As luck would have it, we scheduled our day of wandering around downtown Portland, Oregon to coincide with opening day of the Portland Aquarium. To be clear, this is actually an art-quarium rather than live animals, all drawn by the delightfully talented Mike Bennett.
As part of your admission, you receive a compendium that documents the five biomes you’ll explore and some of the over a hundred cartoon species you’ll encounter in those rooms. Each species includes both a photo and a drawing, along with information about the species and their geography. Some species include side comments, like the Giant Pacific Octopus (pictured below) has a note that reads “My favorite animal without a backbone!” And, conveniently, there’s a checkbox by each one so you can track which creatures you’ve found. (Yes, my compendium is unmarked; our group collaborated on one checklist.)
The inside cover of the compendium includes instructions for exploring Bennett’s Bay – among other things, don’t go backwards! This is a one-way trip through the various biomes, with the compendium organized in the order you’ll encounter them. And while most animals get a sixth or eighth of a page, sea otters and the effort to bring them back to Oregon have a full page spread.
Presumably because it was opening day, we were offered free star(fish)-shaped doughnuts as we moved from the aquarium into the gift shop. While I was tempted by various animals – such as a snail or turtle – holding a “slow down” message, the yard sign that came home with us was a rainbow, which seems appropriate during Pride Month. I’m delighted that stickers have made a comeback, especially since the fit shop had stickers from both this exhibit and some previous ones.
Two minor things to take into account when you visit the Portland Aquarium: keep an eye out for a missing goldfish named Gilly (she makes appearance in several places) and definitely use the bathroom while you’re in the gift shop.
It’s been a weirdly busy week, including a physical therapy appointment this morning, and I suddenly realized it’s Thursday evening and I haven’t written a blog post yet. I did make art, a couple versions, over the last couple days, but I’m not ready to share them. Zuko left a scratch on my leg Monday when he launched himself at Arwen, Arwen fell off the bed Wednesday morning and hooked into my left elbow to catch herself, and I appear to have encountered poison ivy last weekend, at least according to my right wrist.
That’s the long-winded way of saying I’m taking this week off.
It’s been a weird start to our growing season, between our travel and a cooler than normal spring. Because of our travel, anything that was supposed to be started indoors for our client – typically in March or thereabouts – was started early May in our house. That accounts for the eggplant (complete failure this year, none of them started), two varieties of broccoli, and two varieties of large tomatoes. They moved outside last week and are still small enough in their garden beds that they didn’t photograph well. Fortunately, we have some vegetables that are proceeding nicely… not the okra though, where only three plants have appeared so far.
In the keyhole bed, the kale sits as a giant above the chard and next to the spindly scallions. At the far edge of the bed, carrots have volunteered next to the peas. Outside the bed in the keyhole opening, a tall garlic has caught up to the peas in the bed.
Hiding in the just mulched (this morning!) bed are two hills of watermelon seedlings and two of cantaloupe seedlings. I should absolutely thin these out more. Yes, more, I’ve already killed off about half of the seedlings on each hill.
One the left, clearly visible, are the Coco Black Bush Beans surrounded by mulch; they’ll get either cages or trellises to climb soon. On the right, fairly hidden because of the fresh mulch (also this morning!) are several short rows of corn.
The North Georgia Candy Roaster, a variety of squash, is coming in nicely in most of the divided bed, except for the squares that had leftover mustard greens from last year. The greens have now flowered and will presumably be reseeding themselves.
Three hills of tromboncino seedlings in pairs with some small catnip near the front and a tall catnip in the back just waiting to be harvested and dried.
Though not pictured, it is also strawberry season, which will be joined soon by raspberry and mulberry season. That said, I’m stepping outside to plant more okra, three plants just doesn’t cut it.
As I mentioned in my previous post about Puerto de la Cruz, there’s a plethora of activities in walking distance of the Apartamentos Casablanca. We arrived on a Thursday, exhausted after a sleepless night on an overnight flight to Madrid with a nap on the shorter flight to Tenerife North, grabbed a takeout pizza at the on-site restaurant, and settled in for more napping. When it became clear that Cassandra was taking a longer nap, I wandered the nearby area, discovering some touristy shops, restaurants, and a small grocery store, all within a couple blocks of the hotel. We did a similar wander later, picking one of the nearby restaurants as our dinner spot, and scoping out potential breakfast items at the grocery store.
While there were a number of items on our potential plans, we only booked one ahead of time: a Teide by Night tour that involved driving to the nearby national park – named for its prominent (dormant!) volcano, Teide, including dinner and stargazing. The overcast day had me a bit concerned until I realized we were driving through and then above the clouds.
Part of the Agatha Christie stairs, with each stair painted a different color with the name of one of her books
A view of the ocean after climbing the Agatha Christie stairs
A photo of me wearing a phoenix t-shirt with the volcano Teide in the background
A nighttime photo of mountain and several visible stars during the Teide by night tour
The volcano Teide at sunset
A pigeon on a railing by a pond in one of many city parks
A rambling of trees and plants at the local botanical gardens
El Drago de Icod, a tree that’s estimated to be over 800 years old
Me standing by an orca statue at Loro Parque
A variety of orchids at the Orchid Garden in Puerto de la Cruz
A view of Puerto de la Cruz from a high point of the city.
Before that late afternoon and evening excursion, scheduled for our first full day to preempt my inevitable shift back to being a morning person, we wandered up the nearby Agatha Christie stairs, peeking into some tourist shops and a scenic view of the coastline before finding lunch. We enjoyed an amazing sunset and an even more amazing view of the stars – above the cloud cover – in an area with minimal light pollution.
The next day involved walking to the nearby botanical gardens, lingering there for an extended period in lovely weather, then wandering back a slightly different route, which allowed us to discover a larger grocery store. Our plan for Sunday was to seek out a craft market that was advertised in the lobby, and while it turned out to be quite small, our return wanderings took us through the Taoro Garden, a public park with a several distinct areas including a sunken garden, playgrounds, dog park, and ponds… and, luckily for us, a restaurant.
Having taken the time to adjust to the time zone, Monday was an all-day adventure at Loro Parque, starting by catching their free train (tram, really) in Puerto de la Cruz and arriving just after opening. We stayed the entire day, catching the last train back after seeing almost every part of the zoo. The following day, we caught a bus to nearby Icod to visit the “Drago de Icod” – a tree that’s estimated to be between 800 and 1000 years old, a nearby butterfly house, and a banana museum that details the introduction of bananas to the Canary Islands and the resulting industry. That was the only day we really used our raincoats.
Wednesday turned into our big walking day – over 7 miles – starting a couple blocks away at the Orchid Garden, then wandering down towards the coastline for the Fishing Museum (which was primarily about fishing and other seaworthy vessels), the Archaeological Museum, and generally admiring the coastline and variety of shops. The next day, our last full day on the island, we headed up the Agatha Christie stairs again and kept going along a scenic path that gave us some great views of the city and the ocean. As with other areas in town, we found public gardens and a delightful restaurant before returning to pack and rest before a long travel day home.
