Lazy Blogger

Yeah, I totally spaced out on my blogging duties for the past few days. It certainly wasn't because I lacked material. We were incredibly busy this weekend (in a good way). This activity was due in part to the fact that I couldn't think of enough excuses to get me out of cleaning the apartment, and also, it was a holiday weekend with an abundance of beautiful weather.

Saturday morning I was feeling antsy and having a hard time figuring out what to do. Jesse suggested a bike ride, which at first sounded horrible, but once I was out in the cool breeze I couldn't get enough. Our initial destination was a bakery on Division Street, but about a mile into the ride, I decided that I wanted to make an afternoon of our excursion. We never made it to that Division Street bakery, but found something just as good -- if not better. The bike route headed down to Sellwood and by the time we arrived, I was ready for lunch. So, we stopped at the Grand Central Bakery for snacks. With two sack lunches in hand, Jesse and I made our way to the waterfront park and splayed out in the grass. It was great. My chicken salad sandwich (with fresh tarragon and asparagus) was outstanding. Jesse's turkey, cheese, and sweet chutney sandwich was also top-notch. Feeling refreshed and re-energized, we turned back for home with a slight detour in the Clinton/Division neighborhood. On the way, we met up (fortuitously) with our friends Anna and Brian (and their son) on an afternoon stroll. After walking them to their car, we continued with our bike ride to 62nd Avenue. In case you're wondering, our round trip ride on Saturday clocked in right around 21 miles. It was tiring, but surprisingly, I was not very sore.

Sunday was all about cleaning. I don't want to talk about it anymore. However, the apartment looks really spiffy and ready for the oncoming wave of guests in June.

As a treat for cleaning all day on Sunday, I decided that we needed a special outing on Monday. We decided to take a loop around Mount Hood (about 160 miles round trip). It was mostly a drive to see what's out there, since we've never really been any further east than 122nd Avenue in Portland. Our trip yesterday was stunning and surprising. Surprises? Well, people were skiing. Skiing in May? Absurd! Mount Hood is incredible, however, I learned that I probably will never feel comfortable driving there before the end of May.

These two photos were taken near the top of Mt. Hood at Timberline Lodge. The lodge was built by hand by WPA workers between 1936-37 and is a National Historic Landmark. Look familiar? The exterior was also used to film the movie, The Shining. I really enjoyed walking around and ogling the interior spaces outfitted with timbers, giant iron gates, and hand made furniture and textiles (also planned and executed by WPA workers). I know I'm a giant dork, but the huge snow piles still make me gasp. OMG! The snow is still up to the roof in May. Unbelievable.

After Timberline Lodge, we continued around the west side of Mt. Hood and made our way back home. We stopped off to cross the Bridge of the Gods into Washington and checked out a potential destination, the Walking Man Brewery. There doesn't seem to be much to do in Stevenson, WA other than walk around the 4-block downtown and sip some brews next to the Columbia River. That's ok though, the Bonneville Dam (also a National Historic Landmark) is just down the road and a totally awesome way to spend the afternoon. Two NHL's in a day? My total geek fantasy trip.

Wow, I totally sound like a lame travel website, but really, the Bonneville Dam might have been the highlight of my whole day. I was almost giddy at the raw power harnessed by the Columbia River, not to mention the underground viewing area to watch live salmon swim upstream on the engineered fish ladder. Seriously, I saw fish that were at least 2-feet long and nearly flipped my shit (along with the surrounding 5-year-olds) when a gigantic steelhead whisked into the viewing area. It was amazing and I can't wait to go back when the salmon are spawning. I might have to take a sedative before I get there though, so I won't jump up and down and scream at the sight.

On our way home we decided to take one more detour (which proved to be our undoing). The sandwiches ran out at the dam, but I couldn't resist the prospect of experiencing one of the most spectacular vantage points in all of the Portland area at Larch Mountain. Unfortunately, the access road to the picnic area was closed at the 10-mile-marker due to snow. SNOW! We would have had to hike four miles (up hill both ways heh) in snow in order to see five of the most outstanding peaks in the cascades including, Mt. Hood, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams, and on a clear day (it was spectacularly clear) Mt. Rainier. I guess that will just have to wait until next time.

