Trip Report: Moving Amber to Portland (July 14-24) - Part 1

Larger set of pictures here
Part 2 of Trip Report

We flew out to San Jose, and spent 4 days helping them pack. vgqn and magscanner were gracious enough to let us stay in their lovely home, even though they had other plans and left town the day after we arrived. Our plan was to hang around and play with the baby until it was time to help drive the truck, periodically stopping the proceedings to take everybody out to dinner. That plan worked pretty well for Grandpa Richard, but I ended up doing a lot more lifting and hauling than I anticipated due to a shortage of helpful friends on moving day. Olin's Mom did even more work, so I shouldn't complain too much.

The 650 mile drive to Oregon went smoothly except for some serious traffic in the last 100 miles that added a couple of hours to the drive. We made a brief stop in the unlovely town of Red Bluff, California, to visit friends and overnighted in a Holiday Inn Express in Medford, Oregon. Lena did really well: 2 long days on the road and only an hour or two of fussiness. She had lots of adventures along the way to feed her love of novelty. Grass!  Riding in a shopping cart at Target! Eating out over and over again!  A hotel room to explore, with that familiar cute baby in the mirror!

Trip Report Part 2: Moving Amber to Portland

Part1 is here.
Larger set of pictures on Google Photo

It was 97 degrees when we got to Portland - not what I expected from Oregon. They've been having a spell of hot weather up and down the west coast, and even Oregon is having what they think of as a  drought. (Remember, I was with people from California who are unimpressed by 2 measly months without rain. But the grass was kinda brown and crunchy.) Thank goodness the new apartment had A/C. The apartment is smaller than their old one, but much more attractive. And they LOVE the neighborhood, right next to Cathedral Park in St. Johns, North Portland.

You can see the magnificent St. Johns bridge from their parking lot (first picture below) and out the window. Amber has already started running across the bridge to Forest Park across the river. There's a sekrit stair leading from the quiet, shady parking lot up the hill to one of those adorable little neighborhood main streets with coffee shops and vegan restaurants and cinema pubs that Portland is famouse for. There is even a supermarket within walking distance.

   

Being a major bridge fan, I just can't resist inserting 3 more pictures of the St. John Bridge. The one on the left is shot from Forest Park, across the Willamette from St Johns. The other two are taken from the lower end of Cathedral Park (2 blocks from the apartment) with and without Greenpeace demonstrators hanging underneath.