Clackamas Town Center shooting

A lot of my readers from other areas of the country and around the world know that I come from Clackamas County, Oregon.  By now, it's likely that you've heard that there was a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center mall located in that area.  Two people were killed and a third was injured.  A lone gunman took his own life. 

Here's our own small update on this: everyone we know is all right.  I was with so many other people yesterday morning, hoping that the Sheriff's Department didn't say the name of one of my many friends when he announced the victims.

My sister-in-law, Kara, and our nieces were planning to go shopping at CTC around that same time, but circumstances changed and they couldn't go.  My friend, Robert, was downstairs working in American Eagle, just below where the shooting occurred.  He was safe and got out as quickly as possible.  There were a few other friends that would have been at the mall, but for different reasons decided not to go.

Regardless of the proximity of our relationships, the fact that two were killed is a huge tragedy.  This happened about 50 yards from where I took Anne-Marie on our first date 15 years ago.  There are a lot of people that have similar memories.  It's terrible that for 10,000 Oregonians, their most memorable experience at Clackamas Town Center will be one of tragedy and fear.

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?

56. John Canzano

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

57. Stumptown Coffee

      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

71. Oregon District Senior Bible Quizzing

      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.

73. Ross Hoevet Family Dentistry

      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.

74. Western Wood Structures, Inc.

      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.

77. Oregon City United Pentecostal Church

      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!

Kevin Duckworth (1964-2008)

Last night, former Portland Trailblazer, Kevin Duckworth died at his youth basketball camp in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Duckworth was known for seven years as the sensitive big guy in the middle of the Blazers squad that included Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey and Buck Williams. He lived a few miles away from me in Carus, and occasionally I saw him at Haggen buying groceries.

Seeing him always brought back memories of being a kid and rooting for Kevin against Bill Laimbeer, Vlade Divac and Bill Cartwright (centers for the Pistons, Lakers and Bulls, respectively). Him and Clyde were my favorites--no matter what all those Cliff Robinson devotees said.

All of you who don't know what I'm talking about: you just had to live in Oregon in the early 90's.

Us in PDX w/Allen & Carrie

Allen and I at XXI in Pioneer Place, A-M and Carrie, A-M and I at Enjoni Cafe

Here are some pictures from last weekend's trip downtown Portland, courtesy of Allen and Carrie.

4th of July

After last year's dinner at the Baldwin's, and the first time in twenty years I didn't attend a public fireworks display, we decided to have a little more activity on the Independence Day.

We put together a barbecue at Phil Huffman's house with all the chronic cuisine. After lunch, we played a game of Scrabble. Then we capped the party off with some peach smoothies and Mike's chocolate peanut butter pie.

As soon as we finished with the dessert, we jumped in the car and headed straight up 99E to downtown Portland to catch the fireworks at the Waterfront Blues Festival. The plan was supposed to go like this: leave Phil's at the last possible minute, drive like crazy to a quiet parking lot on the Eastbank Esplanade (the EE is across the river from the Blues Festival, but just as good a view with less crowds), get out of the car, run to a nice spot on the riverbank, watch fireworks, run back to the car, drive out of town before people are finished cheering.

Here's what actually happened: left five minutes late, drove beyond crazy to our favorite public parking lot only to find that it was closed to the public, drove south, got detoured into the Portland Opera parking lot, got out and waited for the fireworks, found out that the Marquam Bridge was in the way, ran north up the bank to a better vantage point, watched the rest of the fireworks, ran back to the car when people started cheering, got stuck in massive East Waterfront construction, ran over seven or eight cheering pedestrians, eventually joined the mass of cars headed south to the suburbs.

Oh, well...The display was awesome! Let's do it again next year!

OK, so this is a really big deal around here!

Here's a pic of the thirty-foot-tall Greg Oden jersey being hoisted to the top of the Wells Fargo Center, the tallest building in Portland. Folks are pretty excited about last night's draft!

Portland nearly OD's on...

The question, "O or D?"

The biggest news in town is the NBA Draft as the Blazers have the #1 pick this year for the first time in thirty years. The pick has been narrowed down to either small forward Kevin Durant, or center Greg Oden.

I'm not really into sports, but the media have examined this one from almost every angle possible for a month straight. Who knows? Maybe after tonight's pick, the local team will become a little more interesting. (People talkin' championship 'round here!) Whatever the future, in a half-hour this choice will be history.

At the very least I hope to see either O or D at Noah's Bagels.

Portland Rose Festival Centennial Celebration

Pics T-B: The Pirate Parrot Show, Anne-Marie stading under the Morrison Bridge by the ferris wheel, proof that the Canadians have a Navy