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News from Tualatin

 

I'm afraid I may have given the wrong impression of Tualatin.  It's really a very nice town.  It's mostly an upscale bedroom community for people working in other areas of greater Portland, but there is also plenty of small primary industry on the west side so that people who live in Portland can come here for work.

 

Morgan and Aaron are the best man and bridesmaid (wait, turn that around) for their friends Todd and Julia's wedding today.  Morgan says her bridesmaid's gown will see a lot of use.  This fellow Todd is a loon ... go see his website at:

 

www.cockahoop.com  (don't worry about the name, just click it.)

 

You may have seen Todd interviewed on cable TV as the "Twinkie Scientist" who tested Twinkies' legendary ability to stay fresh forever (not true), and lesser-known quality of high flammability (true,) among other physical attributes (bounce when dropped from high buildings, etc.)

 

I am officially on the Kunze family greylist until I correct my reporting that Morgan's due date is the 17th of September.  As  much as she wishes it were the 17th, Morgan reports, it is actually the 27th.  27th my foot.  I'm gonna have a talk with that kid in there.

 

The layout of everything here is very water-dependent.  All the streets meander around in harmony with the wiggles of the rivers.  Great for getting lost, but very scenic.

 

There are many bridges (Portland in fact is called "the City of Bridges".)  Not enough bridges, however - the ones that are here are choke-points for traffic on both sides.

 

Portland is unusual among river-front cities that I know of, in that there is just as much city on either side of the river(s) (although the other side of the Columbia is Vancouver, Washington, not only a different city, but a whole 'nother state!  One of the things I learned since we first visited Portland is that Vancouver, Washington is across the river from Oregon, not Canada;  I had though it was like Laredo Texas and Nuevo Laredo Mexico.)  Most of the other river-straddling cities in the west I'm aware of are pretty lop-sided, one side of the river being the lion's share, the other side being kind of a withered afterthought:  Kansas City, St. Louis, Mobile, Sacramento, etc., although I imagine I'll soon being hearing otherwise.

 

But, as a result of being split so evenly, cross-river traffic is very heavy.  This is complicated by the fact that the Willamette (say will-lamb-ett with the emphasis on the lamb) is a deep-water port.  As a result the bridges up to a certain point along the river have to be very tall (which requires real long, traffic-disrupting approaches), or moving bridges like drawbridges or lift-bridges to allow the big ships to go under.  This is a really cool thing to watch, but totally screws up traffic.

 

The names around town are full of water references that Colorado Springs would be unlikely to have:  Marine Drive, Island Dr., Harborton, Rivergate, Pacific Highway, etc.  Before all the bridges, apparently, there were numerous ferry boats.  There are several fairly long, wiggly arterials through and radiating out of Portland named after the historical river-crossing ferry sites they led to:  Boones' Ferry Road, Taylor's Crossing, Scholl's Ferry.  There were a couple of other old ferries, too - Hopkin's Ferry and the Stark Street Ferry.  Can you imagine the howl that went up from the ferry-boat operators when the city began building bridges?  In Colorado Springs, we don't have any old ferries except maybe Doug Bruce and James Dobson.

 

My favorite historical place/feature name in Portland (besides "Portland" of course) is "Sellwood," the name of both a small community and a bridge.  Can you think of a better name for a river town in Oregon than "sell wood?"

 

One final factoid or possibly a myth is that the founders of Portland, both from the Eastern Seaboard were divided whether to name it after Boston, Massachusetts or Portland, Maine.  A flip of the coin decided "Portland."

 

By the way, when buying plane tickets, and then when boarding your plane, be sure it's headed to Oregon, not Maine.

 

More later -

 

Love ...

 

Mike and Karen Riley