Parents Only Vacation: Day 1: Columbia Gorge, Oregon

Our first full day of vacation started with a stop here to enjoy my favorite meal, breakfast! I saw this place on another food blog (can't fine the link, though), and we walked after stirring and getting ourselves presentable. Portland is a really easy city to walk in, as are most cities out west. It's all east/west and north/south grid aligned and it's not a big city by any means. Took us maybe 15 minutes to walk here.

The diner was cute. The name suggests the inside theme-highways and byways. It was a little 1950's-60's ish with loads of trinkets and souvenirs from different cities. Nana and Oupa collect magnets from the different places they visit and these magnets live on their fridge. If that fridge and a breakfast restaurant had a baby, this cafe would be it. As we sat and waited for our food, I look around at the fun memorabilia, and Keith took unflattering pictures of me. See the wooden cases to my left? Those were all filled with very trinkets.

Before we knew it, our food was ready. Deeeelicious. Portland does food right.The following two pictures are for my parents, who love taking pictures of their food during travels. Keith had amaretto creme french toast.

I had blue corn pancakes. SO. GOOD.

We ate until we could eat no longer and longingly stared at the leftovers on our plate wishing we could eat more. But the stomach is only so big, you know, so we paid and set off on foot to get our rental car. We passed through parks and down quiet streets. It felt to me like half of Portland was still asleep, or away on vacation, it was so quiet.

At the rental car place some lady annoyed me but I got over that quickly when we got our car and headed east, towards Mount Hood, a town an hour's drive down the Columbia River.

After just a few minutes of driving, our view turned from this...

Into this. Ahhhh. Green and peaceful. As you can see, we took a left onto Graham Rd, and we were taking the Oregon Scenic Byway. Why not? The alternative is a busy interstate, and where's the romance in that?

Pretty sure the highway did not have cool old bridges.

The round led us up and up and through forest groves, until we got to a clearing, high above the river. It was misty and gray, just as I imagined the northwest to be.

We parked at the Vista Crown Point and checked out the building. The Scenic Highway and this building were built in the 1920's for people to enjoy as a day-trip out of the city, and its amazing to think of all the work it must have taken to built this almost a hundred years ago.

We explored inside the dome and went downstairs to a small exhibit area, and by the time we got outside to take a picture, the sun was out. Oh, Oregon, how quickly we learned the fickleness of your weather.

We decided we had enough of that, and got back in the car. So the big deal about this scenic byway is that are 77 waterfalls along the stretch. Some are small little trickles of water, but others are big. And beautiful. We stopped at all of them. Here's #1.

Same waterfall, different angle. Someone was busy playing with camera settings.

Same waterfall, different person in the front. Different angle.

Most of the waterfalls were right along the scenic byways's 2 lane road and there are little parking lots that you can pull into, walk a few steps and voila! you're at the waterfall. Except for Bridal Veil Falls. It requires a half mile walk. With breakfast lingering in the stomach, we thought it would be good to get moving. On the walk to the falls, there was a really pretty stream.

And just in case you're the type to get lost, the Oregon Park Service has your back.

And there she is, she's a double decker falls. There's a more technical term than that, but its close enough.

She falls twice, and after she hits the ground, she turns  into this pretty stream that runs towards the interstate (which runs parralel to the scenic byway). Am I confusing you? I'll show a map later.

We spied another lady who had a camera very similar to ours, and she agreed to take our picture.

 At this point, we're still driving east along the Columbia River, so this was the view to our left. All the waterfalls were to our right. Not much wrong with these views.

On the other side of the river is Washington State, if you're wondering.

The next stop was the most famous of all the falls, and in that parking lot we saw a license plate that made us think of Oupa. This is for you, old man.

Back to the waterfalls. The park service is really good about posting info for those of us who like pretty stuff+learning. We read about Multnomah Falls, which is the second tallest waterfall in the US. Yosemite has the tallest).

She is beautiful, and also a double decker. Back in the 1920's, a rich timber industry man built that bridge, called Bennett Bridge, after him. Cars used to drive across that. Hmmm. Seems a little crazy, but what do I know.

