Downtown Portland – Dear Liza

Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday!!

Dear Liza,

Tuesday was your Auntie Bridgett’s Birthday, and we had a fine time.

After a quiet morning of breakfast and language practice, she opened her presents, including tee shirts, sketchbooks, and a fabulous Snoopy quilt her Momma Donna made for her. Isn’t it amazing?

Once Bridgett had her celebratory red Converse high tops on, we caught the #20 bus downtown to Powell’s City of Books, which we haven’t visited in far too long.

Just being in the space makes me happy!

They have a new café inside, called The Guilder Café (after a country in The Princess Bride). The food was good and not very expensive, and the seating area has regular tables along with some arena type seating and comfy chairs. We spent more than an hour eating, reading, and browsing. It was delightful.

Then, after taking pictures of one of Coraline’s Curious Cats in her lovely urban environment, we caught the #20, connected to the #6, and headed up to the McMenamin’s Coffee Roastery. Considering how many McMenamin’s venues there are, I was amazed at how small the facility was! This one room, one giant roaster, and one guy named Chris.

Chris gave us all the lowdown on coffee… where it’s sourced from, how long you roast it for, and some of the dangers. Did you know that Auntie Bridgett’s favorite dark roast needs to get to 500 F, and will burst into flames at just 700 F? Dangerous work!

After we heard all that Chris had to say, we caught the #6 and then the #15 to get home, where we all had a nice rest. Birthdays are exhausting!

At dinner time, Grandpa Nelson was still pooped, so he stayed home and I walked the Birthday Girl up to Dov Vivi pizza. We love their cornbread based crust and Quattro Fromagio (Four Cheese) pizza.

We ate out on the patio and watched the world go by. Moms with strollers, kids on skateboards, old dudes getting off the bus… busy city life going on all around us.

We needed to bring half the pizza home, but it will make a lovely lunch tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Bridgett!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Other Downtown Delights

Dear Liza,

While we were wandering downtown, of course, there were lots of incidental, accidental, goodies to see.

We re-discovered Ira’s Fountain, a magnificent man-made series of waterfalls that thunders and crashes and almost makes you forget you are in a city. It had been closed for repairs, and then the pandemic, and then the riots, but is now being enjoyed by picnickers and all everyone else!

We found an old church, St. Michael the Archangel, and got to visit with the fellow who takes care of it. There is too much history to tell, but the church was built in 1901 and was almost torn down in the urban renewal craze of the 1960’s. I’m glad it is still here! It has three masses on Sundays and quite a busy calendar.

And speaking of churches, we noticed that the First Congregational Church on Broadway has a tiny church on top!

All sorts of things to see!

After all our walking and finding, we stopped at our favorite Café Umbria, for lunch. Fruit, cheese, and a quiche gave us the energy to get home!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Yellow Line to Downtown

Dear Liza,

When Auntie Bridgett and I left the Quilt Show, we weren’t ready for our day out to be over. We knew two things… we needed lunch, and we wanted to see some new things. So we headed downtown.

For lunch, we got off the Yellow Line at Pioneer Square and walked up the curvy steps to the food carts. Nine dollars got us lunch at The Whole Bowl, with one bowl being enough for the two of us! We enjoyed listening to the waterfall fountain and watching people and pigeons enjoy the sunshine.

When we were full, we headed to the Main Branch of the Multnomah Library. I had visited with Cynthia a month ago, but Bridgett hadn’t seen it. Besides, there’s always something new.

For example, did you know that the library carries books in Danish? Two different staff librarians hunted for, and eventually Bridgett found, two of Portland native Beverly Cleary’s books translated into Danish, so I can use them to practice this difficult language.

In the map room, I started opening drawers at random and found this magnificent Trimet map of the light rail lines in Portland , shown as a video game! It was huge, accurate, and adorable.

And up on the third floor I found a large display of various interpretations of Shakespeare! T-shirts, comic books, and posters for movie adaptations filled glass cases. This poster is from a movie I had never heard of, (but will watch this evening, if it’s available.) Family friendly” versions, with the bawdy bits removed, were attempted in the 1800s, and have been carefully preserved.

I even had a flash of cross-reference bedazzlement when I saw this quote from Much Ado About Nothing and realized Lin-Manuel Miranda had used it in the flirting scene in Hamilton. (The rhyme is “I’m a trust fund baby, you can trust me.”)

By this time our brains were full and our feet were tired, so we caught the Magic 15 and headed home. What a day!

