John Prine concert

This guy gets a separate post.  He's been my favorite performer for probably 30 years or more.  I love his sense of humor and his lyrics, wry observations on everyday life and the characters we encounter.

I have seen him in concert probably 10 times or more, once 3 times in 8 days (Madison, Eau Claire, and St. Paul)!  This concert had to be one of the very best!  The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts looked to be sold out!  The audience was totally attentive.  John has gone through a couple hard bouts of throat cancer, and no one knows when his last go-round is going to be...















He played for two hours straight!  He started out with his band, 3 backing musicians, then they took a break and he played 6 or 7 songs by himself on the guitar.  His vocals were rough, but strong.  Then his band came back out to finish the evening.

He told several stories during the evening, but my favorite moment was at the end of my favorite Prine song, Lake Marie.  His usual ending is the line, "Oh baby, we gotta go now!"  Then the band plays a riff behind his talking as the song fades away.  This time he said his line, then added, "And baby loves to cha cha!"  As the band continued playing, John turned away from the audience and shook his booty, doing a little cha cha step from side to side for about 45 seconds.  The place went wild!!

Thanks, John, for another great time!  Love you!!

For those of you who may not know John's work, I've included a few gems that you can find on YouTube.

Angel from Montgomery (duet with Bonnie Raitt)
Speed of the Sound of Loneliness (duet with his wife at the time)
Unwed Fathers
In Spite of Ourselves
Souvenirs (JP with Steve Goodman)
Hello In There
Please Don't Bury Me

Making our way to Portland

I won, Larry W.! But so has Jim...and we haven't kept track of who has won the most at Rumikub. Great way to pass the time in the evenings.

Then the next day we had lunch at the Local Ocean restaurant, a favorite from our west coast trip of three and a half years ago.  YUUUUUMMM!!!!

Very boisterous seals in Newport harbor!

That night we went to see a movie, Race, recounting the story of Jesse Owens winning 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, making a mockery of Adolf Hitler's Aryan superiority.  The sad reality is that after returning, he was snubbed by President FDR and reduced to running barnstorming races against horses to make a living.

Land of the Free...  then we watched a movie entitled Sophie Scholl, the Final Days.  It told the story of a young German woman who was a part of the German WWII resistance group, the White Rose.  She, her brother and a close friend were convicted of treason for circulating leaflets calling for Hitler's ouster.  They were beheaded.  Some heavy stuff...  then listening to The Donald on the TV news...

There was a great dog park in Newport.  Tank made the visit 5 times in a day and a half!!  Tanks for the memories!!

I was born and raised in Iowa.  When I was 19 I traveled to the west coast for the first time...  I was bowled over by the Rockies and totally fell in love with the northern California and Oregon coastlines.  Throughout my twenties, I traveled west pretty much every summer, with a bed and guitar in the back of my van.  I can remember it was always a sad day when I turned my steering wheel onto a road labeled EAST.

Clear-cutting in Oregon. Lisa said it is VERY regulated though. And we did see plots that had been replanted.

Well, after a short drive north along the coast, we turned inland, to the East...  a sobering moment that meant this amazing journey is entering a new phase.  I won't say "ending," because Karen and I have many options and no great need to resettle in any one place.  To say the least, this has been a GREAT TIME!!  And what a wonderful travel companion...

Anyway, more than balancing out any misgivings about heading back was the fact that we are heading toward Portland, and time with Karen's sister Lisa!  Woo hooooo!!








First a drive down the Columbia River gorge to Multnomah Falls and the neat little river town of Hood River!  Tank met his "little brother!"

 

Then we went to the 30th floor of the Big Pink building and the Portland City Grill.  We had a round and looked out onto the city far below!

 






It's Spring in Portland and blooms are everywhere!!

Tank's awesome cousin, MOLLY...smelling the spring daffodils...or a dog!!

Just a month away Wisconsin and Minnesota!

We met Savannah, daughter of Bill and Kitty de la Carpe back in Wisconsin.  We had a nice breakfast and great conversation at her workplace, Miss Zumstein's.

Actually...Savannah met a munchkin and was a little embarrassed to say.

Lisa had just moved into a new apartment (BONUS: She still has her old apartment leased until the 18th, so Karen and I are staying there!!)  She bought a new dresser from IKEA, of course packed in 3 boxes, assembly required...  Hmmm

And we are still talking!!!

And we bought her a little table and chair set for her patio as a housewarming present.  So great to be here!!

We didn't have to build this...but we did have to exchange the table because it the finish was chipped...WTF

More Oregon

After leaving Sunset Bay, we had some time to pass, so we took the recommendation of our new friends Joanne and Seaton that we met at the campground...  heading to the interior of Oregon, partly to see the sights but also hopefully finding drier weather.

We drove a gorgeous winding road eastward into Oregon, finally stopping for the night in the overflow parking lot just outside the Belknap Hot Springs...  rain all through the night, but slowing down the next morning...
















After taking Tank for his morning constitutional, we went into the Hot Springs center.  What a treat!  $7 each for an hour soaking in the 104 degree water, mixing the hot spring itself with water from the nearby McKenzie River.  Awesome!

Feeling reborn we headed on down the road to the next recommendation, Clear Lake.  Created over 3,000 years ago by volcanic action, this lake features very clear turquoise water filtered through lava beds.  Tank went for a swim and tried to play with a duck, who wanted nothing to do with him!

We stopped for lunch at the Woods Roadhouse in Sweet Home, Oregon.


There were little brass plaques on the rail at each barstool.  I thought maybe it was a fundraising gimmick...  asked the owner, and she replied, "This bar has been open since 1943.  The plaques are the names of all our deceased patrons, at the stool where they used to sit!" And each stool of at least 25 bar stools had one or more plaques.  Wow!  I shared space with the departed, Fred and Henry.  Karen sat in Barton's spot.  Interesting!

Then on into Newport, where we are interested in eating at the Local Ocean restaurant, a place that we enjoyed on our trip through here over three years ago!  First, a stop at the Barge Inn, a little dive bar that we knew...  holy cow, what a change!  New owners and a new bar, and a much younger and louder clientele! We wandered down the street to the Uptown Bar.  Some great bar signs and bumper stickers...and a good band.