Friday, December 31, 2010

77 for 2011

I'm feeling a little homesick as we come to the end of 2010.  With some help from Anne-Marie, here's a list of 77 things I'll miss about living in Oregon:


Places
1.  The St. John's Bridge
     I think there's 10 or 11 bridges in Portland, but this is the most beautiful.
Photo - H Dragon (thks!)













2.  Crown Point
I asked Anne-Marie to marry me here!











3.  The viewpoint in OC off Brighton
     Not as cool as Crown Point, but still a neat place for OC.

4.  Willamette Falls
     The most amazing natural wonder in the Portland Metro area, too bad it's surrounded by gigantic paper mills.

5.  The White Stag sign
     Why do they keep changing this thing? White Stag, Made In Oregon, now Portland Oregon
Photo by Steve Morgan












6.  Tom McCall Waterfront Park
     Also known as "Luis Palau Kills Our Grass Every Summer" Park

7.  Portland Children's Museum
     Went to the Seattle Children's Museum. Nah! Gimme back the PCM.

8.  Historic Highway
     If you haven't been on this to see the waterfalls, make plans NOW!

9.  Pioneer Courthouse Square
     It's Portland's living room and they have a lot of crazy friends.

10. Highway 43
      I always loved driving under the trees on this state highway through West Linn and Lake Oswego.

Eats
11. Nicholas's Restaurant (Eastside)
      Most affordable local restaurant and best Lebanese food in town (sorry Ya Hala)

12. Trufflehunter (Gresham)
      Hooj sanwhiches

13. Super Torta (OC)
      This place is a dive. And--as you would expect--it's very good
Thanks Tom A. at Yelp for the pic











14. Francis (Alberta) and Downtown Greek Cusina (uhhhh...Downtown?)
      A newcomer and a Portland landmark both disappeared off the scene before we could even move.

15. Amadeus (Milwaukie)
      This oooold house in Milwaukie is almost creepy, but the Austrian restaurant and atmosphere it creates is downright magical.

16. La Carreta (Ross Island Bridge)
      'Nother Mexican place. Get the fajitas for two.

17. His Bakery (OC)
      Ohhhh the scones!  And ham and cheese croissants!  I mean Puyallup's Pioneer Bakery is good, but...

18. Five Guys Burgers & Fries (everywhere but here)
      OK. This is a national chain, but the closest one is 30 minutes away from Puyallup. No fair.

19. Camp 18 (Highway 26, near the coast)
     








20. Enjoni Cafe (NE)
      Best East African restaurant in Portland. Order anything.

Oregonizations, etc.
21. Clackamas Community College
      Got my degree here. (Associates of Science, Drafting Technology [Architectural Option], in case you were wondering.  Too bad the drafting program folded in 2009.)

22. Al's Garden Center
...has the greatest floral hanging baskets.

23. The Dig
      Most of my wardrobe is from here. It's kind of a re-sale shop, but everything's 5 bucks.

24. Clackamas Town Center
      We went on our first date here. I'll miss driving by all those places we went. 

25. Portland Community College
      A-M's AM.

26. Dove Adoptions
      After eliminating 99 other adoption agencies, we chose this one in Banks, Oregon and are glad we did.

