Tiki Karaoke, Lily’s places, a walk and a wishing tree: Portland Day 2

Tiki Karaoke, Lily’s places, a walk and a wishing tree: Portland Day 2 by Ann Treacy

March 6, 2024, 3:26 am
Filed under: Oregon

This living on Pacific Time is tough when the good people of the Midwest are two hours ahead. But I’m adjusting. Day two began last night when we all headed to The Alibi, for tiki drinks and karaoke. I did not sing; the others did. We did start the night (which minds you starts at midnight CST when Lily’s off work) with a fishbowl of cocktail. What could go wrong? Actually. it was a super fun night. The people in our group were great performers and we saw some fairly amazing strangers.

Tuesday (today) I took some pictures of Lily and her regular places – home and work. We had a nice lunch and then Lily went to work.

I took a weird walk for a couple hours. I like Portland but, in my experience, thus far, it’s not a walking city. (I guess most US cities aren’t.) Not that it’s difficult to get to places, there just aren’t a lot of other people walking around.

I walked to Chinatown, which came recommended. It was a sunny day so in the distance I could see the hills and just about see the mountains. It’s gorgeous. Closer to me, I walked through a lot of neighborhoods and got to cross the river (The Willamette) twice. Turns out not much commerce or tourism is happening in Chinatown these days. Lots of folks with nowhere else to go. Some folks were friendly, and no one was aggressive, but hard to take tourist photos without looking like a strange photojournalist trying to capture someone’s not-finest moment.

I did accidentally find the Wishing Tree on Morris St and 7th Ave, which is near Lily’s places. The homeowner leaves paper, string and instructions and people write their wishes on the tree. Apparently the original has inspired other wishing trees to pop up. But this is the original. (Of course I knew none of this before I looked on Google, after seeing the tree!)