Walk 41: Colonial Heights & Ladd's Addition (2.5 miles)

Due to a lack of time, I chose one of the shorter walks this time. Short, but very nice, mainly for two reasons: The first truly sunny and warm day of the year, and yet another unexpected record store find.

This Portland walk started at SE 26th Avenue and Division Street and headed into the Colonial Heights neighborhood, where I immediately noticed some large and colorful houses.





Here I passed one of those helpful little signs seen all over town, where they advise to you to "look for kids & seniors." What, and pay no attention to the adults running with their dogs or wandering into the street checking their iPhones?



Then I came to an interesting bright blue trimmed large house. Going past the front I saw the colorful sign for the Sisters of Reparation of the Sacred Wounds of Jesus, home to some nuns who are, according to their website (!) "easy to recognize. They wear a beautiful powder blue habit, with navy blue accessories." They help others develop "skills that God gave them," including "flower arranging, planning and accomplishing projects, computer skills and just having fun." Sounds pretty nice!



Nearing Ladd's Addition, I passed a True Value store with a very "green" entrance. Now this is retail with style!



Now walking in Ladd's Addition (named after William S. Ladd, a 19th century Portland mayor), I approached one of the four diamond-shaped rose gardens that surround Ladd's Circle. As you can see from the sign inset in the picture, they take "rose removal" very seriously:



I soon entered Ladd's Circle, where there wasn't a lot to see but some nice greenery and a couple of old fashioned street lamps. Still, nice...



More evidence of spring in Portland, the shrubs and flowers were literally exploding with color. And the bees were taking notice!



Heading back toward the starting point, down Clinton Street, I passed some interesting large "streetcar era" housing:



Uh oh, another record store! I had to step in just for a quick look-see.



It was a narrow little room, one side filled with interesting old record players, radios and something I'd never seen before, a carousel style cassette player. I would've loved to see it in action:



The exciting find of the day was a Talking Heads album I'd never seen before. From the back cover: "In 1975 the Talking Heads recorded as a three piece at CBS Studios in NY City. These are their earliest known studio recordings. This fan club LP is limited to 500 copies. This is number 285." Snagged it for $15! I played it tonight (and transferred to MP3 for my iPod) and it sounds great! Another thing I wouldn't have known about if not for these walks.



One final stop, quickly becoming a tradition on the city walks...a bakery, featuring a chocolate pyramid-shaped macaroon. Wow.



I gotta say, the black cat that approached me earlier in the walk wasn't bad luck at all, if anything it brought me GOOD luck!