Back to Fly Tying - Mouse Fly

2015 is here! Time to get Fly Fishing!

What a great new adventure - fly fishing the famous rivers of the North West.

I'm getting my fly tying station and rod building station setup. I have some new flies to tie and two bamboo fly rods to repair.

 I did some practice casting today with my 8 weight graphite rod. I still got it - 100 foot casts no problem. That is great for salt water, but these rivers need different types of casts, namely the roll cast and the spey cast. Many of the rivers are tree lined, so the standard long distance salt water double haul cast will just get you hung up in the trees. The roll and spey cast don't require room behind you to cast, although you are not going to get a 100 foot cast out of them either.  I can poorly roll cast and and working on my spey cast - have  to master them both ...

I have a wide variety of fly rods that will work up here - from 5 & 7 weight bamboo rods, 7 & 8 graphite rods, and the "Broomstick" a 9 weight fiberglass rod so heavy, stiff and fast it will challenge you to cast it - but will cast a monster fly long a distance into a strong wind. 

These waters require a completely different mindset of flies and how to fish them. Some flies are so small (#22 hook) to something a large enough to see like a mouse. The picture is my first attempt to tie mouse flies.  Trout and Large mouth Bass love hitting mice on the surface. Great action! 

Oregon Zoo Lights

Rose and I love Zoos!

In Tampa, FL we have the Lowery Zoo a mile from the house. Rose had a yearly pass, which meant I got in free as a guest. We used to walk up there all the time. This zoo sold beer, in fact, made a big deal out of it. You could get a Lowery Zoo beer mug that had colored light flashing out of it. Once you got your mug, draft beer was only $3.00. In the evening you would see everyone walking around having a beer and flashing away. The Oregon Zoo does not seem to sell beer, which may be the ONLY place in Portland that doesn't.

The Oregon Zoo, as does Lowery, has "Zoo Lights". The zoo is all done up with Christmas Lights. Makes a nice evening stroll, rain or shine, of course it was raining. Again, the rain stopps no one the line was long on a Wednesday evening.

At the Lowery Zoo, Sister Susan would often join us for Zoo Boo on Halloween and the Zoo Lights at Christmas. The Zoo Boo was really great - a haunted house the size of a zoo. I hope they do that out here.

Getting there is half the fun...

One of the good things about a large city like Portland is the public transportation. This helps offset the worst traffic I have ever seen. Save yourself and don't even think about getting on the main roads at rush hour. You will go faster watching Miami Vice on Netflix siting in your favorite chair. I've seen the entire series at least 10 times, buy now.

We checked the Tirmet App and walked up and caught the bus into the center of town Pioneer Square - Portland's Living Room... so they call it. They actually have pillow fights here in the summer and thousands of people come out in the PJs with pillows and brawl. Now that is a fun city! 15 minutes to town on the bus. Oh man, this young women was on the phone chatting away to someone about where she had been, where she was going, and what job she wanted. It was rather interesting, Nepal, Africa, Alaska, Portland, maybe try the Peace Corp - nice to be young and traveling the world - wait, that is what I did - over 40 countries so far...

So we got into the city and wait for the Blue Line Train to the Zoo. OK, here is a picture of it arriving.

Bike Commuters Everywhere - They really do ride in this city, night, rain, "All Weather".

Got the train heading west, totally packed with commuters and cruised along. The zoo is has a stop, but they don't call it 'Zoo Station', in fact it is not mentioned at all. So on the way I made a general announcement to the train, "We are going to the zoo does anyone know what station it is". "This one", a guys says, shit, jump off. It is Washington Park Station, by the way. So we wondered around the station, no sign for the zoo, so I asked a guy and we went with him.

We got into an elevator, a really big one. I went to push the button to go up and the two choices were T and S.  The guys said "Push S for Surface, we are 260 feet underground". That is a 28 story building underground. We shot up and 25 seconds later were On The Surface. Later on the way back down we were almost weightless with the drop. The elevator shows you how far underground you are in feet, but spins so fast you can't read it when moving.  As it turns out, the Washington Park Station is the deepest station in North America and one of the deepest in the world - a surprise at every venture around this city.

Oregon Zoo.

Admission, they give us a $3 discount for using public transportation, we didn't have to pay $4
for parking, and had more fun getting their than driving, so taking public transport was worth it.

The zoo has two cool trains, which we are saving for another trip. The lights were great, especially how they setup animations of animals hunting, flying, turning from caterpillars to butterflies - much better than the usual static displays.

As it was night, most of the animals were not out. We did see some of the usual zoo animals though, elephants, monkeys, fish, snakes, blondes, brunets, and red heads...

Rush hour over, we had an easy trip on the train, bus, and short walk home.

Captain Dave

Portland Old Town Walkabout

New Yorker's talk about "Going into the city".

We have not been downtown, or Old Town Portland this year. So we decided to make a day out of it, well half day with my feet, and into the city we went. We live about 3.5 miles southwest of downtown and we could drive it, but thought we would take the bus.

