SHOPPING! PARKS! FLOWERS!

We have only dabbled in the shopping possibilities here in Portland, mostly window-shopping. Except at Freddy's. Fred Meyer, that is, a Stater Bros. for the Northwest.

Think of Stater's on steroids. Average size of a Stater Bros. store: 35-40,000 sq. ft. Average size of Fred Meyer: 130,000 sq. ft.

Freddy's is a grocery/furniture/jewelry/automotive/deli/bakery/florist/clothing/shoe, etc., store. Plus Chase banks inside. And either a Starbucks or Peet's Coffee inside.

Their bakeries are reminiscent of patisseries in Paris! They even have Nanaimo Bars! Here are some photos of boots(artsy picture), pastries, olive bar, cheese.

Fun just to walk around this store. Does that count as exercise?

We've also sampled Cascades Station, which is near the airport. New area of shops with Marshall's, Ross, Ikea, Target, etc. The Ikea has a cafe where you can watch the planes landing at PDX.

Goodwill and the cleanest Big Lots we've ever seen have been other places we've shopped. Bought a huge art book on Monet for $4.99, a book on Northwest landscape plants, a new address book for keeping track of all of you, a Woodburn hoodie (Woodburn is a town nearby). For those of you who haven't known me for 45 years, Woodburn is my maiden name.

Yesterday we went downtown on the MAX (light rail) to pick up our PO box mail and have lunch with Joshua. We visited some of the many food carts Portland is famous for. They have Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Vegan and good ole American food. (See Joshua buying our lunch.)

We took our food to a nearby park to eat. It was a beautiful day! Public art is all over the place downtown. Here are two: The Quest and Running Horses.

Portland's rain year runs from October - September. We are below normal so far with only 24 out of the normal 28 inches to this date.

We have been running in the nearby small neighborhood. Today we went to Lincoln Park, where a squirrel followed me around, begging for food. I don't know what the pink trees are in the photo, but they had several large Pacific dogwoods (six-petals), and numerous evergreens. Lilacs, too. Nice asphalt running/biking trail, playground equipment, plus wood chip trails and picnic tables.

The last photo is a camellia TREE (I don't think they can keep them to bushes here) next door to our apartment. Enjoy!