Hi Everyone,
I can't believe August is over. It's labor day weekend and it's raining in Portland already. We had a few hot days this summer, but it's all over now... 8(
Michelle went to skydiving. I did it once a while ago and didn't want to pay $$ this time so I just drove her.
Pink parachute
Mission Accomplished. Michelle liked skydiving a lot and want to go again.
We went to our annual zoo concert after work. The zoo sold out so we thought we would go to the free concert at the rose garden instead, but we got lucky and I was able to buy two tickets from a guy. His kid wasn't feeling well so they decided to not go. The Wailers was a lot of fun. They played some old classic and we had a lot of fun.
We went to Chinatown check out the Jewish historical museum in Chinatown. It was First Thursday in the Pearl so the museum was free that day. They didn't have much at the museum though, pretty small. We had a falafel at a cart and it was the best falafel in Portland. We didn't eat at the spud locker, but they had a cool cart.
Looks like one of those Triad Chinese Association building.
Hobi cat taking a rest from a full day of work.
The Bite of Oregon. We went to on Sunday evening, the last day, so they had a discount on entry fee and the food were discounted too. We haven't gone for quite a few years because the food was getting a little boring. The food is better now, they are trying to make the Bite more food oriented now. We had some food at North 45.
surf and turf was quite good and mussels were really good too.
Grilled salmon one night
We won a wine tasting tour from Williamette Valley Vineyard. They are the third largest winery in Oregon. The biggest is A to Z and second is King Estate. I don't know much about A to Z, but King Estate was built by a family with a communication fortune (satellite or something.) Williamette Valley was a one man operation that grew by going public. The wine was really good too. They make one of our favorite sparkling wine - the Frizzante. We packed a picnic lunch and had a great time there. We invited Harrison and his family, but one of the kid got sick so Harrison came with us by himself. We'll see his family today actually, BBQ at this place.
After the wine tasting we went to the Thai Temple around the corner. They are raising money to build an actual temple, this is just in a house. They also are going to have an event on September 27. We went last time and they ran out of food really quickly. We'll definitely go early this time.
Salmon Tacos, yummm..
This year we finally made it to the Street of Dream this year. This year, they are having it in the Pearl. They are showing some penthouses and other smaller condos. On the way we saw the new building with wind generator on top. This is the first building with windmills on it in Portland. The building next to our condo is also going to put 4 windmills on it too.
The 937 building in the Pearl. This one had a tiny balcony.
city view
The best condo is also in the 937 building. This one has a huge balcony and has a great sliding door that opens up all the way and really integrate the balcony with the living space. They had a really great jacuzzi too.
Artwork at the waterfront Pearl. The other buildings were not very impressive.
We went to the Saturday Market afterward. They just finished building the new Saturday market stalls. It is much nicer now, but I don't know how well protected they are from the rain. We'll see.
Artwork at the PSU campus next to the new MAX track.
Michelle had a great idea. 8)
Michelle went down to San Diego for training for a week. I went down Thursday night to hang out. We stayed at the Gaslamp district, it was pretty cool, but busy. We went to happy hours at La Fiesta. Michelle endorse Talula hot sauce.
Joe likes Tapatio.
We had caviche, fish tacos, shrimp diable tacos, and taco al pastor. I liked the al pastor the best, it is marinated pork. very good actually.
Point Loma with the view of San Diego and Coronado. The Navy base in the background.
The lighthouse at point loma. It was so hot in San Diego that weekend. It was high 90s near the beach and 100s in land.
little stair case in the light house.
San Diego beach was so crowded. It was so hot too, we can't really handle it for too long.
Chrystal pier - you can stay on the pier.
Balboa park in San Diego was really nice. Classic cars. There are like 3 weddings here that day.
The sailboats were really cool as we were going over the Coronado bridge.
The famous Coronado hotel.
Ok, that all for August. I'm all tired now...
Continue next month in rainy Portland.
Michelle packed us a picnic dinner and we had a great time.
blue heron
South Waterfront area. The condo price came down a lot now. A 1200 sq feet, 1 bed room condo at John Ross is about $300k. That's an ok price, it used to be much more expensive.
F14 Tomcat is parked outside.
The star of the show - the Spruce Goose, the largest "flying boat" ever built. This means taking off and landing in water. Michelle was this in Long Beach when she was a kid, but she said this display is much better laid out.
Closing with a few cooking pictures.
Spicy creamy scallop sushi, Michelle' s favorite.