We hopped back in the car and headed home totally exhausted. It was an awesome trip and I can't wait to explore the area further when we have guests in town. I've already reserved a couple of books on the Oregon Trail at the library so we can scout out a few of the existing portions of the trails left in the area. I can't wait to trade Jesse for a buffalo hide to survive the long, cold Oregon winter.

Patriots and Pie

Today I felt mostly back to normal after my epic cold, so J and I decided to ride our bikes downtown for our near-weekly trip to the library. J has been burning through music books lately and I have decided to counter the daily inundation of election coverage by reading a few biographies/critiques on our founding fathers. Sure, the reading is a bit dry at times, but after feeling constant disappointment with current political climate, it's refreshing to get back to the basics. Rather than jumping right into a full biography, I decided to whet my appetite with Christopher Hitchens' Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography. I enjoyed it so much that I'm requiring J to read it so that we can discuss. Things I have learned so far? Thomas Paine was pretty awesome. He was a Quaker -- a recurring theme I have noticed in the history of progressive historical figures. Oh, and it kind of sounds like John Adams was an ass (but I'll have to verify that later through additional reading).

Since we were out on bikes, we decided to drop off our ballots instead of putting them in the mail. To make a long story short, I thought the drop box was on Morrison Street in SW Portland, but it was, in fact, on Morrison Street in SE Portland. Our bike ride turned out to be longer than expected and I realized that I am not feeling 100% better from my cold. I kept checking the rear wheel to make sure that somehow I hadn't acquired a couple of lead bricks on the way. I'm sure J wanted to die from my slowness. However, we did it. We voted. Thank god the election will be over in less than a week!

Since we were already out, I decided that our bike ride would not be nearly dramatic enough unless we made a third stop at the grocery store. We picked up apples (to celebrate fall with a pie or crumble), three boxes of tissues, cold medicine (since my ears are still stopped up), some veggies, and a Coke (for the caffeine/sugar boost that I needed to make it home). I took full advantage of the three boxes of tissues and was able to breathe on our way home. By the time we parked our bikes in the basement, I was feeling refreshed and actually was glad that we took the dreaded bike ride. I think I needed a little fresh air.

Adventures in West Virginia

I was in Charles Town, West Virginia twice this week to conduct deed research for a few houses in Harper's Ferry. All of the deeds for Jefferson County are located in the clerk's office at the county courthouse. It's a pretty cool courthouse, and was the site for John Brown's trial in 1863. I liked that the interior hasn't changed a whole lot - the main hallway still has its old creaky floors and doors. It was refreshing to take a step out of D.C. for the day into an entirely different world. Lately, I feel as though you need special security clearance and 4 forms of identification just to get into a Starbucks within a 2-mile radius of the White House. Comparatively, the Jefferson County courthouse was pretty laid back.

Upon entering, I was greeted by an older gentleman who was sitting behind a plain wooden desk next to a simple metal detector. I left my purse on his desk while I walked through the detector and signed in on his clipboard. After I passed the metal test, he asked where I was going. I told him that I was headed to the Clerk's office to research deeds. He looked at me, smiled, and said "you don't have any knives do you?" I told him no and chuckled, and he asked if I was a lawyer. I said no, and explained how I'm a historian and my research didn't involve any legal transactions. He sounded interested, smiled again and said, "sure you don't have any knives?" I laughed, said "no," and he handed me my purse. I wanted to respond by telling him that I gave up knives for nunchuks, but decided to just smile all pretty-like and be on my way. I guess it worked, since he didn't bother to rummage through my belongings.

Two days later, I came back to do more research and the same security guard was at the desk. He gave me a big grin and said "ah my pretty little historian, back to do more research eh?" I got the OK to bypass the metal detector this time, but only after I assured him that I didn't bring any knives. Twice. I wonder if that is standard security protocol in West Virginia, certainly a knife-toter wouldn't lie twice. Right?

