Ira's Fountain

Right outside my office is Keller Auditorium - the best theater in town to catch a Broadway show, opera, or other culture event. And right across from Keller Auditorium is Keller Fountain (aka Ira's Fountain), one of the coolest little spots in this whole city.

If you look up 'urban serenity' in the dictionary, you find this picture.

I'll spare you the history lesson about the fountain - go here if you'd like to know more about it.

I love this fountain and the way it fits seamlessly in the urban community. I often get lunch from a teriyaki food cart that sets up shop in the park for a few hours each weekday; sitting down to eat, it always feels like a community gathering. If you go up a sidewalk on either side of the fountain, you'll see there's a nice park space where the fountain water is pumped into creeks that run under the sidewalks. It's a really cool effect. The way the park is set up, you can only see the actual fountains from the front end - anywhere else and it just looks like a typical park. Not to mention that the architecture is stunning...right down to the dedication plate:

But you see, there's one problem with the fountains. I took the above pics at 6:30 this morning. Because if you go there at any other time, it looks like this:

On an average summer afternoon, there are at least 100 people hangin' out at Ira's. I didn't dare take a closer picture of the park, because there are just too many bikini-clad ladies, pot-smokin' hippies, beer cans, guitar-pickin' folk-song writers, panhandlers, and unsupervised kids. It's a messy throng of humanity. And what's with that guy reading a book on that friggin' ledge!!! It's a 25-foot drop! "Don't jump bro, there are people who can help! I've got a prozac... right... here!"

All of this despite a warning at every park entrance that the fountain is NOT intended for wading. Oops. I guess the city decided they couldn't keep the crowds out, so they chlorinate the water instead.

Well, at least some people still view the hippie crowds as art:

Sketch by Jason Das from Urban Sketches

p.s. A few weeks ago, someone dumped a whole gallon of Dove soap in the fountain. As humorous and juvenile as that is (not to mention shutting off the fountain for a day) it was actually quite pretty seeing bubbles EVERYWHERE. Kind of Willy Wonka-ish.

The Greatest Song In the World. Tribute.

IIIIIIII stepped on the bathroom scale, what did it say?

15 POUNDS DOWN AND NO LONGER OBESE!

Biking has brought me such a nice surprise,

15 POUNDS DOWN AND NO LONGER OBESE!

Eating vegitarian is a treat,

The pounds fly off when you eat no meat.

I'm still short of my goal, but it's good to be...

15 POUNDS DOWN AND NO LONGER OBESE!


All of a sudden, I feel like popping some popcorn...or sniffing apricot blossoms.

Washington Pyros

I was invited to a 4th of July bash at my coworker's house across the Columbia in Vancouver last weekend. The sole reason he was having a party at his place is because it's the first time he's ever lived in a state that allows every type of firework...except bottle rockets because little boys are stupid sometimes.

Most dinner party hosts ask you to bring a food item. Not Steve-o; he asked us instead to buy some fireworks that had the warning "shoots flaming balls". Oh, my little pyro heart was ecstatic.

We got sparklers out of the way for the kiddies and then we got to the lighter fare. First were ground flowers...ground flowers on crack. Apparently in WA, they attach them to propellers. So you light it, watch it zoom up a good 50 feet in the air and hear it explode as the propeller floats back down. Next up were little 2-inch rockets that went far higher than we expected - somewhere around 75 feet. They shot so far up that it was hard to see it's trajectory. We did see one fly way over their house and into the backyard. Then we broke out the Roman Candles. I've always liked the candles.

Lastly, we busted out...{insert a reverent pause}...the MORTARS!!!

Back in Wisconsin, we had a great party a few years ago where the star of the show was a package of 1-inch mortars. Those make a nice boom, shoot up 20 feet and explode in a nice flower. We had a few this year, but they were far from the star...because we had...4" mortars!

