Aussie day 2009

Because of the time zone differences between the USA and Australia - Australia day was actually happening when we celebrated at Jake and Jenny's house on Sunday. As you can see - several of us got right into the spirit. Jessie's flag actually ended up being hung on the outside of the house after she paraded around the house a little. (Jake and Darren in the background getting the pole ready)

 

 

 

 

Chinese New Year - 2009

We celebrated Chinese New Year's eve with Jake and Rachel at Wong's King restaurant in South East Portland. As you can see, we had a good spread of food - some was new to Rachel, who had not experienced an Chinese New Year meal quite like this before. 

We had a great night out with both of them, and enjoyed the food as a group. 

 

 

Out trip to the OHSU tram

OHSU (Oregon Health and Sciences University) stands on the top of the hill a little to the South of downtown Portland. At the base of the hill is a tram which has now been operational for just over 2 years - it was opened not long after we first moved over in August 2006. We thought that being that it was such a lovely day, we would go an take a ride on the tram to the top. As you can see by the photographs below, it is a pretty amazing view on a great day. 

The day was very cold, but the view was spectacular. The large mountain with the pointy peak is Mount Hood - the largest peak in Oregon, the mountain missing its top off to the left is Mount St Helens, which lost its top back in 1980.