We had a really nice trip home to Portland a week and a half ago, which I haven't thoroughly blogged about yet. Before we left on Thursday night, though, we had an old friend visit from Seattle, which was a wonderful last-minute surprise. Sarah came into San Francisco on Wednesday night and stayed at the Chateau Jernstrom (cramped, uncomfortable accomodations with cold cereal for breakfast). It was a short visit, but so nice to see a friendly face from WA. We got to have lunch together on Thursday, before we departed as well. Sarah lived in San Francisco for a year, many moons before we arrived. She is an old hand at public transportation and whatnot. We didn't get any pics of Sarah while she was visiting with us, but here is one that I stole from her: Such a beautiful, happy girl. I love Sarah Kraybill. Come back to San Francisco!!
Thursday night, we trekked out to SFO for our flight home, right on time, only to find that our flight had been delayed from 8:30 departure to 10:30 departure. Ugh. I hate hanging at the airport. We finally arrived in Portland at midnight. My sister was so kind and gave us her bed to sleep in, while she slept on the floor at her apartment.
The next morning we were awoken by a little voice, "hi auntie..." Devin snuck in on us, and was so excited to see us. Chelsea said it was a good bribe to get him to go to sleep the night before, that we would be here when he woke up. We accompanied him to his swimming lesson. He's so far beyond all the other kids in his class. They were jumping off the edge into the pool, and all the other kids held the teachers hand and gingerly slipped into the pool. Devin cannon-balled into the water before the teacher even had the chance to hold out her hands to him.
Back at Chelsea's after the lesson, mom, grandma and Lila arrived and we had a reunion with the doggies. Neil hadn't seen them since Christmas. Alas, Lola was still gargantuan. Lila's weight loss program didn't work:
Then we got all packed up and headed out to the beach. Yay - I LOVE Cannon Beach. We stay at this really really nice house that fits the whole family and is only a block from the beach. Since the point of going to the beach is to actually go to the beach, that's what Chelsea, Devin, Neil and I did.
Unfortunately, when you go on vacation, it always seems to take a day atleast for your body to realize it's on vacation and get relaxed and rested up. We were only at the beach for two nights, so it just seemed to fly by. Plus, I've noticed that the older I get, the faster things happen in life. As a kid, time seemed to just sort of creep by, everything lasted forever. At Christmas, for instance, the three days that my whole family would spend together lasted an eternity (in a good way). Three days was like three weeks - we had so much fun and got so much stuff done. Now, three days is gone in the blink of an eye. There's never enough time to do all that you had planned to do, and it's always over before you are ready. Maybe it's because we had so much more energy when we were kids that we did so much more that it felt like the days were longer.
We spent all day Saturday exploring the beach and looking at the Sandcastle contest that was going on. There were three or four really good teams, and the rest of the sandcastles were just kind of eh. It also meant that the beach was PACKED - they even allowed cars to drive on the beach and park right by the sandcastles. Normally, Cannon Beach is a no-drive beach. So we combed through the tide pools, but there were just so many people there.
The weather looks cold, but there was actually no wind at all and it was really pleasant...
It's quite a long walk from the house we stayed in down to Haystack rock and back - probably 4-5 miles round trip, but Lola and Swarley were troopers. They walked the whole way - even wading through the little streams on the beach. However, when we climbed the dunes to get back to our house, and hit the little patch of grass at the top, Lola plopped down and refused to keep going. Swarley kept tugging at the leash to get her to go, but she was having none of it.
We let her rest for a few minutes, and then she got up and made it 50 more feet to the house. She was pretty wiped out for the rest of the night.
Neil and I headed back into Portland to our old favorite brewpub, the Lucky Lab. We met up with some friends and had a really nice lunch and a delicious Reggie's Red. Ahh, good beer and brewpubs - nothing like it. Then we meandered through our old neighborhood, Sellwood, and had a lovely walk down memory lane. It made me a little misty-eyed. The sun was shining and the air was warm and all I wanted to do was take a beer out onto our back deck and enjoy the evening. Unfortunately, someone else is enjoying that deck now. We drove past our old house, and the hops that we planted are totally flourishing. It's nice to know that a little piece of us is still at the house. And the dogwoods were in flower - they are my favorite tree.
After a stop at yummy Burgerville for dinner we headed back up to mom and dad's where we got the full tour of the garden and the yard, and visited the chickens.
Thursday night, we trekked out to SFO for our flight home, right on time, only to find that our flight had been delayed from 8:30 departure to 10:30 departure. Ugh. I hate hanging at the airport. We finally arrived in Portland at midnight. My sister was so kind and gave us her bed to sleep in, while she slept on the floor at her apartment.The next morning we were awoken by a little voice, "hi auntie..." Devin snuck in on us, and was so excited to see us. Chelsea said it was a good bribe to get him to go to sleep the night before, that we would be here when he woke up. We accompanied him to his swimming lesson. He's so far beyond all the other kids in his class. They were jumping off the edge into the pool, and all the other kids held the teachers hand and gingerly slipped into the pool. Devin cannon-balled into the water before the teacher even had the chance to hold out her hands to him.
