This post was supposed to go up on the 27th, but I had been exhausted from the weekend before that I had no energy to even look at my computer, but this week is better, though it might have something to do with the fact that I practically slept all weekend, a complete turnaround from the one previous.
A while back I started babysitting for a small group from my church on Thursdays, it's been really fun as I love working with kids and it's helped me earn some extra cash for a car, which I'm hoping to purchase before I leave for camp this summer. It usually goes from about 6 to 9, in the evening, but sometimes a little later. Normally this isn't an issue as Fridays are usually slow at work, but this weekend my dad, my sister Grace and I were catching a plane Friday at 6 in the morning to head up to Oregon to visit my grandparents. Thursday night was one of the most tiring it's ever been, all the kids had a ton of energy, and wanted to play all kinds of games, which was great seeing at they normally just sit in front of the TV all night, but the extra energy they all seemed to have made me incredibly tired on Friday morning, for anyone else this would probably be fine but I can't sleep sitting up or on my back, or in motion. So cars, planes and trains are all out of the question. I think I spent all of Friday on about five hours of sleep!
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| Snow in Portland as we landed. pc. Grace Barrett |
We left the house at about 3:25 in the morning and drove out to LAX, where I got one of the best breakfast sandwiches I've had in a while at The Kitchen Counter by Wolfgang Puck, that I completely forgot to take a picture of, and a cup of liquid so dark that it teetered on the line between coffee and motor oil, but it woke me up enough to get through the airport. We boarded the plane and I read and took some pictures while the majority of the other passengers slept in the blue light of the plane. I decided to read something short for the next few weeks because I want to start getting in the habit of reading more often and it helps if I'm finishing books quickly. So I picked up my old copy of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and I have to say that it's the perfect light read for traveling.
The trip was smooth, and as we flew into Portland I got to see the sun rise and it was beautiful. But what was more beautiful was the thick layer of snow on the ground. I absolutely love cold weather, and I love trudging through the snow. We knew we would run into some but I didn't know the extent of it. As we were landing we could see piles of it brushed to the sides of the runway, and on the tops of buildings. Getting off the plane the air was incredibly cold and clear. And it was lovely! We got into the airport and had breakfast at
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Unfortunately I chose to wear literal pajamas on the flight, and Grace did the smart thing, which was to put real clothes on, and layers at that. But the trip to the rental car was short and before I knew it I was all toasty in the car (we rented a Ford Fusion and it was a great car! Definitely on my list as I'm looking). And we headed out! We stopped in Multnomah Falls at Vista Point and changed into warmer attire, and then got to take some time to look at the gorgeous view of the river, and the gorgeous architecture. This building is basically a bathroom on a cliff. It's up a windy road and the ground level is an open marble room with bay windows looking out on the view, with stained glass windows above. It was beautiful and I wish I had gotten better pictures, but my phone was on the wrong setting and they all came out too dark. This place was so pretty and the coffee shop and gift shop below was really cute.
From there we drove up to the falls and hiked up to the Latourell waterfall. Which was easier said than done. The hike up was a little icy, and very snowy, and I was not wearing the right shoes, despite the fact that I waterproofed them at home a few nights before. The silliest thing is that upon writing this I remembered that I have a pair of snow boots in the back of my closet, and I have no idea why I didn't bring them on this trip (though I would have only used them once). But, nevertheless, it was a fun, if not death defying, hike up to the falls and I loved the little gift shop they had there too.
We then drove down to the coast and met my grandparents for dinner and we went to a local place they said they liked, The Oar House. Which is weird because when we got there it was half a bar and half a restaurant, and knowing my grandparents, who don't drink, it was the last place I'd see them going because the evening crowd was more like a bar and less like a sit down restaurant or diner, which is more their style. I actually though it was a pretty cool place and would have loved to come back during the day time when I could see it being a quieter place to go read to write with a beer or a coffee. The food was pretty good too, I had a chicken salad with feta, dried cranberries, and a vinaigrette, Grace got chicken strips and my dad got fish and chips. All of which were really good!
When we went back to my grandparents' house on the coast, we decided to take a walk down to the beach before we unpacked, and it was so cols and windy that all you could hear was the roar of the ocean. I wished I had gotten footage of it. I remember taking trips up there as a kid and in my memories it was always like a fairy tale. My grandmother's garden is gorgeous and when we traveled up there we would play games on the beach or ride the swing in the yard and it was always a nice reprieve. My grandmother isn't the nicest person. She's very blunt and critical, and my grandfather, although quieter, can be much of the same. Whenever they got a bit to bitchy we would go down to the beach, or just out to the backyard and play games. My older sisters always liked playing games where we were spies or orphans (we watched far too many movies) and so we would make something up and have a lot of fun. We hadn't had a trip like that in years so it was nice to share some of that with Grace who wasn't old enough to remember those summers.
