Wrapping up the weekend

Our Saturday was pretty low key. Lots of Bananagrams, some errand running followed by dinner with M & J and an epic set of Rock Band. Very, very fun.

On Sunday, we wandered over the the Ballard Farmer’s Market and browsed through the local shops nearby. There was an innovative potato display at one of the stands:

We also indulged in a Banana-Nutella crepe. Yummy!

We wandered over to the Locks to help work off some of the crepe calories (Ha!) It was totally different from T’s and my visit back in the fall:

There weren’t all of the fish that we saw previously, but it was still fun to walk around. On the way back home we came across this lovely piece of “social commentary.”

Oh hippies, what is wrong with you? And do you not realize the irony of placing a cardboard sign in protest of trees being cut down? Really? Suddenly, I’m feeling nostalgic for Berkeley…

At any rate, we had a great visit with Erik & Nerissa. I wish they lived closer so that we could hang out more often, but I guess it just makes the visits more special when they do happen.

Not so Black Friday

We awoke to a bright blue sky on Friday morning, so we decided to take advantage of it. After a nice breakfast at a local diner, we parked along the Elliot Bay path for a nice walk to the Sculpture Garden and Pikes Place Market. We stopped to take some photos:

and even got a passer-by to take one of the whole group:

I think this might be some sort of record, four people and not one of us is blinking or making a face. (Of course, 3/4 of the group are wearing sunglasses… ) Not surprisingly, the market was crazy busy:

We saw tons of great artistic stuff. First we saw this “crocheted food” at Kasala:

Then we happened across this great mural:

We wandered through Post Alley and got a snack from the Humbow place across the street. We also grabbed coffee at a Tullys on the way back and saw these cute fiberglass doggies:

And then on the corner across the street was this pretty piece of moving scuplture:

After all of that walking, we pretty much just kicked back at the house for a few hours. We also played a fair amount of Bananagrams:

We went to dinner at the Oaxacan place in our neighborhood, followed by cupcakes. I must say, this was a much more enjoyable way to spend the day than at the mall. Cheaper too!

Quality time

My sister was in Portland visiting my parents this past week, but unfortunately I was up in Seattle with my new job. (I love how things time out in my world… ) Since her flight home was very early on Sunday morning, I really only had Saturday to see her. Initially, we had loose plans to go to the Saturday Market for her to buy some thank-you presents for some folks back in NYC and she was going to call when they were up and ready to head out the door.

T and I spent a leisurely morning watching Le Tour and generally being too lazy to make anything for breakfast. We had decided to get yummy breakfast sandwiches from a local cafe, when my sister called. They hadn’t eaten so we made plans to meet there. As T and I walked up to put our names in, (since the wait at this place tends to be long) we noticed people sitting on the side of the street in lawn chairs and a sign that said “parade route”. Hmmmm… this isn’t going to be good. Being a veteran of Junior High Marching Band, I assured T that the “parade wouldn’t start for hours and that it would be fine.”

We got to the place and helped ourselves to some coffee while we waited (I love the Pacific Northwest, so civilized… ) and as we were sitting there, we notice policemen shutting down the streets. So much for my parade expertise! The parade started with the usual motley crew of local politicians and strangely dressed people. Up the block a marching band starts to play that I of course make fun of, until they get closer and I see that it’s a band comprised of people in their 40’s through 60’s (complete with drum majorettes and baton twirlers) and they are having a GREAT time, wearing shirts that say things like “we eat better than we play” and “we are in shape – round!” I only managed to get a few pictures of them going by:

They are followed by the goth drum corps The Last Regiment (couldn’t make that up if I tried):

Finally, our table was ready and my mom and sister showed up. We had a nice chat while we waited, followed by some delicious food. If you’re ever in S.E. Portland, hit up Detour Cafe – very good food, well worth the wait.

