Portland

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23 - 25 November - Portland
We were collected at Union Station, Portland, by Nancy's cousin Brent and his wife Kathryn to hear the news that Uncle Gary is in intensive care. Thankfully he was much better by the time we left, but I don't think our visit made things any easier for the Portland branch of the family who were clearly going through difficult times.

Aunt Cheryl still hosted a big family dinner for us at her home - taco soup followed by cake and ice cream - attended by cousin Kim, her husband Jeff and children Annabeth and Stephen; cousin Sarah, husband Jeff (also) and daughter Claire; cousin Martin, wife Loni and son Coy and of course Brent, Kathryn, Nancy and I.

Since Aunt Cheryl was at the hospital for most of our visit we stayed with Brent and Kathryn; at least we stayed in their driveway. They bought a caravan this year and we called it home for 3 nights. It was much warmer than we expected, so we were quite comfortable in the biting Portland night.

We visited Powell's Books (biggest book shop in the world), ate at Red Robin (great chocolate milkshake and mushroom burgers (is that no 8?) which I think are ranked second behind Denny's), saw the Trailblazers beat the Sacremento Kings by 1 point in a nailbiter, drove along the Columbia River Gorge to Multnomah Falls with Kim, Annabeth and Stephen, had another burger (9) at Charburger in the shadow of the Bridge of the Gods and finished with a meal of elk, cooked (and even killed - some time ago, not in front of us) by cousin Brent.

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