Weirdly it felt very comforting to be there. Two summers ago while traveling with my summer job I stayed in a house that reminded me so much of my childhood, and I soon realized what it was. When I was little my great grand parents, on my mother's side, had light blue-grey carpet in their house. When they eventually moved in with my grandparents my Papa renovated the guest room and put in blue carpet. My dad's parents have been living in this house since I can remember and their guest room had blue carpet as well. So somehow I have associated blue carpet with a comforting/homey feeling. Even though it can be hard to get along with my dad's parents they are genuinely very generous people. My grandmother loves to shop and is always offering to get us things when we're up there, and she's always cooked and cleaned and driven. And this trip I can genuinely say I had a pleasant time spending it with her. Maybe it's the magic of the blue carpet, or maybe (more likely) my determination not to talk about race or politics with her no matter how many times she brought it up. I also found out where I get my dark humor from when I sat down to look at the 626 pictures she had on her camera dating back to 2009 and she about died laughing when she showed me this picture.
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| Cemetery = Recycling |
We honestly had a really fun time with them when we set boundaries. My grandmother does tend to have struggles with control and so we had to make it clear that Grace and I were old enough to wander and explore, and after our first outing she didn't seem to mind it. We went to The Hatfield Marine Science Center and Grace and I spent so much time looking at everything. Though it was a fairly small museum there was a lot to look at. Grace is enamored with science and wants to be a Marine Biologist. She was so thrilled to spend part of the day looking at fossils, skeletons, old exploration equipment, and all the interactive things they have there. We even stayed for a Q&A about one of the octopuses (yes it's octopuses and not octopi because it's Greek not Latin) and she was enthralled by it. This museum is a really cool stop, and I'd love to come back again because there was a whole wing under renovation that doesn't open until later on in the year. It was really cool how they talked about the way that marine live affects the coastal cities in Oregon and vice versa. They had a section of the exhibit on fishing and diving. There was actually quite a bit of interactive stuff too like a wave maker in a tank of water and sand that showed you how beaches are shaped by the waves, and one where you had to power a little lighthouse by making waves.
We didn't stay for long but we got to see everything, though there were things I didn't get to read about I did see them all. But I was home schooled and the desire to read every plaque in a museum is usually contained to our kind. After that we headed to
Aquarium Village and looked at the really cool little shops. Everything there is painted in bright colors with big pirate statues and the whole thing was like a quirky cartoon. We went into a little antique store with all kinds of stuff, including a ton of (slightly terrifying) porcelain dolls, and a lot of knitted blankets and hats and doilies. There was a glass blowing store where you can watch them make vases and other things, and they even had a class going while we were there. And then we went into a weird little Egyptian alchemy store where the witch offered to give me a tarot reading. I kid you not. We found a little diner to have lunch in called Mollie's Food Follies, which was cute decorated in tons of little things and pictures all over the walls, and a ton of succulents in the front window, but I wasn't too thrilled about the food, which was a shame. A lot of the shops were local artists in various mediums: glass, paint, sculptures, etc. and the whole strip was decorated with their art. It was super cool to look at.
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Aquarium Village was a really cute stop
with brightly colored shops. |
That evening we went to a place in Lincoln City called Wild Flower Grill for dinner where I had a freaking good chicken pot pie with cooked veggies and some amazing paprika mashed potatoes and a puff pastry garnish. The pot pie was creamy and warm and a great reprieve from the rain outside. It was a fantastic meal! The restaurant reminded me of a small town B&B (but not in a creepy Cheshire Cat Inn from Gilmore Girls way). It was a small restaurant but super cute and it had quaint "tea time" vibe. The food seemed to be home cooking style comfort food, my dad had a clam chowder that he loved, and they had a Marionberry duck that, if I liked duck, I would have ordered because everything they had on it sounded so good. I told my brother, who likes duck, that we'd have to take him some time. By this time in the evening it was pouring rain so we headed back to my grandparent's house and got all cozy and Grace and I played card games before bed.
On Sunday we drove north and stopped at one of our favorite places in Tillamook, the
Blue Heron cheese factory. We discovered this place a few years back when we went to visit the Tillamook cheese factory (because it's not vacation unless you learn something) and noticed this place a little ways down the road. They have some of the best blue cheese dressing you will ever have, and sell about every Marionberry flavored thing you can think of. I got a really excellent cracked black pepper brie on this trip that was so good. I did some wine tasting but because we were flying I didn't want to risk bringing a bottle with me so I'm ordering some from their website. We also bought some mustard that my dad liked, but we forgot to pack it in our checked luggage so it got confiscated at the airport so I'm ordering some of that as well. Most of what we bough was little things of cheese and crackers, and other little snacks, and then we headed out to Cannon Beach.
