What's Opera, Doc?

 

 

 

Last night Jack and I attended the San Francisco Opera's performance of Lohengrin as the guest of our landlady, who is a dresser with the opera company.  Lohengrin is a Germanic spin on a medieval myth that was composed by Richard Wagner.  It was a favorite of King Ludwig of Bavaria who built the famous castle of Neuschwanstein, which is on our travel bucket list.

This was only the second opera I've seen and I must confess that I don't see the attraction.  There were subtitles over the stage so we could follow the story, but the operatic performance style seems so forced to me.  A stage full of people with their mouths wide open and their vocal cords straining as they sing just seems so overly melodramatic.  Of course, in certain circumstances, I can see the attraction of all that.

We wanted to love the performance but we just didn't, although we could appreciate the training and skill that went into it.  Jack and I escaped like guilty schoolchildren after three hours (Lohengrin is LONG) at the second intermission.  On our way out the door we took a picture of the Opera House lobby and

 

and of one of the gilded wall hangings with Jack's new Iphone.  



 

 

 

Maybe Jack and I will try the opera again some day.  Until then, we'll just enjoy the Looney Tunes version of it.  Now that is the kind of refined culture that I can enjoy.

 

 





This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land ...

This past weekend Jack, Coco and I left Portland for our next port-of-call, San Francisco, California.  It's about a 12 hour trip by car and we really enjoyed the winding road and the rolling hills surrounding Highway 101.  For you baby boomers, I kept hearing the theme song from Bonanza in my head as we drove along.  It's such a big country out there.   

Along the coast the weather was rainy, gray and foggy so we didn't spend a lot of time taking pictures or walking along the beach. 

 

When Highway 101 turned inward in Humboldt County, the route was called the Redwood Highway and it was primarily a 2 lane highway.  It was slow going but the scenery made up for the annoyance.  Since we broke the drive into two days we had the time to take the even slower scenic by-way called Avenue of the Giants.  I had to keep reminding myself that we weren't in a hurry.  Jack, who is so much more laid back, really enjoyed being the passenger and pointing out the biggest trees.  It's mindboggling to think that some of these trees have lived between 500 and 1000 years!

 

 

 

Jack and I enjoyed walking through the trees (it's kind of spooky and mysterious in a good way) and talking about what was going on in history when these trees were saplings.





 

 



 

We think that maybe Coco enjoyed the forest most of all!

 



 

 







A Thousand Things I Want To Say to You

Last night was our last night in Portland and we spent it with our good friends, Nadine and Eric

at one of our favorite Portland hangout spots, Palace of Industry.  Located just a few blocks from Nadine and Eric's house, Palace of Industry is a wacky mix of a vintage store and a bar

and a restaurant. 

There is a DJ on Friday nights, the furniture is comfy (although these two look pretty uncomfortable - like they're on an awkward first date)

and there are lots of fun things to look at.

Jack and I have sure enjoyed spending time with our friends here and it's reminded us (as if we need reminding) of our wonderful friends and family across the country.  Like the sign on the wall says,

just not good-bye.  We wish that we could take all of you with us on our journey.   Don't forget that there is an air mattress with your name on it wherever we are.  (Pretty tempting, huh?  How can you resist such an offer?) We miss all of you and hope to see you sometime soon.  Next stop - San Francisco!

Tourist Day in Portland

 

Jack and I have been in Portland for two months now and we're getting to the end of our stay in this beautiful city.  Portland is becoming known for its' quirkiness and as a bastion of hipness (sort of a West Coast Brooklyn) and we have loved that about the city.  There is a cool vibe here.  It's sort of a cross between the the '60's and an L.L. Bean catalogue.  No one seems to be trying  hard or, they're trying hard not to look like they're trying! 

In addition to its' amazing restaurants and interesting neighborhoods, Portland has several tourist attractions that I would highly recommend making time to visit. Take a day, hit the tourist spots and spend the rest of your visit exploring wine country,

 

hiking in the woods or visiting the ocean.  It's amazing that all of those places are only about an hour away from downtown Portland.  You can cover a lot of ground here because unlike most major cities it is really easy to get around.

One of our favorite spots in Portland has become Washington Park which is located right in the downtown area.  Full of large trees and quiet paths, Washington Park is a quiet oasis just a few blocks away from office and apartment towers and lots of retail.  It really is a must see spot. 

  
Within Washington Park is the Rose Test Garden which has row after row of rosebushes on a terraced hillside.