Well-nourished, we headed over to the Saturday Market. This isn’t usually my cup of tea, but I was just along for the ride, so it was fine. I amused myself by snapping a few pictures. The general ambience:

My sister:

My mom scowling at my camera for no good reason:

My mom after I’ve made fun of her scowling at my camera for no good reason:

(much better, right?) I sadly missed getting a picture of the “street performer” deep-throating one of those long-skinny balloons that balloon animals are made out of. It was deeply disturbing… We wandered around the various arts and craft booths, admiring the ones that were good and making fun of the ones that were crappy.

We headed back to our place to walk the dogs before going over to my parents to hang out for a bit. We’d been wanting to try this new place in the neighborhood called the Waffle Window, that has the stupidest hours in the history of the world – only open on weekends until 5:00 p.m. (Last week, T and I got there at 5:05 and they were closed!) So we decided to walk the dogs there, with my mom and sister driving over since it was hot and they weren’t feeling the walking.

The Waffle Window turned out to be well worth the wait. Their waffles have a very different texture than the other waffles I’ve had – I can’t really describe it, less eggy/yeasty, almost like a poundcake’s consistency and had lots of fresh fruit options. Very, very yummy. My sister in front of Waffle Window:

Poor Smokey Joe and Wally did not get any waffles. They’re so mistreated…

On the way home, I noticed someone had put some cartoon eyes over the electrical wire, which I thought was amusing enough to photograph:

We finished up the day by going to Pok Pok for dinner, which everyone really liked. It was fun to have a nice evening out with the family, eating good food outside and enjoying each other’s company. It wasn’t a long visit, but a very high quality one.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today was my long ride day (3 and a half hours on my training plan) but we also had plans with my Mom, so I figured out a route that would end at my parent’s house and made sure to get an early start. (Well, early for me… ) By 9:15, I was on the road, pedaling away. My route started on the familiar Springwater Corridor and then headed east. For the first hour, the route was easy to follow (I found it on a site where people upload various riding routes) and I made it into Oregon City with no problems, but then the rain began and I got a little confused as to where I was supposed to go next.

A little wet, but otherwise okay, I managed to backtrack my way back onto the route and climbed a giant-ass hill into downtown Oregon City. Everything was going fine until I made another wrong turn and realized I was on a street that was not on my route sheet. D’oh! I turned around again and headed back to the intersection where I’d missed the turn-off (Of course the direction that I’d initially entered it on was the one that had no good signage… ) Somehow, I still ended up on a different road than I’d intended (still not sure what went wrong there) but luckily ended up on the road that I’d planned to take on the loop back. So, I just adjusted my directions to make it into Canby, the town that I’d planned to use as my turn-around point. I was actually really grateful for this, as this part of the route was awful – no shoulder and too much traffic. Finally, I made it into Canby and found a shopping center where I could pee, get a little coffee/snack and call T. to clarify how to find my way back to the original route so I didn’t get lost again.

Luckily, I was pretty close to where I needed to be and T was able to put me on the path again. Plus, the coffee and donut I had really hit the spot so I was much more motivated on the ride back. The road was much less busy and I passed some beautiful horse ranches where the horses would watch me curiously as I rode on by. The terrain was definitely rolling and there were a couple of big hills to contend with, but nothing nearly as bad as last week’s ride. Before too long, I was back on the part of the ride I’d already done and got to fly down the hills I’d worked so hard to climb up. Then it was a straight shot over to my parent’s house. Except for the $%^!ing Baptist School bus that despite turning left, still pulled all the way into the pitiful one foot shoulder I had to ride on, forcing me to ride in the gravel. (I believe it is to my credit that I didn’t flip the bus off… )

I arrived at my parent’s house full of expletives about my run-in with the bus, but otherwise okay. T was already there with my pre-packed gym bag filled with shower stuff and a change of clothing. After a quick snack and a shower, the Mother’s Day festivities were ready to begin – lunch and then a viewing of Iron Man. When I asked my mom what she wanted to do, this was what she said, so far be it from me to argue with my mother on her day. We initially planned to eat lunch at the Claim Jumper and had T check the wait time while my mom parked the car. But when he came back out with tales of 90 minute wait times (at 3:00!) and the freak show of customers within, we changed our mind and ended up at Noodles & Co. (I’d never eaten at one, it was pretty tasty!)

