Family Reunion Potluck

Saturday night was the potluck dinner. There was so much food there and honestly we had been eating all day (fresh crab and clams earlier). I had a spoonful of many things, but not all. I wasn’t starving and my tooth still hurt. There were many different kinds of salads.

Salad

Salad

And my aunt and uncle made Homemade Brisket–one of their many specialties. It’s amazing! I got a bunch of that because it’s so good.

Brisket

More salad:

Broccoli salad

My plate: one scoop of what I wanted to try. Lots of Brisket, two different pasta salads, some regular salad, my salad, mac and cheese and a very cheesy roll.

My Plate

Later was the dessert potluck. My mom made her famous brownies (which I will post a recipe of later), there was cheesecake, cookies of all kinds, rice krispie treats, and carrot cake.

Dessert

Dessert was always my weakness at any events–even more so at the family reunion. I remember as a kid eating TONS of the desserts. There were just so many and I wanted to eat one (or two or three) of everything.

My No Bake Cookies were a hit! They were gone faster than anything else. And a bunch of people said “Oooh Christmas Cookies!” I had no idea they were also known as Christmas Cookies. But everyone loved them and I had no leftovers.

Us

I was good and had one of my own cookies, half a piece of cheesecake (small, maybe two bites worth) and one of my mom’s brownies (the smallest one I could find). I am proud of myself for being able to resist the other sweets. We sat around the campfire and people roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. My aunt had brought humongous marshmallows–bigger than I’ve ever seen. They were probably the equivalent of four or five regular marshmallows. I had one with a graham cracker but it was too much and after a few bites I tossed it into the fire. It’s amazing how sweets just don’t appeal to me anymore.

One of my cousins made something called “S’mores Nachos.” He’s so funny! He takes a cast iron pan and lines it with foil, then places the graham crackers on the first layer. Then sprinkles mini marshmallows and chocolate and peanut butter chips on top.

S'Mores Nachos

Cook over a campfire and you’ve got “s’mores nachos”.

It was very good. I only had one bite to try it. The campfire was fun. Some people brought their guitars and there was a banjo. It was relaxing! Michael and I didn’t stay up nearly as late as the night before. We were tired from lack of sleep, traveling, bike ride, and a day of sitting in the hot sun.

QUESTION: Do you have any campfire tricks?

You Got Talent?

I left off with our Tour de Poulsbo biking adventure. My cousin Kristin grilled up a bunch of different kinds of hot dogs for lunch. I had one smaller hot dog and just a few potato chips. My tooth bothered me all weekend long and I did not enjoy eating any of the amazing food. It was a HOT day on Saturday. The sun was beating down on us and sucking all the moisture out of our bodies. I tried to hydrate as much as I could.

I love our family reunion camp-outs because it’s so comfortable and fun. All the comforts of home (bathroom, shower, electricity) but with a tent!

Saturday Lunch

Lunch

Here is a picture of my 89 year old Grandma and me shortly after lunch. My Grandma is a very special woman in my life. I have always felt like we were two peas in a pod, or like I somehow was born with her personality and soul. As a result, I have a soft spot for her! She lives in Seattle and I try to visit as much as I can. When I was a teenager, I went to the North Seattle Community College in the Running Start Program (a program where high-school students could go to a local community college instead of high-school to get both high-school and college credit at the same time. Basically I’d take 1 class and get double the credit!). Since I was in the neighborhood, I’d drop by Grandma and Grandpa’s house a few times a week to visit with them.

Grandma and Me

My Grandma was a pretty progressive woman in her day and age! She moved out of her house in her early 20’s with her sister to live in their own apartment. Definitely NOT something an unmarried woman in the 1930’s did! She had a job, was responsible AND a good dancer! She would go dancing every weekend with her sister. What a feisty woman! She married my Grandpa at age 28 and immediately had 5 daughters.

I got to visit with Grandma a bit this weekend and that made me happy. We were all kind of sitting around visiting and talking about the old days. The little kids were racing around playing with water balloons and eventually (and inevitably) the kids started hitting the adults with the water balloons! I fell victim as well:

Water Ballooned!

I got Ballooned!! Honestly, it felt pretty fantastic on such a HOT day! One of my aunt and uncles (who are amazing cooks) brought freshly caught and smoked salmon for people to munch on.

