Saturday, June 24, 2017

Ann and Terry come to visit, part one, June 20 - 23, 2017

Martha's mother and step-father, Ann and Terry arrived late Tuesday evening, here in Portland for a week planning to attend the Friday night party to honor Ben's completion of his residency.

On Wednesday, we took them to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.  We began with a stop at the visitors center and watched the 20 minute video that gives the history of the fort.  Then we visited the replica of the fort - the original burned in the 1800s, but I learned that the replica was built in 1976 for the USA Bicentennial.  We visited the counting house, woodworking shop, archeology center, doctor's quarters, blacksmith and the factor's house - Terry got another visitor to take a photo of us with the cannons that are in front of the factor's house.






We then had an excellent lunch at the Grant House cafe, so named because while U.S. Grant never lived there, he was stationed at Fort Vancouver as the quartermaster.  After lunch, we strolled down officers row and we visited the Marshall House.  Then a one star general, George C. Marshal was stationed at the Fort 1937 - 1939, including when a crew of three Russians flew the first non-stop polar flight from Moscow to the USA, making an unscheduled stop at Fort Vancouver's Pearson Airfield.  On our prior visits to the Fort, we had not visited the Marshall House - our guided tour was excellent and it is a very nice memorial to Marshall.  He was Chief of Staff of the Army during WWII, then Truman's Secretary of State creating/implementing the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, then Truman's Secretary of Defense for the first year of the Korean War and finally president of the American Red Cross.  He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

On the way home, we stopped by Ben and Martha's new home.  The owners are still there, so we only drove by the house without stopping.  But we parked at the end of the street and showed Ann and Terry the park that has the grand views of Forest Park, the Port of Portland and the Willamette River.  Even though it is a small park, there are large trees there.


Thursday, we loaded both cars with boxes and other items to be moved, and Terry, Patty, Ben and I took them to Ben and Martha's new home.  Thursday afternoon, while Ann rested, Terry, Patty and I visited the International Rose Test Garden and Holocaust Memorial in Washington Park.

Friday morning, Ann, Terry, Patty and I took a shorter hike than planned at Powell Butte - Portland, like other locations around the world, is experiencing record high temps.  Friday it was in the mid 90s and the forecast for the weekend is 100 or more for both days.

Friday evening, the big event celebrating Ben's completion of his residency, took place at Southeast Wine Collective.  Martha and Ben planned a great party with family and friends.  He has become a fine physician and we know he will do well in the next year when he completes his palliative care fellowship.


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