Seeing the Sights in Portland, Oregon

Sun, March 15th - Wed, April 1st

Sunday afternoon I flew up to Great Falls where Mom met us, and Hilary and the kids picked us up to go back to Helena with them for a couple days before my Uncle's funeral.

Wednesday we drove up to Lewistown and spent the night.  Great-grandma enjoying the latest addition to our family.

Beautiful afternoon Thursday as friends and family gathered at Uncle Tony's cabin to walk down to the family cemetery for his funeral service.

Goodbye Uncle Tony.  We love you and we'll miss you.

On the way back to Utica for the reception, we stopped to see a little piece of land owned by my cousin, Pete, and his wife where they have a small trailer and come to dig for sapphires on the weekends.

Back at Hilary's for a couple more days.  Digger says, "Oh Yeah, a burrito for the boy!  There will surely be some spillage involved in this little project that I can take advantage of."  I returned from my uncle's funeral on Sunday, March 22nd.  Monday we headed over to see John's sister and friends one more time before starting north again.  We left her place on Saturday and spent two days driving up to Portland.

View of Mount Shasta from the truck stop where we spent the night in Weed, California.  That would give the talk show hosts and comedians some fodder, if they asked where you were from and you told them Weed, California!

We saw this as we were leaving a rest area near the California/Oregon border.  Not sure what the story was, but it looked brand new.

We arrived in Portland Sunday night and got settled into our campground.  This RV was parked just across from us, a Country Coach Magna 630 Veranda.  I've never seen a motor home with a fold-out deck.  They just pushed a button and the whole wall folded out and down into an enclosed 4' x  10 ' deck with sliding door access.  Totally cool!

Monday we went with John's cousin, David, and his wife, Karen, to tour the Pittock Mansion.  Henry and Georgiana arrived in Portland separately on wagon trains in 1850.  Henry arrived barefoot and penniless and got a job as a typesetter for the Weekly Oregonian.  When the owner left for Hawaii and never came back, Henry took over the paper for back wages owed to him and became a wealthy man.  He married Georgiana when she was almost 16 and he was 26.  

Back entrance to the mansion.  Dogwood trees, magnolias, hydrangeas, lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, tulips, daffodils, irises, etc. all in full bloom in March!  Absolutely gorgeous!  When the mansion was completed in 1914 they moved in with an extended family of 11, including two daughters and husbands, three grandchildren,  two orphaned nieces, and a maid and a cook.  Georgiana helped start the Portland Rose Society and hosted their first rose show in her downtown backyard in 1889.  Henry was a founder of the Rose Festival in 1907 which is still held annually for a week in June with a parade similar to the New Year's Day Rose Bowl Parade.

Walking the grounds, 46 acres mostly forest with lots of hiking trails.  There were five large bedrooms, two sleeping porches that overlooked the tennis courts, four servants bedrooms on the fourth floor, seven fireplaces, steam radiation, oil furnace, inlaid floors, dumb waiter, telephones, central heating, electric lighting, elevator, a refrigerated room off the kitchen, intercom and central vacuum system throughout the entire house.

Table Lace Maple or Lace Leaf Japanese Maple.  They did a $1.6 million renovation last year just on the terraces around the outside.

View from the grounds, of downtown Portland and Mount Hood in the far distance.  On a clear day, you can see five mountains from here, including Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and Mt. Jefferson.  Henry and his daughters were avid hikers and climbers and had climbed most of the surrounding mountains.  Henry also started the first bike club in Oregon. 

Main stairway from the front entrance.  The stairwell window boxes had built-in drainage, in case of over watering.  There was a big family room in the basement with small alcoves off it for playing cards and other games.

Library where the family enjoyed their evenings together before the advent of television.

Music Room with harp and grand piano.  Just off this room was a Turkish smoking room where the men retired after dinner to smoke and drink.

View from the stairway landing out to the back yard and carriage house.  There was also a very nice three-story home for the grounds keeper.   Georgiana was 63 when they moved in here and died four years later.  Henry died seven months later at the age of 83 in 1919.

Tuesday we visited the Oregon Trail Museum in nearby Oregon City, the first capitol of Oregon.  The Donation Land Act of 1851 allowed every male U.S. citizen over age 18 to claim 320 acres.  If he was married he could claim another 320 acres for his wife, giving them one square mile of land.  Women could not own land.  The museum is built to look like three covered wagons in a semi-circle.  It starts on one end with exhibits about the folks leaving Missouri for the almost 2,000 mile trek.  In 1855 the wagons were 4' wide and 10' to 12' long and held your bedding, all your worldly possessions and enough food for 5 to 6 months for a family of 5 or 6.  Makes my RV sound pretty good.  The center has a nice film and the end has exhibits about arriving here and starting Oregon City.  It's a very nice museum. 