I continued my research on Wednesday by stopping by Harper's Ferry Town Hall. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the "Town Hall" building contains the US Post Office, Police Department, Town Hall (mayor's) office, and a liquor store. See the two white doors? The left one leads to the police department, and naturally, I thought the other would lead to the Town Hall office. I opened the door expecting to see the receptionist (who managed to say "blah blah blah" four different times when I called earlier in the day). Instead, I was greeted by the Olde Towne Hall Liquor store owner. I quickly excused myself and decided to stop in at the police department for directions. I was directed to go through the back of the building, make right, and then another right. The Town Hall entrance is in the waaaaay back corner of the building next to the trash dumpster. I walked up the creaky stairs that led me to an office space directly above the liquor store. It's good to know that Harper's Ferry has it's priorities straight with the liquor store located in a prime spot in Town Hall. Jesse said the town gained a few bonus points in his mind - even if the liquor is annoyingly named "Olde Towne."

As it turns out, the research trip to Town Hall was pretty disappointing. I found out that someone made the brilliant decision to chuck any building permits that pre-dated 1998. Almost 200 years of history right down the chute. Oh well, at least I got to put a face (and a healthy helping of gross wrinkly cleavage) to the "blah blah" lady's voice. On the bright side, though, at least my truncated research visit meant that I got to leave about 3 hours earlier than expected. I definitely could get used to getting out of work at 3pm every day!

Graham's Visit

For the past three years, J and I have begged G to visit us in D.C. Finally, he was able to work us into his busy schedule and gave up his spring break (March 26th-30th) to fly across the country for a long weekend. His stay was somewhat unusual (I managed to not pick up my camera once), so I was excited when G emailed his photos from the trip last night.

J and I were so happy to have him all to ourselves. We picked his brain on all the exciting things going on in his life, and of course showed him all of our favorite places around town. Naturally, J expressed enthusiasm for having his little brother around by arranging two epic runs around the city. I think they totaled over 20 miles that weekend. I hurt just thinking about it.

In order to ensure that G's brain wouldn't atrophy on his days off just before finals, we decided that the weekend would definitely have to be about education. G is a no-nonsense dude, so naturally he wanted to absorb as much info as possible. On Friday, with plenty of sandwiches and snacks in hand, we drove out to Monticello for a day trip. Upon arrival, we had an hour or so to walk around the grounds before our house tour. Unfortunately, it was a little early in the season for the gardens to be in bloom, but the walk was a welcome change after 2.5 hours in the car. The house tour was pretty interesting and I am always amazed at how Jefferson spent his entire life perfecting his house and grounds. We didn't finish at Monticello in time to make it out to Mt. Vernon, but I think that was probably for the best. It was a long day.

Instead, we took an alternate route home and stopped at Manassas battlefield. You can't visit Virginia without going to at least one battlefield. If you look hard enough, you can see the excitement on my face. Look a little harder! I'm not sure if we were standing next to a confederate or union cannon. I didn't pay very much attention to the 6 minute audio program about the Second Battle of Bull Run, and refused to take 1-mile Henry Loop Trail that may have given a bit more context. So, the men settled for a quick walk around the close-in battlefield and opted to play around with the cannons.

Depending on which Civil War scholar you consult, I'm sure they'd agree that G is depicting a relatively accurate account of how "Stonewall" Jackson led his infamous charge at the First Battle of Bull Run. Since I am a historian, and qualify to be a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, I felt it was my duty to tell him that it was much more likely that Jackson rode the cannon like a horse (he was, after all, a cavalry man). For the sake of getting home before dark, we had to agree to disagree on that minute detail of history. G opted for his pose instead. I still feel that General Jackson would never have stooped to the level of a "foot cavalry" man. The mounted pose would have been much more accurate.

We continued our weekend of learning with additional coursework, which included a seminar on the wonders of Bourbon, and a hands-on workshop aimed at obtaining the maximum potential of your falafel pita (without embarrassing blow-outs). G even played schoolmaster and taught me a thing or two about rap music and the emotional roller coaster that is the big-budget movie soundtrack. We closed our eyes while listening to clips from Dragonheart and I imagined men in armor and damsels in distress, or Civil War soldiers (to tie it into our weekend lesson plan) marching off to battle. It was very epic. I don't think I'll ever be a soundtrack convert, unless The Ark miraculously takes on movie making, but it was fun to listen to new things.

I think I got to know G better in those 4 days than I have in the 4 years that I've been visiting California for the summer and winter holidays. I think we sent him home completely worn out (at least I was completely worn out), but it was so much fun. I certainly hope he will have more time to visit us in the future!

