Earth Day

I love Earth Day. It might be my favorite holiday. It's a day for me to get re-inspired and re-energized about something that has always been very important to me. Naturally, an Earth Day celebration has to include a lot of biking. And, boy did we bike.

We started by riding downtown to Cafe Naoko for tofu bowls. They were delicious. The tofu was really heavily marinated and bursting with flavor. We also had rich, buttery green tea with our meal. Then we rode up, up, up to the Japanese garden. Portland has an incredible Japanese garden. Apparently, it is the best one outside of Japan and I just love going there. It would be so fun to do a study checking people's blood pressure upon entering and exiting the garden. It's like you can just feel the stress oozing out of you as you walk along the stone pathways and gaze at the koi swimming in the pond. After seeing the whole garden we bombed down, down, down across the new bike-friendly Morrison bridge to Ota Tofu. We'd thought ahead and brought our own container, but we forgot cash. I wondered if they'd accept the yen I still had in my wallet. So, we rode feverishly home where I had some cash and feverishly back to buy our tofu.

Next stop: Lloyd Center 10 to see the new Disney Nature movie Oceans. The movie was incredible. Most of the movie I was completely engrossed...lost in the beauty of the ocean's creatures. Only when I saw the sea turtles and sharks getting caught by the net meant for the now endangered blue-fin tuna did I sob. Seeing all the plastic and other human objects that are in the ocean wasn't pretty either, but I'd say all in all the the movie was definitely uplifting and positive. The message of human indifference being the ocean's greatest threat was not heavy-handed. I came away feeling that the greatest thing about humanity is our unique ability to observe and genuinely appreciate the creatures with whom we share this fragile planet.

We pedaled home leisurely home to our very grateful dog and took him for a walk. We made sure to use our biodegradable poop bag, it being Earth Day and all. Then Peter made a lovely dinner with our local tofu. It was very similar to our lunch and something we'd like to repeat. Days like today are my favorite kind of days. I love being a tourist in my own city especially when I get to go everywhere on my bike.