Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Despite intermittent inclement weather, we were determined to pack a ton of fun into our last full day in Portland! And a little education, while we were at it, as you can see by Ayize's seriously-studious face here:
Ha ha ha!
Actually - all kidding aside - he was proud to show Jo Jo that he can recognize A's and O's, and there was plenty of opportunity to do so on this engraved plaque! But as usual, I scurry on ahead. So let me scurry on back...back to the start of the day.
It was our usual up-early, stroll-to-Starbucks kind of morning.
Later, Jo Jo and I took Ayize back to La Petite Provence for breakfast. We had our usual - a delicious croissant cheese sandwich and a side cup of soup, both of which we split evenly, and he ate all the scrambled cheesy eggs on the side.
It had been a lovely morning, and I was thrilled that we had indulged in one last dip to my fave breakfast spot on earth. Best of all - so far, no rain. (But it was coming...with a vengeance!)
As we passed under the newish Troutdale Arch (hopefully Ayize will go check out the time capsule when he's 100 years old), the clouds threatened menacingly in the distance. But who cared - we were officially at the Gorge - huzzah!
The first few drops spattered the windshield as Jo Jo winded the car along this gorgeous stretch of the Columbia River Highway.
First stop, as tradition dictated, was Chanticleer Point. As Jo Jo strode off towards the best vantage point from which to take photos, Ayize hung back, happy to stretch his legs and walk the wall. I asked him what he thought of the view, and his only answer was...
...this.
Hmmm. Very cryptic.
Even under heavy cloud cover, the view was stunning, as always.
Ayize spotted our favorite rock and began climbing up it and sliding down it, which struck us as very funny. Wheeeeee!
Jo and Ayize. Ayize's first time "on the rock", at least that I can remember.
Zoom "on the rock."
Clouds rolling in...
...but still time enough for one last shot - a family tradition!
* * * * *
[Some flashbacks to follow. Apologies!]
2003, with Cain and Jo Jo:
2006, with my folks and Jo Jo:
There are so many others, but these are just a taste. Good times!
* * * * *
Ayize loved the view, too.
Big hug from m'boy.
And then, two seconds later...LOL
Uncle Jo Jo and Ayize lead the way into the building atop the point.
Beautiful domed ceiling.
Heading back out of the building after a quick tour of the photos inside and a bathroom break. It started to sprinkle so we piled back into the car.
As we completed the final third of our drive, the rain began to really pound, and we were a bit bummed. But then, with near-perfect-timing, the rain stopped at literally the exact right moment. Jo Jo had just finished parking and we were pulling the stroller from the trunk of the car in the midst of a torrential pelting, when...
...trickle, trickle, drip, drip...drip. Driplet. And finally. Nothing.
WOO HOO! The rain had temporarily ceased, as if on cue. Cause de celebre, to be sure!
So here we were, at our final stop of the morning: Multnomah Falls, the second-largest waterfall in the United States.
Ayize hopped out of the car, perky and happy that the rain had stopped, and began to race up the long path leading to the Falls, when suddenly he turned a curve and saw the towering waterfall itself for the first time. Here he was, having "a moment".
But quite justifiably, as you can see. Seeing this for the first time in person is truly a stop-in-your-tracks moment for anyone.
Ayize happily "read" this dedication plaque to us.
Then he checked out the lower half of the Falls from up close.
The very bottom.
A tree trunk, lying a the bottom. Ayize noticed it and made this understatement of the year: "Big stick, Mama!"
We headed towards the path and began to climb up. Ayize was happy to hike, and Jo Jo was kind enough to push the stroller for me so that my hands were free to take photos.
Howdy, ma'am.
Picking moss off one of the stone border walls and showing it to me. He called it, "Pizzey!" Ugh, you eat it then. LOL
Crossing the first of the bridges. This wooden one smelled delicious after the rain.
Getting higher.
Approaching the big bridge.
