Month: November 2025

I’m thankful for Portland’s quirky immersive art

Mid-November found us back in Portland, this time joined by my sister, with the primary goal of the trip to visit with my aging grandmother, scheduled in short visits on alternating days so as to not overstay her energy levels. To those family and friends we did not manage to connect with on this trip or back in June, I offer my sincerest apologies.

As part of our effort to not overstay our welcome with Grandma, we once again stayed in downtown Portland with an amazing view of the riverfront and a couple blocks away from the Portland Saturday Market. What we somehow missed in June, possibly because of the later sunset, was the number of murders that appear at sunset by the river; Portland is apparently known for its crow population (among other things).

  • A snail at the Portland Aquarium
    A snail at the Portland Aquarium
  • At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a sign that reads "ALL HAIL the Misfits Mischief Makers Creators and Collectors. Yours truly, the Rat King"
    At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a sign that reads “ALL HAIL the Misfits Mischief Makers Creators and Collectors. Yours truly, the Rat King”
  • At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a couple distressed-looking mushrooms and a butterfly along the carpeted slope for one of the holes.
    At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a couple distressed-looking mushrooms and a butterfly along the carpeted slope for one of the holes.
  • At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, assorted characters looking on at the carpeted slope for one of the holes. Multiple carpet textures are in play, as well as some odd bumps.
    At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, assorted characters looking on at the carpeted slope for one of the holes. Multiple carpet textures are in play, as well as some odd bumps.
  • At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, possibly the weirdest hole, requiring the player to either stand on a wobbly wooden log or use their golf club as a cue stick.
    At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, possibly the weirdest hole, requiring the player to either stand on a wobbly wooden log or use their golf club as a cue stick.
  • At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, the continuation of the weirdest hole - the plinko adventure below depends on how far along the uneven, carpeted bridge your ball proceeds before rolling out again at ground level.
    At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, the continuation of the weirdest hole – the plinko adventure below depends on how far along the uneven, carpeted bridge your ball proceeds before rolling out again at ground level.

Portland is also a prime location for quirky art, or in the case of this blog post, quirky immersive art. We revisited the Portland Aquarium, vaguely justifying the repeat visit because my sister hadn’t been there yet, and a few days later, explored Mike Bennett’s other immersive art experience, the Wonderwood Restaurant & Indoor Mini Golf. While I have absolutely no golfing experience, I have played a few rounds of mini golf over the years, and this was by far the craziest set of holes I’ve played. (Please note that I’m not particularly good at mini golf. Par is something that exists for other players.)

In addition to Mike Bennett’s delightful art, I could tell we were in for something different when we noticed the plethora of extraneous holes at the first hole, with writing inside like “Nope”, “Wrong”, and “X” (which did not, in fact, mark the correct spot). In addition to odd patches of mismatched carpet texture, deliberate bumps in otherwise flat surfaces, one of the holes has you teeing off at chest level (depending on your height, of course), with the choice of standing on a wobbly log or a nearby step to hit the ball onto a narrow, unevenly cut, carpeted (with multiple textures) bridge above a plinko-style structure that drops your ball back out to ground level. While we had the option of playing again – your admission covers unlimited plays in the same day – we opted to escape (this time) across the street to a lovely yarn & book store.

A selfie of me at the Hopscotch Interactive Art Experience wearing a cocktail shirt (no, really, it has line art of cocktails... and flamingos) with multicolor lights streaming across and behind me.
A selfie of me wearing a cocktail shirt (no, really, it has line art of cocktails… and flamingos) with multicolor lights streaming across and behind me.
Hanging lights at the Hopscotch Interactive Art Experience. The lights were constantly rotating between colors as you walked among the dangling strings.
Hanging lights at the Hopscotch Interactive Art Experience. The lights were constantly rotating between colors as you walked among the dangling strings.

