Portland Trip, Day 2

The Japanese Tea Gardens far exceeded my expectations.  Even with the many visitors I had a feeling of privacy, rest and peace.

I was inspired by the deliberate placement of color and shapes, something I hope to be able to apply here in our high desert yard.

We walked over the koi ponds on wooden walkways.  The fish were huge!

Reflections on a koi pond!

Alexia really wanted to have tea in their tea house which was absurdly expensive but the experience was absolutely worth it. I’ll forget what we paid for it but I’ll never forget that we did it.

When we left, the line for admission snaked around the ticket building and down the street.  Boy was our timing good.  We walked the 1.3 miles back downhill to the Goose Point Max stop - ouch my feet! - and stopped for a late lunch in downtown Portland at the Rock Bottom Brewery.  The Max ticket is for all day so you can get off and on at will.  Our ticket doesn’t say “Senior” it says “Honored Citizen” - so special.  We saw this guy from our table, doing his part “Keep Portland Weird.”

We got to MacKenzie Stadium a little before 6:00 for the 7:00 DCI show.  The first band was from the National Guard for the national anthem, and The Battalion from Salt Lake City were cued up to be the first performance band of the evening.  Parking is always the problem so people continued to pour in through the first couple of the nine competing bands.  Grandson Logan’s performance was our reason for the trip.  All the rest of frosting.

The percussion section includes xylophones and marimbas in addition to the drums on the field.  Only half of the performance is music; the other half is dancers, flag corps and “baton” twirlers who also use wooden rifles. It’s wonderful and exhausting to watch.  When the brass instuments turnEdit to the stands and unload their music full volume, my hair stands on end.  We watched the last band from the top of the stands and then bolted for the car, us and a whole lot of other people.  Last year it took us over an hour to get out of the parking lot.  As it was we got back to the hotel about 11:00.

We stayed at a Best Western by the airport and our suite had a separate room for Lexi, all paid for with credit card points.  It was an easy off and on the freeway, so with the total breakfast they served downstairs we were on the road home by 9:00.  And I can see that I’ll need to finish up with a third post.  This one is long enough.