HAMILTON MT. HIKE

On 04-25-2009, four of us completed the second hike in our little series. This time out it was Hamilton Mt. in the Gorge, and the weather was perfect... not too hot or cold, no rain, no wind, great views.




Looking back up on the way down


Bonneville Dam and Bridge of the Gods

FAREWELL PONTIAC...

Having owned several Pontiacs in my life, I just had to memorialize the brand. While I've been frustrated over the years with the long-term durability of the cars, the performance, style and price point were always pretty good. I don't have digital photos of most of these cars but scanning the web found some that were close. Here goes...


1973 Pontiac Catalina (right color, but mine didn't have those cool wheels.


1991 Pontiac Grand Am SE coupe. Tina's first new car. It had ground effects, fog lights and spoiler. The Quad4 and five speed made it a very fun car to drive.

A rather generic 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix. This was the worst of all of them... no photo needed.

And finally......

2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP coupe with ALL available accessories. This car rocked. Recently traded as it was not practical any more...and then Pontiac went out of business... I wonder if it went up in value between the time we traded it in and now? Oh, well... it was fun while we had it.

PORTLAND CHINESE GARDEN TRIP

Two years ago today we arrived in Beijing. We suspected, but really had no idea, how much the trip, and Elly would change our lives. In no way does it seem that it's been that long ago.

Since I had the day off, I decided to take Elly on a long overdue trip to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. Much of the materials and expertise for this garden came from Portland's "Sister city", Suzhou, PRC. According to the Portland Chinese Garden website, the Garden is based on a garden built in Suzhou during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).

Before we left, I showed Elly some of the photos taken at People's Park, Nanchang, Jiangxi, PRC two years ago. She was fascinated by the old pictures, asked a ton of questions, and later, seemed to really enjoy the Garden visit.


MaMa, BaBa, Xiao Lang, and GuGu, Nanchang 2007


BaBa and Xiao Lang, Nanchang, 2007


Sitting in the "Ming Dynasty" chairs. This was her favorite part of the entire trip, Portland, 2009.


I think she likes it... Portland, 2009


It's a pretty nice garden!!!, Portland 2009

Next up.... a walking trip to Portland's Chinatown, date TBA.