Oregon City (est. 1829) had many "firsts" west of the Rockies including, first town, hotel, opera house, jail, English newspaper, lending library, Congregational Church and first books published.  First Protestant Church west of the Missouri, first Catholic and Baptist Churches and moonshine whiskey still in Oregon and the first navigation locks in the Pacific Northwest.  First capitol of Oregon Country in 1843 and first capitol of Oregon Territory 1849-52 and the first long-distance transmission of electricity in the U.S.- 13 miles to Portland in 1889.  They had the largest source of water power in the valley, Willamette Falls.  The city of Portland was named following a coin toss at a dinner party in Oregon City.   

Stone marker on the right is the End-of-Oregon Trail marker 1845-46 here at Abernathy Green, next to the museum.  It was 1,924 miles from Independence, Missouri.  The wagons were called Prairie Schooners because they resembled ships sailing the ocean.  I read about one lady who had an inflatable air mattress in 1852.  It didn't say what it was made of or how she inflated it, but I bet the others on the wagon train envied her.  Another story I read was about a man who had promised his 19 year old son that he could lead the wagon train.  Unfortunately, he died of malaria four days before they left.  So his father built a coffin lined with lead and filled it with whiskey and put him in it in the lead wagon!

View of Willamette Falls and Locks from the north.  Portland battled St. Helen's, St. John's, Linton, Milwaukee and Oregon City to become Oregon's leading city and largest port.  Portland was the furthest upriver city on the Willamette River and reachable year-round by sea-going vessels.

View of the falls and locks from the south side.

Wednesday we walked around the quaint downtown of Troutdale, a suburb of Portland.

There were all kinds of pots of flowers up and down the street in front of the shops.

Then we went to McMenamins Edgefield for lunch and a walk around the lovely grounds.  It used to be what they called a poor farm, where destitute people could come and live.  It has been made into a really nice complex with several restaurants, pubs, brewery, winery, glass blowing, theater, ballroom and hotel.  We ate at the Power House Pub.  There is also a small pub named Jerry's Ice House for Jerry Garcia.

There are vineyards, orchards, gardens and a small 18 hole golf course on the grounds.

The gardens provide fresh produce for the restaurants.

There were a couple of archways like this made out of old plumbing pipes over the pathways to one of the pub patios.  There are plants in the little elbow joints and I think vines grow over it in the summer.

Thought for the day.  Moving on to Seattle Thursday for a week.  Then grand kids here we come!

Tarra

Back in Yuma and On to Needles, California

Monday, January 26th - Sunday, March 15th

Wednesday we moved to Phoenix for a couple weeks, as my brother and his wife were flying down from Ohio for a week.  We had a great family visit and the weather was sunny and 80 all week.  Tuesday before they flew back home we drove up to Wickenberg for a little sightseeing.  My brother and sister-in-law with Mom and my sister-in-law's aunt and uncle standing in front of The Jail Tree.

From 1863 to 1890 outlaws were chained to this tree for lack of a hoosegow.  Escapes were unknown.

A few sights at our campground in Phoenix.  Huge, fancy motor home with huge trailer (probably hauling a race car) and boat and trailer, car and motorcycle all painted to match and the name Blue Thunder on it with Montana license plates.

Fun yard decorations at one of the camp sights.  And you thought rubber duckies were just for bath time.

These folks toured the campground every day.  They said they both used to drive carriages back home in Wisconsin, where they have four horse/bikes they harness to their golf cart and drive it in parades.  It has no steering wheel.  They actually steer it with the reins that are attached to the bikes.  What some people won't do for entertainment, their's and our's!  Mom flew home on the 15th and we headed back to Yuma a couple days later.

John and his new friend watching TV on a warm desert evening.

I went down to Mexico for the day with a couple of John's high school classmates and their spouses.  John refused to go.  He doesn't like the locals always trying to sell you their trinkets.  We had  been there twice already to see the dentist.  I had to replace a filling that fell out and he had a tooth ache. 

