Arrive, Portland!

On the way into Portland on 99W and 47, around Forest Grove we started getting that definite feel that we were entering suburbia, and the stop and go streetlights on SR 8 were driving Adam mad. So we hopped onto the freeway and came through downtown Portland on our way to Cousin Lora’s. Crossing the Fremont Bridge over the Willamette River was gorgeous.

Fremont Bridge in Portland

We were greeted in the front yard by Lora’s daughter Loja. Wow has she grown! And matured! We were to learn over the next few days she is incredibly intelligent and mature for her age, as well as a fun-loving giggle monster! And Lora is absolutely beautiful and looking great, and it seems her altered gluten and casein free vegan diet is really helping her health. We more or less joined her in her usual diet, and enoyed it thouroughly. She made us a great dinner with quinoa, a tahini-miso based sauce, roasted vegetables with beets, potatoes and carrots seasoned with I-don’t-know-what-but-god-it-was-good! We had great fun scheming up menus with them. Adam adapted his black bean with tempeh enciladas to a vegan palate, and on another night we had stuffed bell peppers with wild rice, mango, roasted corn, black beans and jicama. Lora fell in love with Adam’s braised chayote and onion dish. Chayote is a bit of a new vegetable for her. Roasted butternut squash with leftover stuffing and salad. As usual, too much good food, but even still we lost a little weight and felt the better for it.

We also met Lora and Loja’s cat, Touche, and hamster Peanut. Their neighbor had a rambunctious young pitbull named Henri (prounounced with a French Accent). We added two to their menagerie, bringing up their frog (Chip) and beta fish (Pixel) from Eugene where grandma and grandpa had been babysitting it.

Loja with Peanut, sporting cool sunglasses.