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PDX! or a whirlwind trip!
Drive up to Mt Hood was _gorgeous_ - when I wouldnt pass out from sheer overload, it was amazing. The drive up to Timberline was sadly in the dark, and it was _very_ cold. _really_ cold. I wasnt prepared for 30 degree weather, with the wrong shoes, the warm clothes packed, and not worn.
The Timberline Lodge itself was amazingly old school, hand carvings, awesome steel work all over. Our room was the _cutest_ evah. Also FREEZING. And the next door neighbors were indeed watching "The Shining" - I could hear Nicholson's voice throught the walls. It was lovely tho, looking out at the snow.
On the drive up, we were listening to Splendid Table and they'd done an interview with David Lett from Eyrie Vineyards, sometime before he'd passed away - fascinating to hear more about Oregon pinots, and enjoyable to see byronium 's happiness in his soft spot for Pinot Noirs. While we were having dinner at Cascade Dining Room at Timberline, he noticed that Eyrie was on the wine list, so I got to try some! (It was rather lovely)
That night, I overheard through the walls of the room the dulcet (not) tones of Jack Nicholson and realized dthey were watching The Shining (I have never seen the movie, and only know it throught 30 second bunnies version of it.
Saturday, we got up early and got our ski gear and headed out - I think we were on the slopes right at 9 am when the lifts opened up. I was wearing my brand new boots (bought at the tail end of last season ) and boy were they great! Still need some bedding in, but otherwise fit really well. Skiied until 1130, and went to have an early lunch at the Timberline again. Sat down at a table in the sunlight, only to have family drama erupt at the table next to us - one daughter was bawling and one of the brothers was apparently the culprit in hurting her, the other brother laughing. The mother says, "Not sure why you came at all, no one wanted you here," to the boy who'd hurt his sister, and the father proceeded to be ultra physical in a way that made me get up and say, "I'd like to change tables," I didnt feel like it was my place to say anything, but I certainly didnt need to sit there and spoil my lunch with their bullshit.
The rest of lunch was great! Good good, good beer, and back to the slopes, where we skiied until about 330 pm. Our adventure that day was trying to find a particular lift - looking at the map, it looked like we had to take one lift up to get to the bottom of another one, and managed to get to EVERY LIFT BUT the one we wanted, skiing all over the bottom half of timberline while we were doing this. We were under the clouds here, so cold, cloudy and foggy, until we found the lift called "Mile", and headed up the glacier, well above the cloudline... amazing, just amazing how gorgeous it was.
byronium had a few adventures of his own that resulted in his falling over, one quote: "Who puts a rock at the bottom of a jump?" after he'd taken the little jump, skiied on the rock and then fallen over. I only saw one of his four falls, which was of course on the flat...
Finished skiing, dropped off equipment, sat at the bar with a hot cocoa and some chips to get us warmed up to head on down the mountain into Portland. Got to the Jupiter Hotel to find out that the other side of the river in Portland had to boil all their water - we were originally going to stay at the Ace, which was impacted by the water issue. Unlike the last time, this time at the Jupiter wasnt as restful, as we were too close to the wedding and crazy bands playing a the Doug Fir that night, but I slept like a log, tired out from skiing.
Sunday morning, headed on over to Zell's to fuel up for our crazy day of shopping! First we end up at Powell's book store where I spent far too much money on books NOT for OTHEr people. (oops, got some holiday shopping done, just not enough) - great score was the Ball complete book of home preserving, as well a ton of sci fi books (Phillip Jose Farmer, bitches, I've never read Riverworld!)
Headed on over to a ski shop that byronium used to work at, and sneakily tried to get him his Holiday Present. Was supremely UNSUCCESSFUL at being sneaky at this, but got him both a new ski helmet, and a pair of ski boots! whoo! I got myself a ski helmet, more socks and a bunch of polartec undershirts to wear to keep me warm.
Met up with Andy for lunch (aka zentrixter on twitter) - which was great! Its good to catch up.
THEN, headed on over to River City Cycles where byronium got me _my_ holiday present. (*SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!*) First off, the same attractive redhead named kate who helped me walked over to ask me how my bicycle was going for me, and I jumped up and down and squeed at her about the bicycle. Then she helped us with buying more stuff. (I'm sure she hated that. I like her. And not just 'cause she's cute and geeky and a cyclist and nice to me)
Off to the Columbia Store where I got a new ski jacket, a pair of light hiking boots, and some more casual fleece sweaters.
Shopped out, we headed back to the hotel, and then met up with byronium's friend and house renter, kate for dinner at 820 where I had an avocado daiquiri! so good!
After dinner, headed over to see byronium 's adorable little house and to pick up my bicycle. At this point, I was very ready for bed.
Monday morning, had to work for a bit and had the lovely experience of coffee delivery and a pastry from Grand Central - I'd enjoyed the bakery in Seattle quite a bit and the portland version was as good! After getting some work done, we headed over to the eye glass place "Eyes on Broadway," and byronium picked out new frames. (Finally! they look great.)
Heading back, stopped for lunch in Eugene to meet up with some very old friends of mine from Los Angeles. Was great to stop. The bad part was that we didnt get back to SF until midnight because of how long we took to get out of PDX.