Yikes! My hair was not happy about the rain LOL and my vertigo was acting up, but...it was such a great moment, I couldn't resist posting this pic anyway. I was so proud of Ayize for walking all this way. Next time, we're going all the way to the top, baby!
We did it!
Standing on the stone bridge...
...holding tight to Uncle Jo's hand...
...then braving it alone...
...to get a closer look at what lay below our feet. Too cool!
Hey - and there's his "big stick"! Ha ha ha!
Such a gorgeous view looking out at the foggy landscape. I've usually visited the Falls on clear, blue-skied days, so this was a whole different experience.
Standing on one of the memorial benches, looking out at the landscape.
Getting silly! This is a good video because I took the time to pan around once, too.
Hee hee hee!
All done playing, apparently. At least that's what this low-cap stance has been signaling lately, in a very Jekyll and Hyde way. So we turned and hiked back down to the bottom.
Oh, the hat is coming back up again...he's ready to rejoin the world. Know why?
I'll give you a hint...look at the sign behind him. We'd just read it to him and his eyes were growing big with excitement.
Enjoying his "free taste" to the fullest!
Jo Jo and I took turns hitting up the gift shop to get presents for Mom and Dad.
Then we walked back towards the car, by way of my all-time favorite Union Pacific train bridge. Here's a clip for George and Jeff G - enjoy, dudes! Unfortunately for us, no train passed during this particular visit; still, Ayize was enthralled just to be so near a real train bridge.
I just remembered that I have an old photo of Jeff O in this same pose, checking out the same bridge, from back in the day when we were all living here. And some other ones, of me and him with backpacks stuffed under our shirts, hiking up to the top of the Falls, pretending to be pregnant. Man! Gots to find those old treasures...
What a view! Another bridge, this one the old foot bridge that goes under the highway (the same one cited in the famous 1986 Bigfoot close encounter) and behind it, the Falls.
It had been a memorable visit, despite a lack of trespassing Twilight fans, ghostly maidens, or yeti appearances LOL!
As we loaded up the car, I shot this photo of the misty skies above...
...and this one, from out the car's window, as we hit the road.
Driving along the Gorge, swathed in murky mist.
I noticed birds' nests atop almost every lookout point.
The countryside was flying by. I was sure Ayize would go down for a nice long nap, but a look into the backseat proved me wrong.
Yikes, kiddo! You're busted. Take a nap!
But it was not to be.
Sigh.
As you can see, he was wide awake when we got back to Jo Jo's house, despite the one-hour drive.
BTW, this is how it is at home, too - we play daily nap Russian Roulette, since he's transitioning to napless days (slowly, thankfully) but I'd been so spoiled by six straight days of afternoon snoozes that I'd been imperiously expecting another one!
Anyway, there was great excitement to be had as we pulled up - a fire truck was parked in front of my brother's house. Expecting the worse, we started to look around furiously, but then noticed, much to our relief, that (a) there was a fireman and a cop coming out of my brother's stoner neighbor's house - leisurely, and laughing, and (b) the fire truck was starting to move forward to allow my brother to pass him (or in this case, allow access into his driveway).
The fire truck departed, as did the cop car. Little Man waved and called, "Bye!" to his departing heroes. Too cute.
I fed Ayize lunch and tried to coax him down into a nap, but it was not happening. So off we went, on another adventure.
We headed downtown. First stop was at my old fave, the Park Avenue Cafe, where I grabbed a hot chocolate. (Actually, I just badly needed a bathroom break but didn't want to stop in just to use the loo, so the hot chocolate was a victim of circumstance. It ended up being delicious anyway, of course, so whatevs.)
All aboard! Exhausted Ayize was psyched to hop on this "choo-choo" (okay, actually an electric Portland Streetcar), and out of sheer excitement, got a bit of a second wind.
Best seat in the house!
Jo Jo demos the overhead grip (short folks need not apply).
