Amsterdam

I started to go through my backlog of pictures, so you'll see a few pictures and stories from march popping randomly. On our way from Israel to the USA, we stopped for Fifille's wedding in Toulouse, but our flight connected through Amsterdam so we decided to spend the day there. We spent our day roaming around the city, crossing canals, visiting museums and enjoying the nice winter weather. The whole set of picture is here.

Bikes on a Bridge


Inside the Cathedral


Statue Glowing


Cafe Tapas

Overall a very nice long and tiring day, but well worth delaying the flight to Toulouse by a few hours.

First Hike

Last Sunday we went for our first hike since my surgery. Ian had organized 2 small hikes in the Columbia gorges so Janel and I, both recovering could restart slowly. It was a very nice sunny morning and we enjoyed the shade of the Oregon forest. I also took advantage of the hike to try out my new 56 years old film camera (a Zeiss Super Ikonta III). I didn't have a meter with me as my stuff still had not arrived from Israel so I had to trust my eyes. The camera is 6x6 so most of the square shots you'll be seeing here come from it, the color ones are made on the new ISO100 Kodak Ektar.

The Wahclella Falls:



After the hike, we took the scenic highway back and stopped to enjoy a view on the Gorges:


We realized we were near the Viewpoint Inn, a very nice Inn that had been used in the vampire movie Twilight for the prom party, it's also a place we had been considering eventually for a future event so we decided to find it and have a brunch there. This place has been opened and serving good food at a fantastic vista point since the 30's.

The Viewpoint Inn:


See how Happy, M is ?


And Yes, I know, it took me a week to put these online, but film doesn't develop as fast as digital :).

First Baseball Game

Last Thursday, M took me to my first baseball game in PGE Park. They have a special on Thursdays called thirsty Thursday where beer is sold for only 2.50$ to try to encourage locals to support the Beavers, the local (apparently craptastic) baseball team.

We met a few friends, it was fun, we drank beer, entertained a group of kids, and I got to learn the rules. Oh and the Beavers lost badly. This was a cultural experience, but honestly I preferred my discovery of cricket to baseball.

Beavers attacking:

Astoria Forts

Monday was Memorial Day so we had some more weekend time. We decided to go on a small road trip to visit the old forts near Astoria. Astoria is located at the mouth of the Columbia river, in the northwesternmost tip of Oregon. The forts are both on the peninsula at the exit of the river.

View of the Columbia river, looking towards Mount St Helens, miles before reaching Astoria.


Fort Stevens has mostly remains from a WWII era fortification which was aimed at defending the coast against invaders (in 1942 they even got bombed by a Japanese submarine).


An earlier fort was built there in the 1860s near a Clatsop Indian village (a Chinook tribe), but nothing remains. It was meant to protect the area that could have been disrupted easily with just one boat prior to the fort's construction. The fort was not so interesting to me as it was just another set of bunkers like we have in Normandy... However I really liked the rebuilt Clatsop longhouse. I was expecting Indians to live in tepees but apparently the Northwest Indians lived in nice wooden houses. This kind of breaks yet another Hollywood induced myth.


Later on we visited fort Clatsop, which was the first settlement in Oregon by Lewis and Clark. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803–1806), was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. The building is a modern rebuilt but it was still very interesting.


Lewis and Clark's room


And more pictures in this gallery.

Rose Festival

The annual Portland Rose Festival started last Friday. We had our friends over for our house warming party and were hoping to see great fireworks from our window. Too bad they decided to fire them right at the only dead angle in our view. I'll file a complaint for next year :).
On Sunday morning we went and explored the festival on the waterfront to see what it was about. Well it's about fast food, rides and a mini-Zoo so mostly for kids but it was still nice to enjoy it.

Here is the roaring tiger... train.


A hang-gliding kid


Or a girl that looks like Fifille 25 years ago


All in a very nice musical ambiance


It was a nice weekend, we even got to see our first boat requiring Hawthorne bridge to open. I was happy to be there.


The rest of the gallery is here.

Spring Fields

Besides the pollen issues, spring has been gorgeous here. This morning I stopped on the side of the road on my way to work to take a few pictures:

Cathedral Park

Last weekend we had a small trip to Cathedral Park to get some sun while I was recovering. The park is located to the north of the city, something like 10-15 minutes away from home. We enjoyed the site quite a bit with the old bridge's arches shaped like a Gothic cathedral's arches. When you are under it feels like you are in a gigantic cathedral.
The weather was fantastic as you can see on the pictures.

The bridge's park


Inside the cathedral


St John's bridge tower (400ft high).

More views

Different camera :), less clouds and more details. All taken from our balcony.


Overall East view, no clouds.


