Goin' on STAYcation

Since the last round of ankle surgery, life has been lo-key and generally lagging behind on extracurriculars (like bicycling and blogging)... a middle-age test of patience. 

Today, we head North to the Puget Sound's Hood Canal to celebrate Lilly's last day of kindergarten with a few days of vacation.  We originally planned this trip for Memorial Day weekend.  Ever since returning to an office career, I feel much pressure to get out of town during three-day weekends even though the freeways are jam-packed and finding a decent accommodation is a royal pain.  So for the Memorial holiday, we wisely decided to go-with-the-flow on a low-carbon STAYcation right here in sunny Stumptown.

Staycation Day 1 - SOUTHEAST PORTLAND.

TGIF started with making pizzas at our neighbors' and a tentative plan to catch the Rose Festival Fireworks at the Waterfront.   By the end of the evening, our crew was ready to crash except Lilly and I.   At dusk, we found a desolate spot in the SE industrial area to view the skyshow without battling the crowds.  Stepping out of the van, we looked across the street and were surprised to find our family friends Mike, Kate, Lucia and Hazel.  Lucia and Lilly were in music classes as little tykes and spent the last year in kindergarten together, too.  They enjoyed the magic of the moment dancing in the back of the van and marveling at Portland's grandest firework display of the year.  

Staycation Day 2 - SOUTHWEST PORTLAND

After a morning filled with house chores, we bussed it downtown with our neighbor Jocey to a screening of The Great Muppet Caper at the Portland Art Museum.  Jocey is Lilly's hands-down favorite babysitter and they're hooked on old Muppet Show episodes.  

Jocey is also an Art Museum volunteer, 

so needless to note, the timing was perfect and the movie was FUNtastic.  Lilly loves all the Muppets but we share the same favorite:  Animal, the wild and crazy drummer who grunts in place of words and can't be contained by anyone or anything.  

From the Art Museum, we stopped by the Central Library for a book exchange and then headed over to The Nines for happy hour.   The fancy-schmancy modern lobby level of Portland' first five-star hotel is a wonderfully daylit atrium highlighting the original character of the old Meier & Frank department store.  It's also an echo chamber that amplifies the screams of three-month old babies.   

Nerve-wracked and still thirsty, we headed to the top floor for fresh air at Skylab's Departure.   Despite being ultra-swanky and a bit pretentious, I love this new bar for its rooftop deck and panoramic views of the surrounding area.  Outdoors and exposed to the elements, it's a transcendental natural experience smack-dab in the heart of Portland.  Plus, we could relax a little as Wubby's cries got lost into the white noise of the City.

Staycation Day 3 - NORTHWEST Portland

More chores in the morning followed by an adventure into the Great Northwest (Portland). 

We started with Starflower deliveries to the PNCA graduation ceremonies and sipping lattes from the new Barista microespressohouse in the Pearl District.   For lunch, we visited a chic French bakery on Nob Hill where the heavy cream-and-cheese-filled pastry case intstantly transported us into gastronomic paradise.  Across the street, we shopped for groceries at the upscale Food Front Coop - as opposed to our normal weekly trip to People's hippy Coop on the opposite side of town.  By this time, we were deeply immersed in yuppieville - but, hey we're on Staycation, right?

Returning to PNCA in the afternoon for the annual thesis show, we visited with old friends and admired the art created by the class of '09.  Many of the stellar graduating students were in my last Natural Science class at PNCA.   

2009 was also the first graduating class from the PNCA Master of Fine Art program (coinciding with the completion of my own Master of Environmental Management degree), and we immersed ourselves into an interactive party machine created by one of the grads - imagine a tornado of multi-colored confetti!  It was also a pleasure to reconnect with many of the PNCA faculty and staff - my professional community for seven years.

  

Last weekend, I had a series of connections to PNCA with a Father/Son theme when Bunny had two flower deliveries ordered for PNCA professors who lost their fathers.  I delivered both arrangements and visited with their families.   On my way back home, I stopped by the 6th birthday party for Holocene (a music venue where Bunny provided floral designs for many years) and ran into Doug, an old friend from PNCA.  He shared a sweet story about a recent road trip with his 82-year old father.  And then inside Holocene, the club's owner and I talked about academic sabbaticals, middle-age and a three-week winter trip to India he's planning for his father.  With my Dad arriving for Father's Day in a couple of weeks and considering my Uncle's battle against cancer, this series of community connections resonated deeply.

