Today I went to the Japanese Garden in Portland. It was so amazing. If you ever come to Portland, Oregon, I recommend you visit the Japanese Garden.

The Japanese Garden is tucked into a cusp in Portland’s West Hills, situated at about five hundred feet above sea level. It is a haven of tranquil beauty that has been proclaimed one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan.

I took a lot of pictures but I’ll only post a few for now:

These are just a small taste of the pictures I took while visiting the Japanese Gardens.

To find out more about this wonderful place, visit the official Japanese Garden website.

Well today was my first full day in Portland, Oregon and so far this place is great. People always say it rains non-stop but so far it’s been clear blue skies with a nice breeze blowing, so my thought is the locals from Portland just tell native Californians like myself it rains a lot so we won’t move here. Yeah, whatever. I love it.

I’ve been taking a ton of pictures and I still have 7 more days till I go back home, so I’ll be posting a lot. I’m posting smaller versions of the pictures to help on load times but at some point, I will post full size images to my photo gallery once I get it going on the site.

Ok and now on with the photos… first up is a picture of the Inn that I’ll be living at for the next 7-10 days. It’s an amazing place.

The room at the Inn is so nice. It has a view (pictures to come), a huge jacuzzi tub which I’ll be using soon as I’m done with this post and a very comfortable bed. I slept like a rock last night. It also has in-room wireless internet.

Next up is a photo from a local gift shop called Wham. Where else can you find Moses and Jesus action figures? People in Oregon seem to have a sense of humor like me:

Also at this great novelty store, they had a Goonies lunch box, so I had to get that as well with my personal Dashboard Jesus:

While walking around the streets of Portland I came across this crazy sign with a person taking a nose dive on a bicycle:

And last but not least, I’d like to thank the nice people of Portland, Oregon for providing free wireless internet so I could post these wonderful pictures:

Of course I have a lot more pictures to post but for now, it’s off to the jacuzzi tub to relax.

Well there wasn’t wifi on the plane, so no posting from 30,000 feet but I did take some amazing photos from the window.

In the first picture you can see the view I had from my window seat:

Next up is a photo of the Flight Safety Card which will now be added to my collection of Flight Safety Cards:

Once off the plane and on the ground at the Portland International Airport, while I was waiting for my baggage to show up, I noticed a very large, well actually huge revolving door, probably the largest in the World, or at least the biggest that I’ve ever seen:

and last but not least, a very cool looking payphone for my public phone photos collection that has complete TTY support which allows Text Telephone services for the deaf or hard of hearing:

I’ve taken a lot more pictures since I arrived in Portland, Oregon around 3:40 pm and will continue to post more and also take more pictures while here.

An interesting bit of trivia, when I asked the rental car people if I should know anything about local drivers, she replied with:

honestly, we don’t know how to merge into lanes

and not more then 10 minutes into my drive to the hotel, her point was proved to me by some crazy local driver.

I’m glad that I have California driving skills because I’m sure that they will come in handy while in Oregon.

Here I sit at the San Jose International Airport waiting for my flight which will begin boarding in about 45 minutes.

The TSA check point wasn’t too bad. It took maybe 5 minutes to go through once I got up to the metal detector and xray machine. They asked me to take my shoes off. That’s a first for me at an Airport. I guess it depends on the type of shoes you have on.

After getting through the check point and retrieving my laptop, I had a little snack and now I’m posting this message.

I’m hoping the plane will have Wi-Fi. It’s a 50/50 chance since the plane I’ll be flying on is a Boeing 737-400 Jet which according to the website has wifi but because my flight is only 1.5 hours, it might not be available. I did pay $6.95 USD for a 24 hour pass here in the Airport which I’m only going to use maybe 1 hour total. Oh well, I’m a geek and wanted to check email and post.

I really hope that I’ll be able to post from 30,000 feet. That would be cool. Either way I will take pictures from the plane and will post some from the air if I can or once I land. Until next time…

On June 30, 2006 I posted about spending time with family, friends and playing with my Radio Controlled Cars and of course I had my digital camera in hand to take a few pictures.

As seen in the pictures below, we went out to the Pasadena, California Rose Bowl parking lot for a nice wide open space to race the cars around without crashing into anything or anyone. Yes, it does happen. A couple years ago I broke my right front wheel off in the first 5 minutes of racing when I smashed into the curb on a small residential street, so now it’s all about huge parking lots.

In the first picture, you can see the Rose Bowl has a huge American Flag hanging below the sign to celebrate the 4th of July. America is celebrating 230 years of freedom and our independence:

In the next picture you can see my fast car. I think the top speed for it is around 45 miles per hour. It’s 4 wheel drive. Woot. The 10 turn electric motor really makes it fly. Gas powered or Nitro powered cars to me are a lot more maintenance:

Last but not least in the next picture you can see me off roading with my truck kicking up a nice dirt cloud. I was doing donuts and jumping rocks. It was a lot of fun. My truck could use a new motor for some needed increase in speed but for now the 15 turn motor works just fine:

As a side note, the weather in Pasadena was in the low 100’s. Yeah, it was very hot. The motors were running really hot so we had little fans to blow on them in between switching out battery packs.

Independence Day celebrates the birthday of the United States of America. Founded July 4th 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America is celebrating it’s 230th birthday this year.

The 4th of July is a time for the Red White and Blue. A time for Picnics, Parades and Marching Bands. A time for Beaches, BBQs and “Bombs Bursting in Air”.

To celebrate the upcoming 4th of July, I’m out of town for the next few days spending time with family, friends and trying to stay away from the computer for a couple of days. I will be checking email at least once a day and maybe posting too. I’m actually posting this message from over 400+ miles away from my home. Yay laptops and technology.

Anyway, I hope my fellow Americans have a fun and safe 4th of July weekend. I’ll post more about my weekend plans later and now to go play with my RC truck and car…