What a city!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Whimsy and Perspective in Downtown Portland

Dear Liza,

On the way to and from the Zoo this weekend, Grandpa Nelson and I built in some time to walk around and see things. Big cities like Portland always have something new going on.

At Pioneer Square, sometimes called Portland’s Living Room, there is this sign,
showing distances to notable locations near and far. Nice to see that “Portlandia” is just five blocks away!

Also in the Living Room is this decoration, called The Weather Machine. It opens up at noon, plays a fanfare, and displays a different icon depending on the weather.

New planters are going in along walkable street. They look sturdy and ready to bloom this spring.

As we waited for the bus home in the afternoon, we got to listen to a concert and choir from the Ukraine Association. They are making sure we all remember that Ukraine is still under attack from Russia and needs our support.

It’s nice that spring is coming and we can be out and about again.

Love,

Grandma Judy

In the Wilds of the City

Dear Liza,

Downtown Portland is filled with all sorts of tall buildings. Older ones of brick and stone, and modern ones of glass and steel. It has some streets that are stunningly civilized and some that are a little rundown and seedy. This isn’t surprising, I guess.

What IS surprising is finding a beautifully maintained bit of wilderness in the middle of all this stone and glass. This is Tanner Springs Park in northwest Portland.

One square city block has been cleared of pavements and planted in grasses, shrubs and small trees to create a wild space.

A clear natural spring (named Tanner Springs, after the tanner who originally had his shop here) runs through stone lined channels and down to the Willamette River.

We saw (and heard) at least five different species of birds and dozens of dragonflies, butterflies, and tiny spiders. This is a little piece of paradise.

It brings me so much joy to know that my city cares enough to create and maintain this place. We enjoyed some peace and quiet in before heading off to the next part of our adventure.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Downtown in the Rain

Dear Liza,

There is a new attraction in downtown Portland. I’ll give you the details later, but it involves France and Art, so of course, we went! Thursday was cold and rainy, but we caught the bus and headed downtown.

By the time the number 15 got us there, it was lunchtime. We know better than to start any adventure on empty stomachs, so we walked a few blocks further along to the McMenamin’s Market Street Pub. Set in the courtyard of a modern set if high-rise apartments, this is not one of their usual historic re-furbishments. But it is delightful, anyway.

We enjoyed our views of downtown passersby as we waited for the short-handed staff to bring us food. There was also some delightful art.

The McMenamins Company has a large staff of artists who give their establishments a unique look. Lyle Hehn is one of our favorites, and we saw his work here. His delightful surrealistic scenes pull you in, always showing you more. This one featured the McMenamin’s beer witch, Ruby, overseeing a dance party of wood carved Hammerheads.

When we were fed and ready, we headed off into the drizzle. After a tiny stop at Seasame Donuts (for Grandpa Nelson) we headed to ….Portland Museum of Art!

Takin’ it Downtown Part 2

Dear Liza,

After we said good-bye to Jack at Cult, we headed off for a sit down and some refreshment. We knew where there was a good coffee place, so we headed a block up and a block over to Barista. Iced coffee and some A/C sure help on a hot day!

Grandpa Nelson felt better, but was wearing out quickly. He decided to get on the number 20 and head home. Auntie Bridgett and I still had a few places to visit, since we’d come all this way. Along the way, we passed this delightful doorway. Of course, they are a frame shop!!

We continued to Oblation, where they sell nifty cards and writing supplies, including selections from their International Pencil bar. I thought it was a joke, but Auntie loved it!

We also enjoyed looking at their collection of restored manual typewriters.

Our final stop of the day was Dick Blick, a good sized art supplies store. They have just about any pens, pencils, paints, brushes, paper, canvas, beads, plaster, or clay you could want.

They also have a very earth friendly up-cycled basketball court as their floor.

Well, downtown is coming back to life. There are some folks still living on the sidewalks and in the parks, which isn’t really good for them or the city. Some stores are closed and some are damaged. But I am crossing my fingers that the worst is behind us.

And with that happy note, I show you some of our lovely old skyline… trees, clouds, and the Benson Hotel, built in 1913.

Love,

Grandma Judy

900th Blog!!!

Dear Liza,

June 30, 2017, almost three and a half years ago, was the day of my first blog. I had come up to Portland by plane, then the Red Line train to get to downtown, where I had lunch and met an itinerant poet named Shannon. Then I took a bus to Auntie Katie’s house. The next day I picked up the keys to our first apartment here in Portland. I signed papers, measured the new place, and flew back to Salinas.