After lighting the first one, we were all a little shell-shocked. It was crazy loud, shot up at least 50 feet, and made a huge flower; none of us had every lit anything that large before. And to think that we had 24 of them in many different colors and varieties! I had no idea that mortars that large were even available for the Average Joe. There were some neighbors who had even larger fireworks, so who knows how large they get. I tell ya though...Vancouver sure is a loud place on the 4th of July...imagine every household launching a city-wide display of fireworks.

The video isn't exceptional, but I knew that Cyn wouldn't believe me about the fireworks unless I had proof...

Scans

Whenever I scan a picture, like the pic of Jordan in the previous post, it feels like I have a billion more things that I should scan. So I get scanner happy and make digital copies of everything. Here are two pictures I scanned this week that I'd like to share:

One of the many perks of being married to The Lovely Cynthia (TLC) is the many fun drawings she'll produce. She loves arts and crafts to such a degree that I know whenever a holiday rolls around, I can expect a special treat - a homemade card. Here's the front cover of today's Father's Day card that TLC drew.

The picture isn't cropped...it's designed to look like they're peering over the card. I love it. Even though they weren't here today, the card brought a smile to my face. The inside was cute too, with a nice drawing by Jordan of the two of us playing at the park. In case you're curious about the hats...

These are (from left) Carter's, TLC's, and Jordan's hats of choice.

On to the next scan!

Back in her SUU days, one of TLC's classmates drew this caricature of her during a Marketing Club competition trip. I have no idea who the artist is, but I love this guy's work. This is one of the best caricatures I've ever seen. If someone were to ask me what TLC was like back when we were dating, I'd hand them this picture. I can't help but smile when I see it, and it's been in a frame on our nightstand for 8 years now.

Oh, and Cynthia insists to this day that the guy who drew it wasn't flirting with her. Pfft.

End of School

When Jordan first saw this school picture he said (with much shock) "I did not take that picture! I was INSIDE a building when they took our pictures!"

Jordan finished Kindergarten today and eagerly awaits the first grade. Now that school is over, the vacations start! Cynthia started the vacation season minutes after the final school bell rang; she and the boys are now driving to Utah for a family reunion and then a month-long (possibly?) stay in Hurricane.

I will be working and studying during the next month. Where's the equality?!!!

In addition to Jordan switching back to full-time in the fall, Carter will also start half-day preschool. It feels like we'll be empty-nesters before we know it.

Two Campouts - Part One

I know we haven't posted in close to three weeks. We're not dead or giving up on the blog, I've just been really busy at work and play.

The past two weekends we went camping. I'd like to contrast the two campouts. Let's start things off on the postive side.

Oregon Coast Campout

For the Memorial Day weekend, we drove down to Lincoln City and camped at Devils Lake.This was not only our first time to the Oregon coast, but also the boys' first time seeing an ocean. One of the major draws in our moving to Portland was that Cynthia could enjoy her love of mountains and I could enjoy my love of beaches. Needless to say, it was a highly anticipated trip.

We all had a great time - even Cynthia who claims she likes 'the idea' of camping but not necessarily the actual experience.

Devil's Lake is a pretty nice lake and it's only a few hundred feet from the ocean. The boys caught a few small bullhead while we were there...always nice to actually catch something.

We've wanted a tent for years now and a sale at REI finally made it possible for us to get a great tent for a decent price. It's a 2-room 6-person tent with vestibules at both entrances, so you can store all your gear outside and not have it get wet in rain - important quality here. I couldn't be happier with it.

While at REI the boys saw these wicked cool LED flashlights that have a LED glowstick on the other end of the flashlight (there's also a whistle on it). I agreed to get them because we can identify all family members at night very easily, but mostly we just played Jedi with them. Tee hee.

Friday night was the first time we got down to the beach. I was ecstatic in this shot. If Jordan looks cold, it's because he is. It was a little cold and windy on the beach until...

