Day two: solstice

The flight from Denver to Portland was fast and smooth, although I couldn't shut off the little video screen for my seat and had to put up with ads in between the crude maps with a giant plane covering half of Idaho inching northwest.

I'd never seen the Rockies, see, and being partial to a certain run of green mountains, was ready to write off those young upstarts. But they were amazing...snowy peaks and bumpy ridges like the ribs of a giant, mountain lakes crusted with ice and deep furrows. I spent almost the whole flight gaping out the window.
Chris picked us up and brought us to Siobhan's and his house where we met baby James. Eventually we had lunch, then Ray and I went out to St. John's, the neighborhood nearby. We bought food at a plain coop that puts Mariposa's pretensions to shame and I bought an Ayn Rand book (because there's no time like the present to read some good capitalist and fascist fiction) at a used/independent bookstore. >We went to a Salvation Army that was no good, then stopped at a Fred Meyers for more groceries. Then we came back and Siobhan and I took naps while Ray make eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Yum and do.

After dinner we went for a walk around the block, up to the bluff overlooking the river and city on the campus of the University of Portland. Everyone who lives along the road overlooking the river has Florida rooms with no curtains so they can soak up Mt. Hood and the riverport.

Mt. Hood is HUGE and SNOWY and I really want to bring it back with me. We could plop it right on top of the Northeast, so I could always have a hulking, snow-capped peak to watch. It's the longest day of the year, too, and we are lucky enough to spend it up here.