Mother's Day Weekend

Received a great Mother's Day gift from my husband this year -he took me to see the James Taylor/Carole King concert!

You'll notice we went to the Rose Garden in Portland . . . we were going to go with Drew and Jillian when the concert was in Seattle, but it was on a Sunday, so we drove down to Portland instead, where they played on the Friday night before Mother's Day. (Sorry, Drew & Jillian!)

It was an awesome concert, my iPhone pic doesn't do it justice:

They performed on a circular stage that rotated slowly, that way everyone in the coliseum could see them face-on. Our tickets obviously weren't right down in front, but it really didn't matter because the large TV screens made up the distance difference.

We've been to two or three JT concerts, and he is AWESOME! We love it most when he just sits up on the stage by himself with his guitar and strums and sings away. The difference with this concert was that the two performers split the time, so while we kind of got two for the price of one, there were some favorite songs from both artists that we missed. But it was fun to watch them perform together. We know that at least on some Carole King recordings, James Taylor can be heard as a backup singer, so it was probably somewhat natural for them to sing together. Even though they're contemporaries and both of their styles might be categorized as "folk", they provoke different feelings for the listener. Whenever I'm feeling stressed, I can put on some JT music and it has the power to calm me down right away. Conversely, Carole King has some real high energy songs. They balanced each other well.

It was interesting to watch the crowd. Ha, we were some of the younger people there! There was a 65 year old woman behind me (her son had brought her to her first concert) and she was just singing away . . . . cute, but I really came to hear the artists . . . . !

When we walked back to our motel room, there was an elderly couple that rode up in the elevator with us. They said, "Great concert, huh!" Ummmm, wait! You guys are really old! Well, I guess we're not getting any younger, either.

The next morning we met Neal for breakfast at a small popular restaurant: Mother's Bistro & Bar.

We arrived at 8:45 (it opens at 9:00) and there was already a line! We soon understood why, YUM! We shared a huge cinnamon roll, and then had delicious breakfasts that left us full until well after dinner time. It was nice to visit with Neal, however short, and even nicer when he paid! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Before Neal had to leave for work, we were able to take a little walk along the Portland waterfront (the Willamette River). (Had to work off some of that cinnamon roll!) It was a beautiful morning, lots of people out enjoying the good weather.

There were all types of boaters, including this one . . . it looked like a Viking boat, but was probably more of a Native American boat expedition for tourists.

 

And then, my personal favorite picture of the weekend:

We walked past this couple out for a "walk". They were a young Indian couple, and their love for each other was very evident in their faces and body language. I wanted so badly to get a photo, but I didn't want to intrude or make them uncomfortable, so after they passed us, I turned around and followed them for awhile until I could capture a good picture. Neal said it looked like I was stalking them!


After Neal left for work, we continued to walk along the waterfront into Portland's Saturday market. It was a lot of fun, with lots of booths displaying their wares. We bought a couple of things, a beautiful blown glass ball suspended in a spiraled, thick copper wire (you can find it on display in our garden in the front yard), and a set of fishy chimes made by the Spoonman, of course created from spoons and forks. Aren't they clever?

Here's a quirky little booth on one of the streets of downtown Portland, I thought the name was fun:

We also went to an artsy neighborhood and found a couple of Mother's Day gifts for the young mothers in our family. It was a quickie trip, but so relaxing and fun. AND, I got my best friend all to myself for a couple of days!