Sunday in Portland

After procuring a rental car, we headed to Ben and Martha's apartment.  I took Mr. Shadow for his morning walk through the neighborhood.  He got a short rest while I took a couple of photos of him.

We tried many different restaurants this past week, and we had difficulty deciding where to go for Sunday brunch.  You could say the that the wide selection of restaurants had us in a veritable quandary - so we went to the Veritable Quandary Restaurant in downtown Portland.  Another superb repast.

Martha had pancakes with fresh berries

Ben had a montecristo sandwich

I had eggs benedict on house made English muffins

Patty had a scramble with prawns and veggies

 Since it was another unseasonably hot day, we headed up to Pittock Mansion, the former home of the publisher of the Oregonian newspaper.  They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of building the museum.  We wandered the beautiful grounds and had delightful views of Portland.

Inside the mansion, we were lucky to get on a tour with a docent.  The home had many modern conveniences - an elevator (Mrs. Pittock suffered a stroke shortly before the home was built), individual room thermostats (the thermometers had mercury in them), a shower that sprayed water from the top and sides, a walk-in refrigerator room, etc. 

We then went to the Portland Audubon Society - they own the Balch Creek Preserve, with some old growth forest areas.  The northwest side of Portland includes Forest Park (five times the size of New York City's Central Park), Balch Creek Preserve, the Pittock Mansion grounds, Washington Park (which includes the International Rose Test Garden we visited earlier in the week) and another park whose name eludes me.  Trails cross through and connect the areas, making for a great opportunity for urban forest hiking.

This and the two photos above are of a very tall Douglas Fir

Julio, a great horned owl

This and the next three photos are of a massive Douglas Fir at the entrance to Balch Creek Preserve

We then headed back in to town, walked Mr. Shadow again and ran errands.  Then we went out to the Observatory for a delightful dinner.  After, we went back to Ben and Martha's apartment for a last game of Pinochle.  And so our vacation with Ben and Martha ends.  We had a great time and hope to join them for even more time in the future.