Excuse Me While I Wax Nostalgic....

For my birthday yesterday, John and I decided to take the boat down the Willamette River "one last time." That trip has always been one of our favorites--through downtown Portland and under all the bridges--and we do it just about every year. The next time we drive the boat through downtown it will be downtown Austin. Apparently, under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin, there is a colony of over a million Mexican bats that come out each evening in a swarm. It's supposedly quite a tourist attraction. Ahh, Texas! New and exciting things to learn about!

Anyway, as we went down the river, I took pictures of all the things that have meaning to me. When you have lived in one place for over 30 years, you get a little attached!

The ships and the ports where goods are loaded and unloaded. My sister worked at the Port for a time, during her "blue-collar phase" and loaded and unloaded cars. It paid pretty well, but she had to dodge inappropriate invitations to the local strip joint on occasion.

Some people, probably recent transplants from California, think the Willamette is a great recreational area. Those of us who live here and hear about the regular sewage spills would NEVER get this up close and personal with the water. If that doesn't scare you, the scum ring on the boat when you pull it out should!

Freightliner Corporation, where two of my uncles were employed until they both retired this year. Because of them, I had a summer job in college. Not in these posh offices, of course, but in the truck plant. (They didn't work there, they were in the offices...that's what a college degree gets you.) I wore white coveralls with someone else's name on them and sweated my guts out sanding truck cabs before they were painted. It was awesome!
The Fremont Bridge. One summer at BYU, I went with my roommate to Phoenix to visit her parents. While we were there, this bridge was on the front page of the paper because someone had jumped off of it and SURVIVED! I still get the heebie jeebies driving over this thing because it's so high and requires weird lane changes to get from here to the zoo.

This is (I think) the dock where the floating restaurant, The River Queen, used to serve the BEST fish and chips in town. When I was interviewing for the aforementioned job at Freightliner, my grandfather was acting as chauffeur, and he took me to lunch there. When he was a sales manager he used to wine and dine people all over the West Coast, and he knew all the best places in town. He also knew where the local mafia liked to hang out. I learned a lot from my grandpa.

The Burnside Bridge. I don't know if this is still true, but that's where all the bums used to hang out. Then it turned into the Saturday Market and got all trendy and stuff.

The US Bancorp Tower, aka "Pink Tower of Power." After I graduated from BYU I worked for US Bank until we had Hannah. I went to meetings and training sessions in that building and always felt really cool!

OMSI, under the Marquam Bridge. I have always loved OMSI. When we were dating, we would go the IMAX theater occasionally. When I was in school, I went on field trips to OMSI, but that was when it was located by the zoo and had the big green dome-shaped thing outside. Do any of you remember that? Lisa???

And Newport Bay restaurant, which has changed it's name to something like "Marina Bay Fish House." We always dock there and then eat on the deck. It's so great when they ask if they can validate your parking and you say, "No thanks, we brought our boat."

I have loved living here, and Texas will be a transition, but most of all I will miss all of you. Thanks for being part of my life and making it better!