Marathon and Portland

We all came to Portland to cheer Cheryl in her fifth marathon. We wandered through the Marathon Registration Center helping her collect sample foods and learning where to watch her run.

And run she did! We found three different spots to wave her blue and gold (UCLA) balloons and to yell her name.

While that was our main purpose in Portland, it was not all we did. The Pearl District was our main area for wandering through its coffee shops, pubs, restaurants, and great Powell Books. Our evening highlight was an underground tour where we learned the horrors that awaited men who were Shanghaied from bars and brothels and taken to the underground holding cells. The kidnaping of men for servitude on ships continued until 1941. As a young boy, the individual who developed the tour learned of the secret passages under Portland and has spent much of his life and career studying the history of the area. His tours, either historical or parapsychological, are most interesting and entertaining.

Chinatown is next to the Pearl District and we delighted in the various aspects of the beautiful Lan Su Chinese Garden. Within its one block space the garden has a dozen different “vistas,” including a Courtyard of Tranquility with views through doorways and windows, a koi pond, art, a waterfall and a tea house.

For those of you who fear we have changed our museum addiction, we did go to one, the Contemporary Craft Museum. This small museum had fascinating temporary displays of cut paper art, bicycles from a design competition, and ceramics. No photos allowed.

Oh and yes, we did enjoy dining. Our best adventure was at a Korean food cart where we got excellent lunches reminiscent of our trip to Seoul several years ago. We ate these while sitting on cement benches next to the library.

We went to Kenny and Zeke’s deli twice for their wonderful soups and sandwiches and celebrated our combined breaking Yom Kippur fast/carbo-loading Cheryl at Basta’s, a delectable Italian restaurant.