{"id":1454,"date":"2013-04-25T18:55:49","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T18:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2014-01-27T00:44:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T00:44:55","slug":"april-18-22-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/?p=1454","title":{"rendered":"April 18-23, 2013 Portland Side Trip\/Japanese Gardens in Washington Park\/Our New Bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another escape, this time to Portland.\u00a0 We are feeling the need for a change of scenery.\u00a0 Plans are to visit cousins Kenny, Deborah and Dot their furry kid\u2026sorry Deborah but cats only count as houseguests for me\u2026too much attitude and independence.\u00a0 Our RV is finally mold free and ready to be pieced back together.\u00a0 They say it will be ready the end of\u00a0this week.\u00a0\u00a0 Nope, just don\u2019t\u2019 see that happening<\/p>\n

Arrived in Portland for our stay at another La Quinta.\u00a0 A bit off the beaten path, in fact, a scary kind of area.\u00a0 Totally surrounded by industrial businesses and several large fuel storage tanks about a half block away.\u00a0 \u00a0Newly remodeled so the inside halls and rooms were nice and it looked safe enough once inside the building.\u00a0\u00a0 The first room smelled so strong of chemical cover-up scents that my immediate headache forced us to request another room.\u00a0 As they just happened to have another pet friendly room on the second floor, we moved and settled in.\u00a0 It was quiet and just across the hall from the morning breakfast room so coffee was immediate upon waking.<\/p>\n

We drove to my cousin\u2019s place of work and, wouldn\u2019t you know it, he works at a bike shop!\u00a0 The perfect new bike for John was sure to be inside.\u00a0 His old bike did not fit his new way of life so Kenny helped him find a bike that was less road, more general transportation.\u00a0 John took it for a spin and came back all smiles.\u00a0 He finally had his new bike.\u00a0 After adding a few \u201ctoys\u201c and a few safety items to the base bike, we left to explore Portland.<\/p>\n

\"Saturday<\/a>\u00a0\"Portland,<\/a>\u00a0\"KatieBug<\/a>\u00a0\"Great<\/a>\u00a0\"Great<\/a>\u00a0\"Market<\/a><\/p>\n

A visit to a small dog park, a few driving circles around areas of interest, a\u00a0casual walk through the Saturday Market with KatieBug, Gyro and hummus lunch for all,\u00a0\u00a0then a stop to pick up a Biria bike for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little strange looking but it doesn\u2019t bother my back when I step over it to get on and it rides great.\u00a0 By the time we loaded the bike on, night had snuck up on us and it was time for dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 We met up with our cousins, minus Dot and cats, for dinner at a great little wood fired pizza place and some much needed social interaction with family before heading back to the Inn.<\/p>\n

\"Kenny,<\/a><\/p>\n

Morning came and we met our cousins for breakfast at a great local hole-in-the-wall made famous by Guy Fieri\u2019s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Arleta Library Bakery & Caf\u00e9.\u00a0 Lots of homemade bakery goodies and some great omelet offerings and we all chose something different.\u00a0 Four thumps up.\u00a0 Walking to the local dog park from Kenny and Deborah\u2019s place with Dot and KatieBug allowed us all a bit more family time and the pups loved running all over visiting and socializing with other pups.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a>\u00a0\"Peaceful<\/a>\u00a0\"Small<\/a>\u00a0\"Japanese<\/a>\u00a0\"Japanese<\/a>\u00a0\"Giant<\/a>\u00a0\"Pavilion<\/a>\u00a0\"Japanese<\/a>\u00a0\"Old<\/a>\u00a0\"Japanese<\/a><\/p>\n

After the dog park, John and I drove to the Japanese Gardens in Washington Park.\u00a0 What a fantastic park with oodles to do!\u00a0 Among other things, a rose garden, golf course, bow and arrow practice area, several soccer fields, tennis courts, large arboretum, a Zoo, World Forestry Center and the Japanese Gardens.\u00a0 We were amazed at how much ground this park covered.\u00a0 Definitely will add Washington Park to our \u201cto do\u201d list for our next visit to Portland.<\/p>\n

\"John's<\/a>\u00a0\"Becky's<\/a><\/p>\n

Our last morning was spent packing up for our trip home and then stopping at the bike shop to pick up the final products, our bikes and the little extras that make bike riding fun and safe.\u00a0 Hugs to the family before we headed home.<\/p>\n

A quick stop at Marathon RV\u2019s built on Prevost, just to look, and then to our RV to pick up a few things, then home, dinner and sleep.<\/p>\n

Early morning rise to check out the RV, still in pieces but moving along, then laundry and real life stuff before renting a movie and vegetating the rest of the evening.\u00a0 KatieBug is enjoying her new Top Dog position and is now allowed to sit on the couch with us.\u00a0 She is being a very good pup and is minding well.<\/p>\n

\"Music<\/a>\u00a0\"Farmers<\/a>\u00a0\"Corvallis<\/a>\u00a0\"Corvallis<\/a><\/p>\n

Back at our unintentional home and rested, when morning came we decided to drive to Corvallis, an hour from Eugene, and spend the day walking around the downtown and waterway area enjoying the sunshine and beautiful weather.\u00a0 An organic produce market was open along the waterway with many\u00a0fresh veggie offerings\u00a0and several folk and easy listening guitar players entertained the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"Same<\/a>\u00a0\"Frog<\/a>\u00a0\"KatieBug<\/a>\u00a0\"Corvallis<\/a><\/p>\n

Fantastic metal art sculptures on every corner…along with homeless on every\u00a0corner begging with home made signs.\u00a0 We passed one, most likely homeless, filthy\u00a0woman sitting on a beautiful wood bench surrounded by landscaped blooms complaining about rich bitches everywhere not giving her a dime…cussing them all the while as they passed her by.\u00a0Spewing foul language while sitting next to another\u00a0lost soul, neither listening to one another, continuing their rant even after we\u00a0walked to the end of the\u00a0street and passed by again on the other side.<\/p>\n

\"John's<\/a><\/p>\n

Unique small boutiques lined the streets of this wonderful old town and John bought another unnecessary covering for his head.\u00a0 This one read “Raven Lunatic” with a picture of a huge raven.<\/p>\n

Oregon is a strange state.\u00a0 I am sure I could never live here.\u00a0 The tip toe around attitude they have for the homeless and constantly trying to change laws to provide additional entitlements to these people anger me.\u00a0 I see them smoking\u2026really, you have money for smokes but not for food?\u00a0 They stand at almost every corner holding signs and I know there are dozens of places for them to sleep and eat if they chose to follow the rules.\u00a0 Most have ill trained dogs of a vicious nature, lots of pits, allowed to roam free, some unleashed even while they sleep in the parks and alleys. \u00a0I am not heartless.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t believe that public parks should be used as flop houses for the homeless while tax paying citizens who contribute to society are kept from enjoying them for safety reasons. \u00a0Eugene is going for a new ordinance to allow homeless to set up their tents in public parks for an unlimited amount of time.\u00a0 Wow\u2026is that nuts or what? What the Hell happened to the tax paying citizen\u2019s rights!\u00a0 I will now descend from my soap box…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another escape, this time to Portland.\u00a0 We are feeling the need for a change of scenery.\u00a0 Plans are to visit cousins Kenny, Deborah and Dot their furry kid\u2026sorry Deborah but cats only count as houseguests for me\u2026too much attitude and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lilypad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3142,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/3142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/perrellas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}