Portland Architecture: Tudor Lane

Our neighborhood in Portland is full of architectural styles ranging from Victorians from the late 1800s through Mid-century moderns. When we were house hunting, we learned a bit about all of the different styles and now we enjoy identifying them as we walk the neighborhood. While exploring different jogging routes, Hendrik discovered what we call Tudor Lane.

Tudor Lane (NE 32nd Place, not to be confused with NE 32 Ave or NE 32nd Court) is packed with Tudor houses. Not cookie cutter Tudors. No. As many different Tudors as you could imagine and more. Different colors, siding styles, decorative half-timbering, windows, accents, landscaping, but all still perfect rows of Tudors for several blocks. If you love Tudors or just want to be architecturally astonished, take a walk down NE 32nd Place between Knott and Fremont.

Bonus: I bet it is really fun to trick-or-treat on this street because it is easy to decorate Tudors to look spooky for Halloween.

n.b. Obviously I’m referring to American turn of the twentieth century Tudors and not historical British ones.

Halloween Costumes

Hendrik’s friends had a Halloween party on Saturday and we needed costumes. We all told Hendrik he couldn’t use the same costume two years in a row so I tried to brainstorm new ideas and couples costumes. After he stubbornly vetoed everything and procrastinated, we were left with less than a day to find costumes. Lucky for him, his mom had the perfect mask for him to get away with wearing the same Star Trek uniform again and being Masaka from the TNG episode Masks. I think I managed to pull together a decent flapper costume with what we had in the house. They let us in to the party so I guess the costumes were good enough. Phew.

My favorite costume at the party was dead Amelia Earhart, complete with pale makeup and aviator glasses. Maybe next year I can get Hendrik to be something more creative but you should all count on another Star Trek character.

Sunday in SLC

Sunday in SLC is an interesting cultural phenomenon. All of the Mormons are busy with church and doing Mormony things with their families so you might think it would be a quiet day around town, but you would be wrong. All of the non-Mormons come out to take advantage of the less crowded city and outdoor activities which makes for a pretty lively day. They also use it as an opportunity to find like-minded friends.

Hendrik started his Sunday with a run up Ensign Peak (5417 ft) with Gil. I drank coffee and chatted with Amy. Hendrik wasn’t used to the elevation so he spent the rest of the morning gasping for air but he still insisted that he enjoyed the run. He also enjoyed winning at Settlers of Catan.

Hendrik plotting his treacherous victory.

We went to a brunch place called Sweet Lake that seemed like it was pretending to be a Portland brunch place pretending to be in Salt Lake City. They served delicious biscuits with fried chicken and specialized in limeade. I had the habeñero limeade and it was everything I hoped it would be. I may have cried once or twice while drinking it.

We visited the botanical garden at the University of Utah, which had a fascinating low-water garden, a panoramic view of the city, and a nature walk in the foothills. Amy had to work on robotics and machine learning homework for most of the day but I’m happy I got to see her while she was laboring away. Soon she’ll build a robot to do it for her.

Walking through the oak tunnel.

A Weekend in SLC

Last weekend, we flew to Salt Lake City to visit Amy and our friends, Gil and Rikka. On our way out of Oregon, we got some awesome views from the plane as we flew over the Columbia River and Mt Hood at sunset.

Mount Hood is almost out of snow!

On Saturday, we all went outdoor adventuring! We started in American Fork Canyon with a picnic and some bouldering.

Bouldering!

After exhausting the climbable routes on Australian Boulder, we went to Diamond Fork Canyon where we hiked to Fifth Water Hot Springs. We had a lovely sunset soak and a moonlit hike back through the canyon to the car.

Back to the Symphony

A few weekends ago, we went to the Oregon Symphony with Hendrik’s parents. Hendrik’s father used to play oboe in the symphony and retired nine years ago. This was his first time back at a performance since his retirement. We listened to Brahm’s Fourth Symphony, Haydn’s Symphony No. 83, a newly commissioned piece by Katherine Balch, and a piano concerto by Aaron Copland. The pianist for the Copland piece gave a flamboyant performance with a different persona for every movement. I also particularly enjoyed the second movement of Balch’s composition, which used single notes held for an impossibly long time as a simple but compelling harmony.

Waiting outside the concert hall after a lovely performance.

Duchesse de Bourgogne

Hendrik’s high school friend, Cam, recently hosted a beer tasting party. Everyone brought two large bottles of an unusual or fun beer. We placed the beers into brackets (like teams in sports) and then had a taste-off. One of the beers we brought was an unusual Belgian sour, Duchesse de Bourgogne. Our friend Michelle often ordered it when we were at bars in the Netherlands, but we were never brave enough to try it. To our surprise, not only did we like it, it won the beer bracket!

Showing off the winner!

Duchesse de Bourgogne is a Flemish red ale and I think the best description someone came up with at the beer tasting was, “it is kind of like drinking [balsamic] salad dressing.”

Queen of the Folding Bicycle

I’ve been commuting with my folding bike for about 6 months since moving to Portland and 3.5 years total. That means I’ve folded and unfolded it at least 1500 times! No wonder people think I make it look easy.

Although the bike routes are not nearly as safe and nice as they were in the Netherlands, I’ve still managed to optimize a few routes to minimize interactions with traffic and maximize pavement quality. My short ride to the MAX is about a mile to the Lloyd Center stop and then 41 minutes on the train. The long route is three miles and 28 minutes on the train. Amusingly, the long route saves me 10 minutes on my commute since it lets me skip the section of downtown where the MAX is slowest.

My lovely Brompton, Vroomeer, waiting for the MAX at the Lloyd Center stop.

Vroomeer is quite the conversation piece. I get questions from fellow MAX rides at least once per day. What is that? How much does it weigh? Does it have gears? What size are those wheels? Is it electric? And then my least favorite (especially when it is the first question they ask), how much does your bike cost? I’m kind of surprised I get this question so much because I thought it was a taboo subject in the US, but I guess I’m out of touch with US culture (or the other MAX riders are out of touch with good manners).

Short route.

Long route.

Now we just have to see if I have the mettle to keep up with biking as the rainy winter sets in. It can’t be any worse than the soggy, cold Dutch winters, right?