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| Photo by Jessica Keener, 1859 Oregon's Magazine |
We got to out of the car and went into some of the shops, including a really cool board game shop where we bought Settlers of Catan, which weirdly my family has never owned. We've always loved playing board games and over the last year its grown a lot, and when we saw that they had it my dad and I both asked why we didn't own it. Unfortunately we have yet to play it. The funny thing my dad and I noticed at almost every stop we made was the myriad of glass blowing shops there were and Cannon Beach was no exception. Most of the stores we stopped by had demonstrations where you could watch the process or even offered classes on it. Which I thought would be cool to try out the next time we're up there. There was also a theme of candy shops. Everywhere we went there were candy shops! One of the many things Oregon is known for is their really good saltwater taffy and there were shops all along the coast boasting about their taffy. While we were in Cannon Beach we stopped at
Bruce's Candy Kitchen and they had all kinds of flavors of local salt water taffy all displayed in a little ship in the middle of the store. This was one of those candy stores that makes you feel like a kid. Everything was brightly colored, there was a jelly bean wall, every size of jawbreaker you could ever imagine, that sour powder that is basically child cocaine. It was like being in the sailor version of Willy Wanka's Chocolate Factory, and yet it was still small and bright enough that it felt like a small mom and pop shop.
It had been raining on and off all day and, to borrow a phrase, when it rained it poured! We ere getting drenched at times, but I absolutely loved it. I did accidentally break my umbrella at one point because the wind was just so hard that it flipped inside out, but because the rain was so sporadic that day we were able to avoid it for the most part, because there were just so many places to look at. The second candy shop of the day was Schwietert's Cones & Candy just down the road from Bruce's. Here we found the mother load of fudge! Grace loves fudge, and we don't have any local places in Riverside that make it, at least none that I know of. The girl was so excited when she was looking at all the flavors they had at Schwietert's. We ended up getting a box of six squares with Mint Chocolate Swirl, Salted Caramel, Cookies 'n' Cream, Amaretto Chocolate Swirl, Creamsicle, and Salted Caramel Rocky Road. We brought those home along with saltwater taffy to share with the family on our return, and they were excellent. After that the rain was beating down again, and so we headed back to the car and set off for Battery Russel.
Fort Stevens Battery Russel was built in 1903-1904 on the coast of Oregon and was active for a short period during WWI. It was planned to refurbish it before the start of WWII but the shipment of slate was sent elsewhere and once Pearl Harbor was attacked it was the closest fort on the continental US so it was activated before the renovations could happen. It was also the only stateside location to be attacked since the war of 1812. Grace and I loved looking around and exploring the whole fort. It was high enough tat it got a pretty good view and there were a bunch of little nooks and crannies to poke your head in. I wish there had been a bit more on the history of it. Everything I learned was just stuff my dad told me or stuff I got from Wikipedia. There was a single stone plaque with information on the fort, but it was off to the side on the lawn and I wouldn't have known it was there if I didn't see my dad walking over there. It is a small bit of history of Oregon but it would have been nice to have a brochure at least, or maybe a gift shop/museum like some of the other places we went to, but I will say that we were able to climb around and wander and I know that we would have been discouraged had there been more of a historic presence there. It was a really cool place to look at and I honestly didn't think I would have as much fun as I did. It's a great place for taking pictures, because it's very urban meets forest. The building is very creepy industrial looking, and there are places where people had tagged it over the years, but there are also tons of flowers and moss and different fungi growing everywhere.
After Battery Russel we went down to the beach and brought some of the snacks we had bought from Blue Heron the day before, and had a light picnic for lunch. We looked out at the Peter Iredale which was a ship coming from Salina Cruz, Mexico in 1906. The crew was steering the ship toward the Columbia River as they made their way to Portland but due to a storm they were drawn toward the shore, the crew was safe, and a military investigation ruled it an accident, but when plans to move the wreck were begun the ship had become permanently embedded in the beach. You can still see the very tip of one end of the ship and a few fog pipes now but the rest of the ship was left buried in the beach.
It was perfectly windy on the beach, so after we ate Grace, Dad and I got the kites out of the car and flew them for a while on the beach. One weird thing to admit is that I actually really love flying kites, maybe it has something to do with Mary Poppins, but it's always been something I loved doing as a kid. My grandparents have had these old vinyl kites since I can remember and they were still in good condition when we pulled them out of the garage. It was super fun but as the wind picked up it became too rough, and then it started hailing on the beach! At that point we decided to pack it in and head out to our next stop.
We drove into Astoria next and I loved it. I haven't been since I was little and didn't remember much about it other than the fact that The Goonies was filmed there, but it's become a little hipster town now and had a ton of local shops and restaurants. By this time it was getting closer to the evening so we walked around downtown to find somewhere for dinner. We found the Astoria Coffeehouse & Bistro and it was super cozy looking. I got a pulled pork sandwich with roast beef, Swiss cheese, pickles and a brown mustard and it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever tasted, including the one I had at the airport. I also had a cup of tomato soup with mini grilled cheese sandwiches as croutons and it was diabolical. this place was great. It was a bit pricey but it was incredibly good food. I would definitely go back.
