PORTLAND: I was too pooped to post this last night… My evening ended with a chance find: live jazz and dinner. Tasty humus, taboli, and more match with a greek salad. The music, food and tasty rita were a perfect end to the day.

    
WILLAMETTE RIVER: After a full day of hiking all over western Portland, I climbed aboard Willamette Jetboats for a high-speed tour of the river from the bridges up to the falls. I not only got a view from the water, but I got a view OF the water. Whether it’s showbiz or sadism, I can’t be sure that makes the boat captain do what he does… It’s a flat-bottom jet-powered boat. Got the picture? Now, picture going fast–really fast–when the captain suddenly puts the boat in a sharp bank turn and REVERSES THE ENGINE. The resulting flat spin sprays everyone. Good thing my trusty Nikon was safe in a plastic bag! I’m posting pictures from the Treo. The really good ones will follow later.

   
PORTLAND: In 1948 a hole was cut in a Portland sidewalk for a lamp post that never came. Dick Fagen, an Oregon Journal columnist, took up the cause to make it a park. He planted flowers and wrote of Leprechaun happenings there. On St. Patty’s day 1976 (seven years after Fagan’s death), Mills End Park was added to the roster of city parks and holds the world’s record for smallest city park. (452.16 inches)

   
PORTLAND: Yumbolicious. Perfect latte. Stumptown is Portland’s current fave rave for coffee. While the setting is tragically hip, the product is worth the line.

   
PORTLAND: Sir Edmund Hillary said his reason for climbing Everest was because "it is there." Okay, this is hardly the same lofty peak, but I could think of no better reason for going…