Staycation Day 4 - NORTHEAST Portland

We finished a final round of chores in the morning.  A nice benefit of STAYcation is returning to a clean home.  Lilly nicknamed our house 'The Happiness Hotel' for the weekend as we realized that vacation is more defined by our perception in the moment rather than arriving into some foreign destination.   

On Memorial Day, we headed up to NE Alberta for a Mexican meal at La Bonita.  Maybe it was the lard in the frijoles, or the afterglow from three straight days of fiesta, but by Monday we burned out.  

As Bunny joked, "We need a VACATION from the staycation."  

So, after lunch, we cruised along Marine Park Drive admiring the Columbia River and distant panoramas of the Cascade peaks - eventually napping at Bridal Veil on a sunny patch of grass overlooking the Gorge just east of NE Portland.

  

The Hills Are Alive!

About a week ago, we were visiting with another newborn family of four when the father of a  four-month-old and four-year-old confided, 

"I heard there's a drug that law students take so they can get by on only four hours of sleep.  Whatever it is, I want some.  Just a few more hours in the day to focus on my lost interests."

I felt no empathy for this weary father because I HAD been getting by on adrenaline for a solid three months.  But sure enough, the fourth-month burn out settled in after a week.  I was taken down by a flurry of cheesy urps, and working overtime to fight random illnesses migrating from kindergarten.  Out for the count and feeling disconnected from EVERYthing, I started bubbin' away my worries with late night snack-a-thons.   

I reached out to Bunny with a plea for some personal time in nature, and she complied. 

On a summery Sunday morning, we headed out to hike in the Columbia Gorge with our friend KP who recently moved back to town after a decade in San Francisco.  This time of the year, Dog Mountain is infamous for its grand displays of wildflowers.  The trail is short and sweet, but steep as hell.  To keep the pace rolling, Kelly and Bunny belted out spontaneous Gospel rhythms while I carried a sleeping Wub.  They also 

invented a wacky rule - if you feel like complaining, then start quackin' instead.  That's right, like a duck, "Quack! quack! QUAck!" Lilly was a good sport being the only kindegartner krazy enough to challenge the mountain with her first blister and only a few quacks.

Climbing a thousand feet in a mile, we reached the first sun-soaked flower field overlooking panoramic vistas of the Gorge.  From this particular spot, the glaciated valley always reminds me of Julie Andrews spinning down color-splashed meadows in the Swiss Alps.  Throw in our choir, and literally, the Hills were Alive with the Sound of Music.   Wubby was in heaven - a real nature boy!

After eating a scrumptious Hawaiian PB & J (peanut butter, sliced bananas and passionfruit-pineapple jelly from Maui), Bunny & Lilly worked on a wildflower crown while KP & Wubby played in the grass.   This was my chance to breakaway for a half-hour speed-hike to the next flower field .  

Listening to the soul-searching spells spun by Mogwai (get inspired by these Argentinian images!), I charged up the mountain and found my lost confidence as a husband, father and integral piece of the community puzzle.  Inspired by the wisdom of nature, I returned from the mountain recharged, refreshed and ready for the week.  Good thing, because I have another round of ankle surgery today, and it drains about all I've got.  

I'm not one to follow daily horoscopes, but I stumbled upon the following Cancerian forecast randomly this morning: 

Today, all the different elements of your life will come together and be more connected.

Dia De Las Mamias

Great Gaia!

On our last Sunday in Maui, an island Earth Day celebration was hosted on a local's beach nearby.  The North Shore of Maui is much like Portland's inner Eastside: a creative, friendly, conscientious, healthy and resourceful community.  When their event permit fell through, the Earth Day organizers got the word out by radio and internet that this year's celebration would be an acoustic, unplugged potluck rather than the usual amplified, food-vendor event.   An unplanned, perfect model for any Earth-friendly congregation.  

Back in Portland, Earth week was underway with the National League of Cities meeting here under a conference theme of Sustainability.   

During the closing panel, Annapolis' warm and fuzzy mayor called for a national climate icon.  How about Mel-T the Bear:  "Only WE can stop global warming."

On Earth Day, Lilly's school asked everyone to dress in an Earth theme.  At first I was a bit dumb-founded as we have no prints of the Earth, but then flipping through her dresser, I found a second-hand sweater covered in butterflies.  It was a timely and sweet chance to explain the Butterfly Effect to my daughter.  

