Monks and Music

A few weeks ago Cliff and I had a cultural experience...we went to a monastery to listen to Bach music.  I'm a bad Arts Administrator as going to cultural events is still considered a treat as they are often a little spendy.  With this said, we are grown-ups and dag gone it we will listen to Bach music if we want to!

Plans for the Mt. Angel Bach Festival have been in the works for months.  Kerry planned the trip for her folks at the Adult Activity Center but we knew right off the bat that it was going to be an awesome outing that we needed to get in on. I mean, look how excited we were....

The evening consisted of a few different performances.  We started off with vespers and it was so soothing.   So soothing in fact that in my post SummerFair haze I might have let myself drift off.  Thanks Todd and Kerry for documenting.  Embarrassing but whatever.  Apparently it took me back to my college days of listening to Pure Moods in the library as I tried to nap before Noteworthy rehearsals or Kappa meetings.  Yeah I said it...I listened to Pure Moods.

After vespers was a Bach choral concert.  I have to admit, choral music is not my favorite.  They were good but I was consistently thinking about dinner which was just a half hour way.   

Dinner consisted of a picnic on the lawn served by monks.  Salads with salmon, melon salad, stromboli, peach pies, and wine.   The monk who helped us out was so friendly and wore a fedora and had tattoos.  Gotta love Oregon.

After dinner we settled in for a Bach quartet.  This was my favorite part of the night.

We need to do this more often.  I still need to go to an opera and see a ballet that isn't the Nutcracker.  They are on the list.

Adventures in Cherry Picking

Cherry season is here!  This morning we drove to Harrisburg to Detering Orchards as they are open on Sundays and have u-pick cherries for $1.39 a pound.  We do u-pick stuff often but for the life of me I can never remember to bring a step ladder to pick cherries!  The low hanging fruit goes quickly and so I'm left starring up into a tree full of fruit that I can't reach.  One gal was on the roof of her car under a tree picking.  Another family had their snow/ice scraper out to hit branches. Others were smart and brought step ladders.  Nope.  Not us.

Cliff is pretty great as he is tall and can reach things that other can't.  He did a good job picking on his own as I slowly climbed a small tree and slowly grabbed a few handfuls of cherries.  I quickly realized that I needed to get down as I have never been a tree climber and I didn't need to start while picking cheap cherries.

I had the brilliant idea of getting on Cliff's shoulders to pick some choice fruit just out of our reach.  Let me just say that as an adult I have never gotten on top of someone's shoulders.   It's hard to do!  I was fairly positive that I was going to break Cliff (despite the fact that he can pretty much squat my weight at the gym).  I was very awkward and nervous.

I had one of those moments, awkwardly balancing on his shoulders, where I was reaffirmed that Cliff is undoubtedly the one for me.  As I'm trying to get him to move so that I can reach new fruit, he calming says "I prefer to respond to gee and haw."  Are you kidding me?  We are in the brink of disaster and you are being nerdy and trying to teach me about draft animal commands?  Holy cow.  I love you.  I had to keep myself from laughing as I was pretty sure I was going to crush him/fall to injury at any moment.  With this said, I was so impressed with our efforts that I had to take a photo to document this momentous occasion.

I continued to grab handfuls of cherries without looking to see if they were worth the effort.  With a sweaty fist full of cherries, I had a moment where I could see us filling out insurance paperwork about an incident.  I felt stupid when I had to say we had a spill while I was on his shoulders picking fruit.  With this, I asked to get down.  Now this is where I almost injured Cliff.  First I panicked and put my hands over his eyes/sunglasses.  Then I went for the hands.  I went wobbly. Thankfully,  I made it down alive and Cliff was injury free.

All in all we picked about 6.5 pounds of cherries. We got more rhubarb to make a cobbler tonight. We also got two enormous cabbages for $1.25 (buy one get one free!) so that we have backup when we pull our next batch of sauerkraut from the crock in 10 days.  It was a pretty successful trip.