Shannon the Poet in front of Powell’s, 2017

That day was a good omen of my life in the city so far. I have pushed myself to walk further, get around on public transit, explore further afield, chat with all sorts of folks, and spend more time on my own.

Auntie Katie and I going out to “Hamilton”

I have written about dinners out, concerts, zoos, and parks here in Portland;

vacations to Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.;

trips back to Salinas to see you and your family and friends;

and some less-fun trips to hospitals and doctor’s offices.

And lately, I’ve written about coping with NOT being able to do those things.

Writing this blog, now 900 essays long, is part of the coping. Writing how I feel makes it real and solid and more manageable.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Portland’s Christmas Tree

Dear Liza,

This past Friday evening, a 75 foot Christmas tree erected in Pioneer Square, also known as Portland’s Living Room, was lit up beautifully as the whole city sang. This has happened the night after Thanksgiving every year for 36 years.

Thomas Lauderdale, China Forbes, and the rest of Pink Martini played and sang Christmas Carols. Thousands of Portlanders sang along, led in the lyrics by a projected Christmas tree bouncing along the words. It was just like always!

Except that this year we were in our own living rooms and Pink Martini was on television, broadcast by local station KGW. We were sitting down and warm instead of standing up and freezing, we had our cat on our laps, and it was cozy.

But I still miss the crowds, the being together-ness, the palpable feeling of goodwill and community. Christmas isn’t just a time for family and friends, at least not in a big city. It is a time to make merry, eat, shop, walk, and sing with a whole bunch of strangers.

Auntie Christy, Grandpa Nelson and Auntie Bridgett with the tree last year

Thinking forward, we will be in for New Year’s, as well. Two years ago we went to Pink Martini’s show downtown, walking for hours between a fine dinner and the 10:00 show. It was cold, alright, but so beautiful. I took one of my favorite photos ever of the tree all lit up and the New Year’s moon.

This year will continue to be different, and I go back and forth on how I feel about it. Usually, my parents’ good natures win out and I know it will all turn out right if we all hunker down and do our best, but every now and then I get cranky and feel very put upon. That is when I try to have some alone time or take a nap, to keep from spreading the virus of my melancholy to the rest of the household.

Happiness, as Ruthie says, is a choice. So I will choose it.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Helping the City, Helping Ourselves

Dear Liza,

On Thursday we got a chance to do good work for Portland. Grandpa Nelson got us signed up with a group called SolveOregon, who use volunteers to cleanup and repair around the state.

We got up early and drove downtown to help with litter clean up. Except in the area just around the Federal Building, (where the protests and conflicts with police have been happening every night for three months), most of the storefronts are fine and businesses are open.

A whole bunch of people, patiently waiting to help!

Our check-in location was at the Mark Spencer Hotel, where ninety masked but friendly people waited in line to get directions and equipment. We collected our long handled grabbers, gloves, and plastic bags, and headed off.

It was slow going, because most of the litter we were picking up were small, like bottle caps or cigarette butts. It took us a while to get the hang of handling the grabbers. We walked along, heads down, focusing on the sidewalk. About every fifteen minutes we would look up and check in with each other and figure out where we were.

I am sorry for the lack of photos to tell this story, but it was difficult to use my phone while wearing gloves, a mask, and carrying a bag and grabbers. I made a choice to do the work well instead of photo-documenting.

As we walked along, we were pleasantly surprised by folks’s reactions. People would roll down the window of their cars and holler “Thank you!!”. A postal worker stopped us and told us how much he appreciated our help to make the city better. Auntie Bridgett made sure he knew that we appreciated his work, too.

After two hours, we had a satisfying amount of garbage in our bags, and were pretty much done in, and turned in our grabbers. We chatted with Sarah, our group leader, who let us know we could help in other ways, and directed us to the website to check it out.

We had a wonderful, filling lunch at the Zeus Cafe, a McMeniman’s restaurant just a block from where we were working. I hadn’t realized how hungry or tired I was! By the time we got home, I could hardly walk up the stairs.

A nice thought for the day. And maybe, the year.

I am happy that we spent a few hours doing something to help our city. We have had recent problems, caused by the pandemic and social unrest, but we are also just a big city with millions of people smoking, doing business, and eating. It takes maintenance to keep it up.

And today I got to help.

Love,

Grandma Judy