The tram support further up the hill

The tram is on its way

This is the tram they are building up the hill to the hospital in Portland. This one is a little more than halfway down.

DEQ Propaganda

We are next!

The Department of Environmental Quality, or is that the Department of Emmissions Quality? Either way, its the DEQ.

You drive in, they plug something into the dash, you give them $21, and you are free to go.

What happens if your car fails? I did not see any jail cells or car crushers.

Does anyone ever fail?

This is a HUGE house

My fravorite part is the rounded room over the front porch.

The door!

I could just walk the streets and oogle all the houses for hours!

I love this one

Check out its cool modern stained glass window. I'd love to see the inside!

Cute little house

Check out the cool leaded glass windows.

Roses, Roses, Roses

One of the gardens in the Ladd Addition neighborhood. They have all different types and colors of roses.

Where did all the seeds go?

Its a biggie!

This huge sunflower had buckled under its own weight.

My flowers are happy

We had RAIN today! Wow. We haven't had rain in weeks and weeks. It was so nice. It smelled good, it felt good, and hopefully everything will look greener.

The week is going by very slowly as I am looking forward to the long weekend, and I am also looking forward to seeing Bucky.

I went downtown this afternoon and I had some time before my appointment so I drove around in one of my favorite neighborhoods - the Ladd Addition. It is the neighborhood with all of the angled streets. They intersect in 5 different places at gardens. They even have a hat museum in the neighborhood... oh and a yummy coffee house.

Uncle Buddy Bill and Uncle Estil

Little baby Buddy Bill. Look at Estil's coat!

Uncle Estil and Uncle Buddy Bill

Estil is on the left, and Buddy Bill is on the right. Don't they look like a pair of wild and wooly boys!

Uncle Estil

This is my grandmother's oldest brother. He was such a cool guy. Bucky looks alot like him.

The gang

Clockwise from the top: Carol, Mom, baby Phyllis, Aunt Laura Neil, and Bill Ray.

Mom and her cousin Carol

Mom is on the left. Isn't she adorable? Look at that curly-girly hair!

Old Photos

My cousin Phyllis sent these photos to mom, and I thought I would put them up on the blog. I have some more that I scanned of my family and James' family that I'll probably start going through and post. These are all from Mom's side of the family.

Bald Peak Mountain

James and I went up there on out fruit jaunt. There were quite a few houses up there, and they all had FANTASTIC views.

Happy fruit hunting

JT and I were driving home with a stash of blackberries. We bought enough for mom to make a cobbler, and we ate one pint on the way to Mom and Dad's place.

So we called and said, "Mom, we are coming for cobbler!"

China!

Some Noritake china I found in Ann Arbor that I liked. The edge is silver and I really like the pattern, but the pattern is not quite old enough. They stopped manufacturing it in 1971.

Home sweet Home

I made it back home today, and boy am I glad! I am happy next weekend is a long one. I see lots of sleeping in my future for the next 2 days. Bucky is flying up next weekend. It will be so good to see him!!! Imagine.... the family in the same place... that's almost scary. All you folks in the area: you might want to leave town for the weekend.

Hidden by the Smoke

The smoke from the fires

Another picture from a plane. I took this on the way home from Michigan. You can barely see Mt St Helens in the background.

Mt Ranier and Mt Adams

A cool bridge near Dearborn

A neat John Deere we passed on the road

I thought of you James!

Ummm....

Loosest slots, what is the screwdriver doing? Prying them open wider?

The big Uniroyal tire

This was near Dearborn MI. It was really big!

Michigan Traffic Lights

I love the lit signs on the traffic lights.

Not my baby

We rented this one at the airport in Detroit. It is new. Drives just like my baby - sans dog hair and spoiler.

You know... I think the dog hair makes it go faster. That and the spoiler.

My last day in Michigan

This has been an unusually long week. It was neat visiting the human factors labs. We went to a hospital north of detroit and a medical research center at the University of michigan. I love it when I see stuff that totally fascinates me. They had medical simulation equipment that was so cool.

I thought that my traffic woes would end, but they continued in Michigan. I am convinced that there is construction on every road in the state. I am glad I rented the infiniti because I have sat alot.

Ann Arbor is a cute town, and the University of Michigan campus is really pretty. Paul has taken me to some really good restaurants, and I think I am coming home with some extra pounds. I had a chance to do some siteseeing between periods of sitting on different roadways. I haven't found anything special or anything I would want to revisit. Ann Arbor was nice, but the rest of it kinda sucked. I got to see Lake Huron though.

I sure will be glad to see my babies and James tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we will be able to have dinner with mom and dad tomorrow too.

Chicago

Traffic. That's all there is to say. Construction across Michigan and Indiana, and then just traffic in Chicago. It took us an insanely long time to get here, but it was a pretty day, and Paul and I had some nice conversation.

Oh my!

Paul and I saw this on our drive to Chicago.I love it! As we passed we saw it was chocked full of old guys.

Sweet Home Indiana

I guess there are not many ways to drive from detroit to chicago without entering a foreign country.

In Ann Arbor

Well I made it safely to Detroit. The airport was not as bad as I had feared. I got to the Portland airport about 3 hours early, and it was easy as pie to get through. I connected in Denver, and all of my flights were on time. My flight from Portland to Denver was even half empty.

Unfortunately last night I got only a few hours of sleep. Yet tonight I am not at all sleepy. I'll pay for it tomorrow.

I owe Paul a dollar

I got whole anchovies on my salad, and I dared Paul a dollar to put it on his lip like a mustache - since that is what anchovies look like - and he did it. It was hysterical!

Lake Michigan

I love taking pictures from the plane.

Going out of town again

I am going out of town for work all next week. I am flying into detroit on Sunday, then driving to chicago on monday. I am then driving back to detroit wednesday night and leaving from detroit saturday morning. Hopefully this will be the last trip for awhile, but I just don't know.

Manicured Beauty

We went and got manicures at this asian nail salon. They did a really bad job, but Heather's nails complimented my car nicely.

The Longview WA bridge

On our way home. We had to go way over to the west to come home. They closed almost all of the bridges across the river to cal traffic because they were having a fundraiser where you could ride your bike or walk across all of the bridges. It was a cool idea, but traffic was hell.

Hills in the valley

The fear!

Another close up

My sweetie

The official sign

It is a gorgeous drive up

Funny!

We stopped at most of the visitor centers on the way up to Mt St Hellens and there was this car in the parking lot at one of them. It had those magnetic hematite rocks on the hood.

Replanted Trees

Crystal lake

It was one of the lakes formed by the eruption.

The Gang

This was taken for us by a nice asian tourist. We returned the favor.

Close up

Broken Off Trees

The whole hillside in the background is covered in laid down and broken off trees. To think they are over 25 years old.

Mt Ranier

The sediment is so creepy to me