Back at Chelsea's after the lesson, mom, grandma and Lila arrived and we had a reunion with the doggies. Neil hadn't seen them since Christmas. Alas, Lola was still gargantuan. Lila's weight loss program didn't work:
Then we got all packed up and headed out to the beach. Yay - I LOVE Cannon Beach. We stay at this really really nice house that fits the whole family and is only a block from the beach. Since the point of going to the beach is to actually go to the beach, that's what Chelsea, Devin, Neil and I did.
Unfortunately, when you go on vacation, it always seems to take a day atleast for your body to realize it's on vacation and get relaxed and rested up. We were only at the beach for two nights, so it just seemed to fly by. Plus, I've noticed that the older I get, the faster things happen in life. As a kid, time seemed to just sort of creep by, everything lasted forever. At Christmas, for instance, the three days that my whole family would spend together lasted an eternity (in a good way). Three days was like three weeks - we had so much fun and got so much stuff done. Now, three days is gone in the blink of an eye. There's never enough time to do all that you had planned to do, and it's always over before you are ready. Maybe it's because we had so much more energy when we were kids that we did so much more that it felt like the days were longer.We spent all day Saturday exploring the beach and looking at the Sandcastle contest that was going on. There were three or four really good teams, and the rest of the sandcastles were just kind of eh. It also meant that the beach was PACKED - they even allowed cars to drive on the beach and park right by the sandcastles. Normally, Cannon Beach is a no-drive beach. So we combed through the tide pools, but there were just so many people there.
The weather looks cold, but there was actually no wind at all and it was really pleasant...
It's quite a long walk from the house we stayed in down to Haystack rock and back - probably 4-5 miles round trip, but Lola and Swarley were troopers. They walked the whole way - even wading through the little streams on the beach. However, when we climbed the dunes to get back to our house, and hit the little patch of grass at the top, Lola plopped down and refused to keep going. Swarley kept tugging at the leash to get her to go, but she was having none of it.
We let her rest for a few minutes, and then she got up and made it 50 more feet to the house. She was pretty wiped out for the rest of the night.
After dinner, we had a family first - bonfire on the beach! We usually come out in October or April, and so it's just too cold and rainy to do a fire on the beach. This was our first one. It was really nice and the wind died down completely for us. And now we have Sean, who is a master firebuilder, as part of our family so the fire was really good.
The next morning, we had one last walk on the beach, and then it was time to say bye to Lila and the doggies already. One more month, though, and they'll be with us forever...
Neil and I headed back into Portland to our old favorite brewpub, the Lucky Lab. We met up with some friends and had a really nice lunch and a delicious Reggie's Red. Ahh, good beer and brewpubs - nothing like it. Then we meandered through our old neighborhood, Sellwood, and had a lovely walk down memory lane. It made me a little misty-eyed. The sun was shining and the air was warm and all I wanted to do was take a beer out onto our back deck and enjoy the evening. Unfortunately, someone else is enjoying that deck now. We drove past our old house, and the hops that we planted are totally flourishing. It's nice to know that a little piece of us is still at the house. And the dogwoods were in flower - they are my favorite tree.
After a stop at yummy Burgerville for dinner we headed back up to mom and dad's where we got the full tour of the garden and the yard, and visited the chickens.
Monday, Neil and I headed back into Portland. Neil dropped me off downtown and headed out to Beaverton to the Nike employee's store and to meet a friend for lunch. I went back to my old office and met up with all my friends and we went out to Lebanese lunch. It was SO great to see old friends and faces again and get all caught up on what's going on in Portland. I was just all smiles for the rest of the day after that. I miss Portland. I walked from the office to Powell's, which I would have thought was a ridiculously long walk when I lived in Portland, but now that I am a San Franciscan, it seemed like just a short ways. I guess I'm getting used to walking. I spent a really nice 15 minutes (which, if you know Powell's is definitely not enough time) browsing through Powell's and wishing that there was one in San Francisco. Neil picked me back up and we hung out at my sister's pool until it was time to go to the plane. It was such a lovely, mid-70's, perfectly sunny, fluffy clouds kind of a day. I just wanted to stay.
No delays on the flight home and Neil and I were back in S.F. and in our house by 10:00. Just a few weeks now, and we'll be trekking home again for Chelsea's wedding.
Oh yeah - I came across a discovery last night when I was making tacos. I thought I had a packet of taco seasoning, but I didn't, so I looked up a recipe on the internet, and gave it a whirl. It tasted EXACTLY like the stuff in the packet, and took about 10 seconds to mix up. Give it a try:
1 Tbl. chili powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. each cumin, garlic powder, paprika, oregano and sugar
1/2 tsp salt
mix together thoroughly. Add to pan with ground beef and 1/2 cup of water. Simmer 4-5 minutes or unti liquid is reduced.
Delicious!!
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