Festival of Flowers

Festival of Flowers

When my co-worker offered me to test his new lens, I obliged. What a better way than to take images of the flowers – The Festival of Flowers at the Pioneer Courthouse Square. I do not get used to with a fix lens, but I have to do what was given to me. The colors are stunning to say the least. Enjoy

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/2014/pioneer

The story of Bruce Morton

Bruce and CC, July 2003



Portland, June 3^rd, 2014

We first met Bruce eleven years ago in 2003 aboard the MV Lady Rose (she has been retired since 2009). This vessel served as a cargo as well as a whole day excursion ship, it serves the community along the Barkley Sound all the way to Bamfiled and the Broken Group Island. I witnessed the ship was carrying lumbers, lawn mower etc and the best cargo of all was booze! Yes, this ship hauls the precious alcohol, the consumption of this fine spirit increases during the winter months.

I noticed that Bruce sits with a fine woman, so we introduced ourselves to him and his “wife” as I first thought. I did ask him as how long they have been married. Bruce smiled and he told me that Cece (the name of the woman, later I found out) was just his girlfriend.  The story was just started to get interesting.

“How so?” I asked him pressing for more details. So he slowly explained to me. Before World War II, Bruce and Cece went out together and fell in love as a boyfriend and a girlfriend. As you know, war is a terrible thing. During the war, Bruce enlisted and managed to lose contact with his love. Years gone by, Bruce got married and Cece got married to different persons.

Years have gone by, their respective spouses passed away, in short they managed to find each other again and they became boyfriend and girlfriend again. This was in the year of 2003; Bruce was 86 years young at that time.

Eleven years later in 2014.

After watching the Sunday morning show segment where this guy was phoning his friends wishing them “happy Birthday”, we got an inspiration and motivation to call Bruce again, we have to say that we were afraid that he is no longer with us, a short search in the old rolodex, I found his phone number.

I called and ask when the other party answered if this is the residence of Bruce Morton, to my delight he said, “Speaking!” He is 97 years young now and he still drives the car and best of all, his entire mind is still very sharp. I told Pokie we should visit him again and divert our planned vacation from Olympic Peninsula to Vancouver Island. We are making plan to see him in a month and I am so excited.

He also told me to see him before he turns 100.

Eat, Sleep and Go

The Palmer House

This concludes our tour of Chicago, I hope you enjoy the sights as I enjoy making the website and share it with you. In this website, you will find the hotel that we stayed in, the culinary that we encountered and some of the public transportation that we took during our stay.

It is solely my opinion that if you have not taken the “eL” train, you have not been to Chicago. We had a nice time in this windy city and we will go back in a heart beat given the chance.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/chicago/cta

Chicago - North Bridge

Chicago from the south side of Navy Pier

I will take you to the north side of Chicago (still downtown area) namely North Bridge, but do not ask the younger folks about the name. It is simply known as Magnificent Mile – Shop till you drop these days. To reach this area from the Union station, we walked a few blocks east then take the Red Line Subway then walk eat a few blocks more, it is really convenient within downtown. I just have to study the subway line.

It is time to relax as we are winding down our trip, only three things we have to see and do as tourists, Magnificent Mile, John Hancock Tower and the Navy Pier.

The Magnificent Mile is a busy place indeed, one funny thing I noted is the homeless, and they make their voices heard. Arm with an 8 ½ X 11 card, a word “HOMELESS” is printed neatly, feels like an association and shouts “ HOMELESS HERE, can you help please, HOMELESS here, can you help please” this is done in the decibels where I can close my ear, it is that loud.

Pokie did the 30 degrees TILT at the John Hancock Tower, I stay behind. The next day we strolled along the Navy Pier. We could not ask for a better weather than this, crisp morning and not much humidity in this part of the country.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/chicago/nb

One day with Fred

Fred and Pokie in Hibiscus kingdom

My curiosity about an RV lands us to this beautiful friendship with Fred and his wife back then. We first met them in 2006, some eight years ago in Bellingham, Washington. We were on the way to Alaska. I did ask him as to why he has an LP tank outside his big rig.

We met them again in 2007 at the same place, and then we continue our trip to San Juan Island. That was the last time we had dinner together. Fred lost his beautiful wife Lynn a day after Christmas in 2011 and he then moved out of Tucson, Arizona in the early 2012 to Lafayette, Indiana.

When I planned to go to Chicago by train about a year ago, I looked up to see if there is a train service to his hometown. To my delight, there is, but it gets there late at night.

So, one day I called him, telling him that we will visit him for a day or two. I think I made him nervous for two months not knowing what to feed me, because I am a vegetarian and Lafayette is in the middle of “anything fried”.

True enough, the train coming in to Lafayette was late some 35 minutes and he had been waiting for us for more than an hour. I told Fred, lucky that we did not come in the next morning. In short, we had a wonderful time spending a full day with Fred.

Oh, we did try the “Fried Green Tomato” and to our delight, we like it very much.

Thank you for the memories…..till we meet again.
  

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/chicago/fred

Chicago River Tour

Chicago River Tour

We have till 5:25 P.M. today to catch another train to Lafayette, Indiana from the Union Station. With every travel, you need to be there early to anticipate the unexpected, it turned out to be true, the Chicago train station is a zoo compare to the one in Portland, it is underground and it is mixed with the Metra trains (a commuter train in this metropolitan city). This is the time where the Chicagoans go back home from work, we did witness a rat race and it seems everything is in slow motion when we compare how we walk. This people run in my opinion.

The 11:00 A.M. river cruise is fully booked, so we opted the noon departure instead, I figure we have enough time, we will take a taxi to the train station later, I am just tired of walking. That morning we walked leisurely to the Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, having breakfast along the way. We stored our luggage at the Bell Desk.

Enjoy the cruise! Tip is not accepted as the guide is from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. 

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/chicago/river

Chicago - The Loop

Millennium Park

Welcome to Chicago!

Our first two nights in this city, we stayed in the Chicago Loop section. This city is relatively clean, inviting and we feel safe, but at night we retreated to our room, plus we were tired from walking. There are four things must see and do in this section in my opinion namely, Millennium Park, Willis Tower, Buckingham Fountain and do an Architectural river tour (tomorrow).

In the morning we explored Millennium Park for its famous “Bean” then to Willis Tower, we went back to the “bean” in the afternoon and then explored the Buckingham Fountain. Enough walking for one day, my feet hurt so bad!

The Willis Tower’s balconies are suspended 1,353 feet above the ground and jut out 4 feet from the building. They’re actually more like boxes than balconies, with transparent walls, floor and ceiling. Visitors are treated to unobstructed views of Chicago from the building’s west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below – for those brave enough to look straight down.

http://www.yongkieandpokie.com/chicago/loop