The awesome part was getting to head over those mountains back to California with the moonlight lighting the mountaintops.
Thanks, byronium, for a lovely, perfect short getaway doing many of the things I love to do with you!
The Timberline Lodge itself was amazingly old school, hand carvings, awesome steel work all over. Our room was the _cutest_ evah. Also FREEZING. And the next door neighbors were indeed watching "The Shining" - I could hear Nicholson's voice throught the walls. It was lovely tho, looking out at the snow.
On the drive up, we were listening to Splendid Table and they'd done an interview with David Lett from Eyrie Vineyards, sometime before he'd passed away - fascinating to hear more about Oregon pinots, and enjoyable to see byronium 's happiness in his soft spot for Pinot Noirs. While we were having dinner at Cascade Dining Room at Timberline, he noticed that Eyrie was on the wine list, so I got to try some! (It was rather lovely)
That night, I overheard through the walls of the room the dulcet (not) tones of Jack Nicholson and realized dthey were watching The Shining (I have never seen the movie, and only know it throught 30 second bunnies version of it.
Saturday, we got up early and got our ski gear and headed out - I think we were on the slopes right at 9 am when the lifts opened up. I was wearing my brand new boots (bought at the tail end of last season ) and boy were they great! Still need some bedding in, but otherwise fit really well. Skiied until 1130, and went to have an early lunch at the Timberline again. Sat down at a table in the sunlight, only to have family drama erupt at the table next to us - one daughter was bawling and one of the brothers was apparently the culprit in hurting her, the other brother laughing. The mother says, "Not sure why you came at all, no one wanted you here," to the boy who'd hurt his sister, and the father proceeded to be ultra physical in a way that made me get up and say, "I'd like to change tables," I didnt feel like it was my place to say anything, but I certainly didnt need to sit there and spoil my lunch with their bullshit.
The rest of lunch was great! Good good, good beer, and back to the slopes, where we skiied until about 330 pm. Our adventure that day was trying to find a particular lift - looking at the map, it looked like we had to take one lift up to get to the bottom of another one, and managed to get to EVERY LIFT BUT the one we wanted, skiing all over the bottom half of timberline while we were doing this. We were under the clouds here, so cold, cloudy and foggy, until we found the lift called "Mile", and headed up the glacier, well above the cloudline... amazing, just amazing how gorgeous it was.
byronium had a few adventures of his own that resulted in his falling over, one quote: "Who puts a rock at the bottom of a jump?" after he'd taken the little jump, skiied on the rock and then fallen over. I only saw one of his four falls, which was of course on the flat...
Finished skiing, dropped off equipment, sat at the bar with a hot cocoa and some chips to get us warmed up to head on down the mountain into Portland. Got to the Jupiter Hotel to find out that the other side of the river in Portland had to boil all their water - we were originally going to stay at the Ace, which was impacted by the water issue. Unlike the last time, this time at the Jupiter wasnt as restful, as we were too close to the wedding and crazy bands playing a the Doug Fir that night, but I slept like a log, tired out from skiing.
Sunday morning, headed on over to Zell's to fuel up for our crazy day of shopping! First we end up at Powell's book store where I spent far too much money on books NOT for OTHEr people. (oops, got some holiday shopping done, just not enough) - great score was the Ball complete book of home preserving, as well a ton of sci fi books (Phillip Jose Farmer, bitches, I've never read Riverworld!)
Headed on over to a ski shop that byronium used to work at, and sneakily tried to get him his Holiday Present. Was supremely UNSUCCESSFUL at being sneaky at this, but got him both a new ski helmet, and a pair of ski boots! whoo! I got myself a ski helmet, more socks and a bunch of polartec undershirts to wear to keep me warm.
Met up with Andy for lunch (aka zentrixter on twitter) - which was great! Its good to catch up.
THEN, headed on over to River City Cycles where byronium got me _my_ holiday present. (*SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!*) First off, the same attractive redhead named kate who helped me walked over to ask me how my bicycle was going for me, and I jumped up and down and squeed at her about the bicycle. Then she helped us with buying more stuff. (I'm sure she hated that. I like her. And not just 'cause she's cute and geeky and a cyclist and nice to me)
Off to the Columbia Store where I got a new ski jacket, a pair of light hiking boots, and some more casual fleece sweaters.
Shopped out, we headed back to the hotel, and then met up with byronium's friend and house renter, kate for dinner at 820 where I had an avocado daiquiri! so good!
After dinner, headed over to see byronium 's adorable little house and to pick up my bicycle. At this point, I was very ready for bed.
Monday morning, had to work for a bit and had the lovely experience of coffee delivery and a pastry from Grand Central - I'd enjoyed the bakery in Seattle quite a bit and the portland version was as good! After getting some work done, we headed over to the eye glass place "Eyes on Broadway," and byronium picked out new frames. (Finally! they look great.)
Heading back, stopped for lunch in Eugene to meet up with some very old friends of mine from Los Angeles. Was great to stop. The bad part was that we didnt get back to SF until midnight because of how long we took to get out of PDX.
The awesome part was getting to head over those mountains back to California with the moonlight lighting the mountaintops.
Thanks, byronium, for a lovely, perfect short getaway doing many of the things I love to do with you!