On clear days you can catch a fantastic view of Mt. Hood in the distance over the buildings of downtown Portland.  My little digital camera doesn't have a big enough lense to capture the scene but trust me, it makes for a great picture.  Guess I need a camera upgrade. 

Also located in Washington Park is the Japanese Garden.  We enjoyed sitting by the koi pond,

and the meditation garden and walking along the winding paths with lanterns and fountains. 

During our visit I had to get a shot of the temple lions at the entrance to the Garden.  I love their fierce expression.
  

Near to Washington Park is the beautiful Pittock Mansion which was built by a wealthy local businessman as a family home.  No longer a private residence, the home was designed to take advantage of its' hilltop location with views over the Willamette River and beyond. The Pittock Mansion has large windows,

 



beautiful rooms and a grandly sweeping staircase. 

It would be a great place to visit during the holidays when it is decorated for the season.  Finish off your day playing tourist by taking a stroll along the Willamette River. 

By then it will be time to find a local microbrewery or a quiet spot to sip one of the delicious Oregon wines.  Perfect!

Can We Talk About Something Else Please?

Today I ran the fastest 5 miles of my life and I owe it all to Facebook.  Nothing like a little fury to put some spring in your step!  Generally, I'm a pretty low-key person (o.k., I'll admit to being wrapped around the axle, high maintenance and a little neurotic but usually low key nonetheless).  I rarely get truly angry, it's usually a more passive-aggressive snarky type of thing but today I was wild.  What set me off, you ask?  This morning in my Facebook feed, I saw a post by Nextmedia station manager and WJOL radio host Scott Slocum with this picture of last night's Presidential Debate moderator Candy Crowley

and a picture of an orangutan similar to this photo



 

 

along with a comment like, "I'm just sayin..." (The post has been removed so I can't quote it exactly.) 

 

I have known Scott Slocum professionally for a number of years and believe that he is a person of integrity who has used his forum as a radio broadcaster and community volunteer to make the Will County community a better place.  The fact that such a high caliber individual would post such photos and then try to deflect negative comments by writing it off as "a joke" makes it particularly galling to me. 

 

Would it be ok to post this picture

 

 

next to this picture

 



 

with the comment, "I'm just sayin'?"   

 

Why are we still talking about this?  Why are we talking about Ms. Crowley's looks and not her performance as a debate moderator?  Why is it acceptable in our society to mock the looks of a middle aged woman just trying to do her job?  When will we stop equating the worth of a woman with her looks?  Come on, this is 2012 not 1962.

 

 

It reminds me of the 1990's when we were talking about Hillary Clinton's hairstyles. 

 



 

 

Oh right, despite the fact that she is Secretary of State we're still talking about Hillary's hair.

 

 

I know that the media like to be though provoking and get a reaction but enough already.  When a high-caliber individual feels that it's o.k. to post a picture of a woman comparing her to an animal on a public, not private site, it shows that we've still got a long way to go as a society.   I'll get off my soapbox now.  I've got to schedule an appointment for my next Botox injection.



Portland a Shopping Mecca?

 

I haven't enjoyed shopping in the past few years.  Make that the past few decades.  Maybe it was all of those Back to School clothes shopping trips with my daughters that ended up with all of us bickering and somebody crying.  Usually me.  Like many girls, I grew up loving to browse through stores to check out the new clothes each season and, if I was lucky, maybe buy something.  My sister and I would meet up with our group of friends and walk downtown on a Saturday afternoon to work our way from one end of Chicago Street to the other.  Sears, Penney's, Klines, Printer's Ink, Fehrenbacher's and the ultimate in 1970's teen cool, Al Baskin.  Hours and hours of time spent browsing the day away and hoping to run into cool guys. 



Since I've been an adult, shopping has just been an annoying chore to get through.  If I have money to spend, it seems like I can't find anything I want to buy and if I'm not in a position to purchase (like now, with no home to furnish and no room to store more clothes or knickknacks in our car) I seem to find lots of things that strike my fancy. 

 

Portland is a browsers paradise and I've really begun to enjoy shopping again since I've been here.   Although the Portland Saturday Market is full of vendors and shoppers and gets a lot of positive press I haven't been that impressed the two times I've visited the Market.

 

My favorite places are the quirky little shops and second hand stores scattered in different neighborhoods throughout Portland. The Mississippi Arts District and the Sellwood District have become two of my favorite areas to explore.  I love to browse for vintage clothes and collectibles and these neighborhoods in particular seem to have my kind of stores.  (No, I did NOT buy the Troll Dolls but aren't they cute?  They are selling for almost $10 a piece!)

