They call it breakfast, I call it a blessing to eat this good food beside the fireplace at the Multnomah Lodge.

Here's an update about the Columbia Gorge Express, in case you saw any of my videos posted on Monday. I've discovered and claim it to be true that if I had dug into their Web site deeply, I would have learned much more which would have most likely have meant that I would not have missed the bus away from the Gateway Transit Center, nor would I have gone too early to wait for the bus back to Gateway from Multnomah Falls. I thank them for their efforts to get me there and back so that I could make magnificent Memorial Day memories!



First memory at Multnomah Falls, this really, really, really (I could go on and on) scrumptious breakfast known on the menu as Trailblazer! Those are supposed to be silver dollar pancakes. Gosh! If silver dollars were that large, we'd all be tickled to have four of them, right? I tell you what, as great as these beauties tasted and as fine as their texture yielded to the fork, they were perfect as is, no need to be a collectable coin. I have not had a pancake since Mother's Day, 2015. These were worth waiting for! I ate only one slice of bacon and about two thirds of the scrambled eggs, both delicious. I ate all of the pancakes and figured out how to count the carbs when I got home to my WiFi.



The view looking across the dining room, looking north. The blue-tinted trees are across the Columbia River in Washington. I couldn't resist taking this candid photo.



I like the look of this lamp in focus with the background out of focus. Do you?



A worker got another log out of a closet in the wall to the right of the fireplace and tossed it onto the fire. In no time it seemed to me the flames grew taller, crackling and popping. Outside the sun shone, but in the shaded by virtue of being the central room on that second floor, the dim lighting allowed me to get this photo that I like.



One of two photos that I took looking out the second floor window outside the restrooms. I wanted you to see the flower beds enclosed in the rock walls and part of the crowd. Believe me, the crowd grew and grew as I hung around enjoying myself for several hours. The crosswalk markings on the road lead to a short footbridge, then to an underpass beneath not only the railroad track but also beneath the eastbound lanes of I-84. The parking lot over there is larger than the one you'll see a portion of in the next photo but still not large enough for the crowds. So, there is a free round-trip shuttle from there to another nearby park at Rooster Rock where there is more parking. The Oregon Department of Transportation runs it. If I were to drive out there--which I won't do because I don't own a car and have no intention of getting a Zipcar to go there--I'd go very early and try to park here at Multnomah Falls.



The second photo that I took from the second floor. You can see for yourself how small the parking lot across the road from Multnomah Falls appears--it's narrow and always full when folks have the chance to get out to the Gorge. I for one am thankful for the new shuttle service, the Columbia Gorge Express, $5 round trip from the Gateway Transit Center in Portland to Multnomah Falls and back. Not without some hiccoughs on its inaugural weekend, nevertheless, I shall use it again later on this summer. I've now been able to learn the ropes through trial and error and will be much better prepared mentally next time. Of course, being open on a weekend that abutted a federal holiday really put a strain on their preparations. That's their plan, to be open Friday through Sunday and federal holidays, May 27-September 25.



The room where I ate, to the right near that closet door. I added some light when I took the photo so that you could actually see the room--it was nicely dim in there.



The next room towards the back of the lodge, bathed in light from those big windows. It has just dawned on me that you probably can see parts of Multnomah Falls from those windows when the trees have lost their leaves. I wonder. Something to check out on my next trip there. Even if there are still leaves on the trees, I can always ask an employee.

I left the restaurant and visited the gift shop before taking my pancake-fueled body outside and towards Multnomah Falls, the real reason that I had made the trip. Next time I'll have two reasons, the falls and the pancakes!

Along the west bank of the Willamette River, No. 2

Here's the jumping girl from yesterday's post, with her dad, mom, and little sister. Sweet to see a family out making memories in the sunshine on the first weekend that the cherry trees bloomed. The way the weather changes around here, sometimes these flowers depart quickly, so it is imperative to get on out there and take advantage of the best conditions, as soon as they occur. That's why I went over between the Burnside and the Steel Bridges Friday, March, 21, after work. I had no idea if I could get back to Tom McCall Waterfront Park on Saturday or Sunday, so I put a reminder on my iPhone 5 and made it happen. The reminder's necessary because on Friday I tend to be on autopilot for home, unless the Blazers are playing.

Memories, seen from a new perspective, thanks to the AHC's tour of 705 Davis Condominiums

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I took these photos from different windows in other condos--looking at the views was just as much fun for me as looking at the condos themselves.
 

