Birds with bridges

March 7, 2025 to March 7, 2025

The morning begins with us sharing the bizarre dreams Rachael and I woke up with this morning. A day later now neither of us can remember anything about hers but mine is one that will stick with me for a while. It must have been triggered by the realization that we’re really going to travel soon, because it’s a confusing saga about getting ready to depart. It begins with the requirement that we clean up everything from our storage unit, which unexpectedly has swollen into a small mountain: a berm-shaped pile about thirty yards long with all sorts of junk heaped up on it - wooden pallets, furniture, garbage. Which is bad, but the real issue is the Galapagos tortoise which somehow is going along with us. It’s not clear if he’s biking with us (like one of those charming desert murals Joe Pagac creates down in Tucson), or if our problem is just what to do with him and how to get him on the plane with us.

So do you transport your giant tortoises? We’re open to ideas here. Does it help to get it registered as a comfort animal?

Rachael has her third medical appointment in as many days this morning, so with my rheumatology appointment Tuesday and my permanent crown placement Wednesday our days have been constrained by five sessions in four days, which must count as something of a record for the team.

Today she’s scheduled for a pair of eye exams, scheduled an hour apart. I offer to drive her to the first one, and over breakfast at Caffe Umbria I draw up a walking route home for her by way of Laurelhurst Park. After that I plan to drive back to Bike Tires Direct to return the brake levers I just picked up, because after reading the fine print and studying the tech manuals we were disappointed to discover that they are incompatible with her bike because they’re designed for use only with hydraulic brakes. After that I plan to drive back to the Columbia Slough so that the Rodriguez and I can engage in some bird work.

That short-lived plan doesn’t even last me through my first cup of coffee though, when I get a call from Rachael. She’s changed her mind and decides that she’s due a day off. Her feet are sore from pounding the gravel on Leif Erickson Drive yesterday, and it’s cold and windy enough that she thinks she’d just as soon hang out in the apartment and read a book.

So I change my own plans accordingly. I’ll save the brake return/Columbia Slough excursion for another day, and instead just hang out at Kaiser until Rachael’s done with both appointments; and once the day warms up enough Roddy and I will make the lazy loop down to Sellwood Bridge and back. Once we’re back and while I’m waiting for the heat to come, we huddle together and make our final reviews for our upcoming tour of Europe, agreeing on the itinerary for the first three months and selecting the flight to Milan that I’ll book later this evening. Exciting!

That done, Roddy and I finally wheel down the street toward the river around one. That leaves me three and a half hours to complete the seventeen mile loop I have planned, passing by all ten of the nearby bridges across the river. Even with photo stops along the way I should have no trouble getting back in time for our dinner reservation.

I’m wrong though, because early in the ride it occurs to me to turn this into a challenge to see how many different photographs I can take of bridges that include a bird in it. So I’ve got my eye out for birds of course, but in a different way. And of course if I see anything else that seems worth a snap I’ll stop for that too - especially if I see a Galapagos tortoise lumbering by on the back of a tandem.

It’s a slow go, one that takes all my time available and then some. I make it back to the apartment at 4:45, leaving me just time to change my clothes before we drive off to dinner. I apologize to Rachael for bringing her stress but tell her she’ll understand and agree it was worth cutting it close when she sees what I’ve come home from the hunt with:

Bridges with a photo including a bird: Fremont, Broadway, Steel, Burnside, Morrison, Hawthorne, Tilicum, Crossing, Marquam, Ross Island, Sellwood. Ten for ten!

Bird species with a photo including a bridge: Double-crested cormorant, song sparrow, common merganser, greater scaup, western gull, California gull, Canada goose, cackling goose, pied-billed grebe, American crow, rock dove. Eleven!

Alas there’s no giant tortoise, but the dragon makes a nice exotic substitution.

Double-crested cormorants and the Fremont Bridge.

Double-crested cormorants and the Broadway Bridge.

Juvenile western gull and the Steel Bridge.

California Gull and the Broadway Bridge.

Cackling geese and the Hawthorne Bridge.

Canada geese and the Ross Island Bridge.

Greater scaup and the Ross Island Bridge.

Common merganser and the Marquam Bridge.

Pied-billed grebe and the Ross Island Bridge.

Double-crested cormorant and the Burnside Bridge.

We’ve got a play date tonight! And it’s an actual play date, with a meal out and a live theater performance afterwards. The play is at the Coho Theater in NW Portland so we go to nearby Serrato first for our meal. We were just here a few months ago, but it doesn’t seem too soon to return. We start with their kale salad, and then Rachael orders the scallops again, her favorite dish here. She said it’s the best she’s ever had here, with a different preparation that includes Brussels sprouts and yams.

For myself, I start with an Athleta beverage - their copper ale, one I haven’t seen anywhere else yet but is my favorite of all theirs I’ve tried out so far; and after that I have the roasted half chicken with broccolini and potatoes. And, since we have some time to kill before doors open at the playhouse and it’s too cold to want to stand around outside, we order a bittersweet chocolate crumble to fill in the gaps. And here Rachael would want it made clear that the filled gaps were mostly mine.

And what a rare treat to get to see another live play again! This one is a new play, Samuel D. Hunter’s A Case for the Existence of God - a two actor one acter exploring the relationship between two single fathers of very different circumstances. Excellent, provocative, and just the sort of experience we hope for from a theater performance.

The set for A Case for the Existence of God.

Today's ride: 16 miles (26 km)
Total: 1,159 miles (1,865 km)

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Patrick O'HaraSounds like a nice day!
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4 days ago

Bob KoreisDid you ever read the Dr. Doolittle books? Maybe the tortoise was your version of the sea snail for you to cross the ocean.
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3 days ago