Down South NE

Just a few more snapshots from last week.  As mentioned, I worked in Seattle last week and so I ended up driving down to Portland to stay with my bro.  I didn't wind up with appointments on Thursday so I took the morning and got up, went to a coffee shop and did a bunch of work and then came back in the afternoon and me and the sibling did a little tour of Portland.

We started with a MANSION tour.... Chuckle chuckle after being at Biltmore last week.  This place was a little peanut stand - very elaborate, but pretty tiny all the same.

Its called the Pittock Mansion.  It was the guy who started the Oregonian newspaper.  They actually didn't build the place until they were in their 70s and then only lived there for 5 years until they died and their kids took the place over.

This is the view from the Music Room - you can see Mt Hood in the distance....

From the main upstairs bedroom, looking the other side of the house - you can see towards Washington and Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier.  When you were standing on the back lawn, you could see the two mountains on one side and the other on the other side.  It was kind of cool.

After dinner, it was kind of late, but I had read about this "Fantasy Trail" that you could walk with lights and all.  It was about 40 minutes from the city, but we decided to take the drive out for a little walk in nature.  Let me throw you a hint if you're ever out in Portland during the holidays -- do not, I repeat, DO NOT go to the Fantasy Trail for a little stroll unless you have a 2 year old with you.  $5 a person later, and you're strolling through the cheesiest display of cheapo lights winding through a wooded path that may or may not be the scene of some creepy "Halloween" murder.  

As you can tell below, though, Karl was the 2 year old in the scenario and was ecstatically delighted with wild amounts of joy!  But I think the place was haunted because that white dot kept on popping up on all my pictures....  Creepy