Portland, Oregon, is a beautiful little city that I'd only seen before from the interstate. Turns out, that's not the best way to get to know a place. Kevin's cousin and her family live there, and despite our only giving them 3 days' notice, they were gracious to have us stay with them for a couple nights. Jennifer and Don are some of the nicest people ever, meaning that they are happy, positive, friendly, and interesting to talk to. Does it get better than that? They have two little boys and a daughter that's Penny's age. They had fun crawling around on the floor together, smacking each other's faces, sharing toys and slobber, and teaching tricks like pulling up to standing on stuff.
Don took us around the art museum where he works as a curator. Or the curator. Or some other position. Maybe he's the night guard. Who knows. But he does a lot of work obtaining the art both for the museum's permanent collection and for temporary exhibits. He told us how they got some of the works. He says that people call them all the time to sell or donate their private collections to them, and often they say they have a Monet or Picasso or whatever, but then it turns out to be just a print. So he was surprised to go see a painting that this old couple had been hanging on their dining room wall for 15 years, which turned out to be an early Van Gogh. He said it was kind of greenish, but after removing all the lacquer, it's actually a beautiful blue. Apparently when they x-rayed it, they could see where he had changed his mind and painted over something as he painted the piece. Also, there were holes poked in the corners of the canvas, showing that he had been too poor to paint on stretched canvas, and he'd had to just pin his canvas in place. I love art museums. I've gone to several in cities around the world, and I have a healthy appreciation for artwork. But honestly, if I'd been on my own in the museum, I would have probably looked at the painting, glanced at the plaque beside it, and said, "Cool, a cow by Van Gogh." And then moved on. This tour was so much better. I'll have to remember that for future art museum excursions.
We had lunch at the farmer's market behind the museum. While we ate, Don told us about one of the outdoor sculptures, and how buying the darn thing is not the hardest part. Apparently they bought the piece from an artist in New York. Then in order to ship it, it had to be trucked across however-many states, and each state has its own regulations about if it needs a "wide load" sign, an escort car before and/or after the truck, various hours you can or cannot drive it through cities or whatnot. So that's a whole lotta work for him. Then in order to install it, they needed all sorts of permits to have engineers come out and calculate everything to install the cement base and then the actual artwork. And since it is pretty big (but not that big), it legally has to have its own address so it can appear on city maps and stuff. I never knew.
The other awesome part about Portland was visiting my friend Sarah Frantz. Just to clarify, this is the Sarah Frantz who used to be Strickland but then married the brother of the other Sarah Frantz who is now married herself and is no longer Sarah Frantz. They have lived in Portland for a few months and have a couple cute kiddos. Sarah and I met in 2002 teaching English in China, and then I saw her again in 2004 when she was on a mission in Hong Kong. And it's been a while, but I love that it felt like it hadn't been long at all. We had tons to talk about, both with what we had been doing, and what we were currently up to. We had a late lunch, went to the park, and then went to Chinese dim sum for dinner. Dinner was Kevin's idea. See, when we go to visit my old friends, Kevin usually wants to shrivel up and die from boredom, as much as he loves listening to me talk about people, places, and events that he knows nothing about. But we both had a great time getting to know Sarah and Ezra. They've both spent some time in China and Asia, and honestly, we can always find something in common with people like that!
We eventually had to leave Portland, and our next stop was Boise, ID.
We didn't make it a long stay in Boise. We just drove in one day and left in the morning. We got a hold of some friends there-- they taught our Sunday School class, actually-- and we stayed with them. We were blessed with gracious hosts in each of our stops, but the Snyders were especially accommodating. Carolyn was actually out of town that night, and Jack had to work late, but they told us how to go in and insisted we just make ourselves at home. They have grandkids, so they had a crib for us to use. I think this allowed us the best night of sleep on our whole road trip.
Kevin needed something for his iPod, so we went to Office Depot where we ran into a friend. We arranged to meet him and his wife for dinner after he got off work, and we asked Jack if we could take him out to dinner as well. We all met up for Chinese food, and while I was under the table picking up rice and Cheerios that Penny had scattered on the floor, Jack sneaked off and payed for dinner for the 5 of us. I knew he'd gotten up, but I was busy underneath the table. We should have been sneakier.
And today's installment goes to Boise.
To be continued...
1 comment:
How fun that you saw Sarah (Strickland) Frantz! Those two Sarahs were pretty wild. They definitely provided the entire high school with entertainment. :)
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