Portland 2014

John’s passport arrived in June, but when I started looking for flights to interesting places, the cost became prohibitive. After going around in circles, we decided to go somewhere closer and found fairly inexpensive tickets to Portland (by today’s standards, I remember cheaper tickets to Canada or across the country 10-15 years ago). We talked about going back for a long weekend after our first visit, so off to Oregon it was!

We left on a Thursday and returned on a Sunday. Fi did well on the short flight. We rented a car and drove around because the rental apartment we were going to stay in was not available until the afternoon. The apartment was in an excellent location, within short walking distance of at least two different parks (one with a fountain, one with a man-made spring and a pond with a family of ducks), a supermarket, public transportation, and restaurants and coffee shops. We went to the zoo Friday. It was very close and easy to get to, then splashed in a fountain. Saturday we went out to breakfast, made a visit to Powell’s, splashed in another fountain, visited a Bastille Day celebration, then took the streetcar home. After nap, we spent more time splashing in a fountain, went out to dinner, then enjoyed ice cream cones.

In hindsight, I would probably not rent a car again. We only used it to get to and from the airport and to get to the zoo. We didn’t use it at all on Friday and one can use Portland’s public transit to get to all of those things.

At the zoo:

 

That is a very large sea lion in the bottom middle of the picture on the right. It was fun to watch, but we get to see sea lions in their natural habitat (laying on docks or splashing the water) here, so not that exciting.

We got the zoo at opening time, so it was not very crowded for most of our visit.

Polar bears:

The zoo is building a larger enclosure for them.

A mandrill, that I learned is a monkey, as are baboons. I always thought they were apes, but apparently their stubby little tails make them monkeys.

 

A babirusa:

 

No one is kissing that thing.

At lunch, enjoying the shade:

 

The elephants, who are also getting a new and bigger enclosure:

There is a young elephant sleeping underneath the larger elephant.

The lions:

Fi enjoyed playing with the statues:

There were pygmy mongooses in this enclosure, and also Fi and John:

Fi and I went back in later to see the mongooses face to face. They were very cute.

We pet a goat:

 

The sleeping crocodile:

Some other monkey:

Bats:

 

The zoo was fun and a long day. One nice thing is that because we are members at another zoo, our tickets were half price. It cost the three of us a little over $15 in total to get in! I recommend that if you are a member at a zoo and travel to another city and plan to visit that city’s zoo, bring your membership card.

Jamison Fountain:

The neat thing about Jamison Fountain (aside from being very close to where we stayed) is that is cycles the water through. There a little waterfalls that start flowing and a depression that fills up like a lake. Then the “falls” start to taper off, eventually stopping, and the whole thing drains, and then starts all over again, each time the water gets deeper and deeper. John said he read that it is supposed to simulate tides. Fi just wanted to run around and splash with her feet.

Salmon Street Springs Fountain:

 

    

This is the same fountain from two years ago:

I think Fi looks pretty much exactly the same, except that hat does not fit her anymore and neither does the rest of her outfit. Also, we knew ahead of time to bring a bathing suit.

We spent some time playing “hop on the shadow”:

How Fi spent a lot of her time in Portland:

Having lunch at Bastille Day:

Bastille Day celebration is set up in Director’s Park. The bench we are sitting on is actually part of Teachers Fountain (photos from two years ago for contrast. On the day we left Portland on our road trip, they were setting up the Bastille Day Celebration in this park. That means we were in Portland exactly two year ago at the very same time.

 

We spent a lot of time reading new books in the apartment:

This restaurant gave Fi milk in a very small latte cup and she loved it:

A cold treat after dinner and the only photos of the three of us together:

 

Originally, we intended to go to the Children’s Museum, which is across the street from the zoo, and to the Portland Saturday Market, but I guess those will have to wait until our next visit. We really like visiting Portland. It is an easy city to get around and people are generally very friendly and Fi loves it. She did not want to leave.

More general July updates soon!