Thank You, Portland

Or, more accurately, thank you Ismail and Kari, for hosting us and showing us around Portland. Great city.


Ismail, Kari, and Emily at the Vista House, a super-nice and super windy rest stop along the old highway outside of the city



Photo by Jim Hessel, courtesy of www.vistahouse.com



Out in the wind


And where were we headed? To see a waterfall, of course.

At Multnomah Falls. For some reason, I thought I really needed this shot of my face . . . so here it is.



Falls



Falls


But you can't just look from below, right? You've got to go see it from above.

On the way up, with some fencing to keep the hill off of the trail



Part way up, with the Columbia River valley in the background



Mimi in tree



View from the top of the falls at last


And they were nice enough to let us stay with them--luckily there was room for us and for their giant dog, Henry.

Kari and Henry


Want to see Ismail dance with the dog? Go ahead:



And the rest of the time? Good, good food.

Our bill at Nostrana is only $30? Wow! Oh, that's someone else's dessert bill? Well, the food was worth more than $30 anyway

That morning, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Toast. I like to eat: what can I say?



Cupcakes at Crema Bakery and Cafe


How did we travel? Train, of course!

Mimi on the train back home to Washington



There's that mountain again


And once we got home? Rock and roll, of course!

Blurry shot of AIH (Now Playing) at the Showbox. Great show; poorly photographed . . .



AIH



Some unrelated items:

Random shot of Eric fly-fishing in Michigan--looks good, no?


A handout from my class on the Phaedo the other day (think 99d and following):



Until next time, then, dear reader.

Look, Mountains! and Have You Heard About grandcentral.com?

Tuesday was a truly beautiful fall day; perfect for getting some good views of those mountains that I tend to forget pretty much surround the city . . .



Alas, the gate to the water tower in Volunteer Park was locked in the morning, and all the trees make views rare in our neighborhood.



I got a few shots, like this one of the Olympics, but there's just a lot of stuff in between here and those mountains.


That evening, however, Emily was kind enough to try again with me, and the tower was open:

Facing east: moon, mountains, Bellevue (?), Lake Washington . . .



Facing, oh, west-southwest: skyline, with Olympic Mountains (?) in the background.



And finally, of course, facing south-southeast: there it is!

Beautiful.



So anyway, I'm totally in love with www.grandcentral.com. I have a local (Seattle) phone number that rings on my Kansas cell phone . . . among other incredible things. Rather than try to explain, let me show you a short film (yes, it's my hero David Pogue again):

read review
And it's all totally free!

Want to try it out? Well, I won't post my number, but how about this: you click the button, it'll ring my phone . . . I may even answer.




Finally, here's a bonus shot of Magen & the kids:

Some Shoes, Some Newlyweds; Some Flowers

Well after all the fun in Texas, we've been taking it easy more or less. Got some drivers licenses, found a bar where KU fans congregate to watch sports, but mainly we relaxed. . . .

Which, however, doesn't mean I can't show off Emily's new boots:

Damn


And here's a nice photo of Rodrigo and Nora that I am "borrowing" from one of Nora's friend's Facebook page:




And of course we got more flowers this week:

Nora and Rodrigo

Congratulations to these wonderful kids

And here's to Paul, Keisuke, Rilian, Lysbet, Chris, Carrie . . . what a weekend. Many thanks to the happy couple for putting together such good times.

After a fun evening at the Ginger Man, we hit the water with Paul and Keisuke.


Emily, Keisuke (with shirt on head) and Paul canoing on Barton Springs in Zilker Park



Keisuke and Paul



Then it was on to the wedding, at the very pretty Barr Mansion. I didn't get any good shots, so I encourage you to take a look at their site.


Waiting for the ceremony to begin



Um, shaky hand, I guess



Cake


Great, and late, time at the wedding, reception, and after party. What better for the next day, then, than a nice drive and some nice barbecue?


At the amazing Salt Lick barbecue place, in the hill country outside of Austin


And then a bit of shopping, perhaps?

Boot store. Carrie looked so good in the pair she got that she was featured on a website called styleshaker.com
Here's a photo, courtesy of styleshaker.com:

[Note: the website originally listed was incorrect (changed 16 Oct. 2007)]


How could you not stop here for a snack?



mmm



And we enjoyed a lovely post-wedding rehearsal dinner: here's the bride and groom leading some toasts


Finally, honky tonk:

Chris, Emily, and Carrie outside the justly famous Broken Spoke. Willie Nelson's played there, parts of the excellent "Friday Night Lights" tv-show have been filmed there . . . and on and on



Keisuke modeling the shirt Rodrigo gave him



Rilian, Rodrigo, Lysbet, Keisuke, Emily, Yancy



Lysbet, Yancy, Keisuke, Paul, Rilian, Nora, Rodrigo



Paul, Keisuke, Rilian in the cozy backseat of Lysbet's rental car



Beautiful



Nora and Keisuke (watching his feet) two-stepping



Yancy, Keisuke, Broken Spoke owner James White, and Rilian


Please enjoy this footage of Keisuke, Lysbet, Rodrigo, and Emily (among others) dancing at the Broken Spoke as Bruce Robison plays:

We Discovered a Park; Nice View; and You Ran How Far? And it was How Hot?

We had a great afternoon exploring Discovery Park, a few miles north of our place (though still in the city).



We saw some big, old trees.



And some water (Puget Sound, I guess). And some sand dunes (not pictured).



And some more big trees. About 8 miles of trails to walk, which is pretty good (we probably ended up doing more like 4, but that's just fine).



No pictures of Merrica's new apartment in Helena, but here's a shot of the view out her window:

Mt Helena



And Dave ran the Chicago Marathon!

Although all accounts make it sound like things got pretty rough, Dave says I survived the heat and fortunately finished prior to the cancellation of the race. I had a lot of support from "Team Dave Weik"



The aforementioned team. (There's Diana! (holding the sign).)



Post-race



My favorite post-race photo

Well done Mr Weik!
And thanks, Diana, for the pictures!


This week's photo of flowers we bought: