PortlandBella

LA, visitors, and Hood River County

I know it's been a while since I've added anything here, so this post is essentially 3 smaller ones combined. The first set of photos are from my 2 day jaunt down to L.A. for my Uncle's wedding celebrations. The second set is from my two sisters' and dad's visit here in September, and the last from a day trip to an Apple Festival in Hood River's Fruit Loop. I've been meaning to take my camera out for a day around the city, so hopefully I'll do that soon. Also don't forget you can always click on photos to view a larger version of the image.

L.A. rooftop scene

Old L.A. fashion district

----Detroit Dam on the way to Bend, Oregon----

Nadine, Sammie, and Rudi (sister, dog, and dad) observing the Detroit Dam

Silly/happy Judy

----Hood River County Apple Festival, Pumpkin picking, Corn Maze, etc----

Friends laughing

King Corn

Kansas City and Lawrence

These are from my visit between May 18 and 25th, 2008.

Da Bronx and Genghis Khan at 39th and State Lane, just after filling up on some dumplings with Eva at Blue Koi.

Along I-70, on the way to Lawrence.

My favorite nursery of all time, Sunrise Garden Center. I bought many a plant here when I lived in Lawrence.

Not a great angle, but I couldn't pass it up.

Free State Brewery, home of all things delicious.

East end of the University of Kansas campus. This fountain was put in after I moved away, so this was my first time seeing it!

Tiny little coffee shop, The Hi Hat, near Nadine's house in KCK.

Downtown KCMO.

Downtown library parking!

Looking south toward the Crossroads District from the edge of downtown proper.

Crossroads District, YJ's Diner.

KC River Market! Delicious, and puts Portland's produce prices to shame.

Looking south towards downtown from the River Market. Who wants to buy me a loft there?!

Children International

For a while now, I've been considering adopting a child through one of the myriad international child sponsorship agencies, but hadn't yet done enough research to find a non-religious group. Last week, while running an errand for work, I was stopped by one of the infamous solicitors in the Park Blocks of downtown Portland. Usually you get saving whales, political agendas, gay rights, etc, but this time around it was something I felt I could actually make a difference doing and had contemplated before. The guy was working for Children International, an agency out of Kansas City (always fun to find things are run out of your home town) that was not religiously affiliated.

The other thing that stuck out to me about this group was that they actually encourage you to pick a country you would want to visit, because unlike most other agencies, they WANT you to visit your sponsored child. So I thought that was pretty cool. Apparently one of the least picked countries is the Philippines, so that's what I went for. Yesterday I got a letter in the mail with information about Ryan Christian Herrera, a seven year old living in Quezon City, which is on the outskirts of Manila. Keep in mind that the Philippines was ruled by the Spaniards for quite some time, so names and religious practices are not what you would expect of a Southeast-Asian country. Some of the other information includes that his mother, Angelita and father, Richard, are both 32. She is a homemaker and he is a daily worker. Ryan has an older sister Rosalie (11) and brother Paul John (13) with which he shares a two room house. Their home is made of concrete block walls, corrugated metal for roofing, a concrete floor, and no beds (although they do have mats). They also have a kerosine stove, running water in the home, and a toilet. Listed under Ryan's "chores at home" is running errands and "talents or hobbies" is singing. Anyway, I'm pretty excited to get some more information and start writing some letters! If you're interested in sponsoring, check out their website at children.org.

Mirror Lake to Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain

Yesterday Sammie and I went out to the Mirror Lake trail and continued on to Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain. The trailhead is just south of the entrance to SkiBowl resort in the Mt Hood Recreational area.

Can't resist a swim, even in 45 degree weather.

View to the north from the trail halfway between Mirror Lake and the peak.

Mt. Hood peaking out through the morning clouds.

What I like to call "the throne"...thanks to the clever person that found these rocks, it's the perfect spot on the peak to sit down, lean back, enjoy the views, and (as was the case yesterday) drink a little bit of wine.

Sammie enjoying the peak of Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain with Mt Hood in the background.

The trail just off the peak is a beautiful pine forest vastly different from the thick rainforest below.

Morning dew!

It was still quite foggy even on our descent later in the day.

Björk and Banff

Photo courtesy of brooklynvegan.com

Two weeks ago we drove up to the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. It was quite a beautiful setting with some great shows, but a rather poorly executed music festival. Nonetheless, for $50 I saw an amazing show by one of my favorite artists, Björk, an almost equally incredible show (considering their youth in the music industry) by one of my new favorite bands, The Arcade Fire, and an excellent show by the legendary Manu Chao. I also saw half a set of an exclusive instrumental set by the Beastie Boys, which I certainly prefer to the rest of their music. You can find more videos of Björk on my YouTube account, although the video quality is not that great and my camera doesn't pick up much bass, so some songs sound weak. For those of you that are familiar with Björk's new album Volta, she played Earth Intruders, Dull Flame of Desire, I See Who You Are, Innocence, Wanderlust, and Declare Independence. Unfortunately, she didn't have Antony Hegarty with her to sing vocals on Dull Flame of Desire, but it was still an amazing, tear-jerking song. The setlist of the show can be found here.
You can also listen to one of her NYC shows in its entirety here.
[[If this message is still here, I haven't yet been able to upload the videos, but you're in luck...plenty of other people have done so here]]

Photo courtesy of brooklynvegan.com. This shot shows only the lower, flat portion of the main stage venue. The hill above had probably 3 to 4 times as many people.

View of the main stage during the day. I believe Neko Case was playing at this moment in time.

A view of the campground on the way out- I took this photo because of the hill in the back that's covered with wind turbines (click on the photo to enlarge it).

The town of Banff, under construction.

We came across wildlife more frequently in Banff than we have in any other National Park.

This picture is deceiving- although it may appear that these guys are nibbling on grass, they were in fact nibbling on the rocks. I'm not quite sure what it was they were eating or trying to get to. Anybody know?