A Black And White City

Powell's Books is a lovely store.

To me this looks like a fun place to read. Fun, of course- until some weird person comes up to the glass and starts to take photos.

Where are the people? Sometimes I'm surprised by the lack of humanity in my photographs.

But then I just think to myself how fortunate I am to have an image that is not marred by some ridiculous looking hipster. And then I am happy.

Portland Pictures Part 1

NOTE: I took so many pictures this weekend I'm going to have to do two posts. Stay tuned next week for more.

Every time I venture into urban environments, I'm reminded how bizarre people can be. The people in my neighborhood don't yell at me to take pictures of them, or comment on my gelato, or give long-winded lectures about the evils of drinking and cigarettes. And they definitely do not walk around with raccoon tails.


But here, they do.

Despite the weird people, I love cities. I especially like walking around with my friends and experiencing strange but delicious things like pear pizza.

We went to a huge old bookstore, which contained everything from Plato's Republic to cupcake-flavored dental floss. We successfully avoided the metaphysics section. I never cared for metaphysics. Maybe I would like it more if I knew what it was.

Since we collectively had three cell-phones, we split into groups and wandered off. Please note that we walked very fast, were very responsible, and had no communication whatsoever with any disturbing characters. This notice is hereby signed by all the girls who laughed hysterically at approximately 4:09 PM at a lady who appeared to have a live ferret hanging out her back pocket.
But then, you know- it was really just that raccoon tail I was telling you about.

I am proud to say I only almost got left behind once. It was probably a good thing I realized in time, because as far as I'm concerned- pay phones do not exist. And hanging out with the angry man on the corner who was shouting at someone (or something) did not sound very appealing.


Autumn was the GPS system.

Mrs. S. and my mom:) I love this picture of them.

Some epic ionicness. (Sorry, that was a homeschooled nerd moment.)




Thanks for spending the afternoon with me, girls! I had an excellent time.

PS: Sorry, Autumn- I tried to get you in that last one.

Seattle

3Hello friends! Thought I'd post some pictures from last weekend. (And yes, I know I'm having major problems with exposure, etc. All white blanks in the following photos are pieces of sky. I promise.)

I was in Seattle Saturday. We'd been visiting my grandma, who lives on one of the Washington islands. Every time we visit her, we all go into Seattle for a day. It only takes thirty minutes to ride the ferry from the island dock to the city port. 

I have more photos I'll post later of the actual island, but for now I'll just leave you with the ones from Seattle.

I guess people in large cities learn how to do things anywhere, anytime. I certainly haven't mastered the art of sleeping in public places.

Taken in a small cafe serving Mediterranean wrap-things. The only thing I hate about these places is their lack of restrooms. Several members of my family thought it was unreasonable to have to walk a few blocks to one, only to find that it was shut down for maintenance.

Bottega Italiana is a cute little gelato cafe, as you might have guess from the picture above. They have amazing flavors like strawberry-basil (yes basil, like the herb), and pear. Plus, I love the interior.

How cute....A toddler eating a little toddler-sized scoop of gelato. He felt right at home here.

(Picture by Louis, who wanted credit.)

Sometime later I'll post the pictures of the street musicians. They were quite interesting;)

I'm off to do some reading that needs to be finished before school starts in September....

Natalie

Trip To The Desert

I'm back from the desert, and enjoyed my stay very much. Before I post some photos....I learned:

• Never to wade through sage brush and grass in flip flops. I emerged with my ankles spotted with red dots. Not to mention a strange lump by my foot....
  
• Never joke in front of your sister about large piles of gravel being fire-ant hills. 
• When a small-town (I mean a four building town) cook/waitress tells you that you might want to split orders due to the fantastic amounts of food served- you listen, and obey. No arguing. I've seen enough ogre-sized milkshakes and dinner-plate sized pancakes to last me a long time. A mightly long time.
• That it is never a good idea to look to closely at your remaining water suply while in the middle of a sagebrush expanse. Floating crumbs in a jug of lukewarm water are quite disgusting.

Now that I've dispensed what wisdom I have about Oregon deserts (it isn't much!) I'll move on to the interesting part- the photos.

People from western Oregon (such as myself) like to refer to this place as a "desert." I guess it could be considered such, although my brother countered that it couldn't be since it "had no cactuses, no rattle snakes, and no sand." (And yes, I do happen to know the right way of expressing the idea of more than one cactus.) We do have a real desert, though. It's no Gobi, but we were happy. Pictures to follow.

The Silver Spur Motel, where we stayed the first night. (So....well, western!) Yes, it did have a TV. And no, Jessica, there we no antlers hanging over the bed. But don't feel bad for asking. You never know what you might find in the boonies.

Me.

This guy constantly reminded me that we were indeed on a safari.

At the Alvord Hot Spring. This was basically a small swimming pool out in the middle of nowhere with a tin shack sheltering half of it and a wooden dressing room.

After visiting the spring we drove another mile to the real desert. A little storm blew in, but we got out of the car and took pictures anyway.

I got my first driving lesson out there.

It ended rather abruptly. Which was kind of my choice. Though it was fun.

A phone both in the four-building town we stayed in that was situated close to the desert.

Friday evening we went back to the desert after dumping our stuff at the cabin house and eating dinner.

It was amazingly beautiful. The storm had passed.

Next morning we drove east....

Looking towards Nevada. We were about 20-30 miles from the border.

After a very long ride through a vast sagebrush expanse we entered Mountain Time. Eventually we reached Rome, Oregon- supposedly named for the rock formations resembling old columns situated nearby.

And then we drove seven hours to get home!

Hope you all have a good week!

natalie~