A Day Trip to Portland, Oregon for Family Time - Sunday, August 23, 2020

Family time is so important when you live far away from them. It's a long haul from San Antonio to Portland, so now that we're staying in Gig Harbor for almost two months, we are taking time to spend with family. 

Today is my son Michael's 41st birthday. Happy birthday to you! At 11:00 a.m., we met at the restaurant of his choice, Red Robin, for his birthday lunch. My brother and sis-in-law Frank and Gina, my sister Jan, our son Randall, and Bob and I got together to celebrate with him. 

It's great that the restaurants are opening up again with mask mandates and 6' distancing between tables. This allows for families and/or friends to go out to eat again. It was a very good lunch and we included dessert, of course. 

Me, Jan, Randall, Frank, and Michael
(Bob took the photo).

Michael has a Red Robin Rewards Card and received a free burger and free Gooey Chocolate Brownie Cake. We also ordered three Mudd pies for our table. My brother ordered his Mudd Pie "a la mode." We kidded him about it and told him it's an ice cream pie. He had never had Mudd Pie before. Three Mudd Pies were too many for our table of six. OMG. We waddled out of there...and didn't finish all of our desserts. 

I'm going to back up to the start of our day. We had a very nice drive down from Gig Harbor to Portland. We saw Mt. St. Helens and read about three small towns in Washington at a Shell gas station picnic area. See the info boards about Toledo, Vader, and Winlock below if you'd like to go somewhere off the beaten path.

Mt. St. Helens, Washington.

On our way to the restaurant, we drove by our first two houses in Beaverton, Oregon. The first one was 1,200 sq. ft. and we lived there until our furniture and the boys got too big. Then we moved 1/2 block down the street to a 2,400 sq. ft. house. This allowed the boys to graduate from the Beaverton School District.

1,200 sq. ft., 3-bedroom home.

2,400 sq. ft., 4-bedroom home.

After lunch, Randall headed home and the rest of us went to my sister's home to play pinochle. Well, four of us played pinochle. Bob took a nap. 

We were fortunate today to be able to visit Mom at assisted living. They had an outdoor courtyard set up with a plexiglass divider and we could visit with Mom two at a time over a 45-minute period. However, we had to stay on our side of the plexiglass, no hugs or kisses. Mom is doing very well, but she's getting stir crazy. She can't go out on excursions or have visitors go in to see her. But because the facility is COVID free, they set up the outdoor meetings. We'll take what we can get!

Mom peeking around
the plexiglass.

At the end of our visit with Mom, we all headed back home. It was so nice to get close to her again. We'll be thrilled when we can actually give her hugs and kisses again! Maybe we'll get another chance for a courtyard visit before we head back to Texas. In order for that to happen, all the staff at Marquis must test negative for coronavirus for 14 days and there can't be any coronavirus germs on test surfaces in the facility.

The day went as planned and we enjoyed it. It took us about 2-1/2 hours to drive back to Gig Harbor. 

Time with Family in Oregon - Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Last Wednesday, Mom was at Marquis Assisted Living ordering lunch in the dining room when one of her friends noticed she couldn't speak. Her friend called for the nurses to help. Mom was having a stroke. 

An ambulance was called and she was transported to Meridian Park Hospital within one-half hour. Meridian Park specializes in stroke patients so Mom was in good hands. They had her in Emergency and then transferred her to the ICU. With the quick treatment, Mom kept 80% of her speech and did not suffer any other consequences. 

I was already scheduled to fly into Portland on Saturday, December 1. That's the day they planned to discharge Mom from the hospital. I flew into Denver and changed planes. From the window seat, I couldn't see much of the Rockies because of cloud cover. 

Limited views of the mountain peaks out of Denver.

You can sort of see the Rockies here.

 I read for a while and kept looking out the window for a pretty view. All I saw were clouds. I slept and when I woke up and looked out the window, there was Mt. Hood, complete with fresh snowfall. Wow!

Mt. Hood.

Mt. Hood towers above the clouds!

My sister, Jan, picked me up from the airport. I picked up my rental car and went to Jan's place to drop off my luggage. From there, we headed to Meridian Park Hospital.

Mom was having severe back pain when we arrived. They gave her medication, muscle relaxants, and a lidocaine patch. In an hour, we were able to take her home. Since then, she has been doing well and she looks good. 

Monday night, Jan, Mom, and I went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. Her appetite was great. I think it's because she hadn't had much to eat for a few days. 

Mom at P.F. Chang's, her favorite restaurant.

Jan, me, and Mom.

Today, Jan and I did the Commonwealth Lake Volksmarch in Cedar Hills. Because the temperature was hovering around 37 degrees including the wind chill, we opted to do the 6k walk. It was a sunny and beautiful fall day and we were warmly dressed. The main reason we got cold was when the wind blew into our faces.

The walk took us through 1970s-era neighborhoods where many yards are decorated for Christmas. We saw some interesting yard decor and fall colors as well.

A centipede to cause nightmares!

Japanese maple.

Sweetgum tree.

Pink flamingo Santas.

A pig Christmas display. (We wondered if
they might have pet pigs.)

We then headed into Commonwealth Lake Park and took the trail around the lake, spotting quite a few different birds along the way. It's a lovely park.

Me all bundled up!

Commonwealth Lake Park.

Breeding male mergansers.

Commonwealth Lake

About the lake.

Commonwealth Lake Park trail.

Jan enjoying the view.

Some fall color left.

Gadwalls (male and female).

Hooded Mergansers (male and female).

American Wigeons (male and female).

American Wigeons.

Common Mergansers and American Wigeons.

Jan all bundled up.

After we circled and exited Commonwealth Lake Park, we walked on the city sidewalks again until we reached Foothills Park. We then followed a gravel path through that park (which is actually across the road from one end of Commonwealth Lake Park).

Foothills Park trail.

Snowberry bush.

Huge cedar tree.

Jan in Foothills Park.

The Foothills Park Trail.

Here's our escape route from Foothills Park.

Kickin' around in the fall leaves!

Speaking of fall leaves...all of the leaves in the photo below were raked from under the trees and the sidewalks and left in neat rows in the street. That's all well and good until a strong wind blows! They must have a truck come along and vacuum these up.

At this point, we were about 1/2 mile from our walk's start/finish point. We enjoyed the walk today and plan to do another walk on Thursday. Thank you to the Cedar Milers Volkssport Club for mapping out this lovely walk.

After walking, we went to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes salad buffet. It was wonderful and we kind of pigged out.

This evening, I went over to Mom's to try to get her signed up for Medicare - Part D. I got onto medicare.gov, but did not have success in signing her up. It's so confusing. I think I am going to head over to AARP and see if they can help. I only have until Friday to get this done. Open enrollment ends then.

My son, Michael, spent the evening with us as well. He was able to diagnose and fix Mom's computer keyboard in about five minutes. He's so smart! We all watched Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, and then we watched an episode of "The Curse of Oak Island" which I hadn't known about before tonight. It ended up being interesting. 

That's all for today. Jan and I plan to go out to breakfast tomorrow morning. Good night.