Visitors to the Far West

It's been a while since I updated my blog, and a lot has happened. I've had several visitors over the past couple months, started with my Mom and Aunt Nancy. Unfortunately for them, their trip was more of a work trip than a vacation. They helped me do a lot of work to make my duplex more homely. We spent a lot of time shopping (lots of time in Ikea) and putting together furniture. They helped transform my apartment from a place that I slept and ate to a place that I enjoy spending time. Here are some pictures my mom took (which explains the blurriness).




We did have some time for fun, though. On Saturday, we visited the Pittock Mansion, a huge estate that was built by one of the first families to strike it rich in Portland. The mansion is a museum now and a very impressive building for its time period. An intercom system, a central vacuum system, and an elevator were part of the home, which was built by 1914. Unfortunately, I didn't know how impressive it was going to be, so I didn't bring a camera.

Just two weeks after they left, Matt Fuller visited for a weekend. It was great to see him and catch up with one of my best friends from college. Matt wanted to see the Pacific Ocean, so we went to the coast for a hike. It was pretty muddy and we got rained on a little, but we accomplished our goals of seeing the ocean and some very big, old trees.

Right after Matt visited, my dad was in town for a week. My dad helped me with some stuff around the apartment, too, but more importantly, he brought me some personal protection: a .45 Hi-Point and a 1911-.22 Chiappa. Both are very inexpensive guns, but are a lot of fun to shoot.

One of the highlights of my Dad's trip was going to the Evergreen Aviation Museum. The Evergreen Aviation Museum is a huge building full of vintage and modern aircraft, the most famous of which is Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. We paid the extra 25 bucks to get a tour of the cockpit and take some pictures. Well worth it.

This is an incredibly impressive airplane.


Unfortunately, we didn't have near enough time to look around the museum. I look forward to an excuse to go next time I have a visitor interested in aviation. The rest of the pictures I took at the museum are on flickr and a well worth taking a look at.