THE Trip - Day 27 (Connecting)

Tomorrow morning, we say goodbye to Portland and head to Mt. Hood for a couple of days in the Timberline Lodge.   Before leaving the area, I arranged for us to have lunch with my daughter-in-law’s mother, Carolyn.  We met through the marriage of our children – Mike and Stacy.  At the time, Carolyn lived in Mountain View, CA.  So over the years, whenever our children’s lives brought them into the Northern California area to live, we would meet at family gatherings for an enjoyable time of socializing and catching up on events in our lives.

After her retirement from HP in the Silicon Valley, Carolyn moved to the Portland area to be closer to many of her family members.   Today, she introduced us to Marcos Café in Multnomah Village just outside the busy downtown area.  We had a delightful lunch under sunny skies, caught up on events, learned that we both had started knitting again, chatted about our joint grandchildren – Ryan and Meghan, and re-connected as if 10 years had not passed between our last meeting.

During our lunch, I had expressed how much I had come to really love the Portland area with its beautiful green environment, fun/funky atmosphere, and ‘food culture’.  Carolyn most generously gave us an open offer to visit again and stay with her now that all her remodeling was complete….who knows, I may have found a second home in this beautiful city.

River walk beside the Willamette River looking north.

Looking south