Our time here in Portland, Oregon is quickly coming to a close. We’ve stayed busy – well Donna’s mostly busy, me not so much. We didn’t get to spend time with everyone we would have liked to visit in the area, but we had a good time with those we were able to meet up with.

On Wednesday afternoon, we rode the Spyder over the I-205 bridge to Washington. We took WA14 east to a small town called Camas. I’ve driven past Camas many times. I used to take WA14 to Washougal to fly radio-controlled airplane tournaments at the Fern Prairie Modelers field there. Camas wasn’t a place we were likely to stop at. Back in the ’90s, the paper mill in Camas made the area smell bad. It was a mill town and I always figured it to be a rough place.

Today Camas has a new identity. Modern filtration has removed the stench from the paper milling process. The town has grown in a well-planned manner. The old downtown, which comprises about five or six blocks is well-kept and lively with shops, restaurants and brew pubs. On Wednesday afternoon, they have a farmers’ market there. We parked the Spyder on 4th Avenue across from the Liberty Theater and walked two blocks to the market.

Camas farmers’ market

We wandered around in our usual fashion then revisited the vendors with items we wanted to buy. Donna bought some produce including Japanese hakurei turnips. We tried a sample and found them to be delicious. Donna intends to cut them up to dip in hummus and also chop them to add to salads.

Our real reason for going to Camas was to meet up with Donna’s friend Krista and her husband Mike for dinner. The traffic getting across the river from Portland to Vancouver is terrible in the afternoons and evenings, so we decided to come over early and hit the farmers’ market first. We had time to try a couple of local brews before dinner at a pub called A Brew at a Time. They had a large selection of beer on tap.

We met up with Mike and Krista at a Mexican restaurant called Nuestra Mesa. This isn’t your run-of-mill Mexican place – they serve refined Mexico City type dishes. Mike and Krista know the owners and told us the place had recently expanded. It’s nice to see a family-run operation doing well. It seems like Krista knows just about everybody in town.

After an enjoyable meal and conversation, we followed Mike and Krista’s car up the hill north of town to their place. They bought a lot and recently had a house built on it. It’s quite the place – about 6,000 square feet or so. Mike is obviously an optimist as he had a large pool built in the backyard – you don’t see a lot of built-in pools in the Pacific Northwest. We had a tour of their beautiful house.

Pool and house too large to fit the frame with my camera-phone

Mike is a sports fan and has memorabilia displayed in the finished basement bar area and his office space. He also had an old soda vending machine – I think it was originally a 7-up machine – restored with a Seattle Seahawks 12th-man theme.

Seahawks vending machine

He had selections of beer in the top section and soft drinks below.

They have stunning views from their upper deck. Unfortunately, using a smart phone as a camera means I don’t have a UV haze filter and it was a bit hazy out.

Columbia River from the deck

Another view from the large deck

I couldn’t get a shot of the view of Mount St. Helens due to the angle of the sun and the haze. We had a good time visiting with them

Donna and Krista

They talked me into joining in the photo

Thursday morning we had the rare event of waking to an alarm clock. Donna had a class – a continuing education course to maintain her certified house cleaning technician status. The class was a certified carpet cleaning technician course held in Portland on Market Street on the east side of the Willamette River.

The class started at 8am. I rode Donna down on the Spyder so I wouldn’t be without wheels all day. We left at 7:30am, which I figured was ample time to allow for traffic. I took us down MLK Blvd. and traffic wasn’t too bad – a few slow downs and stop lights. We were fine I thought until I realized we were too far south as the traffic thinned out and speeds increased while cross streets diminished.

I got us turned around and we came back north and found the place. We were 10 minutes late. I like to be punctual. While Donna was in class all day, I washed the Spyder and set up the Traeger wood pellet fired grill/smoker. I also finished another novel I was reading and made a run to the store.

Donna’s class ended at 5pm, so around 4:25 I headed out. I made it to the class location in 30 minutes and waited a while. The trip back home was awful. The traffic in Portland is terrible. The roads are laid out in such a way that you often have multiple lanes merging down into fewer lanes, causing huge tie-ups. It took us nearly an hour to get home.

Donna heading out for her last ride in her Great Cycle Challenge

I put a whole chicken on the Traeger while Donna went out on her bike to ride the remaining 12 miles to meet her Great Cycle Challenge goal. I’m writing this Thursday evening, which is a little unusual, but I’m trying to get it done while I have the time. Tomorrow I’ll drop Donna at her class and start preparing for our Saturday departure while Donna’s back in class.