A sure sign of exhaustion - the earlobe pinch. But he was still happy to be on the "train" with Mom and Uncle Jo, and Mom was happy to be fortifying herself with a little midday hot chocolate - yum!
(You'll have to be a diehard Thomas fan - or a parent of one - to recognize this 'famous' quote).
The sky portended ill.
Holdest off, thou, I sayeth, but it wouldst rain on our parade soon enough regardless.
Oh well. Who cared at this point?? We were at the base station for the Portland Aerial Tram. Or, as Ayize labeled it, the "hairplane choo-choo". Woo hoo!
As we hoofed it the last block to the station, we saw another streetcar approaching. Ayize was in excitement overload - sensory city, baby!
The first grounding turret could be seen from our vantage point as we approached the base station.
Cool! Headed inside (or actually, under cover - since it was not actually an enclosed station).
A construction site next door provided Ayize with an unexpected boon - he thought it was "the big, bad wrecking ball" we'd been reading about all week. Ha ha ha!
See ya!
Jo Jo and Ayize waited underneath this gynormous turning cog as I grabbed our tickets to ride.
Here came our space pod.
ALL ABO-OOOARD! And up, up in the air, in our beautiful - okay, not quite a balloon. The bikes below became the size of cicadas, then ants...
...and away we went!
Highways of speeding traffic.
Towering buildings.
What a view!
At our lowest point, we went over...Karen's half-sister's house (the middle one) where we had breakfast the morning before. Wowzas! Jo Jo's eagle eye ID'ed it because of the unique double front steps.
Looking back at where we'd come from, as the ride drew close to its endpoint.
Approaching our final destination.
(A hospital, if you can't tell by this crowd).
Pausing momentarily, mid-air, as the car aligned itself into the landing space. A freaky momentary rocking of the car (the wind and storm was picking up steam), and then we deftly cruised into home base.
The view up here was amazing.
A moment later, it began to rain. Torrentially. Again. And yet, it had an even cooler effect on the landscape. Only in the Pacific Northwest could I possibly appreciate foul weather!
As amazing as the view was, I was unable to relax for a single second up here. See those folks taking photos at the right-hand edge of this picture? Jo Jo and I were snapping our photos on the opposite side, but we took turns doing so, so that one of was holding onto Ayize at all times.
He was overtired, and starting to get overstimulated and hyper. Translation: he kept trying to climb up edges and railings and anything else in his path that were beyond dangerous, in terms of the million-foot fall that would await him, should he succeed. And since anyone who's ever met him has witnessed his improbable climbing feats, and the speed at which he can perform them, neither Jo Jo or I could let our guard down for a moment! Still, it was beautiful to behold, pictures or no, and even Ayize thought it was super cool (actually, he thought it was a little too cool LOL).
We got in line to re-board (it was just past five, and starting to get awful crowded) as I snapped this shot of another tram leaving.
Here came our pod, pulling in for a landing. On the ride home, the view was totally obscured by the mass of people we were crushed in with and the poor visibility because of the rain, so I didn't manage any pictures.
Back at the bottom, we dashed through the pouring rain to board our streetcar a block away.
Our streetcar came quickly (I sent up a cosmic thank you) and we rode along happily until suddenly, many blocks from our destination, it ground to an abrupt halt. After a long wait, the conductor made an announcement: there was a car accident up ahead, and he anticipated it would be a good, long while before we got moving again.
Oh dear! Ayize was falling apart, half from exhaustion and overexcitement, and half from hunger.
We decided to hoof it. We held bags and whatever other rain protection we'd brought (which wasn't much) over our heads and began charging through the wall of rain. It was unusual weather for Portland - home of the frequent, but light drizzle - in that this was an utter downpour. I was struggling to carry Ayize and my stuff and keep us dry with his flimsy, broken-spined toddler umbrella, and within seconds, Jo Jo noticed and hefted Ayize up, plus the baby 'brella, and carried them both through the many blocks it took us to bypass the accident. I was so grateful!