Taking the bus, or train, or streetcar. The Portland Metro Area is huge, and has a well developed public transportation system. An all day transportation pass is $5 to any bus, train, or streetcar. On our visit last year, we used all of these public transports, as well and a Gar2Go SmartCar. There are a lot of activities where taking the public transport just makes so much more sense that driving your own car. By the time we drove into town, found a parking place, paid for parking, it works out about even with taking the bus. Taking the buss is more fun and flexible as well. I remember when I turned 16 and was so excited about driving, my Dad said, "Its fun for a while but you'll hate it after a few years". They have apps for your phone, so you can see right when the bus will show up. Everyone rides the bus, not like the south where riding the bus is looked down on, and the bus drivers are really happy and friendly. Everyone thanks the bus driver when the get off the bus - nice. On our way home people who didn't know each other, all different races, ages, social levels, were just chatting away in a big group. Nice people out here. In fact we have found the majority of people in the area to be happy and chatty.

Off to Old Town Portland
 You have all seen the Portland sign - looks better and night. This is in the north part of the city, Chinatown and Old Town. Other than walking down to Pioneer Square to see the Christmas Tree and listen to the Tuba Band, we explored up here. While I'm thinking about it, somewhere in the city someone was playing a horrible tune - Amazing Grace on the Bagpipes. The world's worst song played on the world's worst musical instrument. It sounding like someone strangling a sheep!

 
Saturday Market
 Under the sign and Burnside Bridge is a lively Saturday Market. Lot of food carts, shops, music, and right on the Willamette River.

This guy had a great rhythm going with his
Didgeridoo and drum machine.

 

Rose gets a new hat, made from recycled sweaters.

Lunch at Mi Mero Mole

Yes we had lunch plan "A", "B", and even "C" for this trip - learned by pain on our other trips. Gladly, plan "A" for Mexican worked out and how, this totally made up for "Tillamook - The Lunch Disaster of 2014". Like all cities, there are great little 'hole in the wall' places to eat and drink. Jump off the bus, cross the street and eat and drink. Again, everyone was so nice here. Our lunch com-padres were a complete mix of the human population, which is great to see. Lot of young people, styles, or lack of styles. All homemade food and great beer. Sign says Happy Hour $2.25 draft beer, we'll be back - see this is why you need to take the bus.

Keep Portland Weird

Now to reveal the #1 mission of the day. To find the Keep Portland Weird as seen on the TV show Portlandia. We have, sort of, started a scavenger hunt to find Portlandia places. Kind of silly..

Voodoo Doughnuts

Mission #2 for the day was a Maple Bacon Doughnut.
This place is a true Portland Icon. People wait inline, in the cold, to get inside, which is about 10 ft x 10 ft, order, then back out to the cold to eat on picnic tables.

There is always such a long line here. We passed by three times and each time the line just kept getting longer, so we'll save this for our next trip, maybe on a weekday.

Portland Outdoors Store

What a time warp this store is. From the outside, it is hard to tell what you'll find at this place.
Awesome Store. A real western store. 3 stories of clothes, hats, boots, and saddles - the kind for horses, we're in Portland, so that could be confusing as to their intended purpose.

We had so much fun chatting and joking with the wonderful staff here. I purchased a pair of jeans and Rose had her eye on some really cool cowgirl boots. She would really be a hit in England with those on. I had fun chatting to the boots guy there, as I am interested in getting another pair. The heel seems to help my poor feet when walking - I have to wear hiking boots all the time now. He showed me some vintage style lace up boots. I remember seeing old explorers wearing lace up boots. He told me a lot of his cowboys (Oregon is big cattle country) liked these boots for the ankle support. I like that idea. Great hats, too!

This is a really cool, not to miss, store. We will defiantly be back for more shopping.

To wrap up. I have been to many of the world's big cities, but have never lived in one. I can see why people do, it is lively, busy, loads of stuff to see and do.

Captain Dave

Christmas Boat Parade

Portland Boat Parade on the Willamette River.




People of Portlandia, call themselves "Unstoppable" as the rain, wind, and cold never stops them from their activities. Rose and I enjoyed the Christmas Boat Parade on the river. About a dozen boats had great weather of 45 deg and light winds. Last year when we were visiting Portland, in freezing rain and fog, all traffic stopped on the Hawthorn bridge just to watch the boat parade go by.

We were remembering the St. Pete Boat Parade with Chris and Rita of last year from her condo. That was great fun, good company, food and 5th floor vantage point. I wish we could have done that again with them this year.

As with many spots along the river in Portland, there is a House Boat community here. They were all lit up with Christmas lights. I lived on a yacht for many years, but mostly in the tropics. I would think up here would be very cold with the water temperature and the high winds. We had our second big winter storm last week, rain not snow, and the wind in Portland was recorded at 67 mph. I'll bet those boats got blow around.

Driving down the river we let "Irene" our GPS map program pick the route. Holy crap, we were driving straight down on some of these roads. We live at about 600 feet above sea level and dropped all that in about a 1/2 mile down to the river. Beautiful houses on the cliff overlooking the river, but being perched on the cliff would make me nervous.

