Portland Anniversary, Day 3: Japanese Garden, Pittock Mansion, Beer with Michael and Amanda, Living Room Theater

Started off the morning with breakfast at The Daily Feast. On average, if the menu has biscuits and gravy, I’m probably going to give it a go.

Drove out to the Portland Japanese Garden.

Spotted several these odd plaques, all located in the same area. No words or descriptions, just different symbols on each.

We ended up asking someone at the information desk about these, and they were not familiar with them at all. The guy broke out a binder that had photos of all the other placards (things on benches, things signifying donor names). But no record of these guys.

Really curious now what they’re for.

Hanging around, watching the koi. This grey guy was an absolute monster.

I talked with some of the garden employees, and found out the koi are fed once every two hours or so. The timing changes when it gets later in the year, but in the summertime when they’re more active – once every two hours.

We ended up hanging out a bit, as it sounded like their feeding time was going to be in a few minutes. And we got lucky enough to see it happen.

Interesting note: to “announce” their feeding time, the woman used the large stick to hit the dock like a bell. The fish were already circling the area (they seemed hungry), but the sound was to announce the food to anyone else further away.

We were close to Pittock Mansion, and decided to drive by for a look. While we were a bit tight on time, we decided to go in to walk around.

Never knew a bacon fork existed. The rich really do live different lives.

Cool sink designs in the kitchen – the cylinders served as drains/stoppers.

A notification area, where the arrows would point towards the area where someone was “buzzing” or calling from.

The ribbon reminded me again of how some things will never again serve their original function. And simply be viewed, but never used.

This old showers was high tech for its time, but looked more like a punishment than a luxury.

Fast forward a bit to Cascade, where we met up with Michael and Amanda. And were greeted wtih some awesome macarons.

L to R it’s Liz, Amanda, Michael, and me.

Something Michael wanted to share with me was a book called Looking at Mindfulness. We talked a bit about stress and the challenges of being more present in the moment. And the two of us agreed to do a kind of book swap.

While it was a quick visit, we had a great time chatting, laughing, and catching up with Michael and Amanda. Really happy they were willing to trek in to the city a bit, to hang out.

Quick pit stop at Voodoo, before going back to the hotel.

After a full day, we decided to grab dinner and a movie at Living Room Theater, which was right across from our hotel. We ended up watching “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” – which I found surprisingly enjoyable. The screen looked a little off when we first arrived, but cleared up once the movie began.

Related:
Portland Anniversary, Day 1: Relocation
Portland Anniversary, Day 2: Comics, Portland Art Museum, Dinner at Le Pigeon