Looking back at Portland

I am not in Portland, have not been in Portland since Monday. This is Thursday.

The sky here in Monterey has retreated behind its coastal gray blanket of clouds. If I were to stand up on my rooftop, the peak of the rooftop, and look way over east, I might see a lighter version of gray than I see directly outside my window. If I were a bird, I'd head there now to find warmth and bright daylight that changes by the hour as the sun, which would be visibly  bright in the sky, arced across the span of blue from east to west.

No, I am not in Portland, but I have brought home my experiences and impressions, my mind stamped like a paper in a letterpress, a first and lasting collection of images.

Monday took us to the Columbia River Gorge. We only had a few hours to drive around, head off the Interstate to find views of the river, the bluffs, the mountains, and the smoke-haze-veiled trees. A fire was burning somewhere in the distance. It made all the long views of the river appear to be paintings done by traveling artists in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Short of actual leaping salmon in the wide and very grand river, the beauty and riches of the river gorge were splendid.

Of course we went to Multnomah Falls and had a little hike up to see the pretty scenery, doodled around in the gift store, bought a fridge magnet and wondered if we could just go AWOL from both our jobs.

Nope. We had to leave.

I'll go back. I talked to a young woman at breakfast at Besaws Cafe (Do not hesitate; go there. Diners cling to their table, chain themselves to the chair until they have savored every last morsel.) who said she'd grown up in the area, left for a number of years and always found herself coming back again. She gave up and moved back and feels content, satisfied and energized by the city. I understand, not because I am looking up at the fog here, hearing the seagulls' hoarse shrieks and empathetically feeling a kinship with Pacific Grove (I'm not), but because Portland is a fine place, and its people respond to it with a deep resonant love that plays out in a thousand interesting ways. It kind of gets to you. Right in the heart.