Smoked Salmon

And then Uncle Dick (Master Cyclist) arrived with FRESHLY CAUGHT CRAB and CLAMS from his back yard! Seriously. His backyard is Puget Sound and they get it fresh every day:

Fresh Crab

I love crab. It’s probably one of my favorite “seafood” eatings!

Check out these clams!

Clams

Fresh and yummy. I believe the clams were steamed on the grill and they served them without anything. They were so fresh there was no need for butter or sauce at all.

Fresh Clams

They also brought oysters but I passed on those.

The seafood was eaten in record time!

Oysters

The kids were running through the Sprinkler and I joined them. It was refreshing.

Sprinkler Fun

The rest of the afternoon on Saturday was our family Scavenger Hunt. My Uncle Mike plans the whole thing and we split up into teams competing for the EPIC trophy that’s been in the family for 25 years. There was a water balloon toss, scavenger hunt, trivia and then a talent show! This was Michael’s first experience with my extended family summer gatherings and it was quite the experience! He had a great time though. Here are just a few pictures of the Scavenger Hunt:

Balloon Toss

In the past, we all got really competitive with the Scavenger Hunt. A picture of the other teams:

Talent Show

Talent Show

Sadly, our team did not win. As a team, we really didn’t have any talents. Oh well! It was still fun. Our team came in third, so at least we weren’t last! And dang, I am soooo not a performer! I am mostly shy in group situations and definitely NOT the performing type. Either were my other team mates. Our Team was a bunch of book-nerds who would rather just watch everyone else. And I’m okay with that. 🙂

I Gots No Talent!

Side note: It’s Sunday night now when I’m writing this. We got home today and watched the Tour de France from Saturday and Sunday. Boy, poor Lance!! What a sour ending to a career. I hope he decides to try one more Tour de France so he can leave on a positive note. Check out the video footage of the first crash of the day: OUCH!

QUESTION: Have you been in a talent show? What did you do?

Biking the Peninsula

We woke up early on Saturday morning because we planned on going for a bike ride. My Uncle Dick is an advanced cyclist who has participated in the Seattle to Portland Bike Ride (STP) too many times to count. The STP just happens to be a 220 mile bike ride–that you can complete in one day if you are good enough (which he’s done!).

STP *Not My Pic

My Uncle Dick is 65 years old, previously had a heart attack and bypass surgery, and is still in better shape than most people I know! He’s an excellent cyclist, so when he offered to take us for a bike ride we jumped at the idea. Don’t be fooled by this goofy picture! 😉

TOUR de POULSBO

Michael and I got up about 8:30am Saturday and found some mini bagels. Michael had 2 and I had 1 and some Bing Cherries for the pre-ride breakfast. Dick showed up and we changed into our biking gear and left. My cousin Matthew decided to join us. The four of us headed out on the scenic country road.

The day was perfect for a bike ride! We saw sooo many other cyclists on the road too. At one point some professional-looking cyclists joined us and started talking to Dick and Matthew like they were buddies. Small town-livin’ folks! It turned out they knew them.

The bike lane was wide and safe. I never felt unsafe on the route we took. I wish for the life of me that I could recount WHERE we road for all you Washingtonians out there….but I just wasn’t familiar with the area. I just followed the guy in front of me. 🙂

The temperature was getting very warm–even at 10am. I was sweating profusely. And not just because of the rolling hills! We were riding through some pretty intense “S” curves -uphill and even more downhill! We took a corner pretty fast and tight and then I saw the view:

View

Wow! I wish I had been able to take my good camera with me to get a better picture of this amazing view, but all I had was my iPhone. The view is of the Bay that feeds into the Pacific Ocean.

The air was fresh and ocean-like. I inhaled deeply, and not just because I was riding hard. I wanted to savor the aroma of the sea. We left the ocean-side and headed inland where we rode through countryside: farms, ranches, fields of horses, old barns. I wish I could have taken pictures of that but we were riding pretty briskly at that point.

We had to ride on the Highway for a short while to get back to the road they live on. That was a tad scary! Trying to time the traffic just right to cross a highway is not my idea of fun! But it was pretty early in the morning still and traffic wasn’t too bad. We got to the road and there was a KILLER HILL! Of course it was at the very end of the bike ride!

I wasn’t tired but that hill was brutal. Michael mentioned to me that he thought his heart was going to explode on that hill. I did not get a photo of the hill because I was kinda busy trying to survive it.

My Uncle Dick was right in front of me and while he’s a great cyclist, we have different styles. He takes hills pretty slow and steady. I tackle hills with as much power as I can muster before I burn out. Since I was sort of stuck behind him, I was forced to go slow and steady and try to just push myself up that hill. I don’t know the elevation but my heart was ready to burst out of my chest. I was breathing very hard but not one minute did I consider getting off the bike and walking.

I got to the top of the hill and was able to coast down the other side to their street. The ride was over and I was feeling great!

Saturday’s Stats:

Time: 1 hour

Calories Burned: 548

Miles Biked: About 11

By the time we got back to the house, everyone was up and moving around. I grabbed another mini bagel and spread the homemade smoked salmon spread on it. Delicious!

I showered (that’s MY kinda camping LOL) and then kicked back by the campfire to relax after the ride.

Not too long after we got back, the SCAVENGER HUNT started!

QUESTION: Have you ever been to the Washington Peninsula? What’s your favorite location?

Smells like the Ocean

On Friday Michael and I left from Portland to drive to Poulsbo, Washington for my family reunion camp-out. I packed up the car and when Michael got home from work, we headed out. Why do our critters make it so hard to leave them for a weekend? 😦

The kitties gave me sad, puppy dog looks as we drove away. 😦 But they had Auntie Star come over to visit them (my old neighbor that brings fresh catnip and gets them high).The drive to from Portland to Seattle is pretty boring and having done it too many times to count, all I can say is “ugh.” But it’s much better when you have a good road trip buddy!

We stopped in Olympia to eat dinner at a mediocre Mexican restaurant.

Mexican Food

I mentioned before that I’ve been having problems with a tooth. For about a month now. And it’s getting increasingly worse and the dentists I’ve seen are just plain useless. The only positive to this issue: not being able to eat very much.

I ate almost all of the shredded beef enchilada and the rice and gave up, bummed out. We hit the road and headed through Tacoma–going over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

The Washington Peninsula is a wonderfully scenic area. I grew up in Seattle and my parents have a cabin over by Port Townsend. I spent my childhood taking ferries from Edmonds, Washington to the Peninsula. As soon as we crossed the Narrows Bridge and got to Bremerton I could smell the low tide. It smelled like my childhood. What a flood of memories!

*Not My Pic

We got to Poulsbo and found my cousin’s house. They live on about 2 acres of land and we were all camping on their property for the weekend. Growing up, my family was really close (and very big) and we had an annual reunion every July on my aunt’s farm down in Southern Oregon. It was a blast! A weekend of eating, running around playing games with all my cousins, jumping off the barn loft into the hay, swimming in the Santiam River, camping, sitting around a campfire. Those are the happiest memories of my life. The reunion stopped for a few years and now it’s back and being hosted by my cousin Kristin!

We set up our tent just in the nick of time. It got dark and we changed into warmer clothes and joined my cousins who were hanging out. We drank and sat around the campfire and before we knew it, it was almost 3am! Off to the tent for some blessed sleep. 🙂

Too Hot To Cook

It was really hot last night. I did NOT feel like making anything too interesting for dinner last night. Especially after making cookies and running errands. Solution? Michael fixed himself a hot dog (no thanks) and I made a veggie burger and salad.

I made a Trader Joe’s Masala Veggie Burger on a sandwich thin with a yummy salad. It was enough food. The heat really does a number on my appetite. I find that I am less hungry and nothing sounds appetizing. Does that happen to you? As a result I eat a lot of salads in the summer time.

This morning I grabbed another iced coffee from Starbucks and added my own creamer.

There was a long line at Starbucks this morning. With the sudden summer in Portland everyone is scrambling for iced drinks! Seriously–Portland went from 50 degrees to 100 degrees in like a week.

Standing in line, I saw these:

But I resisted! It was hard. Those gooey cinnamon buns looked really tempting.

I had a half day at work today and I drank an Atkin’s Shake for a quickie lunch before leaving for the pool. I decided it was too hot to run, so swim it is! I just hoped no one else had that idea. 🙂

Lunch

And I lucked out! The pool was empty and I had a great swim. It felt so good and so cool! After swimming, I wanted a quick lunch at home before starting to make the pasta salad for this weekend’s potluck. I had a repeat meal of a Marsala veggie burger. This time, I didn’t have a bun.

Lunch #2

Creative, huh? Oh well! It was easy and only 120 calories. As for the pasta salad, I’m making a variation of this Martha Stewart recipe:

I will post the recipe soon! Have a great weekend!

Fruit Loop and a Hike

It was still pretty early in the day when we finished up the crepe breakfast, which was good. We decided to check out the 35 mile “Fruit Loop” and get some things from there. The first stop was the Lavender Farm.

The lavender wasn’t quite in full bloom yet. The lady said with all the rain and nasty weather lately they are behind schedule. In 2-3 weeks the lavender will all be in full bloom. It smelled wonderful there!

There was a gazebo amidst the lavender fields and an arch with vines climbing it. And there was a cute puppy enjoying the shade.

Lavender Puppy

I bought some lavender lotion for my friend that was taking care of my kitties back home. 🙂

We hit the Wy’East Vineyards and did some wine tasting. Not much because it was pretty early in the day. We left with a bottle of Pinot Noir and headed to the next farm to get some fruit.

Wy'East

We stopped at the Apple Valley Country Store and Bakery next. We walked in and there were freshly baked pies everywhere! It smelled sooo good!

Apple Country Store

It was a quaint place and they had walls and walls of different kinds of jams and jellies. There were samples and our favorite was the jalapeno jam. Spicy! They also had homemade mustards of various flavors. I really liked them a lot.

We resisted the freshly baked pies and headed to the next farm: Rasmussen Farms.

At this spot we bought some farm fresh apples! Pink Ladies and Fuji. Very cheap, too!

We’d had enough sight-seeing and headed back towards Portland. We stopped at Oneonta Trail to do a hike before going home.

It was a fairly steep hike. My hip was beginning to bug me again.

We hiked to the triple falls and then headed back.

Stats for the hike:

Time: 1 hour 29 minutes

Calories: 433

We stopped at Franks-A-Lot for a late lunch. It’s a hot dog stand in Portland that serves the best bratwursts!

Lunch

Since it was late in the day when we had lunch, we skipped dinner on Sunday night. Back to the grind: unpacking, laundry, yard work. Blah! Wish the vacation could have lasted a little longer!

A Little Italian and French

After our epic hike where we got to see TWO mountains, we headed back to the room to get changed for dinner.

We had planned on going out for pizza but a quick search revealed NO good pizza nearby. Bummer. So instead, we went to the nice Italian restaurant in downtown Hood River called the North Oak Brasserie. It was a cute little place in the basement. The bread and oil and balsamic was okay but nothing compared to the previous night’s fantastic rosemary bread.  I ordered the Grilled Lobster Ravioli. The description sold me: black truffles, brown butter, shallots and crispy fried leek onions. Michael ordered the lasagna.

I got a glass of the Sangiovese wine. It was good! I didn’t get any other good pictures because it was pretty dark in there. Dinner was absolutely delicious! I was so pleasantly surprised at how amazing the lobster was and the flavor of the sauce was amazing. We did not have room for dessert after this fantastic meal.

It was getting kind of late so we went back to the room. It was our last night in paradise. 😦

Sunday we woke up and the breakfast was Crepes!! I hadn’t had Crepes for so long. Jane had all the fruit and lots of jams for the crepes.

The fresh fruit was perfect. I filled my crepe with some strawberry jam, fresh strawberries.

Topped with a little powdered sugar and a teeny bit of syrup. Jane brought out our second crepe. I was sort of full but they were so good! I made the second crepe with raspberries and sylvan berries. I ate 3/4 of it and gave up.

Breakfast

After breakfast we packed up the car and headed out. I was getting sad to have the vacation end. 😦

Beer Tasting, Ice Cream and Hiking

I left off with our morning bike ride on Saturday. The perfect sunny, summer day in The Gorge.

Bike Ride

I should have made this Disclaimer during Post #1 for our trip: VACATION CALORIES DON’T COUNT!! 😉

For lunch we went to the Horsefeathers Brew Pub. It’s a three story house built into the side of the hill with a fantastic view of Hood River and the Gorge. It also has outdoor seating on the top floor.

This was our view during lunch:

I ordered the small beer sample tray. The beers I sampled were: Easy Blonde, Pale Ride IPA, Phat Dog and the Red Ale.

I am not a fan of dark beers (extra special bitters or stouts). I usually like the blonde or red beers. I’ve recently discovered a few IPAs that I like. I love beer samples at restaurants because I’m not much of a beer drinker (wine is my thing) so I’d rather not commit to an entire glass of something I might not like.

Beer Samples

I gave Michael a full review of each beer. He also had a few sips of the samples. He ordered his own pint of the Blonde Ale.

Liquid Lunch

I drank my samples in order of what I thought I might not like first. I’d rather finish on a good flavor. I didn’t really like the Phat Dog. As I could have guessed, it was a bit too dark for me. And it had a very strong coffee taste. Michael drank most of that for me. I moved on to the next one.

We didn’t just have a liquid lunch…no, in fact, I remembered the AWESOME fish tacos I’d had at that restaurant last year. I wanted to have them again and they were just as good as I remembered!

Lunch

I LOVED the spicy sauce and the salsa it came with. Wish I knew what they were so we could recreate it. The fish tacos were fish, avocado chunks, mango, cabbage and lettuce, and lots of spice and flavor. I want more. Michael got the burger and fries and told me afterward that they overcooked it. 😦 I wish he’d said something! There’s no excuse for food not prepared the way you order it.

We were stuffed but as we walked back up the hill to our room, we saw the Ice Cream Stand.

Ice Cream Stand

This place must make millions a year because there is always a line out the door and people sitting at the benches eating ice cream. Always. It was like 85 degrees out and we said “Let’s get ice cream!” Don’t have to tell me twice!

I got a small sugar cone with two scoops of the Minty Oreo. It was fantastic.

Michael got a chocolate malt–like a real one. It took them a few minutes to make it. I didn’t get a picture because honestly I was preoccupied. 😉

Leave Me Alone- I Have Ice Cream

We got back to the room around 3-ish and fell into a food coma. Michael napped and I laid in bed staring at the view.

Nap Time

I read my book a little, napped for maybe 10 minutes, and just relaxed. As Michael pointed out earlier “Doing nothing is my new favorite thing.” And that Bed n Breakfast made it a nice experience. Our room was so peaceful and with all the big windows open we got a wonderful cross-breeze. Lovely. After we woke up and sort of shook off the nap-cobwebs, we decided to go for a short hike before going out to dinner. It was probably 4:30 at this point and neither of us were very hungry yet.

We headed up Highway 35 to part of the “Fruit Loop” (a 35 mile loop of farms through Hood River) and found the Old Dalles Road we were looking for.

Fruit Loop

The old road was narrow and totally TERRIFYING as we drove up. I have a fear of heights and was too paralyzed with terror to take pictures until we were going down later. So here’s a picture to give you an idea:

Scary Road

Basically a narrow road going up the side of a mountain. The directions to the Hood River Mountain Summit Trailhead were sketchy at best but we finally found it. The trail was remote and overgrown. There were also a LOT of mosquitoes. And bugs love me–so I was already itching.

A few times I felt a tad nervous–like, “This is totally the premise of a horror movie” and “I wonder if this is actually the trail??” But we kept going and eventually came to the summit. And oh my god was it worth it! We came to a clearing and took some pictures of Mt. Adams (which is on the Washington side of the Gorge).

Mt. Adams

We took some goofy photos of us “hiking”.

Hiking

And then we turned around and walked around a tree and saw THIS!

Mount Hood

The summit opened up to a view that was absolutely breathtaking. I don’t think my pictures can really do it justice. First, the sun was out and it was hot. But it also had a wonderful breeze. Check out how the trees were growing because of the wind:

And then you turn to the right and see the entire valley–which we later discovered was the “Fruit Loop” area with farms and vineyards.

Hood River Valley

We sat down together on some big rocks and just took in the view. It was so amazing!

We spent a good amount of time on-top of that mountain just relaxing. And, I’m not embarrassed to admit, texting friends and family pictures of the view! Michael even “checked in” on Foursquare! How was there service up there?!!?

Then all of a sudden our peace and quiet tranquility was disrupted by a startling sight!

Glider

It was a Glider! An engine-less plane that I guess just floats through the air? It was so close to us I thought he was going to crash! I’m pretty sure the pilot saw us because he started doing tricks in the air: diving and dipping down really low and then flying right over us. It was strangely cool and frightening!

After the air show was over, we took our last pictures and headed back down to the car.

Hiking stats:

Time: 1 hour 11 minutes

Calories Burned: 329

And those calories were on top of the cycling calories from that morning! Michael joked that I had just done a “Brick Workout – Northwest Style”! Biking and then hiking! I like it! 🙂

Bike Ride Up a Mountain

After the great breakfast we had, we took the bikes and left for a ride. Jane had recommended that we check out the old Highway 30 bike route. It’s the old Highway that they closed to car traffic. Only foot and bike traffic is allowed.

To get to this trail, we rode through downtown Hood River–which is all downhill in THAT direction…

Hood River

We headed out of town and found the very steep, winding road up to the trail. Here’s the view from half way up that hill:

Downtown Hood River

The hill was intense but not killer. I took it easy at first, not sure if my hip would act up from the steep incline. I had no pain so I kept going. My quads weren’t burning but I was breathing hard. It was like lamaze class or something!

I hope you guys can tell that the elevation is pretty high! We stopped halfway up the road to rest for a minute. I took a ton of photos and then we hopped back on the bikes.

Stopping Half Way

The trail was really cool! It was a nice ride–all uphill of course–with views of the Gorge.

It was a hot day out and I was sweating like a pig! There were some shaded areas of the trail where we went through tunnels and through tree tunnels. It was a really scenic ride.

Wildflowers

Besides the amazing view, the wildflowers were everywhere!

Wildflowers

We rode the entire trail –which probably wasn’t more than 10 miles long–and then turned around and headed back to the room. Going downhill fast is one of my fears about the bike. I was nervous about going down those winding roads. But honestly, it was okay. There wasn’t much traffic and the wind was so strong it kept me from going too fast anyways. We got back to Hood River and road UPHILL again! Hood River is built on the side of a huge hill and the roads are pretty steep. This part almost killed me!

UPHILL!

I don’t think these pictures do the incline justice! But trust me when I say it was brutal. At least it was only 9 blocks, right? 😉 We made it back to the BnB and I took a moment to rest!

What a great ride! Here’s the stats:

Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Calories Burned: 731

After the bike ride we both used the Foam Roller (of course I brought it!) and then I enjoyed another bath in the jacuzzi tub. We cleaned up and got ready to head out for lunch. At this point I think it was just after noon! We’d done so much already.

Historic Hood River Dinner

Last I left off, we went wine tasting:

And enjoyed some time at the BnB. Did I mention our room had a view of The Columbia River and Mt. Adams?

Mt. Adams

We got dressed up and played with the camera before heading to dinner:

BnB Porch

We decided to go to the Historic Hood River Hotel’s restaurant. It was a balmy 80-something degrees still and they had outdoor seating. We were lucky to snag a table outside and enjoyed the gorgeous setting sun and cool breeze coming off the river. I ordered a glass of Viognier and Michael got a beer. They brought out freshly baked rosemary bread that was THE best bread I’ve ever had a restaurant. Mmmm.

Al Fresco Dinner

Michael got the steak for dinner. I had the Rosemary Sea Scallops with fingerling potatoes, asparagus and an aioli sauce. It was delicious! It reminded me that I really love scallops and need to learn how to cook them! I am not ashamed to admit that I ate way too many pieces of this bread:

Rosemary Bread

Fancy Dinner

We did not have room for dessert! After an afternoon of wine and a great dinner, I was DONE! Michael had this steak with tons of sauce and garlic:

Michael's Dinner

There was a live band playing that was actually really good. They were playing old favorites by James Taylor, CSNY, Bob Dylan, etc. It was a really nice night!

I slept like the absolute DEAD that night. The next morning we woke up surprisingly bright and early. Showered and dressed and we went downstairs for our breakfast. It was a wonderful experience. I wasn’t sure what to expect for the BnB breakfast and was pleasant surprised. I had my coffee and Michael had green tea and we sat on the back deck and enjoyed the sunshine and view of the river while we waited for breakfast.

Coffee on the Deck

Jane, the BnB owner, had all the fixings for yogurt: nuts, oatmeal, chocolate chips, raisins and what looked like Raisin Bran cereal. The dining room was set up for breakfast for all of the guests. She had lots of fresh local fruit too.

Fixings

Breakfast

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with ham in it. Jane said her secret to good eggs was adding a little cottage cheese to the eggs. I’ve never heard of that before and it was great! She also made fresh boysenberry muffins. I loaded up my plate with fruit and eggs.

Breakfast

Fresh raspberries, strawberries, sylvan berries (which I had never heard of but tasted like blackberries). The muffins were fantastic! I ate up because we had plans for a bike ride.

Next Installment: an amazing bike ride in the Gorge!

QUESTION: Have you ever stayed at a Bed and Breakfast before? What was your experience like?

Two Years Together

Michael and I were just friends for months before we started dating. Then we started flirting and our first date was on June 19th the night before I was scheduled for a surgery. He took me to Eleni’s Greek restaurant for a fancy dinner–and the lamb dish I ordered was divine! I still remember it. 🙂

This weekend we celebrated two years together by spending the weekend in Hood River. Hood River is a little over an hour’s drive from Portland but it’s a wonderful get-away. We stayed at the Hood River Bed and Breakfast. I had never stayed in a BnB before and was a tad nervous–but it was fantastic! The room was lovely and huge and we had a private bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.

Bed and Breakfast

Heavenly Jacuzzi!

Hood River is a quaint little town where you can walk everywhere if you want to. Our BnB was 7 blocks from downtown. It’s in the heart of The Gorge in the Mt. Hood Forest, right on the Gorge. There’s biking, tons of hiking, windsurfing, kiteboarding, wine tasting and lots of farm fresh food.

Bed and Breakfast

When we got checked in, we walked down to downtown and went wine tasting. Our first stop was my favorite winery: Quenett.

Tasting at Quenett

The tasting at Quenett was fun because I love all of their wine. There isn’t a single bottle that I haven’t liked. We left with a bottle of their Nirvana white– a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewurtztraminer, Semillon and Viognier. It’s a wonderful summer wine–crisp and not too sweet. I also love their Viognier but we decided to buy a different bottle that we’d never had before–their Redd Red Wine. It’s a perfect blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Can’t wait to open this bottle up!

After Quenett, we went to the Naked Winery. I like this place because it’s gimmicky and fun. All of their wines have “provocative” names and funny descriptions. It’s basically the “Coyote Ugly” of Vineyards. “Penetration” wine was funny.

What’s also cool about Naked Winery is that there are like 18 wines on their list to taste for only $5. We split the tasting since that’s a lot of wine!

Wine Tasting

The verdict: We did not like any of the white wines really. Usually there’s a Riesling or Pinot Grigo that I like at any winery but not so much here. There were a few red wines that were pretty tasty, however.

After a few hours of wine tasting, we walked back to the bed and breakfast and I lavished in the jacuzzi tub before we left for dinner.

To be continued!

Shot of Vitamin D

You guys it’s gorgeous out! Just a quick post while on vacation. I’ve taken an obscene amount of pictures and will post later.

We are staying at an adorable bed and breakfast for our anniversary.

Enjoy your weekend!

Snowshoeing!

After our gut-bomb lunch at Deschutes, we headed up to Mt. Bachelor to do a short snowshoeing hike. We stopped at Swampy Lakes and got all our gear on. It was probably about 2pm when we started. The Snowshoe loop was a little under 4 miles.
It took us 2 hours to do the loop and I burned 900 calories!!!! Basically, I burned off lunch! Yay! I felt really good about that number. Unfortunately, around mile 3, my left knee started to really hurt. 😦 I am hoping I didn’t do any lasting harm to it. The trail was fairly level and flat, with only a few big hills and a few small, rolling hills.

I really like snowshoeing a lot. It’s a fairly easy winter sport to do and it’s almost impossible to really hurt yourself (like you would skiing). And it’s way cheaper than skiing! This was the first time I snowshoed without a guide and it went great. I’m really happy we tried it on our own and I think my next purchase will be my own pair of snowshoes. The trail was clearly marked and if you stayed on the trail, there was no way to get lost or turned around.

We saw a lot of animal tracks too. The snow was peaceful and the weather was perfect. In fact, the weather was wonderful ALL weekend long! We really lucked out. I will say, though, that it wasn’t much of a vacation! We did NOT rest or relax at all. Oh well, we had fun!

After snowshoeing, we checked into Eagle Crest where our friends have a timeshare and us girls went to the nearest grocery store to get food for the weekend. We decided on EASY, which translated to probably not the healthiest…For dinner Friday night we made 2 frozen pizzas for the four of us. Newman’s Own and California Kitchen I think. They were okay. We stayed up pretty late playing Yahtzee and having some drinks. Fun!

Deschutes Lunch

We had a fantastic time in Bend this weekend! When we arrived Friday, we stopped at the Deschutes Brewery for lunch. It was fantastic. I got a burger and salad (instead of fries!). And of course, an ale.

I went way over my calories on Friday. But I tried not to beat myself up too much because I was on vacation AND we went snowshoeing and burned a ton of calories.

My cold was pretty nasty all weekend. 😦 I’m worried about the run next weekend. I’ve been taking Zicam since Thursday and I think it has helped a lot.