Then it was movie time. I’ll be honest, I probably would not have gone out of my way to see this movie. I mean, I like Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow and I’d heard good things about it – but another comic book movie? Really? But T was super excited about it and my mom was happy, so I was certainly happy to go along. And I must say, it was way better than I was expecting it to be and I really, really enjoyed it. It’s a well done movie and all of the actors did a great job. (I don’t know crap about the comic books, so true Iron Man aficionados might have problems with it.) So for anyone looking for a fun summer movie choice, I would highly recommend it.

So, happy mother’s day everyone. Hope it was a good one!

Fun in Salem

Today we went down to Salem to visit T’s mom, partly because her birthday is on Tuesday and she’s going to be celebrating it in the Caribbean (poor thing) and partly because we thought it would be nice to spend the day with her. T’s mom (we’ll call her S. from here on out) has three dogs of her own and her house is pretty much doggie Disneyland. She has a nice big yard for them to run around in, tons of toys and generally just a laid back attitude toward all of the chaos and dirt that they produce. Our dogs have a great time down there, even though Wally barks his fool head off at one of her dogs.

Salem isn’t that far from Portland in geographical terms, but it feels a lot farther away than it is. Visiting is like traveling back in time – things move a lot slower around there. T. grew up here, as did his mom and most of their family. Hearing their stories, it’s amazing how many things remain unchanged and how many weird little shops and businesses have been here for seemingly forever, while others flounder and die off in a few months.

Originally, our itinerary included a bike ride but spring time in Oregon is capricious at best, so even though it was sunny the whole drive down, by the time we got there and got ready to go it was pouring rain. Since I was already dressed and had an hour and a half ride on my training plan, I decided to do my ride on the trainer while S. & T. went to Target to look for a suitcase for S’s upcoming trip. Naturally, five minutes after I started on the trainer the rain pretty much stopped and it was sunny again. Stupid Oregon weather.

T. & S. returned from their errand just as I was finishing my ride and we had a little time to chill before we met S’s second husband for lunch. (Quick side story on S: she’s been married & divorced three times and remains on friendly terms with all three. In fact, husband #3 lives across the street. T’s father is husband #1, but unlike the other two who live in Salem, he lives up in Seattle… ) I indulged in the ultimate recovery meal, a piece of homemade lemon pie and a Diet Coke. Yum!

As I was taking the pie out of the fridge, I noticed that it had a post-it note on the Saran Wrap:

Ummm, okay… I guess you know you’ll see it there…

I took my yummy pie into the living room to torture T. but he was busy torturing the dogs, so I settled for photographing him. This is him with S’s youngest dog Lola, a.k.a Satan Spawn. (Seriously, she’s awful. It’s a good thing she’s cute!)

Then he moved onto tormenting Wally…

Aren’t they so cute? Speaking of cute, here’s S:

Unlike many married people I know, I’m very fortunate to have a really great relationship with my mother-in-law. She treats me like the daughter she never had (T’s an only child) and has always gone out of her way to make me feel included and a member of the family. Believe me, I know how lucky I am…

T. had a good time laughing at the gift that S. was bringing the friend she’s staying with in the Caribbean (don’t ask!) and we had a good time decorating Smokey Joe with the ribbons from S’s present.

Smokey Joe wasn’t quite so thrilled to be photographed. (He looks possessed, doesn’t he?)

Here’s Moots, he’s very pretty but not the brightest penny in the fountain:

Finally, Husband #2 arrived and we headed off to lunch for some yummy Mexican food:

Mmmmm, sopitos! It’s very strange, Salem doesn’t have a lot of different cuisines to choose from, but they have some great Mexican food. We had a nice lunch, watched S & Husband #2 tease each other and generally catch up on everybody’s doings. Sufficiently stuffed, we hung out a little longer back at the house and let the dogs play in the backyard, then headed home.

All in all, a lovely day was had by all and now the dogs are tired again. Score! Now, it’s time for some serious couch-loafing…