While we talked about the tallness of the waterfalls, we talked about how  Ansel Adams took pictures in Yosemite, likely of the tallest waterfall, and I guess Keith got inspired by that because this was the next picture he took. Sorry for all the orbs, the sun was in a bad spot. 

You might not be able to see them in the picture above, but people can walk up to the bridge. I stayed in the main viewing area and told Keith to scurry up there. There he goes, the little spec of red vested person is him on the trail.

He made it up there pretty quickly.

And zooming back out...he's still standing there. Pretty amazing sight, this waterfall.

Next along the scenic byway was the Bonneville Dam. It was...eh...ok. I mean, it's a dam, you know? Nothing poetic or natural about it. This particular dam has historic significance, and if you're into that, you're welcome to read about it here. We did drive onto the island it sits on, and we went to the visitor center to learn a little more. A little.

Right next to the dam was a fish hatchery. There are way more of these things than I ever knew. This was, appropriately enough, called the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. They do trout and sturgeon. A view of part of the grounds.

The egg incubators, sort of.

Rainbow trout, just hanging out.

And before we left, we went to see the sturgeon. I'm not sure what I expected sturgeon to look like.

But holy sh*t, these are big and so prehistoric. 7 feet long!

There were also some other fish, salmon, I believe, in the tank and I had a good time with them.

Now, let's back it up a little. When we stopped at the Crown Vista Point the lady at the front desk said that we should cross over to the Washington side at the Bridge of the Gods so we could go through some tunnels for the next 14 miles, then cross back over to Oregon. So we did. Here we are, paying our toll and crossing to Washington.

And just to be sure we got it right, I consulted the map she gave us.

And then we drove. And drove. And wondered if that lady was just helping to get more tolls paid because there for sure have not been any tunnels on this side. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty drive, but it's now early afternoon and I'm ready to get out of the car. 

Then finally, a tunnel! Short, but it counts. 

And shortly after, another!

But that was it for tunnels, then it was back to the regular pretty view.

A few miles later, we arrived to Mount Hood, and had lunch here.

They make beer. Guess who was really excited to be here?

This was our view from our table. Small town, pretty mellow. In the summer it gets busy with kite surfers and other watersport loving people.

I'm running out of town, so here is a short run-down of what else we did this day.We went here.

Saw this sweet dog, SnowBear.

Had a glass of wine after petting SnowBear.

Oh, the "here" was this place. Goooood wine, nice people. They also grow winter pears, and Mount Hood is the #1 producer world-wide of said pears. We love random useless facts.

Next we checked into our hotel, a remnant from the 1920's, build for those people exploring the scenic byways.

It's a historic landmark, and is currently getting a little facelift. It's been pampered some, but could use a little more. 

Our room was nice enough, though. Nothing spectacular.

The view out was nice, too. There's the river.

Oh! But then I looked down and realize there was a waterfall right below our window! HEAVEN. Yes, we definitely slept with the windows a little open. Best whitenoise machine ever.

The hallways were a little creepy. Reminded me of The Shining.

But the grounds were gorgeous. We fully intended to take a nap, just 'cause we could, but went exploring first. Here is a view of the waterfall below our window.

And another handsome view, the other way. I told Keith to stand like he was a timber baron in the 20's, and this is what he came up with.

More opportunities to get our learn on.

And that's it. We napped, had a really nice anniversary meal at the hotel's restaurant, and fell asleep to the sound of the water falling over the rocks. Heaven.

Parents Only Vacation: Getting to Oregon

I really coulldn't bear checking email or spending much time on the interwebs during our vacation, much less blog. We're back home, after a really long day of travel and bad weather, but here is a little bit of our vacation,  day by day.

One of my favorite parts of taking a trip is the travel to the destination. The whole vacation is ahead of you,  and all you have to do is relax and get there. Our getting here took 12 hours, included 2 flights and a lengthy layover. That a lot of time to do people-watching, and to get annoyed with other passengers. Naturally since we were hoping for a relaxing vacation, we would be surrounded by small children and infants on both flights. Both.

In retrospect, I'd like to send an electronic high five to the first set of parents and your approximately 18 month old daughter. Sure, the dad was a little annoying since he talked to the girl like she was a one month old, but whatever, both parents were attentive. We all survived the flight.

