Day One Hundred and Ninety-Two

Hello, all - I am possessed by the Evil Demon of Congestion and haunted by the Dark Shade of the Sore Throat, plus I'm so tired I can hardly move. So today's blog entry will be an event earlier in the project that I was, ironically enough, too sick to write about after it happened.

Item #29, take a ride on a train, was inspired by the two previous train trips I'd taken. I told each of my children that I would take them on the train if they could go five nights with dry diapers. For my daughter (you know, I still need a blog nickname for this kid), that happened when she was around three-and-a-half. Potty-training was the final frontier of her toddler power struggle, but I eventually prevailed and we took the long-awaited train ride. Buddy didn't get to take his trip until he was five, which is not too unusual for children with autism, but it was fun that he was big enough to really enjoy it.

I wanted to take one completely non-toilet-related ride on a train. And, for reasons I still don't fully comprehend, I decided on a whim to take this trip on a day when I had what probably was swine flu. It was sunny, I was sort of feeling better, and I needed to get out of the house - it wasn't going to be THAT much walking anyway, right? Well, that wasn't entirely correct, but we did have a nice time, and here's the evidence:

Portland's historic Union Station, which I would have taken more pictures of on the way back if my camera battery hadn't died.

Buddy stops for a drink on the way to the Pearl District.

While we were walking through the Pearl District, I saw this lady reading in a patch of sun in a small public area between shops in a reclaimed warehouse. I have no idea who she was, but it was such a quintessentially Portland moment I couldn't help snapping a picture.

The little old-fashioned diner we wanted to visit was closed ...

... so we had breadsticks and pizza instead (organic ingredients, of course, this is Portland).

This very "green" restaurant recycled just about everything - even the straws were made of some biodegradable material (kudos to them!) and could be recycled. In case there was something that you just HAD to throw out, it went into this small bin with a wry little reminder about where your trash would end up.

Urban version of tree-hugging?

Powells, of course.

And just in case we're not maxed out enough, let's have ice cream!

Wobbly camera, lovely moon, lovely city, lovely day.