PDXMetro

2007-07-10T10:25:00.001-07:00

PDXMetro Presents: The Great Hawthorne Pub Crawl

2007-07-10T10:19:00.001-07:00

Eighteen blocks. Twelve stops. One evening. Destiny awaits.

Claudia's to the Watertrough yo.

We'll get the date for this figured just as soon as I hear back from a couple of folks. And we already have one volunteer to drive folks home at the end of this nonsense!

Oaks Picnic Adventure

2007-07-09T08:49:00.001-07:00

Here is the report from our Oaks Park picnic last Sunday. It was a grand day out!

After meeting up on the bike path in front of O.M.S.I. one car headed south to the amusement park, while three of us (and one small passenger by bike) walked the three-and-a-half miles down the Springwater corridor along the river.

Oaks Nature Preserve is a 160 acre preserve and the Springwater Corridor passes right through it.

Some of the troops enjoying lunch....
When us walkers and riders finally made it (Claire clocked it at an hour and fifteen minutes) the gang who had arrived first had already hit the rides, including the roller coaster. Good work! Time for lunch! Oaks Amusement Park is one of the nation's oldest. It marked it's 100th year in 1995. Admission is free and picnic tables are available at no cost. Two "Frees" in a row surly gets a thumbs up in the PDXMetro play book. There is plenty of quiet space too down by the river. Oaks, the "Coney Island of the Northwest" as it was known, is a lovely, funky, slightly strange, old amusement park, and it rocks.

David and his daughter Leila.

Amanita was our second youngest picnicker.

After lunch it was off to the rides...

Dan discovered infinity on his Icee cup. The Icee Bear holding a cup with the Icee Bear holding a cup...and on and on...

I was the only one who made the three-and-a-half mile walk back into south east Portland. Just up and around the corner it was still another 41 blocks home!

The traditional after picnic pint (this one at the Red and Black Cafe) was a little lonely being just for one. Oh well, it was still a grand day out.

May's Joan of Arc picnick

2007-06-04T18:16:00.001-07:00

Curry Shack #2

2006-02-16T18:52:00.000-08:00

Yet another unmitigated success in the curry department!

The Curry Shack was warm on a chilly night. We cooked again over the gas grill by the light of candles and Christmas lights.
We had made rice earlier in the day so that was out of the way, and I made a Rasam that I thought came out a little dodgy. Passable but not quite what I was shooting for.

The meet up was set between two and three in the afternoon for a soccer game and a try on the swings at the middle school in Ladd's Addition. I had the feeling this would happen, but due to the last minute announcements and a seemingly complete disinterest in spending part of a perfectly good Saturday running about after a ball, I was the only one there! I shot baskets and scored a personal best 6 for 51 then split back to get cooking.

Folks wandered in in ones and twos and we got the ball rolling. First up I made a Chicken Korma which was lovely. My housemate Carla made Dall and we re-heated the Rasam. I made another rich chicken curry this one based in tomatoes. Carla got started on a veggie green Tai curry. All in all we had two rice dishes, four curries and sides of veggies and fried tofu.

The Curry Shack in it's full blown glory.

Girr.

Casey Neill beginning to show early signs that he will be successful in getting into character to sing Shane MacGowan songs at the big St. Pats day Pogues tribute show at the Doug Fir.

This Curry Shack instigated a new free sticker scheme.

Maria and Carla.

With the propane out, bellies full, and the temperature tumbling the troops retreated inside and carried on.

John and Casey

Carla and Missy.

Cheers gang!

Curry Shack Adventure #1

2005-10-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday saw the the start of the cunning Curry Shack nights, promising at least one good meal a month to PDX Metro goers.
The weather may have kept folks away from the planned appetite inducing kick around, but Amber and Carla made it and we had fun under gray skies out on the fields.

After bagging all that running around and kicking the ball we walked to the house and threw open the garage door and began the festivities. I started with a completely successful Chicken Korma, and Carla whipped up veggies and mushrooms.

All in all we would have two rice dishes, one non-curry veggie dish, and three curries; two Indian and one Tai.

Candles gave the Curry Shack a warm glow.

Carla and I disagreed on my green curry. I found it to be a failure due to it's heavy, dull taste. Everyone else maintained it was fine. Enjoyable even. I think though that they were just being nice though I did notice though that no one actually died after eating it.

Sasha enjoying dinner in the Curry Shack.

We cooked over a gas grill which proved to be tops!

Jeff and Orna sprung an odd song and dance routine on us.

Carla with green curry...

and Susan with dinner.

My last dish was a rich and successful Indian curry with chicken and veggies...

which Jeff approved of.

The plan is that come spring this wall will be completely full of oil stained, smudged, and almost burned up recipes.

Oaks Park Picnic Adventure

2005-08-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely adventure last Sunday spending the day along the river and down at Oaks amusement park.

