Portland and Cousin Teri

Teri, Erika, Malea, Bob Carlson

Portland, Oregon

Teri has beautiful flowers all over her yard.

Opps. This Post is supposed to be just after the visit with Marty and before we went to Olympia.

We drove to Portland Oregon to visit my cousin Teri, her husband Bob and their 2 daughters, Eliza and Malea. We were able to park right in their yard on their big driveway. What a wonderful time we had. We didn't want to leave. Teri welcomed us with her own floral bouquet. She sells flowers in a market in Portland. Bob is a K-12 science teacher. Eliza graduates from high school in a week and is very creative and smart. Melea has spent almost 2 years in India and makes beautiful hand painted glassware with India influenced designs of hers. Their Springer                                                                                       Spaniel, Ollie won our hearts.

peonies in Teri's garden

7 chickens in the coop

hens and chickens

                               The made us a delicious fresh King Salmon dinner. What a treat.

Eliza served water

Malea made Sourdough Bread

Farmer Bob

In the morning Teri, the dogs and Norm and I went on a lovely forest hike right behind their house. It was the Tryon Creek Forest- equestrian and running too. Ferns, moss, tall firs, wildflowers, etc. There was also a wonderful Nature Center where we saw a lot of cute Owls, woodpeckers etc. After lunch we went

Later we went to Washington Park to  to the Rose Test Garden. Thousands of beautiful rose bushes, trees, arbors, plants. WOW. I must have taken 200 photos of the roses! Good research for me.

I love this silly face. He is showing a Horse Tail plant.

We watched this tiny bird go in and out of the hole to feed the young birds inside

Teri suggested a great rooftop Garden Restaurant for dinner- The Noble Rot. A great view of downtown Portland. And great food!

We wanted to stay here withTeri and Bob. We love them....and Portland. It's a lot like Boston.

Olympia and Sister Norma Jean

Olympia WA waterfront

Ronnie, Arthur, Norma Jean and Norman (First 4 of 8 children in Stafford family)




Rinty, Kimm, Vicky (6th and 7th of 8) (didn't mean to leave Judy out here)




First 5 kids and Mom and Dad

Norm and his sister Norma Jean in her apartment in Olympia WA

Rhododendrons outside her house

State Capitol building

 Olympia waterfront

Logging and lumber are big here.

Photo from a long time ago-logging

                              We had dinner on the waterfront in a great Oyster House Restaurant.

We took a Ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island

Angus and Bonnie like it too.

Found a "It's a Nice-a Pizza" shop

Seattle skyline

Seattle Space Needle

Mt Hood

 We were kind of running low on gas. We know going to the town of Mt Hood was going to be a problem because it's on the back side. We headed up to Timberline. When we go there it was a parking lot full of cars. With our binoculars we saw hundreds of people skiing! A man with skis told us they can ski until July. Usually- with a better winter they can ski until Labor Day! We decided to have lunch at the lodge and get gas later. Beautiful day on the mountain. Finally found someone who told us gas was at the bottom of the hill. No problem.

Driving from Bend to Mt Hood. Farm land.

Starting to see mountains

Back to more evergreens

Nice Ski Lodge at top

Olympia WA