Day 23 & 24: Portland, OR & Thereabouts

I have a lot of catching up to do from recklessly taking a night off from Flickr and this blog to socialize! All has been going great the past couple days: beautiful weather, tired dogs, tons of photos, and Sparkle's running trouble-free. What more could I ask for? My get-together with Vintageroadside & wife was great fun. I urge you to go buy lots of t-shirts from these nice folks:
http://vintageroadside.com/

So, let's move on to the snapshots since I've got a lot and the sun is already up and teasing me. These are all from Portland unless mentioned otherwise. A painted wall advertisement -- I especially love graphic images (Jeff, any idea how old this is?):



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A cute back-to-school themed window display:



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The Hawthorne Hostel Ecoroof:
http://www.portlandhostel.org/ecoroof/index.html







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A paint store sign that appropriately uses different colored neon for each letter -- prettier at night:
http://flickr.com/photos/photoinference/954696816/



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Silly maybe - but it does get your attention:



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Coffee kiosks abound in Washington and Oregon. You can't go more than a couple blocks without seeing one. Here's a little bigger building serving as a hot dog stand. I love the shape of this thing:



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A neat castle-shaped restaurant:



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The sign around back:



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Behind the restaurant are some nicely stucco-ed & interesting courtyard-style apartments (more buildings than shown here):



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Graffiti: Portland-style. There is a huge bicycle culture here with tons of people commuting to work on them, special bike lanes, etc. They are everywhere.



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I'm not sure what this feminist-style stenciled graffiti means -- if anything. I assume this was just an "I was here" produced by the Guerilla Girls:
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/



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The carousel operator at Oaks Amusement Park told me that owls have been living in the rafters of the carousel building for about six years. They are raising families and doing quite well off the mice that live off the dropped park snacks. This guy was snoozing apparently so this is the best I could get of him:

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This unique camper had a stove and fridge inside at the back. But I didn't see much room for sleeping unless there was an overhead cot which I didn't notice.



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This almost Vegas-like sign is from The Dalles:



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I was forced to pull over in Mount Hood when I saw sign on the road promising a pet cemetery. Way in the back of a regular human cemetery, there were really only a couple new and dull grave markers but there was this wonderful entrance:



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An abandoned gas station just north of Hubbard. I love the odd shape of the office:





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I believe this shapely sign was in Woodburn:



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In Silverton, there's quite a tribute to "Bobbie the Wonder Dog" who managed to find his way home on a 2,500 mile, six month journey from Indiana. There is this replica dog house and statue, as well as fantastic wall mural with details about Bobbie's life. Here's some info about the dog:
http://www.silvertonor.com/murals/bobbie/bobbie_wonder_dog.htm






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And lastly -- I've been noticing people picking these berries all over Washington and Oregon so I figured they are safe to eat. I tried a few myself and they're pretty good. The dogs won't eat them when offered but Grem plucks them right off the vine herself. I'm not sure if they are blackberries or boysenberries or what.