Portland Rocks, Final Edition

On Sunday we hopped on the Max to pick up our rental car. That morning, I learned true meaning of the old adage "you get what you pay for." Way back in January when I booked the reservations for our trip, I was so excited to get a sweet deal on our car -- only $25 a day. When we got to the airport, we waited and waited for the shuttle to take us to the car lot. After a series of annoyed calls, I found out that the rental car company shares a shuttle with the Holiday Inn. It was clear that hotel passengers were a priority. After waiting 45 minutes for our pickup, we were dropped off in a back parking lot behind the hotel. The rental car "office" was a folding table situated next to the hotel pool with a fax machine and paper shredder. The woman at the card table was nice enough, but as Graham would say, our cheap car rental was definitely not a good value.

On the bright side, our rocky start mean that the day had nowhere to go but up! We drove down to Hawthorne Street, which was a lot more like our neighborhood in Adams Morgan than anyplace we had seen so far in Portland. By the time we got there I was starving. We stopped in at the Cup and Saucer Cafe (recommended by Eric) and had a delicious meal of eggs, bacon, and LOTS of coffee. With a nice coffee buzz and a full stomach, we set off to explore the neighborhoods. We walked, and walked, and walked, zig zagging up and down streets to scope out places that would be fun to live. Along the way we picked up flyers at houses up for sale to figure out if Portland is was place that we could afford to buy. And it is! I think I found at least a dozen houses in our price range that were cute as a button.

Once our legs felt like they might fall off, we hopped back in the $25-a-day car, and drove around some more. We finally landed at our hotel around 4pm, the Kennedy School. The hotel was converted from an old elementary school and still retains all of its charm. Needless to say, one night was not enough, but we'll back!

We had a drink and a snack at the Detention Bar and then Brian and Anna picked us up for a late dinner. We drove over to their neighborhood and had an awesome meal at Doug Fir's. After dinner they gave us an evening tour of the area and showed us a couple of houses that they have been thinking about buying. While driving around we discussed life in Portland, as Brian and Anna both made very good sales pitches as to why we should hurry up and move already. By the end of the night we had worked out a timeline for luring all of our friends to Oregon.

On Monday we did a bit more driving, but were mostly in a daze from Saturday and Sunday's epic amounts of walking. All we wanted to do was relax on a couch with a good book and read. Besides, by that point, my mind was set. Portland is the place, now all we have to do is find a job or two!

Portland Rocks, West Siiiide

After reviewing my photos from our trip, I can confidently say that my camera stayed zipped in its case for most of the visit. Usually on vacation I have my digital camera in one hand and a map in the other. I don't know why this trip was different. Maybe it was because I'd read so much about Portland beforehand that the city was already clearly mapped out in my mind. Or perhaps I didn't feel like a tourist (gasp) because it felt so comfortable being there, like it was someplace I could definitely live.

Jet lag coming to the West Coast is great. It means that you go to bed embarrassingly early, but will be up and out with the sun (and by up with the sun, I mean 8am). Saturday morning was no exception. We set out to have breakfast at Ken's Artisan Bakery (a favorite from the October Portland trip) where I was overwhelmed by the selection of baked goods. Mindlessly, I ordered an almond croissant, knowing that it would never be enough for breakfast. It was delicious, but I decided to take a nibble of Jesse's vegetable quiche and decided that it was the best in the world. I quickly got back in line for my own piece. Ken's is a hoppin' spot on a Saturday morning and it was nice sit and people watch. While Jesse polished off his quiche, a mixed berry pastry, part of my croissant, and multi grain hard roll, I took note of how many normal people (like us) were milling around the streets. When we finished, I rolled Jesse out of the bakery. We joked that when (not if) we finally get to Portland we'll need to allot additional discretionary funds to keep up with his bakery habit.

The rest of Saturday is mostly a blur now. Somehow or another, probably by the Max or Streetcar, we arrived downtown and proceeded to walk the entire city. In addition to zig zagging up and down residential and commercial streets, there were plenty of stops for snacks, coffee, CD shopping, and book hunting at Powells. By the end of the day I was ready to give my 2 weeks notice and never turn back.