Saturday morning which was a beautiful sunny day at the beach. Jackets still on though; hey, it's not SoCal! We discovered that Jordan loves the beach as much as his Dad, but Carter is deathly afraid of the water. This is kind of weird because Carter loves getting wet anywhere else. He claims it's because he didn't have a swimsuit (though I think it's because the waves reminded him of Poseidon), so we'll have to try again.

While in Lincoln City we visited the candy store. We picked up a pound of fresh salt water taffy and watched as peppermint suckers were being made. I wish I'd picked up more of that taffy, dang it.

TLC - The Lovely Cynthia. Need I say more?

Depoe Bay. Man, I love the colors of the ocean. So good to be back on the West Coast!

What is it with Carter being the Captain?

A Mammoth sculpture-doodad near McMinnville. Eat your heart out, Edward Scissorhands.

Two Campouts - Part Two

Second was the ?????? and ????? campout. 

Traditionally it's called the Father and Sons' campout or Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration campout, but that can't be further from the truth for this outing so I have no idea what to call it. The weather was REALLY hard rain (for Portland) from the time we got there until 6 am. There were only 3 tents set up for the night (including mine). Almost all of the fathers were huddled underneath a shelter tent where the grill was and they couldn't care less about where their sons were.

Ninety percent of the ward slept in their cars/trucks/campers and there was no commemoration of the Aaronic priesthood restoration. No message, no nothin'; the male membership of our ward is not very strong in spiritual leanings and teaching/leadership. We had cobbler (from a box!) served at 10 pm and then the kids were begging to go to sleep. So we did...after I gave them my own impromptu lesson (with references!) on the restoration.

The next morning was beautiful. We woke up at 8:15 and we were excited to enjoy a nice hot breakfast before fishing and disc golfing. The rain had stopped and it was a beautiful sunny morning. Carter got out of the tent first and said "Dad! There's nobody here!" I thought that was a funny joke.

It wasn't a joke. At 8:15 am, the camp was completely abandoned. Breakfast was already served, cleaned, put away, and moved out by then. Every camper had left. It was just us...and we were hungry. We had plans to stay until noonish. Instead, we fished for 15 minutes, packed up the camp, and left. The boys sat in the car as I took an hour to clean up camp...it was one of the most lonely times I've ever had.

I'm told that our ward often leaves early from campouts - some left at 5 am so their kids could play their sports. Honestly, I don't know why they even bothered going. I almost wish I hadn't.

I only got 3 pictures of the whole campout due to rain and one video just to act as proof that we were abandoned by 8:15. Here's a pic and the video.

Soccer Season

Jordan completed his first soccer season a few weeks ago. Since micro soccer is kindergarten and first grade (and lots of people hold their kids back here) Jordan was one of the youngest, smallest, and most inexperienced players. So though he didn't look like Ronaldinho's heir apparent, he had a great time running around, learning the sport, and making friends. The last game was played in an on-and-off rainstorm. You would not believe how much the kids enjoyed running around in that!

He told us during the season that he had been waiting a long time for a chance to play soccer because he "couldn't wait to hear people cheering for him". I'm not sure if that means we don't cheer him on enough at home, but it was cute to hear and we amped up our efforts to cheer from the sidelines.

Jordan completed one goal in the season and is very proud of the soccer medal he received. I hope to get him to watch the World Cup in a few days with me to keep up his enthusiasm for soccer. (Vá, a Seleção!)

This is actually a pic from practice. I could have sworn I took pictures during his first game, but I can't find them now. Doh!

Lan Su

We've been having so many adventures lately that I'm behind in my blogging. About two months behind. If only there were some zen-like garden in this city to escape the stress of blogging!

Oh, that's good. That's very, very good.

One of the best parts of our local library system is the 'Adventure Pass to Culture' program they have. Patrons can reserve a daily pass to any zoo, museum, park, or other cultural experience in PDX free of charge. Recently we decided to head over to Chinatown to see the Lan Su Chinese Garden.

