Delenda Est Carthago: Picture Day takes a cruise on the river

In July 1999 my parents came to Portland for one of their periodic visits. Whenever they showed up, my mom always had something interesting to check out. It became a bit tiring running around town with them, but sometimes she had some good ideas. Like taking a cruise on the Willamette. You can take a boat on the river and check out the sites from the water, so one day we did that. For some reason Krys had to work, but I took the day off and we were off!

This is one of my many dream houses. Holy crap, look at that thing. On the west side of the river, south of town toward Lake Oswego, sat many gorgeous houses like this that you couldn't see from the road above. I had to deliver a fruit basket to one of them once, a house owned by one of the Trail Blazers. Nice place. This place is stunning. The bottom part of the structure used to be a boat garage, and the owners turned it into an indoor swimming pool. Man, that's a cool house.

The boat took us south to Oregon City, where there are waterfalls. So we turned back.

I like this picture. It looks like I'm on CNN or something, reporting on the water behind me.

Another beautiful home along the river. I know I shouldn't covet my neighbor's stuff (even though this person isn't my neighbor) and I know I should be happy with non-material things, but like "Weird Al" Yankovic once sang: "If money can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it." I could live here for a little while, couldn't I?

It's tough getting good shots of downtown from the east unless you're on the water. I was, so I did.

A few days later we went to the Oregon Brewers' Festival, which is one of the most fun events in Portland each year. Brewers come from all over the country to give people a taste. We went almost every year, even though it's packed, especially with annoying frat boys who get hammered early and then chant nonsensical things under the big tent. It's still fun, and the beer is very good. It was at the Brewfest that I drank the best beer EVER, Wisconsin Belgian Red. It tastes like Dr. Pepper. Good gravy, is it good. Even Krys liked it, and she doesn't really like Dr. Pepper. We actually got a bottle of it once, but it's not as good as the draft kind. Anyway, lots of good beer at the festival. One year (probably 2001, as I wasn't working) I went on the Friday, and that was cool, because there were far fewer people there. This is just a picture of the family downing some sweet amber liquid!