Portland, Oregon and vicinity

Many in my life know that my brother is getting married this weekend and that we are in Portland for the weekend. It has been 7 1/2 years since I was last in Portland and though I was intrigued to see a lot of the old familiar sights again, I definitely noticed a difference between Portland and Salt Lake City. So much of the infrastructure in Portland seems aged and though not wearing out, not likely to withstand a decent sized earthquake. I was on I-5 at a point called the Terwilliger Curves when I passed under an overpass. The support posts looked like they would snap just under a normal load not to mention an earthquake.

The second impression I got was how all of the cement work looked dingy and dirty. Having lived here, I am aware that a good chunk of that is just moss but even where I saw moss around it on the cement looked dirty. It is certainly not a lack of care but it just makes me appreciate what I see in Salt Lake City that though dry, the surfaces look much cleaner. Salt lake still has a way to go but it is looking nicer all the time. Portland just looks like it is in decline.

We Plan on going to the beach while we are here but the forecast seems to be rainy with a chance of more rain on top of periodic bursts of rain. Also depending on where we are it might rain. Keeping this in mind, we might be looking at the possibility of driving to Newport to look at the aquarium as part of the beach trip.

We have also decided against going south to return home and decided to return home through Idaho. If we had more time planned we might have still gone. However, my trust in the van to get us through the sparsely populated areas of California without breaking down was waning. Though it is still running fairly good I can hear some of the old quirky things coming back again and the ball joint situation seems to be getting worse. New ball joints just weeks ago and they already seem to have gone bad.

I have taken some pics as well as some at the Temple. Watch for them on Facebook and I will see you all later.