There is always a great party atmosphere with live music at the central plaza in Algodones, about 5 miles from Yuma.  The margaritas and chips and salsa just kept coming and we had a very fun day!  We even found a few bargains for medications, booze and a few trinkets.

Another afternoon at our friend's place where happy hour was being enjoyed as usual.

Really John?  The grandkids aren't here and you know you can't hide from me!

Miniature golf course at Emerald Cove.

Out for a walk in the desert before dusk.  Can you see the moon over the mountains?

Back at camp, view of the Colorado River from our bedroom window.

Earp , California is the closest town to our campground, named for Wyatt Earp.  This little store and a tiny post office building across the road are all that is here.

Sign on the post office.

Just a few interesting sights around the campground.

Note the little sign.  That's what we are now.

Amazing saguaro cactus I saw while biking around the Yuma foothills with a friend I met here last year.  We also hiked part way up Telegraph Hill with a few other ladies.  The saguaro cacti don't even start to grow arms until they are 75 years old, so this one must be quite old.  They are very fat this year, since there have been several rains and they soak up the water like a sponge and store it.

Ahh, life is good.  A beer in hand and my wife is gone to the swimming pool for the afternoon.  How could it get any better?

I have told lots of people that you can live pretty cheap in the desert, but this young gal was living about as simple as you can.  There couldn't be room for much more than a bed in her trailer.  She was pulling it with a PT Cruiser.  She had a tiny tent for a dressing room and had her laundry hung out to dry.

I remember singing this song when I was a kid.  It was on the back of one of the motor homes here and a very nice sentiment indeed.

We saw this little burro as we were coming back to camp and about a dozen more across the road on a golf course, which I'm sure they really appreciate.  But I bet that nicely watered, green grass tastes really good to them! 

Right across the road from our campground is desert golfing at it's finest!

Jackass Flats is a nine hole course with artificial turf  for the greens and about 90 yards or less per hole.  There is a bucket of clubs and a bucket of balls at the entrance and you just help yourself.  On Wednesday, after a week at Emerald Cove, we moved north to North Shore campground near Needles (also on the Colorado River).

This is a picture outside the pool and club house overlooking  the river.

This is a closer view of the little bird in the picture above.  His body and neck is made from an old spade, wings and tail feathers from a garden rake and a yard rake, legs from re-bar and a saw blade for his plumage.

We did a little tour of the town on Friday.  Signs at the campgrounds now warn us to beware of rattle snakes when we are out walking, as it is warmer now and they are out and about.

Needles was right on the National Old Trails Highway, later known as Route 66.

Right behind this motel is the remnants of a scene used from the movie, Grapes of Wrath. Where some of the Okies supposedly lived when they came to California looking for work during the depression and weren't allowed into the state, because they didn't wanted there. 

Get your kicks on Route 66.  I loved that show when I was growing up.  There are lots of murals about Route 66 all over town.

Meep!  Meep!  I wonder if that coyote ever caught that roadrunner.  We see both once in a while and hear the coyotes howling at night quite often.

The National Old Trails Highway (Route 66) crossed the Colorado River here, near where Jedediah Smith and his band of Rocky Mountain Men crossed in 1826 and opened the pioneer trail into southern California.

This is the El Garces Hotel and Train Station, considered the "Crown Jewel" of the Fred Harvey chain of hotel/restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad where the famous Harvey Girls worked.  There is a movie about the Harvey Girls.  It was completed in 1908 and five passenger trains came through daily both ways.  There is an Amtrak station next door now.  It closed as a hotel in 1946 and was used as railway offices until 1988 when it was closed.  They are now renovating it.

View of the back side where there is a nice downtown city park with a WWI cannon and a little museum across the street.

In the museum are a few things about Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip.  He lived here for a couple years when he was about 6 or 7.  He was born in Minneapolis and nicknamed Sparky after Barney Google's horse, Sparkplug.  Peanuts debuted in 7 newspapers in 1950 and 40 years later was in 2,300 papers.  His actual brother, Spike, came back here to live as an adult.  There is a Spike Road out to where he used to live and a Schulz Street off that road.

Today, Sunday, I am flying back to Montana again to be with my Mom at her brother's funeral.  I will be gone for a week and will get to see the grandkids again for a few days.  When I get back, we will be heading over to see John's sister and friends again for a few days on Monday, March 23rd.  Then we will start heading north through California and Oregon and over to Montana to spend some more time with the kiddos.

Happy Spring and Easter to all our family and friends!
Hope to see you all this summer!
Tarra