Tag: Tom McCall

The City Fair

Dear Liza,

Rose Festival season is here, and the city is so busy! Friday afternoon we took the bus downtown to see what was happening at the City Fair. This is the carnival part of the festival at Tom McCall Riverfront Park, and we haven’t gone since before the Covid shut down.


I know I am getting to be an old lady, because the rides looked terrifying! Even watching them made me fear for my life.

It was early afternoon, so there weren’t many people yet, which was fine. As much as I enjoy people watching, big crowds just make everything harder!

The production of the carnival was a bit … underwhelming. The rides were colorfully painted, but the juggler dropped everything and was clearly struggling.

The best thing to see was the Jim Neill Museum historical display about the American Rosie the Riveter Association, who celebrate the women like my momma who went to work in the aircraft Industry during World War II and saved the country. Here is an old picture of my Momma and her sister Hazel heading off to work in 1944.

The best thing to DO was, of course, play pinball! We found the Monopoly game, which had a lot going on and fun sound effects. We enjoyed our game until the machine kept our quarters, and then we said good-bye.

Grandpa Nelson found his carnival favorite, kettle corn, at a unicorn-decorated stand under the Morrison Bridge.

The best view of the day was Mt. Hood 90 miles to the east, looming over a new apartment building.

When we had seen all the things and eaten the snacks, we caught the magic 15 and headed for home. I was well and truly worn out, and happy for a bit of quiet time before the baseball game.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Happy Birthday, Nelson!

Dear Liza,

Your Grandpa Nelson had his 68th birthday Wednesday, and we had a wonderful time.

We drove south down the Willamette Valley to Salem, the capital of Oregon. It is much smaller than Portland, even smaller than where we used to live in Salinas! But it is a very pretty city.

First, we stopped for lunch at a McMenamin’s restaurant that we had never been to, the historic Boone’s Treasury, just north of Salem. It was charming and delicious, with a nice patio. We had a lovely ceiling of maple leaves just coming out in their spring colors.

After lunch we drove into town and to the Riverfront City Park, 23 acres of lawns, trees, statues, an amphitheater, a nature preserve, a bridge over the Willamette Slough, and miles of waking and biking trails.

The biggest surprise was this larger-than-life statue of Tom McCall, a former governor of Oregon who was ferocious about protecting Oregon’s natural resources. Two of Mr. McCall’s projects were keeping our beaches open to everyone and a bill to make recycling become law in Oregon. It makes sense that his statue would be in this lovely natural area, and that it shows him fishing.

This enormous mosaic covered globe caught my eye. It needs some repair, but it is beautiful.

We walked across the pedestrian bridge onto Minta Brown Island along with dozens of other folks out enjoying the day. Bikes, dogs, kids and folks even older than us were all out and about.

Our last stop in the park was the beautiful carousel, which was hand-carved and hand-painted by dozens of volunteers and craftsmen. It was a true labor of love.

We walked into town and had ice cream at Momma Dulce’s. Silly Bridgett had a lick of mine and we were much refreshed.

When we had seen all we could see, braved the highway traffic and gotten home, Grandpa opened his present from Bridgett’s Mom Donna, which was some bottles of tasty wine. We had a small glass each and settled into couch for a relaxing birthday evening.

Love,

Grandma Judy