After meeting at OMSI we walked the Springwater trail south the three and a half miles to the old amusement park.

After passing the concrete factory the trail passes into Oaks nature preserve. The Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge is a 160-acre wetland in south east Portland along the Willamette River. Part of the park is built on a sanitation landfill consisting of 400,000 cubic feet of construction waste material layered with soil. yikes!

Oaks Amusement Park, which was known as the Coney Island of the Northwest, opened May 30, 1905. It's one of the 10 oldest amusement parks in the country. Admission is free and we were on for a picnic lunch.

Not only were we on for lunch, but the entire state of Iowa was having a holiday too.

We even had a Nessie sighting in the parking lot.

Sad really, how the mighty have fallen.

We found the door to the old dance hall was open and snuck in for a look 'round.

The wooden carousel horses seemed old but there wasn't any information on them. They stood silently in mid-leap in the corners. The walls of the dance hall were covered with historical photos of the park but there wasn't any information about them eather. I took pictures of the framed prints in hopes of sussing out the history later.

These cool old street lamps date from the Lewis and Clark expo in 1905.

Check out the beautiful detail of the wooden dance floor.

The view from the front door across the dance hall. I'm sure that the original ceiling still exists above the crappy hanging one.

Claire and Dan after lunch on the banks above the river. Dan is an amusement park historian and a great guy. He took us 'round pointing out some of the history of the place.

It was sad that way in the corner behind the toilets and plastic sink...

...were some of the old bumper cars and train engines. They were beautiful but in need of some care and love.

This is the old original entrance on the south end of the park.

Orna had herself a snowcone sort of thing, and we stood in line to ride the Lewis and Clark Trail.

The roller skate rink at oaks is pretty cool. It smells a bit like 100 years worth of feet, and is as popular as ever.

This lovely old contraption hasn't changed a bit since the 50's.

The rink is home to one of the biggest and oldest Wurlitzer organs in the country and on Sunday's you can watch this excellent fellow play the afternoon away.

Clown noses curtsey of the good folks from the State of Iowa picnic.

Rocky Butte

2005-07-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

The Rocky Butte picnic adventure.

"Its slopes are rough and broken. A grove of quaking aspen, not ordinarily native to the lower altitudes of western Oregon, grows on the northern side. From Rocky Butte there is a view of the city stretching to the hills beyond the Willamette and northwestward to the lowlands of the Columbia River. Beyond the Columbia are the peaks of St. Helens, Rainier, and Adams. Eastward the Columbia is lost between encroaching foothills of the Cascades, while slightly to the southeast rises Mount Hood..." (1940)

The first outing of the PDX Metro Adventure club was met by sunny skies and lovely weather. After meeting at 3 Friends cafe we made for the buses that run east out Sandy and for our walk up Rocky Butte.

Jeff tried his hand at stretching before the six hundred foot walk to the top.

In 1901, Joseph Wood Hill established Hill Military Academy in northwest Portland and soon moved it to the Rocky Butte area. In 1935, land on Rocky Butte was donated to the public. The following year, Joseph Wood Hill Park was completed and officially dedicated at a ceremony which paid tribute to the WPA workers who built it.

Some of the sadly overgrown and unnoticed stoneworks that line the road to the top.

At the top the WPA workers built a mad stone wall around the park in the 30's. The aircraft light tower dates from 1940. Rocky Butte it's self is a volcanic cone and part of the Boring Lava Field. Once known as "Wiberg Butte", today it is called "Rocky Butte" after the quarry on it's east side. Rock from that quarry was used for the Penitentiary at Walla Walla, the Portland Hotel, and the Old Steel Bridge in Portland, and as a source rock for the culverts of the Union Pacific Railway. The slightly-over-600-feet-high butte is about 1.3 million years old.

Rocky Butte is one of the over 50 vents and cones of the old lava Fields which surround Portland. The field it's self is 1 to 2 million years old. As Lewis and Clark paddled down the Columbia River on the west side of the Columbia River Gorge, they passed many cones of the Boring Lava Field, including the big volcano of Larch Mountain and the smaller cone of Rocky Butte.

From the top we looked out towards downtown Portland and the west hills. Mt. Hood peeked out from behind hazy clouds to the south east. Sadly Mt. Saint Hellens remained hidden.

The art of the picnic wasn't lost on Susan and Jeff.

Jeff passionately explains the rules of a game he is just making up on the spot that involves hopping from stone to stone back up the hill. The intricate rules were lost on me...

...but he had a grand time with it and I believe he took first place.

Things took a turn for the dodgy as we walked from the base of Rocky Butte to the Grotto (sorry, that's The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother - also known as The Grotto) about a mile away.

The Grotto is a 62 acre Catholic Shrine and botanical garden that was established by the Servite Friars in 1924 and it's..well...a little odd in there.

After the bus back down sandy and a good trodding through the Hollywood district the sign at the Moon and Sixpence was a welcome sight!