When we got home we pitted the cherries with straws and chopsticks and now our hands are died red.  We have two full sheet pans in the freezer so I hope we have at least a gallon to put up for later in the year.  Fingers crossed!

Four Hours in Florence with Rudy

On Friday, Cliff and I got out of work early so we decided to load up the car and head west to the beach.  Rudy did such a great job on our outing last weekend that we didn't even think twice about the trip and a night of camping.  Well, maybe we should have.  

The road to Florence is a little bit windey.  It didn't take long for Rudy to start whining as he wasn't feeling the car.  I slowed down and took it easy and in 75 minutes we arrived on highway 101.  We headed to Honeyman State Park as we heard really great things about it from Cliff's Mema and Grandaddy (as I think they took their honeymoon there???).  We pulled up and quickly realized that the park is no joke.  The had a few spots left and we were quickly assigned to space 122.  There were so many cars, RVs, ATVs, and everything else under the moon parked in each of the site spots.  The campground was huge with 417 spots!!!  

Rudy continued to whine and bark the whole time.  When we pulled up to our spot Cliff and I didn't know if we should feel relieved or more stressed.  We got out, put up the tent, and started to cook dinner.  Rudy was so stressed out.  The car ride wasn't pleasant but now he didn't know what to do with all of the kids, bikes, squirrels, cars, etc.  It was not good.  So, Cliff and I made the un-fun decision to pack it all up and go home.  It reminded me of stories of parents who threaten kids on a car ride about "if you don't quite we will turn this car around and go straight back home!".  Well that was us.  But with a dog.  Not a kid.  In 15 minutes we were back at the ranger station putting in for our refund.  The line was pretty long and it was taking the ranger a while to process the refund.  I apologized to the lady behind me and she sweetly remarked "No problem.  I had little ones once too".  I smiled and didn't mention that we were leaving due to our dog not a child being fussy.  

We decided to not throw in the whole towel and instead we continued west until we hit sand.  Rudy had never been to the beach and I was really excited to see what he would do.  Well, was pretty excited to run like a mad man.  I mean, he loved it.  We brought the tennis ball chucker and he was happy.  

As we moved closer to the water, he was a little confused.  He tried to walk into the ocean and quickly remembered that he hates water.  From there on he stopped retrieving the tennis ball either because of the salt water or because of the sand. Either way we figured we should packet it up and head back home.  

So our four hours in Florence was actually more like an hour and a half in Florence and two and a half in the car.  

With this said, I think I should mention that Friday kicked off what is going to be a whole week of really hot weather.  High 80s and 90s.  With this said, with the heat inland this is what the beach looked like...on a Friday afternoon.  As you can see it was hopping.  There were three people in their bathing suites actually playing in the water (I've never seen that before!).  They are the three little dots to the left.  There were also a few sunbathers in bathing suits hanging out on towels.  They are the little dots to the right.  And there was an older guy with his dog walking on the beach.  They are the little dots in the middle.  Oh how I enjoy you Oregon coast. 

First Weekend of Summer

Cliff and I did a good job of making the first weekend of summer count.

On Friday work had an event to kick off the start of summer, Summer Solstice Dash & Bash.  It is a two part event: 5K to benefit Umpqua Bank's Snack Pack Program and a free concert with food and beer vendors and community booths.  To help drum up excitement, I did two live promo spots on our local news stations. I got to be on at 6:45am on KEZI and just a few short hours later I was on KVAL.  I kinda really like doing these types of things.  It scratches a performing itch that hasn't been tended to in a long while.   The event turned out really well.  More attendees than our first time around last summer.  The weather was beautiful.  Our sponsors were happy.  What more could we ask for?   