Now, parent set #2: y'all are assholes. During our 4 hour flight, your daughter cried 3.5 of those. Not wimper-crying or whining, but full body crying. Being one row behind you, we couldn't help but critique your attempts to keep her quiet. Let's review:
1. Shaking a baggie of Cheerios in front of her face. Was she supposed to magically get happy because you're offering her the same boring snack she's eaten for months? At least offer her something good, like a cookie or something.
2. Waving a book in front of her. Could you maybe not read it to her instead of just moving the book back and forth in front of her face?
3. Looking at each and shrugging, like you just don't know what she wants. She wants to be picked up out of the carseat, you morons. You could at least put her in your lap, or walk around with her. Oddly enough you did this once, and she got quiet right away. But being the morons you are, you put her immediately back in the carseat like she was now magically permanently quiet. Hold your baby!
4. Nothing. This seemed to be y'alls default. There was an awful lot of just sitting there, acting defeated and ignoring the baby. You seem to like letting the baby cry it out, and in your own home I'm happy to let you do whatever you want. But with a hundred other people or so to consider, don't you think it would be better to tend to the child?

To family #3 with five small children on that same flight, but in the row behind us, kudos. I'm not entirely sure you didn't sedate those kids before the flight, but whatever you did, it worked.

So, for reasons you can imagine, we were all happy to land in Portland. We rode the MAX to our hotel for the night. Here it looks like I'm asleep, but I'm actually studying a map while trying to avoid eye contract with a rather large burly man who was in the mood to talk.

We were spending that first night in Portland, and we were staying at Hotel DeLuxe. Cute hotel with a sexy, glamorous vibe. I loved the decor.

The view of Portland from our room.

 The elevator was glamorous,too. I was tired, but was rallying to walk to dinner. I was also silently kicking myself for cutting my own bangs a few days before. that is just never a good idea.

 Portland is a biking city. Did you know? If I remember correctly, it's the 2nd most-biked city, if that wording makes sense. It's almost the city that has the most people biking to work, almost.

 Besides the bikes, it's also known for outdoor art. While not officially the same calibre of art as the bike sculpture above, the "art" below just made us chuckle.

We had a decent dinner and Keith tried some local microbrews and we retired pretty early. Or was it late? I can't remember. Great start to a very good vacation. 

Feed 'Em Fridays

So, it's Sunday, not Friday, but here is my Feed 'Em Friday contribution. Pizza. A bit of a no-brainer, but it's easy and can be better for you than you think. Round here, we have two variations of what we loosely call Mexican Pizza. My adorable kitchen assistant shows you Variation 1.

 Varation 1 is a store-bought pizza crust. Sure, you could be like me and wish you could make pizza crust from scratch, but you're also probably scared of making dough. We need a support group, or someone who can make the dough and show us, I think.

Anyways, get your store-bought dough (I hear Trader.Joe's has good stuff), and spread it out. Then, puree 1 can of drained diced tomatoes and one can of drained mild Rotel. That is your sauce. If you're really hungry while cooking, it also makes for a good salsa, even if you only have crackers to use as chip. Add some chopped cilantro and a dash of cumin and kosher salt to the sauce for a little extra pep.

For toppings, use whatever you have that is "mexican". I like black beans, mozzarella cheese (we only had cheddar on this particular day), shrimp sprinkled with fajita seasoning (look closely, you can see them). Look closely again, that baby boy is so damn cute! Good lordy I love those boys. Ok. Pizza. We're talking about pizza. The boys really like "macaronis" on their pizza, so I put pepperonis on one side.

I should pause and admit that while they did eat some pizza, they picked off the black beans. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't. And that's OK, in this house high praise is given for trying a new food. Or a food mom has served 25+ times and is still rejected. Whatevs, at least try it, will you?

Variation 2 is my favorite, but the boys are not 100% on board with this variation, so I dont make it as often. Take the pizza dough, or tortillas. Cook 1 can of black beans, add 1 packet of Jamon seasoning from the ethnic aisle at the grocery store. Cook the hell out of the beans, and if you have it, add some chicken or veggie broth. Or water, if you don't. A little cumin and kosher talk makes it all better, too. Now puree/blend the beans into a paste. Here is your pizza sauce.