A couple days later, we explored another nearby immersive art exhibit: Hopscotch. We weren’t sure what to expect from this one, I had picked up a brochure at the airport in the 20-minute gap between our flight arrival and my sister’s, so we were working from a single page description and photos, including “23,000 sq. ft. of total immersion in the unexpected” and “15 vibrant installations from 40+ local, national, and international artists.” This turned out to be another delightful experience, with some exhibits being harder to leave than others, like the colorfully lit trampoline room (not much bounce, but the wall lights are reactive to nearby activity) and a ball pit. Tickets do need to be purchased online, and if you’re visiting on a Saturday, ahead of time. Don’t show up like we did and be disappointed that it’s sold out, though that did offer us the opportunity to visit the nearby Hippo Hardware store and walk across the Burnside Bridge; we then pre-purchased tickets for Sunday.

If you know of other immersive art exhibits – anywhere! – I’d love to hear about them.

MRIs are annoyingly loud

A couple years ago, I posted about my first MRI experience, which was for my hip. While I found the sound variance fascinating with a headset, this week, I experienced an MRI without one, and it was definitely annoyingly loud at various stages, even with the earplugs they provided. When it wasn’t too jarring, I was – as I was concerned about in my previous experience – bored.

I understand why I didn’t have a headset this time. Technically, I had two MRIs back-to-back: one of my spine and one of my brain. It’s safe to assume that they don’t want a headset showing up while scanning your head.

Good news! No concerns at all about my brain. Well, at least not on an MRI.

Bad news! We’re back to arthritis in my neck being the likely cause of the tingling in my fingertips that I have been experiencing since May. The EKG I mentioned back in July that was checking for nerve damage/carpal tunnel showed nothing significant, which led to me seeing my Primary Care Physician (PCP), who then referred me to Neurology.

On the plus side, the neurologist is amazing – attentive, taking notes, looking up possibilities while we were talking about my symptoms and eliminating options based on symptoms that I don’t have. She called me within a couple hours of the MRI results hitting the system to discuss what I should try next. I’ll schedule a follow up with her in a month or so to discuss the effectiveness of the latest possible solution.

Fall progresses in bursts

I swear, from one day to the next, the trees suddenly changed color. I’m sure there was a progression, yet I somehow missed it. What I haven’t missed is the subsequent delivery of many of those beautiful leaves onto our lawn.

  • A view of the maple tree, whose leaves are a lovely red. Most of the branches still filled with leaves, despite the scattering of leaves under the tree.
  • A view of the same maple tree, two days later, showing the upper left branches have lost most of their leaves. This view is from inside the house, also showing part of the vegetable garden with a dusting of snow.
  • A view of the same maple tree, three days after the first photo, showing more bare branches on the upper left side. This view is from inside the house, also showing part of the vegetable garden with a dusting of snow. I should bring the garden chairs in for the winter.

Three photos over the course of four days show the slow progression, most noticeably in the upper left branches, which are now creeping towards bare. It could be gradual from here, with more branches showing each day… or, as happens periodically when you live near the Windy City, a blusterous day could sweep in and shake the rest of those leaves lose. That already happened to a tree across the street.

Done before the first snow!

*checks the weather forecast for the next week or so*

Done well before the first snow!

A stained patch of driveway where the last of the mulch pile sat, with two plastic buckets bearing the remnants of that pile.
A partial view of the back yard from the living room, with fresh mulch around and in the vegetable beds and under the recently trimmed mulberry tree, and brilliantly red leaves on the maple tree, offset by neighboring trees that are still mostly green or lightly yellow.
A freshly place patch of mulch in the front garden near the black rasperries. A pair of white pumpkins site nearby, waiting for their trip to the back yard to become compost.

And, delightfully, done mulching for the season.

For those of you following along at home, we went through about 35 cubic yards of mulch this year, dispersing it to a mix of previously and newly mulched areas, such as around the raised beds in the vegetable garden (old) and creating a back perimeter path (new). Our most recent new spot, which finished out the mulch pile, is in the front yard, set up for a variety of fruit that will be growing in the area.

Normally, I’d say we’re done gardening for the season. It is, after all, November. But the growing season has been entirely weird, I picked some raspberries earlier this week and we have some white strawberries still, though I don’t expect those will have time to ripen. It’s warm enough that weeding can still happen, which is really just a head start for spring weeding.