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
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