Thursday, December 4, 2008

Sunshine Day

Since yesterday was ridiculously beautiful outside (see yesterday's post), we took advantage of it. We decided to head uphill and try and get some good photos of Mt. Hood, since it probably won't be out much more until Spring.

On our way out we swung through the South Waterfront neighborhood, one of the newest districts in Portland. Almost everything here is brand new, and they just keep building. It is largely apartments and condos at this point, but there are some cafes and coffee shops making their way in. There are also some great retirement communities going in here... moms and dads, we're talking to you...

Here are just a few of the new buildings there:

There is some pretty cool architecture going on as well. This one in particular is pretty neat, The Ardea. The main high-rise portion is shaped like a giant eyeball, so it's sort of elliptical but pointy on both ends.

It also has some great townhouse/condo units on the end - we just really liked the wood paneling and rain gardens that these had.

To us, cranes and construction are a welcome sight - it means progress and change and a functioning economy and good things happening! The only downfall to this neighborhood is that everything is brand new, so there isn't a whole lot of charm or character to it just yet. But, it is a work in progress, and it is sitting right on the beautiful Willamette River, so it would still be a great place to live!

We took the aerial tram 500 feet up, with our bikes, to get a better vantage point. I had never been on the tram before, it's pretty cool. You're in a giant capsule with windows.


This is the view from the top of the tram. You can see Mt. St. Helens in the skyline all the way to the left. Also... for the Mayos... the hotel you'll be staying at for Christmas is just to the left of where the highway splits and then crosses over itself. Just so ya know. :)

A tram on its way down:


We rode our bikes around until we found what looked like a good spot for photos. Really, the photos don't do it justice. The view was crystal clear. When you're standing there looking at Mt. Hood, it looks so giant and majestic... it just doesn't seem the same in a photo. Nonetheless, here are some of the better ones I got! Oh, for anyone that doesn't know, if you click on any of these photos it will bring it up in a new window at (almost) full size. Some of these might look cooler when they are big.


Peeking through the tree branches:

My attempt at setting a timer to take a shot of us. I pressed the button then ran toward Paul - it caught me just as I was grabbing him to stop myself!

Over the top of the South Waterfront area, where we were earlier.

That's Downtown in the background:

You can see Mt. St. Helens here through the branches:

A cool shot with Mt. St. Helens in the background, and three of Portland's bridges over the river:

We plan to take one day and ride around to each of the many cool bridges crossing the river and take photos. Each bridge is totally different, but they are all very cool. Stay tuned for that, I want to do it soon.

Love,

Jenny

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