Dowtown Portland and the convention center


Hawthorne Bridge


Mount Hood, Marquam Bridge, OMSI's submarine and the Willamette River


OHSU, where I just got surgery, 1 mile from home

Flowers

Today it's been a ball of flower delivery men, here is how our table is looking like now:


Thank you everybody ! :).

Afternoon view on Portland

I have been staying home today, recovering from my recent apendicitis surgery. That way I got to enjoy the nice afternoon light from our place:

Looking North:

Looking East:


Looking South:

Our Roomba

As some of you probably already know, we bought a nice little new cleaning robot. A Roomba. That little guy is very nice, full of enthusiasm and energy. Yesterday he told me he wanted to open a blog so I offered him to host it. He was so pleased !
You can find his blog on http://iroomba.blogspot.com. Please be nice to him he's working hard everyday.

Our place

I posted a few pictures of our place here. Yes they are in B&W, I hated the colors that came out with the a mix of artificial and natural light and I was too lazy to correct it so you'll have to see it in shades of gray.



Et voila.

OMSI

This weekend M's dad drove down and stayed with us. We crossed the river and went to visit OMSI, The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry that we see everyday from our window. This was the last week of a temporary exposition on Leonardo Da Vinci which was showing a lot of his inventions and some detailed analysis on how the Mona Lisa was looking when he painted it. It was overall quite nice.
After that we got to visit the submarine that has been intriguing me since we moved in, as I see it every day. It's been a nice visit and I took a few pictures. It is one of the last non nuclear submarines built by the Navy. All the black and white pictures are because of the submarine's red lights which make horrible red and black pictures :).


Officer's Deck, Dive alarm sounding


Torpedo room


Bedroom

This evening a nice rainbow showed up for a few minutes, here it is.


More pictures at the usual place ;).

Settled in Portland, OR

I know it's been a while I haven't posted news. I've been quite busy with work and with my falafel->cassoulet->burger diet switch. Yes I'm gone, not in the middle est anymore. I hopped for a week in France to see Fifille getting married in Toulouse, ski and visit countless castles and there I am ! Back in Oregon, the Evergreen. I paved the way for M who joined me a few days later with Mr.

Fifille and Tom getting married.


Since then we've had pretty busy weeks at work and weekends appartment hunting, unpacking, cleaning, car hunting and getting sick. I've been taking care of the last part for the past week or so but it's getting better.

So we found a nice apartment with a great view in the SW part of town and will be living here for a good year. We have a city street car (tramway) stop right in front of our building which is quite convenient to go around (it's free). On nice days we can see mount hood above the highway bridges crossing the Willamette river. We can also enjoy a view on OMSI and its river submarine ! From our window Mount Hood looks a lot bigger than on the picture :).

Our tower is the right one


View from our window

Oh and for the ones wondering which car I picked, it is a G37. Yeah, I'm using German cameras but I kind of stick to Japanese cars (Audi could have gotten me if they wanted though).

Petra

Two weeks back we spent a 3 days weekend in Jordan with M and her Dad. This was my 3rd time in Petra but still I didn't regret a moment. As usual we stopped on the way back in Kerak (Le Krak des Moabites) and enjoyed the spectacular view.

View from Kerak, towards the Arava Valley

Early morning in the Sikh, hiking towards the ancient city of Petra

This time in Petra we went for a very long day of hike and additionally to the usual route we climbed up the high place of sacrifice. This was an area I didn't know and that was a fantastic discovery. This is now my favorite area in Petra !

Obelisks near the High Place of Sacrifice

The previous times I went to Petra, it was in the summer and the winter temperature was a blessing. We could never have hiked the 20km we did in the blazing summer heat.

More tombs in a lost valley, and some green


Near the end of Petra, beyond the Monastery

After a long day of hike we stopped for food and ice cream at the Movenpick and I would recommend having a stop there even if it is just for an ice cream, that has to be the nicest interior I have seen in the middle east (and prices are actually not ridiculous).
On the way back we stopped in Madaba to watch the mosaic map and in Mount Nebo for a nice sight towards Israel, but the overcast weather kind of killed the view.

Dancing and Photography ?

M and I have 2 different passions, and while visiting the Israel Museum in Jerusalem the other week, we realized that we could be having fun at the same time. What about crazy dance poses in front of public art or relatively known buildings ?

In front of the roof of the building hosting the dead sea scroll exposition

Mmm-licious

France

Yeah I know, I've been back for weeks and has been desperately silent. Usual excuse, been busy, been lazy ;). So As usual I came back home for Christmas, but as last year my stay in Paris was actually quite short. I stayed for the usual celebrations in Paris and then flew to Pau where I met Tom & Fifille. There they took great care of me, taking me around the Pyrennees for ski, sightseeing at Gavarnie, snow shoes hiking and camping high in the mountains in sheppard's huts.


Gavarnie cliffs


Coming back from the Ansaberre hut

You can find the rest of the pictures of this trip here.