Went off to Portland on Monday: TH drove us across the top of the Peninsula, down Hood Canal, and down the freeway, and across the Columbia River (and the Willamette River) to the 7th floor of the OHSU Center for Health and Healing. We took care of our medical responsibilities. Came back.
Now I'm a science project, participant in a clinical trial. We'll see. Here is not where I talk about it.
There was an entertaining distraction for a shipwatcher. Down by the Willamette, Zidell Marine was about to launch the barge Dr. Bonnie W. Ramsey.
We had some time after lab work and before my appointment, took the elevator to the 14th floor (12th?, the highest one with windows you could walk up to) to get a good angle on it. Everyone at CHH, staff and long-time patients alike, were tuned in through the CHH's amazing window wall, feeling a benevolent connection to this ship that grew up under their eyes. Bunting, refreshment tent, guys sweeping the pavement, men in suits accumulating. Launch was scheduled for noon, for 12:30, for 3 PM. More and more people around. Who has the bottle of champagne? Does everyone understand she is named for a UW medical researcher who changed the lives of cystic fibrosis patients? Is one of those figures down there Dr. Bonnie W. Ramsey (1)(2) herself? Is it possible we can see it happen before we must get on the road home? Well, as to the last question, not. As we crossed the I-5 bridge heading back north we could see the multiple tugs lined up, waiting for the magic moment. Luckily the South Waterfront blog has a video.
On the way back north kept the camera in hand and at the ready, to try to capture the sign by the mysterious towers in the field somewhere near milepost 59.
Was able to read but not photograph the sign, scribbled it on my hand to look up when we got home. Gospodor's Monument Park, oh my. How elegantly eccentric the story is. (1)(2) There's even a tribal connection. As of this spring, the Cowlitz Tribe holds the land (3).
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