By the early afternoon, I was totally dragging and we decided to stop in at Stumptown Coffee. Just as we were ordering, I heard "Hey, I know you!" I turned and looked behind me, because surely that person was talking to someone else. Nope. It was Anna behind the counter, one of only two people that I know in Portland. Her husband, Brian, is the other. Out of all the Stumptown Coffee shops we could have chosen, we managed to find her, and just in time for the tail end of her shift. She was clearly busy, so we gave her our numbers in order to meet up later. Imagine that! It's definitely a sign!

With a new burst of energy, we continued to walk. One of Portland's quirks, which I still haven't entirely digested, is its love for pink buildings. There may not actually be that many, but they left quite an impression. Now that I look back, about a quarter of the photos taken on our trip involved lovely streetscapes punctuated by really pink buildings in the background. They're the kind of photos that you don't realize you have until after they're developed, or in my case, downloaded. I vaguely remember similar photos from family vacations as a kid. The pictures always captured the four of us in front of some place of interest, in addition to a goofball wearing Mickey Mouse ears, white tube socks, and sandals. Now that I think back, they usually were a bit askew as well, due to the fact that they were taken by someone with felt-padded fingers. I managed to keep a level shot for most of the photos on our trip, but am still scratching my head over those salmon intrusions.

Really though, the pink beauties only added to the city's unique charm. They are just a small part of the story of how I fell in love with Portland's west side in just a day.

Portland Rocks, Initial Impressions

Our trip to Portland confirmed what everyone has been telling me...it's awesome. Even in the rain.

Actually, we had unusually nice weather in Portland this past weekend - freakishly nice weather according to the locals. When we arrived on Friday there was a light drizzle during the afternoon, but for the rest of the weekend, we coasted along with mostly blue skies.

What first struck me about he city (aside from the lady walking around with a freshly neutered cat on her shoulder) was that it has a downtown. A downtown with shops, and places to eat, and people! This was a definite contrast to Washington, D.C. where everything south of Dupont Circle shuts down promptly at 5:30 on Fridays and opens back up again at 8am on Monday when all of the federal workers come back from Virginia. Of course our neighborhood in Adams Morgan is a different story, but I'm talking about downtown, the heart of the city.

When making a trip to downtown D.C., you should prepare for the long haul by packing snacks. That is unless you want to chow down on greasy muffins at Au Bon Pain with the rest of the tourists, or brave hot dog cart fare along the road. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hot dogs, but you'd have a hard time finding this on a sleepy Sunday afternoon in D.C.

I believe this may have been our second or third cup of coffee in hopes of getting a second wind after a totally exciting and exhausting weekend. I'm sad that I didn't take more photographs of all the people and places, but I have no doubt that we'll be back again in the very near future !

Scouting Trip

In October 2006, J took a trip to Portland, OR for a job conference and ended up really loving the city. It was a place that we both talked about visiting someday, but at the time, a 4-day trip all the way across the country seemed like a bit of a stretch for me. I opted instead to take a shorter weekend trip with him to Boston in early November. Boston was great (we were engaged that weekend), but I kept thinking how it would have been awesome to share the experiences of that first trip to Portland.

I the midst of extensive research to populate our "Top 5 Places to Live" list, I found that Portland looked great on paper. It has great public transit, lots of parks, a cool downtown, lots of beer.... I also found that just about every person who has visited can't get enough. Even still, I couldn't help thinking, what if they are all wrong?

My practical nature would not allow me to fall in love with a city that I had never visited (even though I desperately wanted it to be as cool as everyone said). Besides, what if we moved there and found that it really is a city of rabid granola eaters? I'd seen a lot of people in photos wearing hiking gear. Was I prepared to give up my cute black pumps for brown boots? I also heard that umbrellas are a faux pas in the Rose City. Could I handle the perpetual bad hair days caused by hats and rain?

Fast forward one year. We're right back to Portland.

This morning we catch a plane to PDX and barring any freak snowstorms we will arrive just after lunch. (Chicago O'Hare, I know we've had a rocky relationship, but I didn't really mean all those things I said. Please don't make me regret this apology.)

J and I have a full itinerary in order to absorb as much of the city as humanly possible. This is arguably the worst time of year in Portland weather wise, so if I can handle it this weekend then we're set. Hopefully we will revisit some of J's favorite spots from the 2006 trip and explore other areas for the first time together. I can't wait!