 

We've had guests the past two week-ends and it's been fun to take our visitors  to some of my favorite shopping spots, especially when they love to shop like our daughter Emily and her fiance' Grant.

 

I get a kick out of the way the small shops curate their displays (the wackier the better as far as I'm concerned)

 

mixing together old and new things.  My favorite store so far is Flutter, where 1950's prom dresses

 

 

mix with unusual odds and ends and the changing room is a crazy silk tent.

 





 

The STARS Antique Mall in the Sellwood neighborhood is another favorite spot.  It has so many items that they need two large buildings to house everything.  The aisles are wide, the antiques are clean and somehow they have avoided that musty smell that antique stores often have. 

 

 

My heart beat just a little faster the first time I walked through the door.  Our friend Nadine found an amazing Pendleton jacket there (very Katherine Hepburn) and Jack found a great Black Watch Pendleton shirt.  All I can say is thank goodness I broke my vintage jewelry addiction several years ago. It could have been very, very bad.  (One GOOD thing about menopause, I guess.  I can't stand to wear necklaces and bracelets they are just too hot!) 

 

There are so many great things about Portland: the food, the beauty of the city, the wonderfully preserved housing stock, it's proximity to some amazing natural wonders like Multnomah Falls and the Pacific Ocean, the wealth of microbreweries and wineries, I never thought that I would be writing about shopping.  All I can say is - visit Portland.  And maybe bring a slightly empty bag on the airplane.  You may need it 

 

 

 

 





Jack's New Orleans Style Birthday Celebration

There is probably no city in the United States more associated with celebration than New Orleans.  O.K., maybe Las Vegas.  I've never been to Las Vegas so I can't compare the two cities.  All I know is that during our stay in New Orleans it seemed that there was a festival, a party or a parade going on all of the time.  New Orleans is the city that Jack has liked the best during our cross country tour.  He would move there in a heartbeat if I would agree to it.  For me, Las Vegas is a nice place to visit but not a place that I would choose to live.  Too hot and buggy.  Since Jack loves New Orleans so much, I wanted to find a restaurant here in Portland with Creole/Cajun food for Jack's birthday celebration yesterday.  Luckily, I found the perfect spot only a few blocks away from where we are staying.

 Acadia is located on a residential street in a block of buildings that includes a wine bar, an Irish Pub and a coffee shop.  It is close enough to our apartment that we could have ridden our bikes there although we took our car last night. 

The decor is reminiscent of New Orleans and features Jazz Fest posters and Outsider art, which we both like.  The purple and gold color scheme reminded us of the purple and gold drapes in the living room of our former home in Joliet.  (I loved those drapes.  They were worth every penny of the exorbitant price we paid for them.)  

The fleur de lis on the seat covers, light fixtures, and even the bill took us right back to our time in New Orleans.  

It turns out that I made a great restaurant pick.  (Thank you, Yelp)  Everything that we ordered was delicious and the service was excellent.  Jack and I started out by sharing the Barbeque Shrimp appetizer.  It wasn't a typical barbeque but more like a spicy gravy with Worcester Sauce, butter, and pepper.  It was great for dripping our bread.  If I had had a spoon I probably would have eaten the sauce like a soup.  It was really good.  

For our main course, Jack had the Pasta Jambalaya

and I had the Goat Cheese Gnocchi with roasted chilies, toasted hazelnuts and corn.  

Both dishes had the kind of heat that seems to be typical in Cajun food but they weren't so spicy that all you could taste was HOT. The portion sizes were just right because we were saving room for dessert.  After all, what's a birthday celebration without dessert?

Take a look at the amazing bread pudding that Jack ordered! 

When I saw his dessert I almost wished that I had chosen the bread pudding but after one taste of my own banana cream pie with salted caramel sauce I knew that I had made a good choice for my own dessert.

This did not stop me from drinking the leftover vanilla sauce from Jack's dessert.  (I'm breaking my own rule and posting an unflattering picture of myself.)

Bad manners, I know, but after two glasses of Pinot Noir it seemed like such a good idea! 

Even though no one said, "Who Dat?" or threw beads, I think that Jack really enjoyed his New Orleans style birthday celebration.  It seems as if he's aging backwards rather than getting older. The kids always tease Jack that there is a Dorian Gray-type portrait hidden somewhere that ages while he looks younger and younger.  Whatever the secret is I'm just glad that Jack was born 59 years ago and that we are spending our lives together.  He is such a great guy.  I always tell Jack that he is my gift from God.