Camp 18 for my Brithday

One thing I like to do to celebrate my birthday is to go to Camp 18, which is on the way to Gearhart.  What makes it especially fun is to go with artist friends and paint there.  And what makes that even better is going with special friends like Celeste, Carrie and Eileen.

The subjects to paint include a creek, a little bridge, general greenery and LOTS of old logging equipment.   We've done it several times.  The first part of the day is chattering on the drive over.  Actually, we chattered over coffee before even starting out.  When we get to Camp 18, we have breakfast in the huge dining room.  I got some great presents, including a sparkly "bachelorette" tiara.  That called for a picture, of course.  Carrie photoshopped the picture to say "sparkle" all around it and put it on Facebook..reminding me to sparkle.  The bottom part got cut off when I hijacked it from Facebook.

After the "celebration," we were treated to a watercolor demonstration by Carrie, which was great...though there was rain and she had to deal with some sprinkles on her painting.  I hope she does it again when there are more people present.  A lot of people thought it would be cancelled because of the rain.  We then painted machinery and buildings for awhile and Kathy Pugh joined us.  We hadn't seen her in some time, so that was nice.  It never did warm up, but we were warm and cozy with friends.....we had a surprise birthday cake and then came home.

What a nice day...and it wasn't even my birthday yet....that was the next day.

Smithsonian Craft Show

Thursday was the first day of the "new schedule."  After walking Sophia and Griffin to school, I wen to the annual Smithsonian Craft Show.  It is a quite different than other Smithsonian shows....everything was for sale.  The prices were not as high as they could have been....considering the creativity and quality of work.  I met some great students from the Savannah College of Art and Design with some fantastic wearable art, jewelry and other creative designs.  They were so excited to have been accepted into this very competitive show.

I also enjoyed the work of Lisa and Scott Cylinder, creators of that snail brooch above.  They had a lot of birds and other small animals, made from mostly recycled materials...including pieces of musical instruments. Their website is
http://www.lisaandscottcylinder.com/

I also enjoyed furniture made by Tom Wessells, which were cabinets with an inlaid image on the door and then interiors reflect that...like a luna moth on the door and a moon on the inside.  It was beautifully done inlay work.  His website is http://www.furniturebytom.com/about.php

There were also some ubelievably creative cakes...well, decorated cardboard cakes.  I had never seen anything like some of those.  One was little truffles served inside a giant crinkled paper poppy.  Really special stuff.

There was much more and I could go on and on.  It was something to remember.

Also made a quick trip to the National Museum of Art, but will have to go back.  I had to leave in time to pick up the kids from school.

Peter and Louisa are off to Edinburgh

This was actually on Wednesday, though I am posting this on Friday....just trying to do a little catch-up.  

This is Peter and Louisa on their front porch as they set out for the big adventure in Scotland.  Sophia and Griffin went to school that morning as usual.  They love their school.  I drove to the airport, which was a little adventure for me because it was in their minivan and in pouring rain.  Then, I had to get back to DC and pick up the kids from school.  All  the trips that day went well.  Of course, the one to Scotland wasn't concluded until the next day!  They have a great apartment on the Royal Mile and we've received good reports.

Washington DC Today

Space Shuttle Discovery, mounted on an airplane, being transported from Cape Canaveral to the National Air and Space Museum Annex near Dulles Airport.  The shuttle was piggy-backed on the plane and was "shown off" above the Capitol Mall and around the area today.  Louisa and I were on the 6th floor deck of the Department of Labor for this shot.  We saw three "fly bys".   The most spectacular was the one aboe, where the shuttle was flown over the Capitol Building.  Below is a shot of the actual "rig" when it was a little closer to us.

This was an incredible sight to see.  There are better pictures on the internet, but these were the "real deal" for me.  I felt very lucky to be there with Louisa who, by the way, had clocked out and was not on official duty.

Reed College---Nuclear Reactor?

In my on-going qwest to do different things in Portland, this evening I went to Reed College....specifically to see the nuclear reactor.  Yes, Reed College has a real nuclear reactor with uranium rods and all that.  I don't think I knew about it, but it seems like Howard (who loved Reed) must have told me at some point.  I couldn't take pictures, so the picture abive is a picture of a postcard we were given.  

It was very interesting, and I felt totally safe.  While there, we got 0.0 exposure to radioactivity, so that was reassuring.  They mostly do experiments to find out the basic composition of things....I mean down to the atomic cell structure.   In the world of nuclear reactors, it is very small and we learned it would be virtually impossible to have an uncontrolled reaction there.  In fact, we got a demonstration of how quickly it could be shut down in an emergency, and it was about 7 seconds!  The whole operation is very interesting, and the "blue glow" you see above was, indeed, something never to forget.  I was standing where I could see the scene portrayed.  Too complicated for me to actually comprehend....much less to explain!!!!

I also got a quick tour around the Reed campus.  The days are longer now, but not quite long enough to take pictures of the campus.  It  was getting too dark.   I went with a Meetup group called "Uniquely Portland," led by a great guy, Tom.  It was a memorable experience.   

By the way, the periodic tables have changed a lot since I was in Chemistry 101.  They have so much more information on them for each element!!!  What we know about our world is expanding....and that will continue.  The young people I met today will make sure of that!  Very inquisitive, creative and imaginative!

Port of Portland

My travels today took me on a tour of Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland.  The picture above shows shipping containers stacked four high in the yards of T-6.  We rode around the port facilities on a bus.  It was a little disappointing not to get out of the bus, but we did get to go under the huge cranes they use to unload these containers. It seems that all the cargo coming into T-6 is either in containers or is automobiles.  The Ccontainers are standardized, but each company that uses them owns their own containers and the chasses (plural of chassis) that are hooked up to truck cabs. The different colors of the containers indicate the company that owns them.

There wasn't much port activity because it was a Saturday and because no ships were coming in, but it was still very interesting.  There was a lot of security and it seems you can only see it as part of a tour.  I went with a Meetup Group called Uniquely Portland.  It was my first activity with that group.

I also made a new friend, Andy.  He and I paired up for car-pooling.  He is a young man who has just been in Portland for a few months, having moved here from Germany.  His English is great, and it was fun to have company for the ride.

MISSISSIPPI PIZZA

Today, my travels took me to North Portland's Mississippi Avenue to see Mary's band, Succotash, and eat pizza with some friends.  The band was great, the food tasty, and the company fun.  Mary is on the right in the picture.  Her bandmates are Allison and Joe.  More information about the band can be found at www.succotashband.com.

It was especially nice because today would have been Howard's 84th birthday.  With a "tear in my eye" and love in my heart, I enjoyed hearing the band sing "Good Night Irene" in honor of Mary's dad and my beloved late husband, Howard.  Lots of other good music, too, but that was special!

Mississippi Avenue is a fun neighborhood.  I saw lots of other restaurants, some nice shops, and a huge recycling center where you can take stuff you don't want and buy stuff you do--mostly for home remodeling.