Portland potpourri

I'm back home now and back blogging here.

I started a vacation blog for the trip, mostly centered on my son and his adventures.

Portland, Oregon was lovely - lush, with wonderful mountain scapes, beautiful houses and a smart-looking downtown.

* The home landscaping was gorgeous, so much better than the palm tree and St. Augustine grass regimen of Central Florida. Every home had lots of vines and flowers and grand trees and protective bushes. It just gave the whole place that nice homey, lived-in look that these new Florida subdivisions utterly lack.
* We witnessed this intriguing, but vibrant culture of hippies and punk bicyclists and even came upon a bikefest, complete with this fuschia and black dance troupe on little girl bikes.
* After being so worried about how cool it was, we ended the trip with a heat wave, with our last day peaking at 101 degrees. It was odd, walking out in the mid afternoon and the heat hitting my face like it does at home.
* I spied some interesting sign in Cannon Beach - tsunami warnings. Reminded me of all the hurricane signs I see at home.
* I never found anything more on that RV fire that blocked U.S. Highway 26 last Thursday, as we drove from Cannon Beach to Portland. (We sat by the side of the road in the middle of Tillamook State Forest, watching the RV burn.) I guess that is probably a good thing, since no news means that nobody died (as they say "no body, no brief") but it would have been nice to have seen that get picked up by one of the Portland news organizations.