Before heading back to the house my dad who, like most Oregonian, is obsessed with bridges decided to drive across the Astoria Megler Bridge into Washington. Last Christmas I bought him a book called Bridges of Oregon and throughout the trip he enjoyed sharing all the little anecdotes he learned from the book as well as some stuff he knew from growing up in the area. It was kind of funny to see him geek out about the architecture and the stories of the construction. We didn't stop anywhere in Washington, but just looped back around and drove back into Oregon. The drive was really pretty and we watched the sun go down as we drove back to the coast.
It being our last full day we decided to stay at the house that evening, and pack up so we'd be ready for our trip home. Because we brought home leftovers at
every single place we are at we decided to do that for dinner rather than go out again, which was nice because it gave us a chance to chill at the house before getting all packed up. Grace and I played a couple rounds of Peanuts before curling up in bed and falling fast asleep from the enormous day we had.
Monday we got up earlier than planned, but my grandmother made waffles and they were excellent! It was our last day so we took our time getting ready and said our goodbyes, before heading into Portland. Traffic was heavy but we managed to get in at a good time with great weather. It was all overcast and cold but there wasn't any rain so we could enjoy our time going from shop to shop. We started off going to Powells where I picked up a huge color by numbers book for grace and I to do on the plane, as well as a few decks of playing cards. Dad found a couple of books and things as well and we spent the majority of our time there before we walked down to Voodoo on Burnside. Because it was just the three of us, and traveling with a box of donuts is hard, as we learned the last time my dad went up we just bought a few to share rather than getting a whole box. We opted for the classic bacon maple bar, a regular maple ring, a chocolate covered donut with a cream filling and a cherry on top, and a freaking amazing (though incredibly rich) hibiscus ring with chocolate sprinkles. That hibiscus donut was so good!
After Voodoo we went to Stumptown Coffee, and picked up a bag of coffee to take home, and they were giving out samples of their coffee. It was really rich and dark, but not so dark that it tasted burnt. It was really good and an excellent wake up from a long day of traveling. Later we headed to the food trucks and I got some incredibly fresh tacos at Tito's Tacos on SW Adler. The Tortillas were warm and fluffy and the carne asada was perfectly cooked with fresh pico de gallo, lettuce and a cream sauce on top! Usually you want to avoid Mexican food in Oregon, it's usually what I wall "white people tacos". It's Taco Bell level authenticity, and usually gives you a stomach ache, but these were really good street tacos, and the guava Jarrito I had with it was excellent.
After we ate it was time to head back to the airport. We were all tired from our weekend, so the flight back was quiet, as Grace colored, I read and Dad took a nap. We had a really good trip and I can't wait to go back! ~Delaney
About a week ago I got another book to review from LibraryThing. I've been in this pattern with Early Reviewer where I mostly pick up children's books, more specifically picture books, partially because they seem to be more interesting the other books I see on there, and because they're short, and I know I can finish them in a day or two. This latest one was called Sakura's Cherry Blossoms, and it was very cute. The book tells the story of a young Japanese girl who is moving to America and shows her deal with struggle like learning a new language, making friends in a new place, and missing her home. The things that Sakura misses the most about Japan are he grandmother, and the cherry blossom tree the two of them would sit under. It's a very sweet book that helps little kids with the fear of moving and starting a new school and affirms that even if you're far away you will always be connected to your family. It was such a cute little book, and I can see it being a useful story. My youngest sister struggled with attachment each time my older three sisters moved out. This book illustrates how, no matter how far away you are, you will always have your family. It was an incredibly heartwarming story.
At the end of last month, I was reorganizing some books and I came across my old copies of The Chronicles of Narnia. My mom went through her books a while back and bought a new set of the series, and had given me her old paperbacks, and I had completely forgotten. I remember loving The Lion, The Which, and The Wardrobe when I was a kid, but for some reason I never read the other books in the series. I loved the movies growing up and was always frustrated that there had never been a full theatrical version of the entire series, though it did get close in the 1980's TV serial, and the latest film series is supposed to pick up again at the end of this year or beginning of the next. I read the first book so many times as a kid. In the christian home school world it was one of few books I started young readers on. Which isn't a bad thing, but a little funny and cliche now. But regardless I wanted to actually read all of them for the first time, so I picked up the first book, over our trip to Oregon, and finished it a couple days ago. I plan to pick up the second one as soon as I finish a couple of the review books I've got to get through, but this week I am going to be reading A Wrinkle in Time before I go and see the movie. This is one that my sister loved as a kid, and I had never read it. I'd seen a version of it from years ago, but it never stuck, and that new trailer looks so good!