The following day happened to be "Take Your Child to Work Day," and  although Lilly finds my office job to be mundane key-punching and paper-shuffling, this evening I had the opportunity to share the City's newly released Climate Action Plan (check it out!) with our neighborhood association organizers, SE Uplift.   They were hosting a family-friendly open house to celebrate a forthcoming Neighborhood Climate Action Planning Guidebook.  The guide was developed with a group of urban design grad students from PSU - half of whom were classmates in my final course last Spring.  It was a hopeful neighborhood gathering, and I was fortunate to have Bunny & Wubby there, too.  

Lilly was my sidekick during the presentation, and at the end, she said, "Daddy, I want you to tell them about 'the Butterfly Attack'."  

It was an empowering end to the evening recognizing how one individual's actions can change the entire world.  

The next day, I received an email from the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) proposing that we partner on climate action outreach with their splendid courses.   I participated in an NWEI discussion course with my engineering firm's green team back in 1995:  Deep Ecology.  It was the first time that I heard of the Gaia Hypothesis:  the earth as a whole living organism that adapts itself to support life just as its ecosystems and organisms evolve over time.   From there my fascination with natural cycles, chaos theory and systems thinking began along with a recognition that maybe life's coincidences are not just pure chance, but rather small signals in a complex, interconnected world.  

Our Earth week ended with 5-year-old friends and families at the annual City Repair Earth Day celebration at a community park followed by viewing the new film simply titled, "Earth".   Later that night, my family was on a neigborhood walk passing by the City Repair office where volunteers were packing up from the big party.  One of them, noted that he attended my Climate Action Plan presentation at SE Uplift, and was reassured that a whole city could organize to minimize our global impact by taking BIG steps toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Another volunteer, invited us back for tea in their community cob house.  Ain't Gaia Great?

Eh Bradah, How's It?

This week has been a whirlwind after returning from Hawaii in the middle of the night last Sunday and ankle surgery last Tuesday.   Plus, the Blazers are in the playoffs for the first time in 5 years.  Yeeehaw!

We made the trip to Maui as part of a combined family vacation and visit with my Uncle Daveyboy who's been deep in a battle with prostate and bone cancer since the Holidays.  Good news...after facing near defeat in January, he bounced back with the help of chemo therapy. Advantage Daveyboy.  Besides an occasional stomach pain and sporadic insomnia,  his day-to-day life has returned to a stable state and as he proudly notes "I eat like a horse".  I'm not sure if he means sheer caloric quantity or the bales of leafy Mr. Ed veggies (or both), but he looks great thanks to waves of support from family, friends, angels and caregivers.  

We also overlapped with The Goob (aka my Pop) visiting his Bradah Daveyboy.  The day after arriving, our families spent an afternoon at the uncrowded, wind-protected yet thorn-ridden Malealekelaala (sp?) Beach.  It was surreal to watch The Goob and Uncle Daveyboy cradling little Buddy with a beach backdrop and deep azure ocean.   Then, out of nowhere, Daveyboy whipped out his Bible and questioned our knowledge of John 3:15 to which Bunny point-blank fired off a concise recitation.  We duly noted that Buddy is the only begotten son of Bubby, who is the only begotten son of The Goob.   

"Best ye be begettin' before ye get forgotten" - Bubby Reno, 2009. 

Bunny christened River (aka Buddy Rio) with a new nickname on Maui:  Wubby.  An all-too-appropriate name as the tropical weather revealed layers of "wub" as he turned two (months) on Hawaii.  Wubby also figured out how to sleep 9 hours at night during the trip.  With that kind of sleep, anywhere feels like vacation to newborn parents.  But, it certainly helped to have Heavenly Hana smoothies and fresh Ono grilled fish salads just outside our doorstep.    

We stayed down the road from Uncle Daveyboy's farm, in the quaint little bustling beach town, Paia.  Bunny remembered the charm and good vibe of Paia from our last visit to Maui in 2002 when a 1-month-conceived Lilly Star was going through rapid cell division inside Bunny's belly.  Maybe that's why Lilly's a natural Pacific Islander:   swims like a fish, gracefully hulas with wavy hands, tans effortlessly, and prefers barefeet.  Upon her return, Lilly found the Aloha immediately at the Nalu Kai Lodge.  Our low-key 1960s retro accommodation was easiest to enter directly through the middle of the town's primo gelato shoppe. 

 

Most mornings, we'd wake up really slow and then connect with our Maui family (my Uncle, Aunt and cousins plus Bunny's cousin Kate who lives with her daughter, Zoe Paloma, at the other end of the island), but we also had a neighborly coincidence one sunny morning at the Lodge tiki bar.  

First Bunny whispers, "Don't look now, but I think that guy in the hammock is our neighbor from across the street back in Portland."  Bunny notes familiar faces nearly everywhere she goes, but she's certain that this guy (Ambrosio) is our neighbor, so I encourage her to confirm our destiny.

