On a happier note...The Sakamotos!!

I've known Jenny from hanabata days....we first met it Mrs. Han and Mr. Sasaki's (I think that was their names!! hahahaha!) 3rd grade class at Enchanted Lakes Elementary in Kailua.  She's one of the only people I keep in touch with from high school.  I guess because we're both anti social and we no like talk or see anybody.

The last time I took pictures of them were hmmm...look at the left of my blog.  The top pic.  I have no idea how old Emi was at that time.  Maybe 5? 6?  Or look alllll the way down, I think she was two or three back then.  So yah, it was time for an updated picture

Oh my gawwwd.  Paul makes the funniest faces.  I was cracking up the whole time...I don't even think he realizes he's doing it sometimes too

This was a testing-my-lighting shot but I like the way it came out

And then there's Emi....hmmm...so i'm trying to pose them sitting down when I see a bright spot on her leg.  I took a second glance and yelled "what the hell?? Is that a puka?!?!?"  I busted out laughing and Jenny scolded her that she was supposed to throw those out a long time ago.  Never a dull moment with this family!

I'm so sad....and upset...or should I say LIVID

Did you hear that Oregon is on fire??  Yup....the Columbia Gorge.  The same gorge that I just went hiking at 3 weeks ago.  How did it start you ask?  By a group of idiotic teenagers throwing firecrackers and smoke bombs down into the gorge.  You can read the whole stupid story here.  I was so upset after I read it.  I can't believe people are so stupid.

This is what the tunnel looks like now:

I'm grateful that I was able to enjoy it when I did.  I was really lucky.  Hopefully not everything got ruined...this place was truly special.  

Portland

August 23, 2017

We didn't have much planned for Portland except for those two excursions that we went on.  We knew what we wanted to eat but that's about it.  Sorry, this whole post is with iPhone pictures cause I was too lazy to lug around my camera.

A few blocks away from our house was Blue Star Donuts.  It's a popular donut joint and I was excited to try it out.  We ordered four...lemon poppy, creme brulee, dark chocolate with cream filling, and an almond/chocolate I think.  IT WAS ALMOST $15 FOR FOUR DONUTS!!  Holy cow.

So not worth it.  I was really disappointed.  The only one I really liked was the lemon one, although it was quite sweet.  Doughnut Plant in NYC is still my favorite.

When we went back to the house to eat our donuts, we were greeted by Luther, the owner's dog.  He was adorable.  I coulda played with him all day.  Randy made me leave him alone and go into the house. hehe

After we cleaned up and took a short nap we headed out for the city.  We stopped by Powell's Books, wow!  That place was huge!  I'm surprised a stand alone bookstore can stay in business with Amazon around.  I also bought some goodies from Penzey's spices, I love that place.  And I couldn't leave Portland without trying Salt and Straw!!  They are a popular ice cream shop that makes ice cream out of interesting ingredients.  This was green fennel and maple.  It was delicious.  So not what I expected.

It was still early and we had no idea what to do.  We decided on the rose garden...it was free!  Score! Very pretty, I think this place is a hundred years old or something!

Our rental was in Hawthorne District and was walking distance to a lot of stores and restaurants.  Right down the street was a Mexican restaurant that always had a long line out the door.  The booklet that Stephanie (the rental owner) made said that it's one of the best Mexican restaurants in Portland.  We didn't think anything of that because everyone says that their restaurant is the best.  But since it was walking distance we gave it a try.  This was in one of the neighbor's yard along the way

This was the line when we got there

When you finally get in the door (we waited about half an hour), you order at the counter then you find a seat.  But a girl comes around to take your drink order while you're waiting in line!  We both got yummy margaritas

We started off with chips and salsa.  Although it wasn't free, it was really good.  The chips were warm and fresh and the salsa was perfect.  Not too spicy so I could eat it.

I ordered carnitas tacos and a side order of rice.  Yah they gave me beans by mistake.