Spread over dough or tortilla. Top with mozzarella, spots of goat cheese, shrimp or meat, chopped cilantro ("salad"), onions, peppers, whatever you have on hand that you want the kids to turn their noses up at/pick off. Go crazy.

Bake per dough instructions. If I use tortillas as my pizza base, I prefer to use the pancake griddle to crisp the bottom. Tasty.

Now, my other feed 'em Fridays mention is about something a lot more fun. Hot cross buns! Yes, people, it's that holy time of year when the powers that be rose from the dead and gave us...hot cross buns, amongst other things like eternal salvation.

The last two years I tried making them myself. See? Last year was OK, but lacked a little something. Well, my cousin Hans' wife, Melanie, so very kindly commented with a new recipe to try. We leave for vacation in 3 days, but I'm hoping to make at least 1 batch before we leave. Melanie, cross your fingers and hope I don't mess up that recipe. I sure would love a good hot cross bun.

This picture below is to show that I don't always aim high. My, and sister Karen's, coffee place is selling them this year! We got some, obviously. And ate them pretty quickly, so they must not have been that bad. They did contain strawberries, which was different...so I"m still hoping to make my own. We'll see if that happens.

Greggers and Grampie

I'm not even going to address how tardy I am with this post. Shush it, people.

Greggy, our oldest nephew, turned 10. Yes, Karen has a kid in double digits, and recently started coloring her hair to hide that fact. No, you shouldn't share anything with me that you don't want everyone else to know.

I don't know how she, or anyone else, does 3 kids. I think the pic below shows one of those (fleeting?) moments that she must have melted at the sight of her three. L-R, we have Rhettford, Sara, and birthday boy Greg. Gregory Lourens, to be exact. He's a thoughtful, artistic and very sensitive young man who reminds me of his Oupa (they call him Grandpa) in many ways. 

We should have a captions contest here. Their aunt Janelle brought them these cool glasses. Mostly I'm struck by how much Rhett is resembling Karen. Look, even the same uneven dimples.

Happy birthday, Greggers! We love you, big dude.

And, we're coming up on the one month anniversary of Grampie's bday! I would make excuses for not finishing these posts earlier, but honesty, I've got a lot of shit to get done, ya know?

We did make Grampie some awesome art. We didn't mail it till weeks later, but whatevs. Here's a behind the scenes look at the art in the making...with soundtrack provided by our favorite character on PBS.



We, and our boys, love Grampie. He's a tough outer shell with a lot of love for dogs and little ones, and he always has pinot graaaaagio for me. How can a person not love that? Grampie drives Grandpa Ellerman's truck, which is a GMC. Last May, when we were in Peru, the boys played in Grampie's GMC and Grampie made a little G-M-C chant that had accompanying dance-moves. Now, at random times, we'll hear the boys chant G-M-C when they see a similar truck. Or sometimes they say G-P-C. It's at least close, you know?

In my mind Grampie is perpetually oiled and sunning at the beach, but his talents and interest are varied-from picking a good pinot graaaaagio, to helping me beat the redheads GG and Keith at pinochle ( go team brunette!), to making the cutest boys' side/toy containers (to look like these), giving my dad the best tour of the Naval Museum, and of course, most important, dancing, and chanting G-M-C, complete with arm pump.

This picture is one of my favorites, it's 4 generation of Ellerman men.

We lost Grandpa Ellerman not too many months later, but we are so glad that he met these two. Grandpa Ellerman had an uncanny ability to remember small details about a person and then to ask about that detail later. When we saw him last and he was not doing well, he remembered about my little black dog, Madam, and asked about her. Grampie shares this same ability-he remembers the small things and asks about them later, often surprising all of us at his interest in the mundane and minute details of our lives. It's how he shows he loves us (besides the big bottle of pinot graaagio). Happy belated Bday, Grampie, we love you and can't wait to get all suntan-oiled up on the beach with you*!

*this applies only to me. The boys will have kiddo SPF, and their ghostlike dad will also be hiding under a t-shirt and sun umbrella.