27. Portland Trail Blazers
      Just thinking about the local team makes my knees hurt.












28. Cutsforth Thriftway
      I actually worked here for 6 months. Best grocery store in Canby and perhaps the world!

29. University of Oregon Ducks
       It took us moving out of state for them to get to the National Championship.

30. Oregon State University Beavers
      The Cougs crimson and gray will never compare to the orange and black of OSU.      

Cities/Districts/Neighborhoods
31. Aurora
       ...for the antique shops
32. Tualatin
       ...for the memories
OC!///Photo: MarkPritchard
33. McMinnville
      ...for my childhood
34. Oregon City
      ...for young life
35. Canby
      ...for the fields
36. Downtown Gresham
      ...for being one of a kind
37. Silverton
      ...for being from another era
38. NE Portland/NoPo
      ...for her people
39. The Pearl
      ...for the shops
40. Clackamas
      ...for a hundred romantic evenings
41. West Linn/Lake Oswego
      ...for never letting me live in your borders (else we'd have never left Oregon)
42. Montavilla
      ...for being funky
Ladd's Addition by Greg_E
43. Lloyd/Hollywood/Sullivan's Gulch District
44. Ladd's Addition and
45. Laurelhurst
      ...for the architecture
46. Downtown
      ...for being an urban area where I never thought I was going to get shot
47. 23rd
      ...for being there before The Pearl
48. Washington Park/West Hills
      ...for the trees
49. Bend/Sunriver
      ...for all the high desert vacations (we'll try to resist the call of Suncadia and come back to you)

50. Sellwood
      ...for being the smallest part of Portland

Local Yokels
51. 1190 KEX

52. KXL 750
      1190 and 750 are the standby news stations that everyone listens to on the way to work.


53. Bob Miller in the Morning
      He's been on the radio in Portland since I was an infant.

54. Now-defunct local celebrities that form something of a mini pop culture
      Scott Thomason, Tom Peterson and this guy:










55. The Portland Tribune
      "What about The Oregonian?" you ask.  Yeah, What about it?

      A local sports columnist that constantly makes news for his no-nonsense style.

      Don't really sell this just any place. And not here in WA.

58. Mr. Statue
      OK. So there's this guy that stands outside Pioneer Place and he's painted silver. It's cool. Really.

59. Bill Schonely
      The former Blazers play-by-play guy is still a big name in PDX, but not here (and I just missed the Dave Niehaus era in Seattle).
OregonLive file photo











60. OMSI
      Maybe this should have been put in the "Oregonizations" section. Of course, the Pacific Science Center is very cool, but no dome-screen IMAX. Bummer.


Random, etc.
61. Flying out of PDX
      SeaTac just won't be the same

62. Watching the Pioneer Courthouse Square Christmas Tree Lighting
      Without getting blown up.

63. Driving to Canby whenever we wanted to see Phil
      I guess this would have changed anyhow.

64. Going to the Clackamas County Fair and Rodeo with Ben and Jen
      And all those years we were too cheap to get reserved seating...

65. Driving over Santiam Pass to get to Central Oregon
Pic by J. Stephen Conn










66. Having someone else pump my gas!

67. Getting pumpkins and apple cider donuts each fall at Fir Point Farms in Canby

68. Living four blocks away from Mike and Kara

69. Scoping out the craziness that is Sleighbells of Sherwood

70. Our annual tradition of going to the Oregon Symphony's Gospel Christmas









Near & Dear
      Bible Quizzing is a program that encourages teams of young people from different cities to memorize a specific book of the Bible. The teams face each other one weekend a month in a tournament. With Anne-Marie assisting, I was the head of the 15-18 year old division for five years and I miss all those guys a lot.

72. Apostolic Worship Center
      I never attended this church (down the road from us in Gresham), but I made so many friends in their congregation.  It's obvious that kindness and character run rampant at Ted Graves church.


      Anne-Marie worked 10 years here.  The Dr. and staff became like friends and neighbors that you wouldn't mind hanging out with just because.

      I worked here for almost 10 years.  Paul, Jim, Steve and co. nearly made work like a vacation. Nearly.  It's amazing how many times in a day I mention Western Wood.

75. The house on Boynton
      I lived here for 15 years.  I brought my new wife home to this house.  My kids, too.  Never really cared for the floor plan, but sentiment overrides all that.
Driving away for the last time
  











76. All the folks
      You know who you are.  Friends and family were by far the hardest thing to leave.


      Pastor Gary Gleason and too many folks to name impacted our lives forever.  Thank you so much for your investment in our family.

I guess that about does it.  There are probably a bunch of things we forgot.  Oregon will always be in our heart.  Here's to 2011 and an amazing year in Washington!

1 comment:

  1. Ahwww this is neat!!! I know how you feel... every now again i reaallllly miss South Dakota and start mentally listing the things i miss its amazing how the list grows. Your missed!!! Allen and I have talked about coming to see you guys and Nick & Kaylee but haven't gotten around to it... hopefully this summer.

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