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December 15, 2023. Day two of our visit to Portland, Oregon.

While prepping for the day I wrote a postcard to my buddy Tony.

Lauri added some stickers to her tablet case as well. I believe that beetle is the new addition. Possibly the whale as well.

Today is the day we go out a national park! In preparation I have packed my passport book to collect the stamp and sticker, and have also brought along an RPG and some postcards as well.

Breakfast at the hotel and then off for the day via the rail to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.

We took a break at a Starbucks to load up on energy that is not pictured in the above slideshow. Day two and we’re already exhausted.

During this trek to the national park we committed our first crime. We didn’t know how to pay for the trains at this point. Most of the busses we had been using allowed us to touch our phones to a pad to pay for the ride, but on some of the trains you pay before entering. We did not realize this.

The transit in Portland will charge a max of $5 per day and so I can promise you that we did reach this max on this day, despite not correctly logging this leg of the trip.

At the time I did not know this and noted this crime in a postcard for Tony.

And so we arrived at the historical site. A bit of walking from the train stop to the visitor center, but it is a good walk with many wonderful views.

The last picture in this slideshow has a sign that mentions quiche. I can’t for the life of me remember what the sign before it said, but all of the signs on this path were paired and rhymed and this one made me laugh.

And now for my wise, old man advice. I like to ask for suggestions when I arrive at parks and on this day it paid off a lot.

At the visitor center they suggested focusing on visiting the fort. At the fort the ranger suggested visiting the kitchen first…

This park is amazing. They have an 1800s garden, kitchen, wood working and metal working area. Other than an occasional electric light, all of the tools are time appropriate and they keep the place running with furniture, food and tools that are built by these volunteers.

It was a delight to speak with these volunteers and this is 100% the greatest park that I have visited to date because of them. It’s amazing to have conversations with folks who are doing all of this work manually and unlocking various methods to create new items.
The woman in the kitchen explained how she found an old recipe to dehydrate green beans by storing them in salt in a glass container, for example. I guess they keep their shape and don’t shrink, but become dry and salty and delicious. Truly fascinating.

After this visit we rode back into town to eat at Ben & Esther’s Vegan Delicatessen.

I didn’t pay my fare again. I tried, but the app had logged me out and I couldn’t remember my password. Also I entered the buss from the middle door and the driver made fun of me for not doing it right. “You didn’t try to enter from the back door, did you?”

I did tap my phone, but I am unsure if it paid or not. The driver did not seem to care. Again, I did tap my phone on other rides and paid the max fair for the day, I promise Portland got their fare out of me on this day.

Lunch was a Philly, coke & knish. Delightful.

It appears that I forgot to take pictures for the rest of the day, but I did take notes.

A short visit to a sci-fi bookstore called Parallel Worlds where I bought postcards & a pulp novel.

Next was doe doughnuts. My doughnut was great, but Lauri’s was undercooked and made her a bit sick. Yuck.

And finally a visit to Powell’s City of Books where I purchased some adventure books. What a great book store. 8.26 miles walked this day.

Keanu says “Hi.”