Made a dedicated trip to Portland to visit the Portland Art Museum one day and the Japanese Gardens the next day. 

So we went to the museum yesterday, starting on the top floor for the Mark Rothko exhibit. There were really only four paintings of the style I expected, the others were early career paintings. The four paintings were fabulous and I spent a fair amount of time examining them. Photographs really don't do them justice.

Next floor down was an extensive Rick Bartow exhibit (a Native American who spent most of his life in Oregon)nwhich I loved and Linda also liked. We ended spending quite a bit of time there, soaking it all up. I looked up some of his prints online and there were a couple I liked that seemed almost affordable. I'm not sure how you'd go about buying them.   

More of a quick tour through the rest of the exhibits, which still took most of the afternoon. 

Today we'll check out the Japanese Gardens, maybe make a quick detour to Powell's Books. 

If I have to retire, I might as well do something with my time. 

 

NEXT DAY: Went to the gallery where the Rick Bartow's art is and bought a couple of prints. A little pricey but also wonderful. 

Then on to the obligatory Powell's Books visit. Found four of my books in stock, which is always kind of a cool thing to see.  

Went to the Japanese Gardens in-between rainfalls. We always seem to be lucky that way. Beautiful, but a little cloudy and wet and not quite full blooms. But very pretty. Another gallery of art. Seems that once your eyes are open to art, it is everywhere: restaurants, public spaces, and stores.  

So here's the big takeaway from the trip. Indulging a slightly nicer visit, better hotel, better restaurants. The differences between a higher end hotel and a middlin' hotel are subtle but noticeable. Whether worth the extra cost probably depends on how much money you have to waste. Probably not something we can do every time. We probably spent 10% of the money on three nights as we spent on thirty nights in Australia, which we did economy sized. But that included some long flights and other expenses. 

Had a couple dinners with Todd and Sharron. They seem to be thriving. Meanwhile, back in Central Oregon, Tobin and Felicia are going full-speed ahead on Origin Millworks, making tables and furniture and other things with their little sawmill. Both guys seem to be doing great.

The store continues to function at a high level--far beyond what I would have considered even possible. I wish I didn't to have to hand it over to Sabrina at the end of the year, but I hope to stick around and be a glorified stockboy.  

Visiting museums and bookstores on trips to new cities seems like a good retirement thing to do. I don't seem to have any fear of crowds anymore, which is a miracle. Not going to say I'm cured of my agoraphobia, but I will say that it doesn't seem to be anywhere near the problem it once was. 

Visited friends Wes and Ev on our way home, had a nice visit.

Glad to get home to our own routines and the manic cat, Schrodinger.