On the sidewalks of NW Everett, between NW 22nd and NW 23rd--I'd have a hard time counting how many times I walked these sidewalks, in all kinds of weather, before and after work, on weekends, to and from the Fred Meyer, by myself, with Mama and our little dachshund Duncan, with my two sons, with my brother when he visited, my our friends-so-great-that-they-are-family visited from Mississippi and California, with a sweetheart of a friend from Mississippi who also became a Portlander, and with a friend I met at the bus stop who had a pet skunk. Walked with those folks in all sorts of combinations over the years. Back when we had a car, the '96 Buick, I parallel parked on either side of this one-way street numerous times--on NW 22nd also--sometimes with the ease of a hot knife in butter, sometimes not.
 

I could almost type the exact same text beneath this view, too, except that it's looking at the dead-end intersection of NW King with NW Davis. I parked the car here a lot, too. Boy, am I happy not to own a car any more!
 

Here's more of NW Davis, just east of the intersection in the photo right above this one. Mama walked the sidewalk on the right back when she was healthy enough to go to the beauty shop which was on the corner hidden by all of the leaf-laden trees. I have to tell you that when I looked out the window and took this photo, I got choked up for a little while, remembering the day she asked me to find her a beauty shop that she could walk to from our apartment. I used Google Maps Search Nearby and found us a beauty shop. I'm getting choked up right now just typing this because over the years we knew what we'd really found was a sweetheart of a woman, our friend Rosa. This woman came to our apartment in later years and gave Mama her trims and perms there because Mama's mobility lessened as congestive heart failure took its toll. The last photo of us together Rosa took with her camera after she'd done our hair in our kitchen, on the Sunday before Mama died in her sleep on Friday afternoon, January 7, 2011. I count myself blessed to still have Rosa in my life.
 

Back in the day, when Mama was mobile, we walked together to Fred Meyer a few times. We never carried our groceries home in a bag (back then the stores in Portland were allowed to use plastic bags, but not now as you can see from this paper bag in the hands of that man). We used a rolling black bag. Another thing, back in the day, we could walk right into our Fred Meyer with our little dachshund Duncan on his leash. It was hard to tell you was more popular with other shoppers, Mama or Duncan.
 

One last memory. See the mustard-colored, multi-storied building, top left? It stands diagonally across the street from our building. We lived on the top floor of our four-story building, and I seem to remember that the building we're looking at had six stories. Our living room was on the corner of our building closest to the intersection, therefore not far at all from the building we're looking at. Our TV was in the corner, with two good-sized windows in each of the two walls that made up the corner. I could sit in my chair, placed diagonally in front of the TV, and easily see most of the top floors of the building, not the two walls you can see in the photo, but the wall just out of sight to the left. Mama could not see what I could see from her recliner. Anyway, one night I'm sitting there in my chair, watching TV with Mama. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed motion in one of the windows, a repetitive, rhythmic motion. Taking my attention from the TV, I focused on that window and realized that I was seeing a man and a woman having sex in what I figured must be the living room, without any curtains shut. Her legs were straight up in the air and he was very busy between them. "My gosh," I said, "there is someone having sex in an apartment over there!" Mama said, "What? Where?" Then we decided we'd turn out the light so that she might could catch a glimpse without us being noticeably voyeuristic, but by the time we did that, it was all over over there. Truth.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 1

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Joan of Arc bid us a safe journey and great memories for our trip from Portland to Bend. I felt like her golden form, reflecting the sunshine and blue skies in Portland meant we were in for a good time. I took this photo at 1:36 p.m. on May 10, as we headed for I-84 east and the start of our drive, with Leland at the wheel of the Zipcar Ford Escape, named Engine, a dark red vehicle; Lamont sat behind me because he had more leg room there. By the way, when we rounded this traffic circle or roundabout in Laurelhurst, little did I know that this method of intersection would play a large role in our being out and about all weekend.

Here's what I found out about the golden statue on the Internet:

The Joan of Arc statue was added to Coe Circle in 1925. It was one of four statues given by Henry Waldo Coe to the city of Portland. It was made from the original molds of Emmanuel Frémiet's statue at the Place des Pyramides, which Coe saw on a visit to France. Portland's Arc statue arrived from France in 1924 and was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1925, honoring the Doughboys of World War I.

Time for Memories

I fell hard for that entrance, that Atlas sort of guy holding the clock, and that clock itself. So romantic. For a few moments I stood there, memories of my husband filling my mind, then I set off for the bus stop.