Yesterday, we got up bright and early as I went with a friend/co-worker, Jana, down to Roseburg to pick up her new dog from their humane society!  I really enjoy driving south as the landscape changes and you feel like you are going out on an adventure.  And we were.  She has been looking for a dog for quite a while and this week found a blood-hound that was a winner.  We picked up Sheldon (Chip's new name) and drove back.  It was really a different experience from picking Rudy up from the shelter a few years ago.  Sheldon didn't eat his own poop, he didn't take 30 minutes to get into the car, and he didn't seem terrified of the new people who were driving away with him.  Also Sheldon's teeth are in so much better condition that Rudy's were when we adopted him (both dogs adopted around 7 months).  All of this is really making me realize that Rudy didn't have it so great before we found him.  Perhaps his first few months set us up for some challenges that we are still dealing with to this day.  Hum.  Oh well.  Rudy is fantastic and we wouldn't have it any other way (although better leash skills by now would be pretty great).  No matter.  Sheldon and Rudy got to play in the yard.  Rudy is far, far faster that the 65 lb. pup but it didn't matter as Sheldon seemed to be having fun running behind and using his chasing bark.  It was great.  Rudy has a new friend. In fact, he seems to get a long better with Sheldon than any other dog.  It must be a hound thing. 


After the puppy excitement, we packed up the car to go camping with another friend/co-worker and her family*.   Kerry's family got a pop-up camper and wanted to do a test run.  Cliff and I have recently completed our backpacking supplies so we wanted to do a dry run too.  Well, in the end we decided to use our car camping supplies instead of the backpacking stuff as we wanted Rudy to come with us.  He has been doing really well recently about chilling out with us (not on leash) and being less crazy around kids.  So camping was the next challenge to tackle (we aren't going to count the cross-country move camping).  So we all drove up the McKenzie River to Delta Campground.  On the way up, we realized that Rudy gets car sick.  He whines, barks, and pants a whole lot in the car.  To be honest it can be really unpleasant, loud, and stressful.  Well this trip we finally put it together that he freaks out when there are windy roads, speed bumps, and sharp turns (that is why he starts to get upset as soon as he hears the turn signal go on).   I feel bad saying this but we always thought he was just being a jerk and getting overly excited about everything.  Nope.  He wasn't feeling well.  Thankfully, it was a pretty smooth trip as we could just cruse once we got out of town. 

We mocked Kerry and Todd before we left when they mentioned bug spray.  Cliff and I insisted that we have never been bothered by bugs here as we were use to Virginia mosquitos and in comparison Oregon has nothing to complain about.  Well, that is apparently a lie.  Our campground was on an arm of the McKenzie and there were so many mosquitoes   We started a fire at 5:00pm in the hopes of smoking them out.  I almost immediatly changed out of my tank top and shorts and into long pants and multiple layers of long sleved tops in order to keep them from attacking me.  But it was too late.  They got me.  They got us all.  Todd later told us that the highlands are bad for mosquitos due to all of the snow melt.  Apparently things are better in southern Oregon.  Note to self for the next camping expedition.

Last night was a whole lot of fun.  We hung out.  We ate a really great meal of salmon, salad, and potatoes.  We made smores and sipped Fireball by the fire.  What to know the best part?  Our dog was AMAZING! Honestly, we lived our dog owner dream last night.  He happily played at the site with the girls (he didn't bowl anyone over or get someone right in the face).  We didn't freak out and bark at every kid, bird, bug, motorcycle he heard.  He was so good that we trusted him off leash.  He stayed right by us and enjoyed hanging out under the picnic table.  Plus since he is an avid fire-loving dog, we didn't have to worry about him being stupid around the campfire.  It was great.  Once it got dark he got a bit stressed out as he is kind of a weanie and doesn't like the dark.  Also, he has a pretty strict internal clock that makes him want to sleep at 9:00pm.  He was already on the downslide when our camping neighbors rolled up around 10:00pm to set up camp.  As long as he sat with his back turned towards them, between Cliff and I he was ok.  As soon as he turned around to see them he would howl.  To keep it together he sat touching both of us with one of us always petting him.  Todd and Kerry commented that it was like we were dealing with a toddler past its bed time.  On top of this, around 11:00pm it started to sprinkle.  Rudy hates being wet.  He beelined towards the tent so we called it a night.  When we let him in he was incredibly happy to lay on his bed at the foot of our super luxe Coleman air mattress.  We knew with the rain that he was going to break the seal so we broke one of our rules: we let Rudy sleep on the bed between us.  Rudy was shocked.  That dog didn't move all night as he was warm, safe, comfortable, and cuddling with us.  He was awesome.