We have often heard a Steam Engine whistle off in the distance from our place. Not the air horn of a diesel electric locomotive, something more old fashion sounding.  On the river evening we found where it was coming from. The operate an old Steam Locomotive pulling a long line of passenger cars up and down the river. It was an added delight listening to the engine huff and puff as it went by across the river. You could keep track of it by the steam rising. All the passenger cars were decorated with Christmas lights. We'll have to check that out for a ride.

Just up the river, directly east of our place, is a boat club. It looks like you can rent sailboats, canoes, kayaks from here. There is a huge island in the river there, could be good fishing and sightseeing in the summer.

Captain Dave

Looks like Dave's making pizza again.

1st Bike Ride in Portland

Finally, I got the bike out and went over it with a fine tooth comb.
I wanted to make sure the 3,200 miles of bouncing in the truck had not broken anything.

So, all checked out and lubed up, I was ready to hit the road.

Now I have not ridden in over 6 weeks. They say after 2 weeks of not riding you are starting all over again. No shit. And we live in Hillsdale - may as well be San Fransisco for all the steep hills. If you have been to Portland you may not understand because you were either in town, or on the east side which is all flat as Nebraska.

The temperature was not bad about 48 deg with a east wind of 25 mph - Hey just like Florida with steep hills.... Good test for today then. Wait until its raining and 30 degrees!

I am planning to ride to the post office and then our PO Box (in a different town - don't ask) every day, so about 4 miles. Then on longer fishing trips and community rides once I turn 18 and weigh 150lbs again.

I made it, but the hills and breathing in the cold air will take some getting used to.
I see a lot of guys in their 60s and 70s riding here all the time, so I can wimp out.
I have to do this to be who I want to be.  A older man I know told me, "Never give up. When you give up they win". Wise words, don't know why I put it here, just came to mind, I guess.
 
PS: Thanks to Bob for the Tesla Owners Jacket, turns out to be an outstanding cycling jacket!

Now, these Portlandiers have it figured right. Every activity ends with beer.
There is not an activity in Oregon that does not include beer.
Beer Capitol of the World - sorry Germany.

Tillamook, Oregon Cheese Factory

Back to the Pacific Coast for this weekends adventure.

Tillamook is on a large bay with a concentration of rivers, and a large valley with areas of grassy farmland. So, good fishing and good cows. They started Mooing in this area in the 1850s, then all the farmers got together and started a creamery, which is a very large operation today. Tillamook makes butter, cheese and ice cream - all which are very good.

The small town is very rural with none of the other coast's romantic getaways. However.... it is a pretty cool, and I guess romantic, that the families have created such a great community for over 150 years. The town is a family and they are proud of what they do.

There is a free tour of the cheese factory, ya free samples I know your thinking it, and the best ice cream you can eat. You can literally look out of the window and see the cows your ice cream milk came from. People in Oregon are Very Serious about their food. Most of the food, beer, and wine people eat / drink here is from farms in the area.

As far as the picture of the cow. I figured I better put my wool cap on it so you know is was me. I've gained a little weight during the move and getting settled here, so I don't want any miss identifications - wouldn't be fair to the cow.

The drive to Tillamook is over the Coastal Range, through the forest of Douglas Fir trees. Outstandingly beautiful drive. The Wilson River parallels the road for much of the trip. There were some guys in the river fishing for Steelhead (Big Rainbow Trout returning from the sea) and kayakers. I can't wait to get into these rivers and start fishing.

Now before you get to the pictures, I'll have to confess about a little problem that Rose and I have when we travel. That would be finding lunch. Ya, I know WTF, but our eyes roll back into our heads, there are spousal arguments, bad tempers, much driving around in circles then we are automatically drawn to the most rat invested, food poison, roadside attractions of the world. I don't know what it is. Case in Point. Last weekend on the trip to Mt Hood, I had planned lunch option A with lunch option B. Anyway. This trip we were supposed to eat at the Pacific. Really looked good and we had a restaurant.com coupon for 50% off - what could go wrong.... Ha, we had no plan B, or even C.  We got there only to see people get out of their car, walk up to the door and come back - bad sign. Yep, closed for special event. I thought us coming was a special event but apparently not. Anyway, we then went into drooling zombie mode and drove around and around and around until we found the "Mexican Restaurant". I no longer believe in God, is all I can say...With every circuit of the town I prayed I would find a place for my lovely wife to eat, be happy, and this ordeal would be over. I've been on fire and not prayed so hard, but I must have done (and you guys that know me keep shut) some bad stuff in life, because we ended up at the "Mexican Restaurant".  Details are not to be relived. To rub salt into the wound, when we got back up to the cheese factory we found a fantastic place to eat across the road and a cafe inside the cheese factory. WTF, child please, a little help down here... So, if you are every traveling with us make damn sure you figure out where to have lunch before we do -  if you know what is good for you.
Captain Dave

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