Starting out on an adventure, a couple weeks on the mainland. A bit of visiting family, the annual tribal meeting, then off to Alaska for a little fishing with family. A lot of camera gear loaded, will be making time for some exploring along the way.
Yet another hop across the Pacific, leaving the island behind and headed to Portland.
Autumn colors in fallen leaves on a Portland streetThere is something going on in Portland… For some reason the leaves on many of the trees are turning yellow or red and dropping from the trees. Fallen leaves litter the streets and lawns of the cities neighborhoods. Some trees already appear to be dead, skeletal and leafless.
Local residents seem to take little notice of this ongoing environmental disaster, going about their business. They even stop and take photos of the fallen leaves. The effect is admittedly quite pretty, with striking colors.
Another pick from the slides I am busily digitizing. After basic training and tech school with the USAF and before deployment to England, I took a month’s leave. Much of this was spent visiting favorite places around Portland in the late fall of 1986…
Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge
The transit mall in downtown Portland
The newly completed MAX line from Gresham stops in downtown Portland
Sunset lights Mt. Hood in pastel shades
The Portland skyline at night, at least as it appeared in 1986
A nightime view looking over downtown Portland from Council Crest
It is pretty. It is a view I have spent all too much time staring at lately. Four times from the islands to the mainland in a bit over a month. Four times I have run the route from Kona, to Seattle, to Portland. Six times I have bounced through SeaTac airport when I add the run from Portland to Juneau and back.
I am back home for a while. Still dealing with the slightly disconnected feeling I often get after a long vacation. Living in a totally different world for a few weeks changes the definition of normal. It is back to work tomorrow and a resumption of the normal routine of life.
Looking out from the window of Alaska flight 843 from Seattle to Kona, 8Sep2013