Gage's Pacific Northwest Adventure - Pt 5

(Wendy has pointed out that if I don't get to work on this, I'll be finishing this off sometime in December. Smarty-pants. So anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! The Saturday Market! - Gage)

Having had some yummy breakfast we headed out to the Saturday Market. LadyDragonfly suggested taking the light-rail, which confused Wendy and I a lot. We're both from Colorado where the light-rail is essentially useless. But it turns out public transportation in Washington and Oregon is pretty spiffy. I was impressed.

One of the first things we saw was a band of wandering musicians. They were pretty darn good, and I tipped them. (Being a musician myself... um... kind of... well someday when I find the right instrument, I appreciate other musicians.)

The Saturday Market is HUGE, and thus really hard to get a decent picture of. There are tents and people EVERYWHERE and easily over a hundred merchants, all with nifty stuff.

More tents and happy Saturday Market shoppers.

The Saturday Market takes place at/near/around the Skidmore Fountain in Portland. There are fountains EVERYWHERE up here. Which was also weird for a bunny from Colorado.

This was another thing you don't really see in Colorado. No, not pigeons! Bubblers! Benson Bubblers is what they're called. They were put up by a turn of the century lumber baron who wanted everyone downtown to have access to fresh water (and apparently to quit drinking so much alcohol during the day). I didn't get a chance to ask the pigeons if they found they drank less beer because of the bubblers, but they did seem to enjoy the water.

So we wandered around the Saturday Market for a while and then Wendy had a tragic boot blowout and we wandered through this park with HUGE trees on our way to the glory... the excitement... the majesty of THE MALL!!!!

(Note to self - This is what happens when you travel with girls.)

Gage's Pacific Northwest Adventure - Pt 4

The next morning, we were getting ready to head out to the big Saturday Market in Portland. Wendy asked me if Miranda was ready, and I told her I hadn't seen her, but I'd find out. So off I went, looking for Miranda.

I found her hanging out in the suitcase, listening to sad songs on Wendy's Ipod.

I asked her if she was ready to head out to the Saturday market, and she said "No... I'm not going. Go have a great time without me." and she sniffled a little bit.

"Why don't you want to go? LadyDragonfly says it'll be fun." I asked.

"No one wants me here. You don't like me. Wendy's mad at me for stowing away. None of the other dolls here like me," she replied in a small, sad voice. "So I'm just going to stay here in the luggage the whole time and it'll be like I didn't come along at all."

She turned and sobbed into one of Wendy's skirts. And I found myself saying "Miranda... it's okay. I like you, you just surprised me is all. And you surprised Wendy too, showing up in her luggage. But it doesn't matter. You're here now, we should all enjoy the trip. Together."

She looked up at me and sniffled. "Really?" she asked, with tears still in her eyes. "You mean it?"

And against my better judgment I found myself saying "Well of course I mean it. Shall we go?"

And she jumped up smiling and gave me a big hug. Which was... awkward, but I guess it meant she felt better.

She seemed to be right back to her normal self at the restaurant where we went for breakfast, anyway. Who knew pixies liked non-dairy creamer so much?

And so began day two!

Gage's Pacific Northwest Adventure - Pt 3

So off we went to dinner.

Some parts of Washington reminded me of Colorado.

And some parts (like all the flowers EVERYWHERE) were very different from Colorado.

Miranda came along, and seemed pretty subdued. She was very quiet.

And didn't even ask if she could use me as some kind of weird beast of burden. (harumph)

I think Miranda could tell that I still wasn't happy with her, and so she stayed in the car, and missed out on seeing the beautiful stained glass in the bar of Gustav's.

Because of our pact concerning alcohol (after the Margarita Incident we determined she couldn't drink anything larger than me, and I couldn't drink anything larger than my head) Wendy and I split a beer, and still ended up making LadyDragonfly drink most of it.


Dinner was fabulous (nummy German food). It was a great way to end day one, and get all settled in and prepared for day two of my adventure!

Gage's Pacific Northwest Adventure - Pt 2

So, as I said we started out our adventure with a nap.

It was a pretty peaceful snooze, I must say. Until... I thought I heard a voice.

A quiet (yet persistent) little voice, calling my name.

I wasn't sure if I was just dreaming, or if I really WAS hearing someone calling me. It didn't sound like Wendy. And looking around, I saw...

HER! That Pixie! That horse thief, Miranda, who took over my basement!

I was a bit startled.

And not thrilled to find out that she'd stowed away in Wendy's backpack and we'd be stuck with her for the duration of the trip. Wendy refused to put her in a box and mail her home (I thought it was a reasonable solution), though she wasn't particularly pleased with the little stowaway either.

So my "Pixie Free" trip was not to be nearly so pixie free as I would've liked. Well, nothing's perfect I guess.

Gage's Pacific Northwest Adventure - Pt 1

Wendy and I spent 11 days in Vancouver Washington, visiting LadyDragonfly and my buddy Mal. We had a great time, and we saw a lot of cool stuff.

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Day 1

Getting to the airport was easy. Our flight was pretty early, and traffic that early in the morning is pretty nonexistant so the drive was pretty quick.

Which meant we had plenty of just waiting around at the airport time.

And time for making new friends (this fella's name was "Bear" and he was traveling with a bunch of very sweet girls).

Our plane was the "Larry the Lynx" plane, and feeling myself in the capable paws of Larry, I relaxed and settled in for the flight to the Portland Airport.

I had been looking forward to taking lots of cool "in the air" pictures, but it was a really hazy and cloudy morning. But the clouds were pretty anyway.

From out of the clouds loomed a gigantic mountain (from out of the clouds to the SIDE of the plane, as opposed to in FRONT of the plane. Good job Captain Larry!), which was Mt. Hood. From my previous internet research, I knew that meant we were almost there (okay, so LadyDragonfly told me what the mountain was later, and I knew we were almost there because the flight attendant said so on the PA).

My first view of the Columbia River.

At the airport, they had these huge sculptures that turned in the... air conditioning? Anyway, I saw the windmill and told Wendy "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore". Which she did not find nearly as witty and funny as I did. She's not really a morning person. She even tried to tell me that Larry the Lynx was NOT the pilot of our plane. Silly sleepy human.

So we immediately went out for some much needed coffee, and then we were off to start our big Pacific Northwest adventure... um, with a nap at LadyDragonfly's house.

Home Again, Home Again...

We're home from our trip.

It was wonderful, but it's good to be home. I missed Voltaire... and I admit it, I even missed Kumo a little bit.

As if to welcome us home, it is pouring rain with lots of lightning and thunder here at the Treehouse (they don't get thunder and lightning up in Washington. Plenty of rain, but I kind of missed the thunder and lightning).

Updates with travel photos will begin right after I've done my laundry and settled in (probably tomorrow).

Um.... It's a Food Court.

Just a quicky entry before I fall over asleep.

Today, in the mall, we were looking for food. And we found this -

Sounds fancy! A "Food Collection!"

So we rode the escalator up and found....

... a food court. With all the regular food court fare.

Hmmm. I shouldn't be as amused with the pretentiousness of this as I am.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory instead.

Mmmm.... cheesecake.