Portland, Oregon. 20-22 April 2007

<-- bikes abound

heritage buildings and tram tracks -->

Portland is one smart city. Free WiFi, free public transport in the central area, beautiful historical buildings and tree lined streets that don't have too many cars.

It is surrounded by trees, including huge Washington Park, with it's patches of different greens.


<-- the ceiling of Union train station

golden doors in the financial district -->

Flavel House, Astoria

<-- the formal room near the entrance

a dining table set for none -->

v. spooky -->

Barrelling around Flavel House was a lot of fun. There's so much space, you can feel yourself going insane. 14 feet ceilings, three levels and some interesting antiques gave it a millionaire eccentric feel.


<-- staircase to the third floor, with the ghost of Marie checking out the camera

step outside yorself and let your mind stray -->

Wandering around Astoria, Oregon

<-- near Cathedral Tree

near the Maritime Museum -->

Astoria is full of surprises. We walked around it's quaint streets on the side of a hill overlooking the wide Columbia river, and close to the Pacific Ocean. Nice coastline there, with those small rocky islands, and misty rain.

<-- some wharves wait for restoration

The waterfront trolley is immaculate and fun -->

Calaveras Big Trees

<-- ones that are still up

one that fell down -->

The trees here are big enough that they could cut a hole in one and drive a car through it. Another stump was big enough to put a pavilion on it. A few of them are still standing even. Those ones are amazing. You can't guess how high they are until you walk along one that fell down. That takes a while.

Yosemite National Park

<--Mark & Marie

Yosemite -->

Yosemite has huge valleys, steep rocky mountains, and waterfalls. We had a nice walk around the place. We drove a bit much, so everyone ended up catching a lot of sleep in the car.

Weekend away 7-8 April 2007

<-- Mark skates amoung the teepees

Having a go in the carpark -->

This is Mark's new skate thing. It's like a snowboard. It's got 6 wheels, and the ones in the middle swivel around, so it's really unstable. We crashed it once each.

Mark visits

<-- Mark

Marie -->

Mark is Marie's nephew. He was snow board instructing in good ol' West Virginia. People from over East have false teeth with their initials engraved on them, so if they leave them behind, they can ring up wherever and get them back. He had his couch thrown onto the fire, along with anything else containing wood.