Monday, August 09, 2010

Road Trip 2010: Day 61: Portland, OR:
The Pictures (part 1)

Time to tell the story in pictures of our fantastic (if tiring) Sunday in Portland.

Sunday morning we three--Rick, Terry and me (Sandy had to go to work)--made our way to the west side of the city to the World Forestry Center...

World Forestry Center and Discovery Museum

Two large pieces of 3-D art done in wood caught my eye.

"The Mill"

"The Forest"

Inside they tell the story of forests around the world. You can take a train ride through the Boreal forest of Russia, a boat ride through China's temperate forests, a safari through South Africa's forests, and climb into the canopy of the rainforests of South America.

You can go white water rafting on the Columbia River, smoke jump to fight a forest fire, or practice felling trees and stacking the logs.

You can. We three did all of those things mentioned in the first paragraph. Rick did the smoke jumping and tree felling. (He missed his target by 60 meters in the former. Successfully felled three trees in the latter but he was s-l-o-w in doing so. Needs practice.)

There were several displays showing the abundance of living things that make forests their home as well as one heck of a collection of petrified wood.

There was also a special exhibit that had little to do with forests or wood. It was about the Pendelton Wool Company and you could hardly avoid seeing the major piece they had on display. It started int he lobby, passed overhead into the canopy of the mock tree and disappeared across the ceiling and into a separate room.



THE Blanket

How big?

The pattern is called "Geronimo" after the Apache chief because it was one he favored.

For heaven's sake...Why?

They had smaller pieces on display as well as a brief explanation of why wool is the perfect renewable natural material and a brief ode to sheep.

A special blanket honoring Smokey The Bear


We left the Forestry Center to go back down into the city for lunch at Old Town Pizza before embarking upon an afternoon's guided walk. But that is another post....

1 comment:

RT said...

Pretty woodworking. :)