After six or seven blocks, we spotted another streetcar approaching and raced to its official stop.
We hopped on board. It was standing room only and the whole car smelled of wet people, but whatever - we didn't care, we were just so thrilled to be out of the rain. Jo Jo hung onto one of the overhead straps and in a really cute move, Ayize mimicked him and grabbed one of his own. I shot this photo of the pair of them holding on together and chatting, and as I did, I noticed this scowling homeless woman just past them who gave me the most horrid look...
...just before she shouted out some unintelligible foreign curse word and whipped her metal cart at me - ouch! I was just depressing the button on the camera for a close-up shot of Jo Jo's and Ayize's hands, so as my shins got hit, I automatically moved my hand downward in a protective gesture, resulting in this shot.
Jo Jo and I couldn't help ourselves, we started laughing hysterically. It had been a crazy busy day, a stormy, exciting afternoon, a lot of stress with a napless kiddo, and now a long race through the rain to board a streetcar which - as luck would have it - happened to be the only one in the whole city housing an attack lady on the loose. Much as we felt bad for upsetting her, we were waaaay too slap-happy and pissed off to let it slide. Jo Jo murmured to me, "You could take your picture now."
I muttered back, "I don't want to end up with more injuries!"
Jo Jo used a chin nod to gesture to the cart, now resting against my legs and out of her reach. "Dude, she's shooting blanks now."
I broke into maniacal laughter, and the lady - who probably overheard our whole conversation, because despite our attempt at being quiet, we were probably pretty sotto voce, not to mention she was like one foot away - echoed me with an even more maniacal two-note, super-loud fake laugh, followed by a sarcastically-angry Japanese oni face. She ended this tragicomic triumph by sticking her tongue out at us.
Thankfully, our stop was next anyway.
Back at home, Little Man ate a big dinner. He was super busted on account of our busy day and his lack of a nap, but as soon as he was in his PJs and I went to make the bed, he managed to scramble onto Jo Jo's easy chair and check out Ponyo, which Jo Jo was watching.
He was immediately entranced, it being one of the few Hayao Miyazaki flicks he's never seen before - he's quite the rabid Miyazaki fan, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. Still, when I hauled him off to bed a moment later, he went almost without an argument (okay, maybe a teeny argument LOL), being utterly and absolutely exhausted.
Not long after he was down for the count, my dinner arrived. A last fling with my beloved Rovente - I totally inhaled half of my custom "black olive Oriente" in two seconds flat, and had a massive internal battle forcing myself to save the other half for the airplane the next day. Then I started packing.
Not long after, pal Lizzy arrived - hurrah! It was wonderful to see her and catch up with everything - we'd been so crazy busy all week that we'd hardly had time to properly get up to speed on each other's lives.
As is our custom, we gabbed a lot more than I packed, and the hour grew late. As the hour grew yet later, we devolved into our usual fits of hysterical laughter over totally ridiculous things. Perhaps it was inevitable that I would end up with a pair of boys' 3T Elmo underwear on my head, my brother's sweatshirt as a dress, and a pair of argyle Irish socks up to my shins...
...wait, did I say that was me?? No, that was actually just this crazy chick who looked like me who wandered into my brother's house around 1 in the morning.
Anyhow, sadly, our evening (early morning??) drew to a close. I had even managed to finish packing, as I always do, by some miracle of productive inactivity. I walked Lizzy out to the porch and as we hugged fiercely and said our final goodbyes, I saw this big hulk of a skeeter on the porch and (predictably), had to take a shot. Just another piece of evidence to be submitted under my file of "2010: the summer that grew the biggest freaking bugs of all time!"
With Lizzy's departure, the finality of our leaving next morning became solid substance. I headed back in the house, glumly turning off all the lights in my wake and mentally saying farewell to my favorite spot to earth to roost while away from home.
Snuggling up to my favorite human of all time a moment later, however, was quite the salve.
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