Thursday - Portland still

Today we headed across the Willamette & Columbia rivers to Vancouver Wa. where we visited a huge mail order supply company. They deal in Yarn, fabric and Tolework.

What an interesting place. A bit like Grandmother's Garden only BIGGER. The photo shoot room was really big. No moving tables and stuff out of the road here John. They even have a sound-proof studio for recording.

Then it was off to the shops. Fancy that, we went shopping - again! Target for suitcases, Dress Barn for flash clothes, Michael's for sparkly craft stuff and crayons, Best Buys for a USP and camera things and that was it. The sandwich shop offered Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches - on wholewheat - so that was my lunch. Yummmy.

Back on the bus and over the rivers again to Pittock Mansion. Another one of those magnificent 1800's homes that was built with lots of money and good taste. The family must have fallen on hard times along the way and the City of Portland purchased the house and land in 1966 for $250,000. A bargain.

The views are stunning (will post them next time as my camera is in the bus). From there we drove to Washington Park and visited the Japanese Gardens. The temperature was in the 90's so no one was going anywhere fast. We ambled around there for an hour, then, you guessed it, back on the coach/bus and back to the hotel.

Our plan for dinner was to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory, which, according to the GPS was 3.3 miles from the hotel. Well, we went up there and over there, around there and still no OSF. Entered another street name that I could see was close by to where we had been told the OSF was, and off we went. Over there, up here, down there and around the bend. Okay, here is a group of foodie places right on the river, so Kevin dropped us there and headed off to park the coach/bus.

When he came back he had a very silly grin on his face. We were less than 5 min walk from our hotel and he had parked the bus in it's usual spot!

Dinner was pizza and pasta, washed down with an ice cream on the way home along the river front.

Portland has been very kind to us today, but we will be very excited to say goodbye tomorrow and head for the cruise ship.

Till next time,

Lesley

ps the Internet on the ship isn't always reliable, so bear with us if nothing is posted for a few days.