Good thing we didn't let him sleep at the foot of the bed and it rained all night long.  Cliff got a really bad allergy headache sometime around 1:00am and after taking painkillers left our toiletry bag too close to the tent lining.  He broke the seal.  When we woke in the morning all of our clothes were soaked but we were happily floating above the water on our air mattress.  Rudy was less than excited about the rain and looked very weary about having to go outside to go to the bathroom and start the day.  Can you sense the internal grumbling?

After eating breakfast in the new pop-up (which was super sweet), we loaded up the car and headed home.  I stopped at the general store to get jojo's (or taters for all of us east coasters) with ranch as they are a must when we travel up river. We spend the rest of the day napping, unpacking, and doing laundry.  We even made it to Olive Garden.

Overall I think we did a pretty great job kicking off the summer.  I have my fingers crossed that we can keep this up for a little while.

*Side note: Kerry was my original office soul mate.  A few months ago Kerry got a new job in one of our different departments and that is when Jana moved in.  So far, I've really lucked out with co-workers. 

Tulips!

This past weekend I traveled to Woodburn, Oregon with some coworkers to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.  Kathy and Jill have talked about the event for the last few years and raved about how beautiful the fields are.  Jill bought bulbs there and I've been jealous about how nice they look next t their house.  Knowing this I was excited when my coworker Erin invited me and another coworker (Jana) to make the trip.  Well, let me just say that it was beautiful.  There are 40 acres of tulips of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  The fields were full of people taking photos (some people even brought professional photographers with them to snap official family photos).  I confess as I took a lot of photos too.  It was hard not to.  We pretty much got our photo taken next to every tractor, wooden face cut out, flower, and kids activity possible. 

In addition to the photos we also got to see a man carving wooden shoes, race little rubber duckies down a shoot, browse craft vendors, and eat corn dogs.  My meal consisted of a hot chocolate and a corn dog with sweet and spicy mustard.  I'm classy like that.

On the way out I placed my order for 25 spring variety bulbs.  We will pick up our goodies in the fall.  I'm excited to see what sizes, types, and colors we get.  Yay!

 Oh, and there were steam powered tractors....

On the way out we saw a group of adult males lined up along a field watching some guys plow a row.  The tractors were really humming and steam was coming out like crazy.  One really excited guy even yelled "there it is!" as the dirt was being dug into.  Can't get much better than that.  Thank you Woodburn, OR.

My First Raw Oyster

As I mentioned in my last entry, Cliff and I have fallen in love with the Eugene Fisherman's Market. Over the last week, Cliff has been dreaming about the six giant oysters that Joe got when we ate there (six giant oysters for $4.50 may I add).  We went back yesterday and feasted on fresh, local seafood for $15 total.  We split a salmon fish and chips with poppy seed coleslaw and two kinds of tarter sauce, a basket of fried clams (I love that I can eat shellfish now!), and six oyster shooters as they were on special for two for a dollar.  Cliff raves about oysters but I had never tried one raw..until yesterday.  Cliff documented the momentous occasion.

You can clearly see my terror....

It wasn't bad!  I was relived when I didn't gag...or throw-up...or die.  Next time I will need to eat one directly out of a shell that I have shucked.

Victory.

Belknap Hot Springs

Yesterday, Cliff and I took a five hour mini vacation.  We drove up route 126 into the mountains to breath fresh air, see tall trees, and soak in mineral water.  We visited Belknap Hot Springs which is a campground, hotel, and apparently rural development that has two hot spring pools on their property.  The public can come and for $7/hour or $12/day soak in one of their pools.  It's not a natural hot spring environment as pipes bring in the hot/mineraly water into what looks like a swimming pool.  It's a cute little area tucked into the trees. Oh and what would a mountain lodge be without countless carved bears.

