Getting Pea Married

My niece got married in Portland over the Fourth of July weekend.  It was nice to be able to spend time in the city, I only made the acquaintance of the great Northwest recently when I spent a week in the summer of 2012 touring Oregon, Washington and Idaho.  (The happy moment at the West End Ballroom, as taken through a mirror in the corner.)

I remember thinking then that this would be a great area to retire to.  Fit, liberal people, beautiful landscape, lots of interesting history and great cities in Portland and Seattle.  (Mount Hood in 2012.)

I was taken aback by the beauty of Crater Lake.  A must see for anyone.  (A stunning vista at Crater Lake.)

But aside from seeing a baseball game in Seattle and ascending the space needle, I didn't spend any time in any of the cities that week, which was pretty much one long car trip.  But last month I got to see Portland the best way possible, by running through it on two early morning runs.  (From the Burnside Bridge.)

  

Portlandia

My friends tell me there's a cable offering that mocks the over-the-top green attitudes of Portlanders (the Left Coast variety) that's screamingly funny.  Undoubtedly.  (Abe is there.)

I traveled to Portland over the Fourth of July weekend to attend the wedding of my twenty-something niece, who lives around there with her significant other.  Now that they're married, are they still Significant Others, or are they husband and wife?  (The mother of the bride and one of my other four sisters conversing before the ceremony.)

Everything good is "sustainable" out there, whatever that means.  The wedding photographer summed it up on his website by saying that he appreciated being asked to shoot the wedding of the couple because their union is "sustainable" (I suppose so if they don't get divorced like half the couples who get married do) and the three of them started out the happy day by going to a state park to get some shots of the two there because the park offered "cool locations" and it was "sustainable" (was it suspected of going somewhere?).  (In Portland, you can run over the many bridges spanning the river, which is cool.  Here is a sign on the Steel Bridge which establishes the pecking order in terms of right-of-way on the bridge, being pedestrians before bicyclists, and in fine print Prohibits you from hurling yourself from the bridge.)

I was only there for two nights and one day (two mornings) but I got two runs through the city in.  It's a great city.  (In Portland, the water faucets are always On, spouting water needlessly and endlessly.)