Sunday Ships

Sunday was a much needed sunny day. Auntie Marci came up around noon to visit and so I could bustle her wedding dress. Graham made some very tasty BBQ and we caught up, hung out and played with Oliver. Graham and Oliver then took naps for a couple of hours, Graham actually started his while Marci was still here!

After the boys woke up from their naps we headed down to the Waterfront Village for Fleet Week. I had really wanted to see the Tall Ship, the Lady Washington (it was the Interceptor in Pirates) and the Hawaiian Chieftain, but they were gone. Apparently I either misread the Rose Festival Guide or it was wrong. Boo.

We parked at the South Waterfront Blocks so we could take a gander at the now open Lucier. It was the restaurant that Graham had interviewed for, and finally cancelled the 5th interview that required homework! (he had already been offered and accepted the job at Olea and was just interviewing at this place for fun.) As we predicted, the place was empty, only 6 tables and 3 people in the bar, on a Sunday at 7pm. With the economy the way it is and the people of Portland, a high fine dining/ haute cuisine restaurant is going to struggle, plus they have a nitwit as Chef de Cuisine.

Anyhoo, we then made our way up to the ships past all of our old stomping grounds from when we lived downtown. The river was really quiet as it was being policed and boater had to wait to be escorted along the far side of the river past all the ships. Before 9/11 the ships were just corded off and there were police boats, but not this extreme, a lot has changed since then, unnecessarily we believe. One Coast Guard boat started zipping up and down the river, having fun but he moved on before I could a picture. Later we caught up to one and I was surprised to see the guard at the front of the boat.

There was a WWII PT boat on display for restoration.

We were amazed at the size of these rounds...
And these ones were even bigger!
Then we made it to the Big Boys, and to our disappointment, there was a fence so you couldn't get close and guards, with GUNS!

One of these guys apparently had a grenade launcher on the bottom of his gun.

The security check to be able to go through for the tour.
The fun of these ships was always that you got to get up close to them, something that rarely happens for civilians and now you can't do that. The sailors on duty would hang out on deck and whistle at the hot mama walking along the waterfront. They also used to be at the Village and now they are set a long ways up from the rest of the ships.

Annoyed and worried that our camera would be seized (joke!) We headed back to the car through the city.