Portland Art Museum 1/5

Cruising on over to the Portland Art Museum I found that they had a special exhibition full of vintage cars called "The Allure of the Automobile".  Certainly there have been many cars made in the past which easily qualify as art, perhaps less so these days.  Starting with my picture above, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta.

1953 Porsche 550 Prototype

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR

1957 Jaguar XK-SS Roadster ($7,500 in 1957)

1954 Plymouth Explorer Sports Coupe
wow, what a beauty!

1959 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray

1959 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray

1948 Tucker Model 48 Torpedo

I have many more pictures from the Portland Art Museum to post.  I really like this museum and appreciate their camera friendly policies (non-commercial, no flashes, no tripods, no monopods).  Well worth a visit if you are in the area.  [The automobile exhibit runs through September 11th, 2011].

Keller Fountain Park, Portland Oregon

The Keller Fountain design was inspired from waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. 

Portland sure has some beautiful city parks!

Galloping through Portland in a day

 OK, so I'm still catching up on vacation pictures...   On my recent Oregon trip I had only given myself one day in downtown Portland -- goal this time, visit PAM (Portland Art Museum) and walk around town seeking out some of Portland's street art (I really liked the bronze horses above galloping through the streets).

 I left my car at the TriMet MAX parking garage in Clackamas and took the Green Line light rail train from there into downtown Portland.  Free Parking + $4.75 for a 1-day pass good on all light rail, street car, buses.  No parking hassles.  Gotta love good public transportation! 

 Cool beaver sculptures cooling off in an urban fountain

 The fountain next to the visitor center in Pioneer Square.  At midday I came back here, bought lunch from a food cart and sat on the steps watching the world go by...  Plenty of other people doing likewise.

 but its not raining today...

 These giant umbrellas must be nice on rainy days.  I spent a week in Oregon this trip and didn't get rained on once -- that's a first for me.

 A giant sculpture across the street from Powell's Books.

I had a great time walking all over town, and took a lot of pictures at the PAM which had an impressive special exhibit of vintage cars and lots of impressive art in their collection.  Also on my Portland 1sts, I found the incredible Keller Fountain (not the one pictured above).  I'll be posting these pictures in my next four posts.

Every time I visit Portland I get more impressed by it.  Quite favorably.  Portland seems to have a really nice vibe to it.

Columbia River Gorge Waterfalls

 [August 3, 2011; Multnomah Falls]

On my recent Oregon trip I took a day to drive up the Columbia River Gorge, something I had been wanting to do for years.  I was a little concerned that perhaps the waterfalls wouldn't be running too strong since it was August and it had been sunny my whole trip, but I wasn't disappointed, they were still incredible.  The above picture is of the lower drop of Multnomah Falls (69 feet).

 The lower drop of Multnomah Falls from a different angle.

 Both the upper (542 feet) and lower (69 feet) drops of Multnomah Falls.  If you look closely, you will see two people standing on the trail bridge that crosses over the lower falls.

 From the trail bridge looking down the lower drop

the upper drop -- ok, there were a lot of drops...  ;-)

I really liked this waterfall, Horsetail Falls, it was a very pleasant spot to stop and have lunch. 

I only had one day in my schedule for the Columbia River Gorge area and had really hoped to be able to get out for long hike, but things didn't line up.  I hope to have time to do a hike on my next visit -- I'd really like to get up to Tunnel Falls sometime. 

I was lucky to be able to visit this area on a weekday, it wasn't crowded at all when I was there -- but from what I understand these easy to get to roadside falls can get pretty overrun with people some days.

looking in, looking out

[July 30th, 2011, Newport, Oregon]

Spotted this old fountain next to a business while wandering around the Newport, Oregon area.  I like it, it has a definite other-worldly alien look to it...

[I changed the settings on my blog's comment section, so if anyone was having issues posting comments (I was) it may work better for you now.]

Cape Foulweather, Oregon

I took this picture of the Cape Foulweather area while visiting good friends who live along the coast.  So beautiful up there, and visiting from the desert I certainly enjoy all the water and GREEN everywhere.

My blog readers (still out there?) may notice that I'm trying a new template as well as larger picture images.  Might take a bit longer to load the pages, but I kind of like using the screen real estate and the pictures look better without having to explicitly click on them to enlarge them.

Good, bad, indifferent?  Please leave a comment if problems/issues with the new layout.   Thanks!

Pickathon 2011 in Happy Valley, Oregon

I was lucky enough to be able to attend two days of the Pickathon Music Festival earlier this month.  It is held on a large farm in Happy Valley, Oregon.  Three days, five stages, great setting, great music, mostly outdoors, folk, blues, soul, bluegrass, and more.  Family-friendly.  Eco-friendly.  Good times.  The Woodlands Stage was my favorite stage area, it was very cool to listen to music in a forest setting like this.

part the audience at the Woodlands Stage

They had lots of food vendors, including this vendor making off the grid smoothies with a foot powered blender.

There were two smaller inside stages, including the Workshop Barn above.  A lot of the bands performed more than once, playing at a different stage each time.

The main stage area had these really cool canopies flying high overhead that provided intermittent shade with the passing sun.  At nightfall, the color effects would get turned on and really make some amazing colors on the overhead canopies.

A lot of people camp at the festival, some come for the day, and some like me shuttled back and forth to nearby motels.  Best experience would certainly be to camp on the farm, especially since performance run all day and well past midnight.

A group of traffic control volunteers gather to handle a "traffic jam"

Horses running through one of the camping areas

One of the two drinking water trucks -- lots of faucets along the side of the truck as well as the extension pipe at the back.  Pickathon tries very hard to be very Eco-friendly for a large outdoor music festival.  The don't allow anyone to sell disposable water bottles, rather you bring your own water bottle with you and refill it as necessary for free at one of the water trucks. 

For food, you have the choice of bringing your own plate and utensils, and washing them yourself OR you can buy a token for $10.  With the token method, when you buy food from a vendor, you give the vendor your token and they put your food in a reusable plate/bowl/container and give you a reusable utensil.  Once you've eaten, you visit one of the recycling areas, and then turn in your dirty plate/bowl/container/utensil and they give you a token back for your next use.  At the end of the festival you can keep your reusable plate/utensil, or turn the token back in for a $5 refund.   Worked great!

A night view looking toward the main stage with lit canopies above the crowd.  All in all a great event with no hassles other than an unreliable/unpredictable shuttle from my motel (Day's Inn).  Next time I'll hopefully have time to camp and if not, then come up with a foolproof shuttle option that can handle late night runs so as to enjoy the late night sets.  I thought the organizers did a great job, and the attendees were clearly a nice set of folks too -- didn't see any significant issues for such a large event.

Here's my full set of Pickathon pictures over on Flickr if you want to see more (press slideshow).