I started with the rice.  I always taste the rice first because a lot of places that I eat at the rice is crap.  This one was DELICIOUS.  My tacos were really good too, I could've done with a teeny bit less meat but otherwise it was yummy.  Randy ordered chile relleno and his was really good too.  

I think we liked it.

I wish we were staying a little longer, we woulda went back for more!  We were stuffed.  It was good that we walked over there, we could get a little exercise after our big meal...even though it was only a five minute walk :)

Oneunta Gorge

April 23, 2017

I'm a big fan of Peter Lik.  He's an incredible photographer and his landscape photography is just amazing.  My boss bought a picture for his home and I just love it.  I figured out where it was so I wanted to see what it was like in person.  Here's the pic...note, this was taken in 2012.

Isn't it beauuuutiful??  Anyways, as I was researching this, as always, the websites say that this location gets really crowded and during certain times of the year (i'm assuming winter/spring) the water can get up to chest high!  It's a very short hike, maybe 1 mile roundtrip.  

Here's how I got there:

As you can see the parking lot is very small.  This is 6:30 in the morning.  Yup. You know me, I hate crowds.  Poor Randy, I always drag his butt out of the house in the wee hours of the morning. I think people must camp around there or something because I have no idea where the people were.

If you see this sign....TURN AROUND.  THIS IS THE WRONG WAY.  We must've walked about 20 mins before I figured it out.  Sigh...

Look for the staircase right after the tunnel/bridge.  Sorry, the staircase is at the far right of the picture, I cut it off

You see this when you get down the stairs.  

Very quickly you run into this.  This log jam was pretty high.  This was the scariest part of the hike. Once you get over this you're home free.

Randy needed to change into his surfing booties...

Speaking of shoes, I scored!  I found these $20 wet/dry shoes at Costco a few months ago

I also found this wet/dry bag for my camera and belongings from Amazon.  I think it was about $20.  

The water got about thigh deep.  This is where it normally gets waist-chest high.  We were lucky although the pictures aren't as nice because at certain parts it was dry.

When you get to the end you reach the waterfall

Randy has a thing about swimming in crazy places.  It was 61 degrees!!!

Ooops.  We saw this after we came back up to the bridge...

By the time we were heading back out a whole bunch of people were trickling in.  I'm soooo happy I went early.  We left the house at 6am, and since there was no traffic we got there fast.  If I didn't go down the wrong path in the beginning we would've had the place to ourselves longer.

We worked up an appetite for breakfast so we went to eat some biscuits and gravy

This was delicious!!  I ordered biscuits with shiitake mushroom gravy and a side of fried chicken.

Randy ordered the classic sausage gravy but I liked mines better :)

Oregon Coast

August 22, 2017

I've never been to Portland so since we were going to Seattle I told Randy I wanted to spend a few days there.  The two main places I wanted to see (which actually aren't in Portland) were the coast/Cannon Beach, and Oneunta Gorge.

We left Seattle early on the morning of the 22nd since we only had two nights there. I wanted to get in as much sightseeing as we could.  We dropped off our bags at our rental around noon and headed straight for the coast.  We started off at Tillamook Factory.  I love their cheese and my co-worker Davin said the factory was worth going to.  Unfortunately their factory is under renovation so they moved the visitors center to another location for now.  They have a little cheese tasting station and then a gift shop...then ICE CREAM!! It was really cheap.  Randy had the bright idea of "you might as well get two scoops, it's only a dollar more..."  This was only $5!  It was HA-UGE.  You can't really tell in this picture.  I ate about half, then threw it away.  It was way too much and my cone broke on me so my ice cream was melting all over me.  This is mudslide + mint chocolate chip.  YUMMMM

About 15 minutes north you start to hit the coast.  It's beauuutiful.  We stopped by one of the view points

Soon after you reach the beach area...

I saw this sticker and I thought it was cute

I wanted to stay for the sunset but it was only 6:00 and the sun wasn't going to set for another 2 hours.  We didn't want to drive through the dark so we headed back to Portland.  Gotta wake up early tomorrow for a quick hike!