and picture taking that I'd planned for the MLK holiday.

Portland Waterfront Bike Loop

Melissa and Erica and I decided to go for a bike ride Friday afternoon.

We felt like doing something really different from the Vernonia Linear Trail so we decided to take the MAX (train) downtown to do the Waterfront Bike Loop.

We started near #3 at Waterfront Park and went clockwise around the loop.

Melissa took this picture of Erica and I in Willamette Park. You can see the Sellwood bridge in the background.

After we crossed the Sellwood Bridge we ended up on an extremely nice section of the Springwater Corridor We stopped to get a look at the bird above, but I haven't identified him yet.

* Melissa's mom has identified the bird as an Osprey -Pandion haliaetus. Thanks!

This isn't the best viewpoint for the Ross Island Bridge but there were some cool rocks and pretty yellow flowers on the beach.

* Kathy in the library has identified the flower as an Evening Primrose - Oenothera spp.

We stopped in the Eastbank Esplanade to take a break in the shade and admire the flowers. Erica has a book on edible and medicinal plants. She decided to taste the willow leaves... Melissa and I did nothing to stop her. Anyway, I think it's actually the willow bark that's good for headaches.

The floating walkway, apparently the longest one in the US, was a cool surprise. Although we were riding downhill at a pretty good pace, I managed to get an OK photo.

The walkway ended up at the Steel Bridge. The lower portion of the bridge can raise independently of the upper portion, that's why there is a crosswalk sign.

Afterwards we ate dinner and drank LOTS of water at McFadden's. With their incredible happy hour menu the three of us ate for under 10$. I guess being an Irish bar, they usually make most of their money on beer.

After that we stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts where Erica got this jam filled voodoo doll.

Finally, we stopped at the famous Powell's bookstore and headed home.

Full Moon Friday

Full moon over "Stub" Stewart State Park.

Melissa and I decided to try geocaching at the Vernonia linear trail again on friday evening. We had a great bike ride on a different section of the trail, found three caches, got two rubber ducks for Sami (a fireman duck and a devil duck), and didn't lose the GPSr or anything else. We saw the full moon as we were driving back into town and stopped at the new state park to take a picture.

Friday the 13th

Yesterday, Friday the 13th, my friend Melissa and I decided to take the bikes out to Vernonia Linear Trail and do some geocaching there. So, we attached the GPSr to the handlebars of one of the bikes and headed towards the first cache. The cache was a new one called Vernonia Trestle There's a large wooden trestle near one of the parking areas, so we decided to start at the trailhead a couple miles south of that. When we got to the trestle, we realized we weren't even halfway to the cache location. So, we headed further up the trail. When we got within half a mile of the cache we knew we needed to get off the bikes and take one of the hiking trails (there were several). After trying 3 or 4 and realizing they weren't taking us towards the cache, we went checked the cache listing (uploaded to Sami's palm pilot) and realized it wasn't even on the Linear Trail.

So we had biked several miles (uphill) by this point and were pretty tired so we decided it was probably time to go home. The ride back down was fun and very fast. The last section was a gravel road that cars are allowed to travel on too. We stopped to let a car pass, and I looked down and noticed the GPSr was no longer on my handlebars. Only the back part that covers the battery pack was still attached. I couldn't believe how unlucky I was.

I though, oh no! it's probably on this bumpy gravel road, we have to find it before a car runs over it! So we raced back to put the bikes back on the rack on the car. Then we drove very slowly down the road hanging our heads out the window looking for the GPSr. No luck.

We figured the GPSr must be on the trail. But where? We drove up to the next trailhead, I rode the bike slowly back down to the bottom looking along the trail for the GPSr. I didn't find it. An older lady was walking her dog in the opposite direction. I asked her if she'd seen it. After I explained what a GPSr was she said she hadn't seen it. I wrote my phone number on a scrap of receipt anyway. Melissa drove the car to meet me at the bottom.

We then went back up to the same trailhead and I started biking uphill towards the area we were at when we decided to give up on the cache. Melissa went back down the lower portion of the trail to check over that portion again. I went slowly back up the trail to the farthest point we'd been that afternoon and back down (slowly). No luck. I ran into a few people on the trail and asked if they had seen it. Unfortunately everyone said no. I tried to give my phone number to a mother and her daughter in case they found it, but I realized I'd lost my pen somewhere too, so I couldn't even do that.

I got back to the car and loaded up my bike, drove down to the bottom of the lower section and picked up Melissa. Neither of us had found the GPSr and it was getting late, we were exhausted and there wasn't much more we could do. We went to the Dairy Queen and got Chocolate Dipped Chocolate soft serve icecream and headed back to Melissa's place to make flyers so I could go back to the trail early this morning (saturday) and post them and continue to search for the GPSr.

While we were sitting there talking about how sore we were going to be from doing twice as much riding as we intended, my phone rang. I expected it to be Sami who was doing his usual Friday night activities with the Intel guys. It was a number I didn't recognize, but I decided to answer it anyway, just in case. It turned out the to the little old lady with the dog.

She'd found our GPSr! I couldn't believe it. She told me I could come pick it up that evening. I tried to give her a reward for finding it, but she wouldn't accept. (Although she did give me her address so I could find her house, so I will try to mail something to her.) She said she walks the Vernonia trail every single day and today after she ran into me, she watched one side of the trail the whole way up and the other side on the way down. She found it in the foliage just to the side of the trail with the batteries and everything. Amazing! So it turned out to be not to be such an unlucky day after all.