Lan Su means "awakening orchid". Lan is for Portland, Su is for Suzhou - Portland's Chinese sister city. Apparently Suzhou is also well-known for its gardens. The Lan Su garden was made by shipping 500 tons of materials from China and hiring 65 Chinese artisans who worked on the gardens for 10 months. The result, they claim, is the most authentic Chinese garden outside of the mainland.

The garden has a great supply of penjing (bonsai trees) on hand. I hear there's a penjing festival next month. I've been thinking of starting another bonsai tree...hopefully it will be a little easier here than during a Wisconsin winter.

We learned that Chinese gardens use doors and windows to frame an image. It became a game to find what was being framed for our view.

This blossom was on one of the many penjing trees.

There was some incredible craftsmanship in that garden. I can't imagine how long it took to carve this wall.

All in all, a beautiful garden. We spent 90 minutes there and I felt completely relaxed when we left. I'll definitely go back...probably with a game of weiqi in hand.

Food Cart Festival

In our eight years of dating, one of the best dates Cyn and I have had was going to the Food Cart Festival a few weeks ago. Not bad for a date that took place under a bridge with hundreds of people.

So here's the setup: Willamette Weekly invited 30 of the best food carts in town to participate at the festival. The entrance fee was $7 (about the the price of a typical food cart meal) and you could grab a sample at every cart there. We were lucky to even get tickets because it was sold out days in advance.

There were three awards (the Carty awards) up for grabs: Best Taste and Best Style which were decided by a panel of distinguished food critics and the People's Choice award - every attendee could vote for just one cart.

Here are some highlights...

Moxie Rx - Winner of Best Style. Moxie is a breakfast cart. They had their special blend of granola with greek yogurt and cranberry compote. Fantastic.

Fat Kitty Falafel - I was most excited about this cart because it's regarded as the best falafel in town, but it was too far away from my workplace to try. Sadly, I was disappointed. I had a better falafel just a few days before the festival.

PBJs - Runner-up Best Taste. Well, it was a fried PB&J with bacon in it. Not sure what else can be said. They had other flavors to try (like a maple PB&J), but I didn't get to try them.

Addy's Sanwich Bar - One of the highest regarded carts in town. I had a chicken salad pesto sample that was out of this world.

Soupcycle - Soups delivered by bicycle...get it? Anyway, the soup doesn't look that great, but it was a peanut soup that was really delicious.

Another soup that was arguably even better was from Savor Soup House. It was lentils with braised lamb stew.

FlavourSpot - Runner-up People's Choice - I voted for this place. They specialize in waffle sandwiches. The "sweet" sandwich of strawberry jam and mascarpone (I think?) was quite good, but the "savory" sandwich on the left had sausage and a super sticky maple butter sauce that you'd sign your life away for. 

Hot Lips Soda - Okay, this wasn't really a cart. They were for sale and I couldn't pass it up because it's the best soda in the world. Mmm...Boysenberry.

Pyro Pizza - Traditional wood-fired oven pizza from a cart. Amazing. I couldn't wait to try this one.

Pyro had several flavors - we chose Margherita and a Gorgonzola/Hazelnut pizza. Delish.

SIP - Organic smoothies. I asked the owner what was in the sample and he rattled off at least 10 different fruits and veggies. It tasted a whole lot better than I imagined, but I'll stick with Portland Smoothie Company.

Garden State - Winner of Best Taste. Sicilian inspired sandwiches. So good, I went back to the cart on my birthday. Amazing food for a cart or anywhere else.

Whiffies Fried Pies - Winner of People's Choice. They have savory or sweet pies. Clockwise from the leftmost pic are Peanut Butter Cream, Beef Brisket, and Mounds of Deliciousness. I've also gone back to this cart and had Marionberry and Double Chocolate Cream.

Fifty Licks - An ice cream food cart. Cynthia voted for this one, and it's no surprise why. Her sample (on the right) was Lemon Coconut Sherbet. It was the most flavor-packed ice cream I've ever had. I got Maple Bacon ice cream which was also quite good.