July Vacation!

Finally, I took two days off from work and had a four day weekend!  Rachel's sister and her boyfriend as well as an old Indiana childhood friend stayed with us for 10 days!  It was really cramped, but worth it!  We had a blast.  Now I wish I could just remember everything we did!  I didn't really take any photos, so all I have is pieced together pics from everyone else.

About 20 minutes from our house is a series of really great boat launches on the Clackamas river, a really lazy river with a few "rapids."  Rachel's good friend Sue, and my co-worker Jacob and his girlfriend came with us.  So we had a "party barge" of rafts, floats, tubes, my kayak and Jacob had an inflatable "couch" with rigged sun-shades!

 Above, is Rach's sister

Jacob's rigged "inflatable couch"

Yep, a 4 hour, 12 mile relaxing float down the river while eating fresh Oregon Marion berries, strawberries and Rainer Cherries . . . awesome way to begin a a vacation!

I was still not off of work yet, so everybody else stayed out late, Rachel cooked up a storm, they went bowling, went walking all around town, sightseeing, shopping the vintage stores on Hawthorne and Belmont, they ate crepes and Poutine, walked the river front, saw pioneer square, we ate at . . . 

VOODOO DONUTS!!  Rachel and Casey attempted the Tex-ASS CHALLENGE!!  They each were given 80 seconds to eat the HUGE Tex-Ass donut.  Everybody was cheering and shouting and Rachel as a child was a 6-time pie eating champ, so I thought they were gonna do it.  With 30 seconds left on the clock, either from excitement or more likely a sugar rush, Casey started shaking wildly.  As time expired they both were bites away from victory!  Then we got water and all ate more donuts!

We also, got to hang out on the patio at Cascade Barrel Brewing house which is one of the most highly regarded beer breweries in the country!  They have tons of beer on tap, but are most known for their collection of SOUR BEERS!  Beers that have actually gone "bad," are mixed with more beers and herbs or fresh fruit and re-fermented and Barrel aged (which is extremely rare for beer) for between 12 and 36 months!  It has wildly varied flavor, color, smell and especially taste!!  It is like the finest wine!  We shared a sampler platter of every sour beer they had (like 14).  2 of them are called "Live beer" because they are not carbonated and have never been without the presence of oxygen, so the bacteria and cultures in the beer are still alive like sourdough starter!

We also went to Council Crest, the highest point in Portland, where you can see the 5 tallest mountains in the cascades: Rainer, St. Helens, Adams, Jefferson, and Hood.

 We also played Bocce ball under the St. Johns Bridge!  And Bocce Ball at Peninsula park, a huge rose garden!  Casey and Jenny are into geo-caching, so they found a bunch and hid a bunch of capsules.

 

We also went to Cannon beach!  The tide was so low, that we were able to walk to massive haystack rock!  We saw lots of sea creatures!

We also drove to Mt. Hood!!  We were able to ride the "Magic Mile" ski-lift all they way to 7000 ft!  I am waiting to get those pictures, haven't gotten em yet.  It was amazing!  You could see all of the glaciers on the mountain and see for hundreds of miles!!  And we could see this little lake at the base of the mountain, in the trees . . . called Trillium lake!  Which is were we went next!  I kayaked all over the lake and hung out with fish and lilly pads, we picnicked, hiked and swam in the lake!  Out in the middle of the lake I was all alone in silence, save for a lone hawk screeching and the echo bouncing off the trees and mountains.  I watched the hawk float effortlessly and then dive bomb towards the water for nearly half an hour.  The a Momma duck and her tiny ducks swam next to me, later when we were picnicking we fed them too!  Being there was pure joy, as the look on my face indicates!

 We also got to go to Multnomah falls, wa-keena trail, bridal veil falls and we were gonna visit Oeneata Gorge, where you wade through a mile and a half creek waist-deep to a tiny tunnel that leads to a huge hidden water fall and and pristine swimming hole but we ran out of time.  That was because we finally did the famous Angel's Rest hike, 2.5 miles straight up to the very top of the gorge!  I didn't really get any of the good photos yet, but it was breathtaking!!!

My favorite part was scrambling up a tiny rock face where the trail ended and climbing the last 15 feet to the top!  In the above photo, you can see the tiny ship which is actually a MASSIVE logging barge carrying huge trees down the Willamette river out to sea!

We also went to the Mississippi Street fair with a huge rib off, hand battered Walla Walla Washington Onion rings (which are awesome!), hundreds of craft-persons from metal workers, glass blowers, painters, fashionista seamstresses and hundresd of local beers.  It was wild!  I had some Chevre (goat cheese) ice cream with Orgeon Marion berry habanero jam and Port wine swirl.  Wow!!





We also went to a comedy club, went to a sports bar where they had free shuffle board (my favorite) darts and soccer and we ate at the food carts a few more times!  Casey got the CHEESUS from grilled cheese grill!  A normal hamburger but each piece of bread is instead, a whole cheese sandwich!!  Oh and we also got tons of honey, .more berries and TONS of crazy jerky!

There is tons of other stuff we did and I had so much fun!!!  I can't wait to get more of the pictures!!

I told you Portland was amazing!  Who knew there were so many amazing things within an hour away??  I'm now back at work, which is great!  I do wish I had taken more than 2 days vacation, though.  I'm catching up on sleep!  And the apartment is almost clean!  Oregon has been good!  Oh yeah, and for everyone baking in summer heat, Portland has only just now reached a couple 85 degree days!  And the beach and Mountain were mid 70s!