Summer Visit '13

Laurel and the grandkids hopped a United from a wedding in Denver to spend a few days in Oregon at the beginning of summer, 2013.  We set up a trailer in the yard to provide bedroom space and an extra bath and planned a busy schedule.

First was a dinner at Aomatsu to celebrate Matthew's upcoming 13th birthday.  Because it was raining, we started indoors: OMSI's "Mummies of the World"--the largest exhibition of mummies and related artifacts ever assembled (according to their website), including mummies (both man-made and accidental) and artifacts from Asia, Oceania, South America, Europe, and Egypt, dating as far back as 6,500 years.

Photographing inside was not allowed but I have my ways.

From OMSI we went to the Portland Art Museum to take in Cyclepedia, the third of PAM's design-oriented exhibition series (I went in 2011 to Allure of the Automobile; photos can be found elsewhere in this blog).  The 40 bicycles on display were from the collection of Vienna-based designer and bike aficionado Michael Embacher.  The examples were fascinating, but I had hoped for a more inclusive historical collection.

There were bicycles for racing, mountains, touring, tandem (side-by-side as well as fore-and-aft), folding, cargo, and a child's bike that converted into a stroller--I have included two I found especially interesting, a folding bike popular in China, and a bike designed for ice riding (not very successfully, according to the display text).

I also wanted to see MAN/WOMAN, so while the kids explored other art, Laurel and I took in the 50-odd bronze and marble works by Gaston Lachaise (American, born France, 1882-1935).

A fascinating set, clearly a precursor to Fernando Botero's buxom bronzes.

We stopped at Powell's and while Deb visited nearby second-hand clothiers, the rest of us took a break at Peet's where, as Matthew watched, Maren resisted my efforts to immortalize her eating whipped cream with a straw.

The rain stopped, we headed first for the hills:  Silver Falls State Park, one of the two destinations Laurel especially wanted to visit as we had a number of times when she was younger.  The trees, the creeks, and the falls of course are pretty much the same but the trails have changed: bricked near the parking lots by the lodges and cabins, paved and graveled elsewhere, with substantial railings in place along the cliffs.  South Falls is a lovely as ever.

We followed the trail under the falls along South Fork of Silver Creek.  Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) was blooming,

salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) was ripening,

the walk was all I remembered,

but I had a special goal: a stump left from the logging of the old growth forest that once existed throughout the PNW, a stump we've admired every trip we've made to Silver Falls.  The earliest photo I've found is from 1979.

Laurel has climbed to the top, Judi stands by the springboard cuts and Silkie looks on (dogs are now forbidden on the trails.)

The next photo was taken in 2010 with Deb and Bogie and somewhat shrunken stump.  Today we can no longer climb to the top.  I wonder how much longer we'll be able to admire this memorial to the great forests.

We continued to Lower South Falls

and then back on Maple Ridge Trail, about 2 1/2 miles in all, enough to pretty much wipe us out for the rest of the day,

curtailing our plan to hike the Oregon Garden and the Frank Lloyd Wright house.  Instead, we drove, looked at what we could see from the car windows; perhaps we'll visit it another time.

Friday, the coast, the other destination on Laurel's list:  first Yaquina Head.  The light house was closed until July due to the sequester, we were told, but the outside is still impressive

and the Harbor Seals and cormorants are not affected by federal shenanigans.

On to Sea Lion Caves, one of the great sea grottos of the world.  I had forgotten that the elevator was completed only in 1961; prior to that date, to enter the cave, visitors used a quarter mile steep trail and a 135-step wood tower, remnants of which can still be seen at the north opening.

I got the feeling the grandkids were not as impressed by the experience as the adults; for the kids, Disney World is more exciting.

Saturday afternoon, we headed for Portland, stopping at Champoeg Park, the site of what may be the oldest structure in Oregon--the Donald Manson Barn,

 

thought to have been salvaged from the 1861 flood that washed away the town of Champoeg--and the oldest operating store, Butteville Store, founded in 1863, where we sampled ice cream.  The park features a pioneer-type garden

and small collections of pioneer artifacts, camp grounds, and bike trails.  In Portland, we wandered antique stores in the Sellwood district but nothing leapt out at us, and ate a scrumptious dinner at a Cena, then dropped the crew off at the Radisson for the 5:30 a.m. flight to Huntsville the next morning.

A nice summer's visit.