Thursday Travelogue - Portland, Oregon

 Beautiful Portland, Oregon is a wonderful city full of arts, events such as the blues festival coming up tomorrow, and eating establishments galore. International taste treats from so many countries I can't list them all here at this time, but if there's something you like in the way of food, clothing or art, you will find it here.

We are staying at the Marriott Waterfront Portland, which, if we had been given and choice and known would not have been our favorite. Don't get me wrong, Marriott usually has some of the best hotels around, but we are not so impressed with our room here. The pros are the view, the bed, and furniture are nice, the concierge service, which is perfect, and the pillows, which are like sleeping on a cloud. The room is small though for the price, only one towel rack in the bathroom, and it's in the shower, no fridge or microwave, which is a must for those of us who like good food but can't eat the whole meal all at once. Having said that, our preference would have been the Marriott Residence Inn, which is incredible! The rooms are so spacious and well equipped, with a way to store and cook food if needed, a nice living room area, and I do remember the bathroom being much bigger. I do have a question though, why is it there are no exhaust fans in the bathrooms of the fancier hotels? Anyhew, we are enjoying our stay, and love being here.

A Wing and a Prayer.......

Thus seems to be how my life has been lately, running on a wing and a prayer. I can tell I'm running so behind, and really not very in tune by the simplest of things. Today we talked about tithing in Relief Society. There was some great discussion, but I discovered as I was reading the June "Ensign" magazine our church puts out every month, while eating my lunch, that there was an even more in depth article on tithing, which happened to be the first one in the publication. The points of discussion in the article would have added to our discussion and better understanding, if, we had read THAT particular article when the magazine first arrived in the mail. So, a missed opportunity to share, because I'm so scattered and not as focused as I should be on taking advantage of the words of wisdom that are in the Ensign. Lesson learned I hope.
In the same magazine came an answer to a struggle I was having with helping a friend in need. My struggle is that I've a 3 day window to get some needed cleaning, organizing, and art work done. My friend has an appointment 2 hours away from here to see a neurosurgeon and was driving herself in to town. She has numbness in her hands which is starting to travel up her arms, she has severe arthritis and has trouble walking without help and the drive one way is enough to wear her out. So I volunteered to drive her in. I was feeling stressed about it though, and was praying in my heart to have some peace about the "to do" until I read in.... Luke 24:28-29 where the Savior was traveling through a village on his way to somewhere, and when spotted he was asked to stay and spend time with people there. Although he was headed elsewhere, he stayed, although unplanned. The article states that sometimes the greatest opportunities to bless and serve come when it isn't convenient. Such also was the case of the good Samaritan, who interrupted his journey to minister to a stricken man's needs. There is no way I would have peace knowing she was driving in to town without an adult with her to help. I will drive, we will see her doctors, then go have a good lunch somewhere. On the way we can visit, which I get so little time to do with friends anyway. I have a feeling that I will be the one blessed.......
Now I'm ready to start making phone calls to family members to get a tally on who is coming to our reunion in two weeks. I couldn't find the list, or so I thought, as it's been a bit since I sent out letters and a myriad of events, tasks and so on had clouded my memory as to where I put the list of phone numbers. So I got down and said a prayer after unloading the pocket of my computer bag where I thought I had last seen the list, and lo and behold, after the prayer I looked down and there was the list! Yes, it was in the pile, but not readily seen. So, life these days is running on a wing and a prayer, but who can doubt that prayers are answered?