Blogs from Portland, Oregon, United States, North America - page 13

Today, I soaked up Portland culture. Portland feels like an environmentally conscious college town on a grand scale. This has both good and bad points. Portland is a great place to just hang out, drink good coffee or better beer, and relax. Portland also seems to attract people for whom doing anything else seems too difficult to handle. My hotel is the perfect introduction. Most hotel lobbies are empty. The Ace lobby was filled with people, drinking coffee and working on laptops. Since I had a conference to prep... read more

I was looking forward to Portland and we had a bed tonight instead of camping – yippee! We cooked our usual lunch of noodles by the side of a busy road; like 2 waifs and strays and then went to explore a bit of the city; we went to Powell’s bookstore which is apparently the world’s largest independent bookstore, where we sat and read awhile; it was really cool in there (Bry you would love it!). We looked in a couple of shops before returning to the car to head to the Rose Gardens; we ate tea in the park and then looked around the Rose Garden which was lovely; so many roses and we had a nosy at a wedding going on in there. Then it was time to head to Devidas the couch surfer’s ... read more

A much needed vacation for us... and a long time coming. Ivan and I have decided that we have got to see where we are from. Share it with each other. Also, Christopher is only getting older and soon, he'll be off working like us all and maybe not be able to travel with us... This first trip was my lovely state of California... I was born and raised out there for the first 28 yrs of my life... then I headed out East when I got pregnant with my son, Christopher. I've been back twice in the past 15 yrs. This was a much needed trip home. I wanted to show off the state that I love so much. Ivan has always wanted to drive along PCH, a dream of his... and well, that is ... read more

Some may ask "Why did you get married again?" Or "Didn't you get married on 8-9-10?" The answer is "Because and Yes". Last summer was our civil/legal ceremony to be husband and wife. The ceremony we had last night was our ceremony to God to be husband and wife. I had never wanted a big church wedding ever since I was little but Pete and I also have always wanted to raise our children in the church. In the Catholic Church we hadn't received the Marriage Sacrament. This sacrament allows us to have our children, when we decided to start a family after our return from China, be baptized in the church and it also was one of Scott's wishes. Scott was with us in spirit last night. We set the date just 16 days ago ... read more

Es ist ja nun doch schon wieder eine ganze Weile her, dass ich was von mir hab hören lassen... :-S Aber mir geht es soweit ganz gut und ich bin bereits ein ganz schönes Stück weiter nördlich als bei meinem letzten Blogeintrag. Um 6 Uhr Morgens des 15. Mai bin ich in San Francisco angekommen. Normalerweise wären um diese Uhrzeit die Strassen ziemlich leer gewesen. Doch nicht so an diesem Tag...kaum aus der Greyhound Station raus, finde ich mich inmitten einer extraordinär verkleideten Menschenmenge wieder. Denn an jenem Morgen fand der alljährliche „Bay to Breakers Race“ statt, wo die Einwohner von San Fran einmal quer durch die Stadt laufen und sich dabei möglichst auffällig verkleiden. Der Weg zum Hostel stellte sich deshalb auch als Geduldsprobe heraus. Da ausgerechnet mein Bus aufgrund des Races nicht fuhr, durfte ... read more