Portland delights

We drove up to Oregon this weekend for Maya's wedding in Salem and first spent a quick less-than-24-hours in Portland (about 7.5 hours from Arcata), doing the Oregon usual-- eating and shopping.

We hit up the famous Food Carts at 9th and Alder.

  

Here's the shopping mall ice rink where we think Tonya Harding practiced...

I spent a leisurely hour or so at Powell's books but refrained from purchasing anything.

How could we miss Voodoo Doughnut?  (we went to the less-crowded, non-downtown location)

Dinner: Rockin' crab crawfish, etc. MMM!

We stayed at a cute "bohemian basement" via Airbnb...

 

... and then headed south to Salem.

Granddog

While we may seem care-free when we leave town on vacation, we're actually quite worried about how Pepper, our uber-anxious doggie, does in our absence.  When we were in Asia, Kelly and then Elise watched Pepper at our house for the first week, and then when Elise went back to SoCal, she dropped the pup off with K's family in OC.

Without us around this time (in contrast to our little issue in March when we headed to an evening wedding), Pepper apparently did great with Kelvin's parents (Katherine gave us great updates, and took most of these photos).  She didn't act too depressed, did not go on a total hunger strike, agreed to go for walks, eliminated at her scheduled times, slept right outside their bedroom door, and apparently really took to K's Dad (who misses her lots already now that she's back with us).

K's mom enjoyed quality time with her "granddog":)

Special buds

afternoon nap sequence

1. Pep, politely asking for permission to jump up

  

up she goes! (permission was granted)

getting comfortable

 

best buds

We're happy it seems that Pepper, with time and consistency, can adjust to new surroundings (because we like to travel!)!!

In Heaven

Today was my great uncle Duane's funeral in Minnesota.  Duane was the younger brother of my paternal grandfather Alton (who passed away while I was in high school), and was one of the most musically talented, funny, and kind men you will ever meet. My sister and I loved spending time in the summers with Duane and Marilyn at their lakeside house in Mentor. Unfortunately, I don't have many recent photos loaded on my Mac since, living in California, I haven't been *home* to MN very often, but we did make it there for Thanksgiving 2012 which was the last time I saw Duane.

November 2012

We got the devastating news while in China that Duane had died last week, a couple of days after sustaining a terrible accident while burning leaves in his yard.  Unfortunately, Kelvin was working today and we were both on call this weekend after being gone for so long, and with short notice, were unable to attend the visitation and funeral with my parents.  They told me that the ceremony, filled with wonderful music and his loved ones, would have met his approval.

In times like these, it is really hard living so far away from family and so far away from an airport to travel (and also to have to work weekends). 

He, who left us so suddenly, will be greatly missed.  Please keep all of his grieving immediate family (and my extended family) in your prayers.

Heat Wave!

I have NEVER seen the temperature this high in this area. While yes, 91 degrees in April was common in the desert of Sacramento, we feature cool, coastal 65-degree temps even in summer here.
While Pepper doesn't handle the heat well, I was loving it today. Aah!

Shanghai: "Paris of the East"

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We only really had one, rainy day in Shanghai, jewel of the Orient, but it was great “dessert” for our trip to China. Shanghai is a very cosmopolitan, international city which was an open trading port and which has many European influences in everything from dining to architecture.

We started out in the Bund (mile-long waterfront area), which also serves as Shanghai or China’s “Wall Street.” The eastern buildings across the river (Pudong) are relatively new, built in the last 20-30 years as the city has expanded into (surprisingly) China’s largest city.

National pride! (check out all the Chinese flags)

Asian "rainbooties"

This Peace Hotel (owned now by Fairmont) is the fanciest hotel in the city, akin to Mumbai’s Taj or Singapore’s Raffles.

  

interior relief

We visited a silk museum where we saw real silkworms at work and I got to help stretch out the bunches of silk as these women made a mattress.

We then enjoyed the splendid (and free) Shanghai Museum, which has tons of traditional Chinese arts on display, from bronzeware from the 11-15^th centuries B.C. to painting and calligraphy. Many other people were also using the museum as shelter from the horrendous rain outside, as they use it (per our tour guide) in summer to benefit from the “free airconditioning” and escape the oppressive heat of the outdoors and their un-airconditioned apartments!

Ox-shaped wine vessel (6th c. B.C.)

Jade

Blade-coins

We visited the YuYuan market and Gardens, which was a private garden dating from 1577.

The gardens had lovely pavillions, greenery, and courtyards, as well a this famous “Jade Rock” (although I don’t think it’s made of jade) from the lakes of southern China, as you can see in the Forbidden City Garden which has 72 holes.

 

200+ year-old Tea house and “nine-turn bridge”

(the toad below the dragon's chin feasts on his saliva)

Banyan-tree furniture

Jade Rock

We ended our day around the French Concession area (which was foreign-controlled land from 1849-1946), now home to many international restaurants.

We left Shanghai on two short metro rides and the bullet Maglev train, which reached a speed of over 300 km/hr and got us to the airport from downtown in a mere 8 min.!!! It was fabulous! Why doesn't the U.S. have these??

We haven't yet been to Paris, but Shanghai (also on a rainy day) was pretty neat.  While I wouldn't call most of China "charming," Shanghai certainly was :).  What a great trip!  I hope you enjoyed the visual tour through China!