Oregon to-do list

I'm cleaning out some bookmarks today. Last winter, I cleaned out my bookmarks about Ukraine here. Now it's Oregon's turn!

We spend most of our time hanging around the state's largest city, Portland. It is quite pretty (and filled with bridges), but...

A day of smoke and ash

View of the city today:

It's hot here.

City beach, today.

This is very strange for Portland.

Summer Snapshots

First, what I'm sure you've been waiting for, haha... Кит: summer edition.

Oregon fun runs

I just realized that D and I haven't done any fun runs this year. Ack! And half the summer is already gone! We've done a run each year since moving to Oregon, and the plan was to do another one this year. The first run was an easy one (lots of little kids running alongside us, haha). Last year's run was tougher and dirtier. But this year? Nothing. I better sign us up for something before the weather changes.

Here's a look at the 2 runs we did. Can you recommend another run to try?

Low tide

10 AM, Memorial Day weekend. The tide was out- way out- and we were on the beach.

Anniversary getaway

Ninety minutes from Portland is a big garden + forest + wetland called The Oregon Garden. D and I spent a weekend here to celebrate our 2-year wedding anniversary. ♡ We stayed at the Oregon Garden Resort, which has a gate that opens directly into the garden. This lets you wander the garden whenever you want without paying any admission fee.

Spring snapshots

Creepy park

Welcome to Kelly Butte, a place guaranteed to give you the creeps.

Why so creepy?

Fall snapshots

I haven't done one of these posts since last September- here's the rest of 2016!

A Snowy State of Emergency

So, it started snowing last night.
Really, really snowing (for this city, at least.)

By morning, downtown looked like this-

Train stop.

The city was shut down. Even if you had wanted to get somewhere, it was almost impossible to go there. We passed a hill where 4 city buses were stuck in a row. Drivers sat inside the buses, keeping warm and waiting for help. Your best travel bet = a pair of skis, a bike, or braving the streets on foot.

Peacock Lane

Last year, I made a list of 80 things to try. Um, yeah, that turned out to be a little unrealistic... but this was the last thing I crossed off the list before the year ended.

Wildlife refuge

Sunday.

Ok, so I shouldn't have said it snowed the other week, because this last week it really snowed. Don't laugh, you guys, but we got a whole 1-3 inches of snow in this area. People abandoned their cars. Buses were chained up to drive on the ice. School was canceled for the next two days. And, like always, the tweets summed it all up.

Snowfall + Tea Haul!

Well, that post about the snow in Kharkiv must have worked some magic... there is actually snow in Portland! For most cities, it's a tiny bit of snow. For this city, it's ARCTIC BLAST SNOWPOCALYPSE 2016.

School is canceled. People are staying home from work. The library is closed. The buses have chains on. There are only two kinds of creatures you'll find outside (here's the other kind.)

An evening walk in 7 photos

Ready? Let's go for a quick walk downtown, just as the sun is setting.

OMSI

There's a famous museum here called OMSI, or the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Have you heard of it?

Cheery stuff!

They actually have a famous submarine parked outside- the USS Blueback, which starred as a Soviet sub in the 90s movie The Hunt for Red October.

Back in the day, 85 men would be packed on the submarine for months at a time. 

Three fall scenes in Portland

It's disgustingly beautiful around town already. Everywhere! Ugh!

South Park Blocks.

(Also, disgustingly beautiful in autumn but not nearby-
the streets of Kharkiv and this national park near Arkhangelsk.)

If you need a Portland fall adventure list, here are three spots to get you started...

The Farm

I bet autumn is just barely beginning to touch down in Kharkiv. Perhaps it's even the beginning of a beautiful Бабье лето, Indian summer. I loved fall in Ukraine!

Speaking Russian in Portland

Russian food store in SE Portland

The other day I got a letter from the doctor's office with a multi-language insert. These are the languages that were included on the insert.

English. Spanish. Mandarin. Cantonese. Tagalog. French. Vietnamese. German. Korean. Russian. Arabic. Hindi. Italian. Portuguese. French Creole. Polish. Japanese.

Can you guess which are the most common languages in Oregon?

Japanese Garden

A few months ago- just as spring had turned into real summer- my friend Sarah and I visited Portland's Japanese Garden. Even though ремонт, construction had taken over certain parts of the garden, it was still a beautiful place to walk through.

Over the summer I've become quite interested in meditation. Doesn't this garden look like the perfect spot for it? Maybe I can convince D to go there with me and give it a try.

Lately I've been reading from a little book called "Springs of Roman Wisdom". It used to sit on my desk at my last office job. (Emergency stress relief, haha.) Now it's at home, lined up next to my new Russian books. Sometimes I'll pick a random page to read. Here's something from Marcus Aurelius that I really
like: