Adjusted Reality

When last we spoke, I was boarding an airplane from Portland to San Jose.

The flight was entirely uneventful.  We emerged on the other side, hugged Zliten’s parents, who had been at the airport for, like, 4 hours.  They expected traffic and hit NONE so they just spent the afternoon reading and drinking coffee.  We loaded up our suitcases into their truck, and drove down to our condo on the beach.

We passed a lot of farmland and a lot of middle-of-nowhere and I was a little skeptical until we rolled into the condo and saw the sunset over the beach from our balcony and all was legit with the world.

They had taken it upon themselves to bring food in a giant cooler for all the meals and a bunch of snacks.  It was 80% super duper thoughtful and 20% tricky for us because of food allergies/preferences/I need some goddamn veggies or I go crazy.  We had super yummy burritos the first night (regular white flour tortilla – such a splurge…) and chips and salsa and guac.  I also probably ate my weight in peanut m and ms and chex mix and trail mix over the three days we were there because they were just there.  Sigh.  Between that and the all the previous beer, the scale and I STILL are not friends.

We played hand and foot – Zliten’s dad and I sort of dominated both games, and then we crawled into the highest bed ever. I’m not kidding, it had a step stool to get into.

The next morning, we made sure to take time to get a short beach run in.  I made up songs about the bird collectives that were hanging out on the beach (which made me think of Oiselle) and then on the way back Zliten stomped through their territory and made them all scatter.  I was worried, but not an ounce of bird shit soiled his clothes.  I think we may have spent a few karma points there.

I found a bunch of really in tact sand dollars and ran with one for a few miles to bring it home with me.  Also, we found a dead guitar shark (it has another name but come on… looks like a guitar shark) on the beach.  After a half hour of awesomely slow beach running in beautiful cloudy and 60s temps, I took off my shoes and got in for a Pacific ice bath for a few minutes.  So, so, so good.  I wish I could do that every morning after my summer runs instead of jumping into a not-cold shower all the way turned cold.  *insert wistful sigh here*

We ate some breakfast after – I made myself a big bowl of veggies and dip and had some trail mix and some fruit.  We played some more games (more winning) and then took a walk on the beach with the ‘rents.  We ended up going really far down and back, and took about an hour and a half – in the middle of the day – which meant a really wicked sunburn. Oops.  It was a really nice walk though, it was this weird dance of Zliten’s mom not wanting to get her feet wet and I pretty much wanted to be in the ocean the entire time, so lots of zig zagging to the water and back.

The whole vacation we had been craving pizza and holding out, and they had Round Table in the area (one of the pizza chains I’m assuming is only on the west coast), so we indulged.  I got a small supreme and Zliten and the family got a hawaiian and we snacked on it all vacation.  Ah, pizza.  Love it. The rest of the night was games and family time, after a quick break to watch the sunset.

Friday was our last full day of vacay, but it was to be one of the best… we were going to Monterey Bay aquarium!  First, another beach run.  Gorgeous.  Then we took the hour drive down and spent the afternoon at the aquarium.  Picture ‘splosion below.   I took soooo many, running multiple cameras out of juice, but here’s my fave few.

Lionfish and starfish.

Jellyfish.

Jellies, jellies, and more jellies.

Loooong jellies are long.

California sheephead fish.  Took FOREVER to get a decent picture, they swim fast!

Assorted tropical fishies – the kind which we see when snorkeling in the Caribbean (which made us wish we were snorkeling).

After a much needed fish taco stop and loooooong drive home in traffic we made it back to our dunes.  The night held more games, chicken cheesesteaks (on white rolls – again, super splurge), and another break to try to watch the sunset from the deck.  It was cloudy, so not quite as impressive, but watching the sun go down over the ocean is never a disappointment.

Saturday morning we took one more quick run – we needed detergent to finish some wash, so we ran through the national park to get to the condo office, and then the beach on the way back.  I took one more dip in the ocean in my run clothes, and then went and spent some time on the deck – apparently there were some dolphins playing right near where we were splashing.  Awesome!

We got packed up and said goodbye to our home in the dunes and headed to the airport through a mountain so we could see something different, and then (after a long day of travel ending about midnight), we were home.

I really enjoyed spending time with so many people in so many locations, but it was hard to really settle into vacation mode packing up and changing home bases so often.  Still, lots of fun and it was exciting to run and swim and explore three new places in a week!

(…and yes, now that I’ve been back 5 weeks, I’ve finally wrapped it up, never say I’m not timely!)

When we last left off, we had taken the max to the bus station just outside Portland proper.

We had about an hour or two of stress here.  First of all, the bus number was not listed on the signs for the ones that stopped there.  We called the bus company, and got transferred to another bus company, and then was told it was cash only.  Zliten was excited because he had saved our cash… but we were about 4 dollars short.

I was trying to figure out what sort of gymnastics/comedy show I was going to have to put on to raise 4 dollars in the next 20 minutes, but instead, he ran the half mile to the nearest ATM and got us squared away.  I let him do that one since… uh… running not in a sports bra would have been painful.  I’ll let him be the hero here.  Glad we are runners!

Then, right before the bus came, I realized I quite needed a bathroom.  I looked around and asked the coffee stand I accidentally walked into looking for one – nothing in the area.  I figured I would have to wait for the bus.  I mean, a 2 hour bus had to have a bathroom, right?

Nope.

I spent the first hour and a half deep breathing and trying to go to my happy place while we wound through rickety and steep and windy roads on the little cow bus.  I kept envisioning having to ask the driver to pull over and finding a little spot in the woods to claim as my own, but then before it got to that point she pulled us into a forest station area and said “go potty if you need”.

Let me tell you, I bounded off that bus so fast you would think there was a finish line and medals.

Once that was taken care of, I really really enjoyed the scenery in between reading my book.  It was so green and foresty and gorgeous.  Our bus went up and up and down and down and then… we were there!  Our friends were waiting for us with a truck and we loaded our bags in and headed off to explore the Tillamook cheese factory.

It was super busy, but we made sure to get some ice cream (seriously, some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had and so many flavors, I had tiny scoops of cookies and cream, pb chocolate, and pecan praline) and look at the giant conveyor belts and pots of cheese in progress of making it’s way to us consumer people.

The best part was the tasting area.  Everything was awesome, but the chili garlic was especially amazing.  We brought some back with us and it was gone in 3 days (with four people sharing).

Then, we hit the grocery store.  I don’t do well without a list, and I hadn’t prepared for that (for some reason, I figured we’d go out most of the time), so we ended up with way, way too much food combined with what was already at the house.  At no point during this stretch of the vacation was I hungry, because it was always the goal to see how little food we could waste.

Finally, we got to the house.  The view did not disappoint.  At all.  This would be my dream view from my living room (though – probably somewhere a wee bit lot warmer).

My husband saw ocean and wanted to get in it (not that I was far behind with that sentiment).  So, we did that.  He got in first without the wetsuit (to which I put one toe in and said “fuck that shit”), and then we wetsuitted up (and I, with my two swim caps, ear plugs, and lava booties) and took our safe swimmers for a 20 minute “swim” in 55 degree water.  I say “swim” because it took probably 10-15 of those minutes to get my face in the water.  We swam a few lengths of freestyle, but mostly just spent the time splishing in the waves.

Takeaway: 55 degrees is a temperature I could probably swim in, with AMPLE warmup, and some time to acclimate.  And probably a neoprene cap.  Good to know.

The afternoon was for drinking wine, eating cheese, and relaxing.

We tried to fly kites, we (ok, I) took pictures of all the angles of the coast and got really happy when it got clear enough to see the sea monster.

For dinner, we grilled shrimp and fish and made rice and salad, and watched the sunset.  Our friends, who had been there since Thursday with family, said it was the first clear day, I’m glad it was there for us.  It was spectacular to watch… and so weird that it was light until after 10pm.  I know, geography and logic and all that, it’s just hard to wrap my brain around when I thought it was really cool that Austin stayed light until after 9 some days in June.

We went to bed right after a few quick games of Quirkle (I didn’t win ONCE) and some brownies a la mode, because we had a big day ahead, and an early morning.

Tuesday was chilly (50 degrees is a temperature in summer – WHO KNEW?), but as instructed, I dressed in sandals and shorts (and a lot of layers on my top half) because we were getting in a little tiny boat and catching crabs!

We got to the docks, got our licenses, bought some gloves so we wouldn’t tear up our hands, got our crab rings (nets with some really stanky fish heads tied in the middle, and by 7am we were cruising out into the channel.  They had the method down.  Set the pots, drink a beer, and then check em.  I was freeeezing so I let the boys do the first round, but on the second and the third rounds I tossed one and pulled one up.

We ended up with 16!!! keeper crabs.  Hundreds made their way into our nets, but we were instructed to put back anything under a certain size, and females (so they could produce more delicious crab babies), and that still left a sizeable feast for us.

After our two hours, we turned in our crab pots and they boiled them for us.  We drank another beer and talked to a couple, incidentally, from Round Rock (20 mins away from where we live).  They were on their honeymoon, and just came to eat crab (not catch it).

Soon, the crabbies were ready, and I was taught a (probably really gross) trick – if you crack the shell, there is this yellow liquid that tastes like butter.  I told everyone not to tell me exactly what it was (crab pee? crab brain goo?) under penalty of bodily injury because I’m really squeamish about weird animal parts, and used it as dip.  Seriously, no one tell me.  That was delicious.

After that, we stopped to get some more beer and wine, and then our friends took a nap and Zliten and I hung out on the patio and ate lunch (crab was breakfast).  I got sleepy and took a nap, and was woken up with a… very beery Zliten telling me it was time to get in the ocean.  Fine.  I wetsuitted up, put on my booties and safe swimmer, and we played in the waves for another 20 minutes.  Refreshing!

When I warmed up and dried off, our friends were cleaning crabs, so I went to help.  I guess Zliten had gotten a little squeamish with the overwhelming crab smell, so he was outside.  We got those suckers into bowls in no time and we had about a bazillion pounds of crab.  It was insane.

We started the grill and had a feast.  I cooked up everyone crab taco appetizers (crab, onions, peppers, pico, cheese, pineapple), the boys made us some sausage/beef hamburgers, and I gave crab cakes a go… however I forgot to put any sort of pam/oil/butter in the foil, and they stuck to it.  Bleh.  Normally I’d be super upset wasting crab, but we had so much left… I just consoled myself with crab dipped in butter mixed with hot sauce.  So, so good.

Everyone went to sleep early, and I wasn’t tired yet, so I watched the last bits of the sunset and read my book for a while.  Soon, my lids were droopy too, so I crawled into bed.

We woke up fairly early on our own and packed up our stuff.  I took those damn terrible crab cakes and chopped them up with some potatoes and butter and made some AWESOME crab hash.  There was so much food left, even though there was so much food we had eaten, it was sad.  Since we were moving onto another condo-with-a-kitchen scenario, I took with as much as I could.  My backpack looked like a vegetable crisper and our luggage towed things such as red wine and a full family size box of Kix.

We said goodbye to the coast around 11am, and started the drive back to Portland.  We drove the route we were planning on biking… and let me tell you… I’m actually really happy we didn’t.  There were a lot of very narrow two lane roads and steep terrain.  My bike balls are really small and doing that ride would have taken some major cojones.

It was incredibly gorgeous, if rainy and grey.  Texas default is rolling farmland, which is pretty, but nothing like the Oregon uber green rainforest which is everywhere besides civilization.  This is part of what makes me crush a little on the Pacific Northwest – the uber greenery without the swamp-like conditions.

We stopped at Camp 18 to use the bathroom – the plan was to eat brunch there, but we were all way too full from the “eat all the fridge” fest.  It was old logging camp, and the interior had these huge trees used as celing beams.  However, I was more excited about the bathroom signs.

We took pictures with Smokey and Sasquatch and moseyed on to the Portland Airport.  We were going to check out some waterfalls, but we were just on the edge of having enough time, so we decided to have a nice sit down lunch in the terminal instead at Stanford’s.

Normally when we all sit down to eat together, we order a bottle of wine and an appetizer and all sorts of goodness – none of that today.  I got myself a minestrone soup and salad.  It’s odd to say, because I ordered it simply because I wanted *something with vegetables*, but it was one of the best salads I’ve ever had with a super garlic-y dressing and delicious sourdough croutons, and pretty damn stellar minestrone to boot.

Our friends got through security just as their flight started to board back to Austin.  We settled into the gate next to theirs for the next hour and read our book.  Soon, we boarded as well, and we were on our way to the third and final leg of our adventure!

Part 1: Portland

Vacation officially kicked Friday night after work.  We made a pasta dinner, and figured it couldn’t hurt to split a bottle of wine to go with it, calm us down (it had been a heck of a day at work), and send us into sleepy time since we had to be up very early.

Well, one bottle became two, and early became late, and I had to drag myself to bed around midnight because I was JUST NOT TIRED, which meant I woke up a little hungover and very tired with 3 hours sleep when my alarm went off at 4am (which was actually late, since our flight left at 6).

Our OMG made the flight by literally one minute faces…

Long story short, though everything tried to conspire to keep us off that flight (including a bag coming apart in security, and the scanner breaking down and needing a reset as I was up in line), we got to the gate with one minute to spare.  The rest of the flight was uneventful, and just a few (7) short hours later we emerged in Portlandia.  That’s what all the locals call it, right?  I heard it on a TV show.

Our norm is to take a cab to the hotel, but decided to give public transportation a go, and I’m really glad we did.  It was 5 bucks for the whole day and took just a LITTLE longer than I expect a cab would take, but it was great to see the city.  We arrived at our destination, and walked two blocks to our hotel, Hotel DeLuxe.

It was just as swanky as advertised.  It had a old-movie-star feel and theme to the place, and a playlist with Frank Sinatra crooning greeting us upon entering the room put it over the top in levels of coolness.  A brief stop for lunch at Cheryl’s on 12th had to happen.  Fish tacos! Prime rib sammich!  Free Beignets! Super nice wait staff as well.

Between the cool lunch spot, the walk in the afternoon sun but temperate (read: not feels like strangling death) climate, and the fun touches of the city made me fall a little in love with it already, like I did Seattle (although I know we can’t be together all the time, your winters would depress me).

After a bit of time recharging in the room, we headed off to play on some trails!  I had been super excited about this part, and while I was a little worse for wear on 3 hours sleep and fueled by wine and spicy tacos, I was not willing to skip this part of the plan.  We took the Max to the zoo, and after getting turned around a bit, we found Wildwood Trail and boy, she was a stunner.

It was hot by Portland standards, 80-something, I believe, but the lack of humidity and the tree cover through most of the run made it not a thing.  We went up, and down, and up, and around, and past some places where one wrong step would send us down a steep hill to our doom, and wound around and back.

We stopped at the official Rose Gardens and found it was 9 bucks – so we wound our way back around to the Test Gardens (which were free).  I will need to spend the money on the real deal someday, because the test area was super duper gorgeous!  Rows upon rows of gorgeous variations.  My phone battery took a huge hit there snapping photos.

After the run for the roses, we decided to head back to where we left the Max instead of hoofing it toward the hotel, so we could catch more trail instead of streets.  By this point, I had convinced myself I was going to move to Oregon and become an ultra trail runner.  Then – reality set in and we had to walk part of the way back because of all the climbing and we’re at the end of offseason which means sloth season.  Someday, I want to go run more of that trail, it goes for 30 miles, and I want to see all of it.  Our guess was about 5.5-6 miles total in about an hour and ten (~800 or so feet of climb), with a few miles of walking as well.

Feeling energized, we did a quick shower and change, and prepared to grab some drinks and dinner at Trader Vic’s.  After a nice long walk North to continue to stretch out our legs, we ended up being able to sneak into a nice, comfy booth at the bar right away.  We started with a Mai Tai sampler and a crispy shrimp appetizer, both of which were amazing – Guava was my favorite Mai Tai, and the shrimp had this spicy/sweet sauce that was amazing.  Zliten cleared the restaurant for use after getting the info that they did not fry in peanut oil.

The server came by and said the kitchen was slammed, and brought us another appetizer – lavash bread and homemade peanut butter (and then profusely apologized to Zliten and brought him some fruit, he was not offended and pretty full anyway).  The pb was heaven, but I tried to exercise some restraint because I had dinner coming.

I did NOT exercise restraint in ordering a second drink though – Navy Grogg.  I was kinda full up on sweet, and the mix of ginger and spice cut through the fog of sugar overload.  Zliten’s second drink, the Trader Vic’s official Mai Tai, was like a mix of grain alcohol and heroin.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him leave a drink before, but after we both worked on it for 10 minutes, we decided to give up about 2/3rds through it.

Dinner was largely unremarkable.  My lunar chicken was kinda undercooked and the coleslaw was a weird addition to chicken and pasta (though that part was divine).  Zliten enjoyed his tiki burger alright.  I enjoyed the tiki atmosphere and experience, but I’d probably do happy hour and pupus here next time, not dinner.

While I could tell that Zliten really wanted to call it a night, we grabbed one more drink at the Driftwood Lounge (at the hotel).   It was a sexy little intimate spot – we got the last table.  The bartenders had a snappy and debonaire attitude.  It’s the kind of place you pour over your date and look into their eyes and it should have smoke wafting into the air, and you would probably get ostracized for whipping out your iPhone here.  I liked it a lot.  We had two champagne cocktails (the Elizabeth Taylor and the Springtime in Paris), and an order of fried cauliflower.  It came with lemon zest, big bulbs of garlic, and olives.  To. Die. For.  Lovely spot to end the night, but our tireds caught up with us and we slept soundly.

Sunday, we slept until we woke up.  Nine am might not sound like a feat, but considering it was 11am back in Texas, I was pretty proud.  We leisurely got up and showered and read and relaxed, and had plans to meet a friend for lunch – let’s call him Celedon, as that was his moniker on EverQuest, where we met him on some snowy hills while he was killing giants.  Today, we met him at a library, and we went in search of tasty Indian food.

This was challenging, as so many places were closed until the evening, or for the day.  Even Yelp failed us, which was a sad surprise.  I love my Yelp.  I happened to spy a tasty looking burger place named Joe’s Burgers on our trek, and we chatted over some fine Oregonian beef burgers that tasted fairly similar to In N Out.  The fries were good, but unremarkable.

Next, was the quest for beer.  Portland + craft brews is like peas + carrots.  We started with Virginia Cafe, which was one of Cel’s post work haunts.  I had a delicious cider which was not too sweet or strong, a great first day drink, afraid I don’t remember the name.  We sat outside on the patio continuing to talk (I believe we had turned to video games at this point) and enjoy Portland’s affinity for NOT BEING BALLS HOT.  I’m pretty sure Cel got tired of us saying “let’s sit OUTSIDE” everywhere we went, but the July weather was just so novel.

The afternoon was a haze of beer.  Zliten and I split a sampler – and by sampler I mean a taster of all 10 beers PINTS makes.  The Rose Cream ale was the standout for me, but I had a sour beer and found I liked those as well.  Next, was Bailey’s Tap Room (a spot multiple Austin peeps had said to try), and they had a ginger beer that rocked my world.  I took care to write it down somewhere, and now I can’t locate the paper (Edit, took a picture – it was Caldera).  That’s about how I felt when we left, that is, after meeting some new friends (and their adorable doggie) who grilled us on Texas slang via an internet quiz and talked about Seattle vs Portland vs Southern California vs Texas.

Beer warriors were weary and in need of food, so we hit up India House for nourishment.  Chicken tikka masala, rice, and naan hit the spot, though Portland medium spicy is definitely not Texas medium spicy (I should have said hot, but it was still wonderful).  We parted ways with Cel at that point, and we walked around for a bit.

I was intrigued by the Sand Bar, so we went in for a drink.  I got some wine, and we chatted with the bartender that was from New Orleans, but didn’t love the spot, so we moved on.  Zliten had REALLY wanted to hit up Deschutes Public House earlier, but it was super busy.  Not so an hour before closing.  We sat at the bar, and enjoyed a yummy spiced table beer.

We met a younger guy who had quit his job in April to travel the US (along with his girlfriend and some friends) – they were currently couch surfing a little north of Portland.  They started in Florida, traveled up the East coast, through Chicago and the midwest, and were now making their way down the west coast.  Ah, to be young and have that kind of freedom.  Why didn’t I do stupid stuff like that in my early 20s?  He suggested some great lakes (not THE great lakes, of course) to check out next time.  When asked, he said he liked Chicago the best of everywhere they’d been thus far.  Being from there, I think he had pretty good taste!

We made one more stop at the Driftwood.  I required more of that delicious cauliflower, we got some spicy broccolini as well, which came with shaved parmesan and a great sauce.  I mean, come on, can you beat veggies as bar food?  We made it to last call (which was early on a Sunday), and took our last drink up to the room and resisted the urge to break into the honor bar.  Good us.

Monday morning came quickly, and I had no love for breakfast food that morning.  The last thing I wanted was some sweet pancakes, so we set out looking for an alternative that was open.  After a few blocks, I looked up, and it’s as if angels sang a choir – a hole in the wall taco shop called  Maya’s Taqueria was open.  They even were serving the full menu!  I got four amazing mini asada chicken tacos, after noshing on some amazing spicy salsa and chips.  Perfect for cutting through the next day beer fog.

In a jiffy, we packed up, checked out, walked the two blocks to the Max, and caught a train right away.  It was sad to say goodbye to Portland, we had fun stomping all over town for a few days, but it was time to move onto the next adventure.