This is a great place to bring future visitors who would like to experience a hot spring without any hiking (or nudity) involved.  Besides the pool, they also have a few trails that lead people to gardens and meadows.  It was nice but weird all at the same time.  We were an hour along the river, in the middle of the mountains yet there was a very manicured and concrete garden in the middle of nowhere. Odd but nice.

Oh and there were fuzzy rocks.  I really love living here as moss grows all over everything.  It makes me so happy.  It just makes things feel more peaceful.

We soaked for an hour.  As you can see we looked really relaxed afterwards (and unsurprisingly I looked really red).  We need to take more trips like this.  It didn't take all that long but we got out of the city (ha...even I call Eugene/Springfield a city now) and got to unwind thanks to the lack of cell service.

Oh and they also had these guys.  They are sculptures of musicians.  I wonder if they play ambient music around the patio area in the spring and summer.  If not, they should.  Oh and you are right...there are plants growing out of that piano.

Since we were already an hour up route 126, we decided to drive a little further up the mountain to see Sahalie Falls in the snow.  We passed several signs telling us that we were officially in the snow zone but since it was a 50 degree sunny day (hacha!) we decided to proceed forward without the required chains or snow tires.  There were walls of plowed snow on each side of the car but somehow we were still hopeful that the parking lot would be plowed and open.  Well, it wasn't.  This was the first time that I actually wanted to have snowshoes in hand so that we could have hiked in to see the falls buried under a few feet of snow and ice.  My imagination tells me that it was beautiful.  Instead this is all that we got to see.

As we headed home, I decided to stop at a country store/gas station to get kettle corn (as I remembered buying some there when Dad came to visit back in 2007).  We got caramel kettle corn and taters as I love them (my PopPop's nickname for me when I was little was Tater as I liked them so much).  Well in the Northwest they are called Jo Jo's apparently.  Check this recipe out to see what I'm talking about (p.s. Cliff really loves this blog).

It was a really relaxing day.  I love where we live.

Willamette Heritage Center at the Mill

On Wednesday, a group of us from work went up to Salem for a workshop.  On the way home, I decided to take a detour with Kerry, my coworker, and tag along as she previewed a trip location for the Adult Activity Center (as she plans their trips).

First off, I have never really spent any time in Salem.  I've taken a bus through it once and Cliff and I stopped in an Applebee's parking lot on the way up to the Portland Airport one time as our car was making a weird noise (oh the bug).  But that is it.  I know nothing about our state's capital. Well...I still don't really know anything about it but I got to check out a pretty nice cluster of historical buildings at the Willamette Heritage Center at the Mill.

The Heritage Center is made up of an old wool mill and a few buildings that made up the township of the Methodist Mission that arrived before the Oregon Trail.  The mill isn't operational anymore and the Mission closed in 1844,  but they have done a really nice job putting together a museum and event space.  We got a mini tour and my favorite tidbit of information involves the daughter of the factory owner, Fannie Kay.  Apparently she kept close tabs on her father as he ran the mill and assisted in much of the mill's operations as he was illiterate.  When her father passed away he naturally left the mill to his son.  So Fannie packed up with her husband (who came from the textile sales family), moved east, and with her family started the Pendleton Wool Company.  Pretty cool right?

I took a lot of photos.  We don't get to see that many old buildings anymore and I really miss brick.  The first few photos are of the second floor where they did the carding and spinning.

On Thursdays, they open up the 4th floor for local weavers to come and use the looms.  I would love to go back and see people working on their projects.  They had pretty samples on the wall.  This makes me wish that I was crafty.

Connecting the Mill to the Mission is the millrace.  Apparently, this is a favorite spot of visitors as they can feed the ducks.

If you follow the millrace you arrive at our Mission buildings: the chapel, a parsonage, an apartment like building, and a single family home.  I enjoy old buildings.

It was a nice tour and I think I would go back with visiting friends and family.  Yay history!