Waiting at PDX

I'm sitting in the Portland International Airport waiting for my flight back home. Being able to attend both the family reunion and the MOA rally in a single trip was a real treat. This was the third MOA rally that I've attended and this was by far the most enjoyable. It could've been the weather or the location but I think that it was getting to meet some of the other attendees including folks from Alaska.

The weather also had something to do with my enjoyment of the family reunion. In the past it was so hot that it was difficult to do anything even sleep. This time, the temperatures were in the seventies with a gentle breeze in the afternoons. There was a ton of traffic as I approached Portland and I had decided to blindly follow the GPS app on my phone. It successfully routed me around several traffic slowdowns. The car rental office that I used was in Clackamas not at the airport. It was about ¼ mile walk to the train station and two trains to the airport. While on the train, we passed miles of stalled traffic on I205.

Looking forward to the sidecar tomorrow. It seems like its been a while.

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Family Reunion (Cont.)

Update - For those that are looking for reunion pictures, I set up another blog site here.

The family reuunion continued on and there was a historical walk led by the Menucha arborist. At the last reunion, he also led a walk but this year it was a little different. He showed us some of the old areas of the garden and mentioned some of the invasive species in the area. (This flower is not one of them) but I thought that I would start this blog entry with a nice flower photo.

One of the Saturday afternoon reunion activities was sushi making. Here are my cousins preparing the ingredients for basic California rolls with a few extra ingredients thrown in. The cousins we visited in Tokyo took charge of preparing the different ingredients. Since we are not allowed by health code to serve food we prepare ourselves in the dining room, we prepared everything in one of the other buildings.

This is the main room in Creavy Hall next to the kitchen area where we were preparing the sushi ingredients. I'm not sure what game they were playing but it looked like it took a lot more skill and energy than I have.

After dinner, one of the cousins taught/led everyone some dancing to honor deceased relatives, Bon Odori (盆踊り). The ones in the middle circle were more familiar or experienced and helped lead. This is the main room in Wright Hall. This is a fabulous reunion location and at a family meeting, it was decided to hold it here again in the summer of 2015.

For some reason, a hat making contest became part of the festivities. It may have started when the cousins were younger but it continues on. Here is the winning entry made from a bin of stuff brought for activities. I tried to make a sock puppet but my artistic skills are lacking.

More dance instruction.

Here is the view from the pool deck. You can just see Vista Point on the left. Menucha actually has a better view up and down the Columbia River than at Vista Point but the views are not being maintained. Quite a few trees would need to be trimmed and it just isn't happening. Just in the 18 years that we've been using the facility, the view has been disappearing.

And, here is a group photo of the reunion attendees.

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Family Reunion

Update - For those that are looking for reunion pictures, I set up another blog site here.

On Thursday morning, I picked up my mom who flew in from Alaska and my nephew who came in from Singapore. After lunch at a local diner type of restaurant, we headed toward the family reunion site. We were a bit early so we stopped at Vista House located about a mile east of the reunion.

It was a typical crowd at Vista House but the views were pretty spectacular. I think I took enough photos for a panorama but I don't have the software with me. This is the view looking to the east up the Columbia River. Looking west are city views of the greater Portland area. We then headed on the historic highway stopping at a couple of waterfalls along the way. I got the impression that my mom was getting tired of the waterfalls and the short hikes that would be required to see them so we headed down towards the highway back to the exit toward Menucha.

The reunion has been held here at Menucha for the last twenty plus years and it has proven itself to be a great location. Safe for kids to running around with large open areas for running around. Lots of organized activities, if you feel inclined, as well as time for just sitting around talking.

This is the entrance to the main building called Wright Hall. It doesn't look like it has changed in all of the years we've been coming here but there have been subtle improvements. Such as a nice patio.

Bubble blowing has been a favorite activity at this reunion. This is my nephew from Corvallis demonstrating his bubble generating technique.

Here is my brother in-law on the left, my nephew in the middle and my mom on the right. We are supposed to make a poster showing aspects of our family. We decided to make a larger family grouping to reduce the effort. This is the first reunion that I've been to without any other family members.

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An Oregon Charcuterie

Well, I got to use the new word I learned last week. On Sunday after the MOA rally in Salem, I headed up to Portland to pick up a couple of pieces of luggage that we left between the trip from Singapore and back home to Fairbanks. I went with a relative to Olympic Provisions, a gourmet charcuterie in Portland. They make all of the cured meat products for their restaurant as well as for other specialty markets in the Pacific Northwest.

I had the capicola and cotto salami hogie on a nice hard crusted roll and it was delicious. We had lunch outside on the sidewalk in front of their store with temperatures around 75°F. After the wonderful lunch, I headed south to Corvallis. I got in a little geocaching and spent quite of bit of time on an audio conference with folks in Fairbanks.

On Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to have a wonderful dinner with fellow moto-bloggers Troubadour and Trobairitz at the Big RIver Restaurant in Corvallis. Before we knew it, several hours had passed. As always, it was great to visit with them again and share a meal. No pictures as I didn't think of it.

On Wednesday morning, I stopped at Anderson Blues on my way back to Portland and picked up a couple of pounds to bring to the family reunion that starts tomorrow afternoon. Assuming that I can stop munching on them...

 

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