City Crosstalk

We’re warming up again after a two-night cold snap. The temperature was fine hovering at about 29 in the day. It was the wind though that made it crazy. It came roaring down the Columbia and funneling between Rocky Butte and Powell Butte freezing noses and turning over trash cans all across the east side of town. Casey Neill was playing at an art opening in the Splinter a small coffee shop up on 47th and Hawthorne. That’s only 37 blocks up the hill from my house. Add in another four to get over to Hawthorne and it makes for a nice walk. Until realizing that it’s about 18 degrees outside and you are nearing the halfway point.
The Splinter is cool. Warm inside with lovely art on the walls. The café’s internal theme is architecture and while Casey played I sat behind in another room reading a book on the Bauhaus movement 1917 – 1936. Kim and Hanz showed and we hung in the festive evening.
Next morning shone bright and brilliantly beautiful. I ditched all the things that I was supposed to do for the day, gassed up Stella the van, and headed out the Columbia and onto the old Columbia River Historic Highway. I have wanted to make this trip since moving to town and was glad to get away. The highway was completed in 1915 and is a marvel. The curving design of the road points to a time when the nature of travel was different. Below along the river I-84 runs a dead straight path east and away. Above, the old highway meanders along past waterfalls and cliffs. Turnouts, views, parks, and teahouses too back in the day. The roadhouses are pretty much gone which is a shame as the only coffee to be found is at the mangy looking espresso stand at Multnomah Falls. The waterfalls were frozen along the edges and otherworldly. A grand outing.