Meanwhile, Ambrosio's fiance (Melise) is laying on the cordovan watching us watch her groom and thinking, "That little girl looks familiar."  

As it turns out, Ambrosio and Melise were living across from our house for the past two years and remembered Lilly Star as the sweet pixie who would always offer raspberry greetings to her neigbors.  Somehow, we all ended up at the same 9-unit Hawaiian lodge at the same time, so we celebrated with a big tiki Surf & Turf BBQ family dinner to honor both Daveyboy and our new friends/former neighbors.  After marrying on Maui, these lovely newlyweds are off to a honeymoon on the Big Island and new residence in Bavaria.  Ausgezeichnet! 

My Uncle calls these strange, reassuring coincidences Maui Magic.  Believe it baby!

Aloha!

The Power of Community

The past week has been thoroughly inspiring and powerful, starting with a waterfront ride along the banks of the mighty Columbia last Sunday. I had been hearing about the reknowned Marine Park ride for years, but finally ventured along the I-205 bike path far enough North to reach the river. The stunning vistas of a snow-smothered Mt. Hood were complemented by a warm evening breeze and honking migratory water fowl. Sheer beauty.

Besides reflecting breathtaking landscapes, the Columbia River has been generating most of the Pacific Northwest's power renewably for over 70 years. Lilly and I love the old Woody Guthrie song written for the Bonneville Power Administration dam construction program in the 1930s:

"Roooll On Columbia, Roll On. ROOOOOLL On Columbia, ROLL On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn, so roll on Columbia roll on."

She's also a big fan of the Busby Berkeley dance routines from the 1930s. We borrowed an awesome compilation of his film sequences from the library shortly after Buddy Rio's birth. If you're not familiar with his mind-bending set designs, check out this primer from the Magnetic Fields Busby Berkeley Dreams. Busby had a gift for visually capturing the modern era's synchronicity necessary to lead us out of the Great Depression with a hopeful determination. Now, here we are again - deep in the waters of economic recession and hopeful that the power of community will float us back to shore.

Each working day last week demonstrated Portland's strength as we collaborate selflessly to serve the greater good of our community. On Monday, the city's foremost green builders gathered in a renovated hall of the old Henry Weinhard's brewery and collectively imagined our nation's first office building designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge.

If the integrated design team is successful, the building's ecological and social benefits will restore habitat and reverse human impacts on global warming all while eliminating utility costs and raising the productivity, health and happiness of the building's occupants.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to present the City of Portland's climate protection steps to a Sunnyside Environmental Middle School Climate Teach-In. The enthusiastic cheers from this eco-crowd reassured me that the responsbility of our children will surely lead us to a stable climate while raising their quality of life to an irreversible standard. Afterwards, I visited Lilly's kindegarten class at Sunnyside where we shared a lego-model of a living house complete with native plant and animal species inhabiting its ecoroof.

On Wednesday, I returned to Weinhard's for a net-zero energy and water technical design sessions for the Living Building ecocharette. Then Thursday, the collaboration continued with the release of a new, local green building standard for small commercial buildings. And finally on Friday, I attended a soft opening for the DaVinci Arts Middle School new music building in our neighborhood -

the nation's first net-zero LEED Platinum freestanding classroom AND a perfectly inspiring intersection between art & science in design. All througout the week, there was a sense of camaraderie and collective accomplishment -- We're all in it together!

The power of Portland's community as we collaboratively bring our sustainable visions to life is nothing short of a design revolution. When shared between like-minded progressive cities, this cultural explosion will surely reinvent how we integrate with our natural systems post-recession.

Spring Smiles!

After a seemingly neverending stretch of chilly rain, today was the first sunny weekend day of the year near 70 and the neighborhood community came out in droves.  Plenty of smiles abound with early Spring blossoms.   Returning from an afternoon Stacatto Gelato-break,  Bunny and Lilly could hardly walk a block without a fond community reconnection from the long Winter.  We are very fortunate to witness our neighborhood emerge from a down-and-out slum into a hip-happenin' hotspot between recessions.  

This past week has also been a transition for Buddy Rio from fleeting daydream smiles to a smile-a-thon everyday.  It's like a daily present that he shares with whoever is willing to receive his gift.  First he gazes right into the eyes of his beholder.  Then, once his focused attention is acknowledged, he goes into a series of smiling contortions and giggles.  The whole process is reciprocally contagious until his next big urp or diaper change.