Gold Man, Sonic, and the Kroc Center

by Pa Rock

Tourist

Yesterday was spent just running errands and traveling about town.  We drove past Oregon's capital building a few times, but it is closed to all but essential personnel, with essential tourists being denied entry.   The building is crowned with a twenty-two foot golden statue of a lumberjack, officially called "the Oregon Pioneer" and unofficially known as "Gold Man."  The big, brawny lumberjack has an axe in his right hand, and a tarp over his left shoulder that sort of resembles a cape.  The bronze statue weighs nine tons and is covered in bright and shiny 23-carat gold leaf.  It was sculpted in 1938 by Ulrich Ellerhusen in New Jersey and shipped out to Oregon.

If you have not seen the Oregon capitol, it is well worth a look-see on the internet.    It is a very unique building - quite unlike any other state capitol building.

One of the places that we visited yesterday was the Kroc Center, a community center focused on swimming and physical activities for the entire family.   It runs on a membership basis and is otherwise funded by the Ray and Joan Kroc (McDonald's) Foundation and the Salvation Army.  The Kroc Center is quite a nice community asset.

Lunch was from Sonic, which was a disappointment.  I think they managed to get almost the entire order wrong.   There is no Sonic is the quadrant of town where my grandchildren live, so this was a uniques experience for them.  In fact, Willow told me that it was the first time she had eaten Sonic food.  

We spent part of the afternoon in town at the "Book Bin," a used bookstore that carries a lot of related paper items.  While we were in town, my eleven-year-old grandson, Judah, discovered a "no trespassing" sign which he decided that he needed for his bedroom door.  Pa Rock has seen to it that he will have a pair of them arriving from Amazon tomorrow, but let's keep that a secret for the time being!

My Oregon grandchildren have had a small family dog, "Pixie," for several years.  Recently a stray cat showed up at their house and proceeded to unpack and declare it to be her new home.  A few weeks later she gave birth to two kittens, a boy and a girl, so now they have three cats and a dog.  Pixie has been very gracious in sharing her home and even helps to look out after the kittens.  Yesterday the babies went to the vet and received good health reports.  Granddaughter Willow, like Pixie, has taken on a lot of responsibility in caring for the cats.

Other than all of that, yesterday was just another nice day in Oregon.  Fair weather and blue skies!

More later.