Well, its now Wednesday morning, we have been to Portland OR and back. We had a wonderful time. We left for Portland at 5.30am to arrive at the airport at 6.10am. It was amazingly busy and we only just had time to grab a pretzel before getting onto the flight. We arrrived in Portland at 1.00 local time and by the time we collected our hire car, traversed Portland, we arrived at the Hotel at about 2.30. Our room wasn't ready until 3pm so we went along to a small chinese fast food place (like Big Mc's but serving chinese food). Once we had eaten, we deposited our bag into the room and departed for Portland centre. Having checked the map before departing we quickly found a parking lot near the Portland Art Gallery where we were meeting up with an old friend later in the day.
By this time, (4.00) it was already getting dark and the rain had set in. We quickly got our bearings and made our way towards what seemed to be the town centre. We were not to be disappointed. Portland has a real town centre, just like back in the UK. This may not seem so exciting but in seems so rare in the US. Not only that it has a great public transport system which people actually seem to use. We had a great time just wandering around the town centre before returning to the Art Gallery. By this time, there was huge crowd of people at the gallery, with little kids holding paper lanterns. It turns out that it was the St Martin's day Lantern Parade being held by the German American Portland Saturday School in association with the German American Society of Portland. The big exhibit at the museum at the moment is the Hesse Collection from Germany.
We eventually met up with our friend and had a great meal at a local turkish place called Persian House. It was really good to meet up with Ella again. She seem so much happier than she was in Austin, the heat really didn't suit her. Since moving up here she has retrained in the field of biology (she use to work with Gordon in the semiconductor industry) and is currently working in a company comprising of about 10 people. She is truly a remarkable woman, I think this about her 5th reincarnation given the jobs I know she has had in the past
So that was our first day.
The next morning we were up bright and early, hitting the road by 8.30, aiming for Mt St Helen's in Washington State. The weather wasn't great, overcast but according to the weather forecast, the rain should of held off until late afternoon. On the way we popped into the tourist information office in Woodland. We were very impressed by the information the lady in office gave us.
By the time we reached Mt St Helen's we could see patches of blue sky so we were optimistic that get to the top Cold Water Ridge Visitor's centre before the weather closed in. We quickly got to the North Fork Toutle River Sediment Retention dam area. There was a viewing point but to the side was a short trail which took you to the actual dam. Jeeze it was cold there
Anyway, as the weather was obviously deteriorating at quicker pace by now, we decided to push on to the next visitor'centre Hoffstadt Bluffs as it was now nearly lunchtime. Unfortunately, despite saying the restaurant was open at 11.30am it quite obviously wasn't. However, we managed to grab a bag of chips to keep the hunger at bay and drove on. A few miles on and we reached the Forest Learning center, which was closed for the winter. However we were able to park at the entrance We made our way to the viewing platform where we could look down the valley and I am sure on a clear day actually see the Volcano. However, today was not the day to see the volcano because just as I took a photo of Gordon, the snow started to fall.
We decided to drive on for about 10 mins before deciding that maybe it would wiser to turn back. So we didn't get to see the Volcano but we did enjoy the trip.
More tomorrow
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