first solo day in Portland

the mohler household wakes when the tyke does, no surprise there. so, from 6.15am I watched as kevin, leeann, and ryker putted around the house. when leeann and I got back from walking ryker to daycare, at about 8.45a, she went off to adulthood (work) and I took a nap. I finally shook awake from the coma-like trance sometime before the end of the century and got ready to check out the sights leeann and kevin had recommended. I like that the oregon zoo is so close to town but also in it's own little nature-reserve-type area. the road to get down into town from the zoo are steep and beautiful. I circled around the fountains at the bottom, which is also the top end of salmon street. there are things I intend to do and see everywhere that I'm going on this trip but I had decided to not get into all that yet. it was fun to just cruise through town, make a turn here or there, pop up into a park and watch the people relaxing and soaking in the sun. I've now done a bit of that myself with some lunch to boot! my mom would have been so proud of my wheat thins+sliced cheese+packet of yummy'd salmon lunch that I ate off the side of the wheat thins box and prepared with a reusable spork.

I've been reading about the cycling community here in portland. keeping the politics of advocacy aside, I think its interesting that this has been the #1 city for cycling in america for something like 15 years and their local advocacy group, Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), has only 5,000 members. as a frame of reference, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) has roughly 11,000 members. seems like that says something of the ability of BTA to work with city and state officials and not need to rely as much on funds from memberships. see, San Francisco, it pays to be nice.

yesterday evening, after ryker was blissfully asleep, leeann, kevin, and I watched Hot Tub Time Machine. terrible movie of course, but definitely funny! I'm in the cult that believes you can't go wrong with Rob Corddry.

Darlene is in town tonight! she just drove in from salt lake city, so I'll be asking her for tips on how to keep that drive from sucking too hard. I don't know what kind of trouble us adults are going to get into, but I assure you that the party is where ryker is.