BEAUTY IN THE RIVER

We went into Portland from our park on the southside to see a few more sights. When you visit Portland, one of the things on the list has to be a visit to Powell’s Bookstore. This place covers a city block and is at least four floors. What an experience to be among five gazillion books! This may be the place for Betty to bring me when she’s ready to put me in the old cats’ home.

You may have also heard Portland referred “Bridgetown.” The bridges of Portland are a beautiful sight. There are twelve bridges that span the Willamette River which divides the city into the east and west sides. I had trouble with the word “Willamette” until someone told me, “It’s Willamette, dammit!” Now I know how to say Willamette. The Willamette River flows into the Columbia River which flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River Gorge is a destination drive. We saw a little of it and it is indeed beautiful.

Speaking of Columbia, we went to the world headquarters of Columbia, the company that produces all kinds of activewear mainly geared toward outdoor activities. Pretty cool. Betty and I picked out a couple of proper raincoats. Columbia is near the HQ of Nike, but we didn’t bother with that outfit.

Street art is all over the place in Portland! We loved the eclectic and random aspect of seeing human creativity, thought, and visual protest for humanity and against wrongheadedness. We saw Pioneer Square in downtown. It’s a great open area with food trucks and historic buildings surrounding it. Lots of activity.

Some of you know that I have a thing for architecture. Some of the church buildings we saw were pretty impressive and beautiful. “Imposing” and “money better used elsewhere” may be other descriptors, but that is a discussion for another day.

By the way, Portland has a lot of nicknames. Not sure why “Portland” isn’t ideal, but it’s also known as Stumptown, Rip City, Beervana, PDX, P-town, and Soccer City USA, among others.

We made a short trip to the south to check out Salem, the capitol of Oregon. Very cool downtown area right on the river. We ate lunch at Epilogue, which is, obviously, a book themed restaurant. Good coffee and tasty food! We saw nice parks, some good restoration going on in the business district, and did a self-guided tour through the historic district. We saw the capitol building and I have to say that I’m not crazy about the art deco building. I little bit of that goes a long way. It was under some construction so hopefully it will be better on the other side.

Speaking of rivers, Beauty in the River is a song by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. OMD was a band from Missouri which grew in popularity in the 1970s, during one of my former lives. The band had a some commercial hits like Jackie Blue and If You Want to Get to Heaven, but I prefer the less poppy songs. If you want to grab a cup of coffee, tea, or a bloody mary on a weekend morning and relax a little, I highly recommend listening to some Daredevil music. Pull up one of their albums like “It’ll Shine When It Shines” from 1974 or the “Men From Earth” album from 1976. You’ll enjoy some really nice tunes which will sooth your soul and make your drink taste better.

It’s Betty’s turn to write for you,

Buster

Home Blog

Contact Subscribe