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.

Dad's Oregon Visit

Dad came to visit us this summer.  He arrived last Tuesday and left yesterday morning.  We tried to cram fun activities around our work and volunteer schedules. Dad spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday hanging around campus taking in the U of O scene.  On the first day he went shopping at the Duck Store so that he would look like a native.  He did a good job.  As you can see we now all have Oregon hats to sport (Dad with his new visor, Cliff with the trusty green hat, and my new yellow hat to replace my old trusty green hat).

After a few days of eating at local restaurants (Hop Valley, Off the Waffle, Track Town Pizza), shopping, hanging out on campus, listening to live music, and taking in a drive-in movie; the weekend started and we had three days to explore around Eugene. First stop, University of Oregon Football Fan Day.  We arrived and the line was super, super long so we went and ate fish and chips and hamburgers at Red Robin.  When we came back we were able to walk in and see what was going on.  The football players were signing autographs, the cheerleaders were posing for pictures and performing, Puddles the Duck was out and doing his thing, and folks were generally just geeking out to be standing on the field at Autzen.   Dad bought a four DVD set about the history of Oregon football.  Did you know that we use to be the webfoots?  Awesome.

 The next day we went and explored Fern Ridge Lake, Veneta, and areas slightly west of town.  Dad hadn't done the Oregon wine tasting thing so we went to Silvan Ridge and Sweet Cheeks.  My Dad doesn't drink so it was really odd to see him tasting the sweet wines.  Dare I say, I think he was even enjoying himself.  After wine tasting we went to go see The Campaign (what can I say,  I love Will Ferrell).   After the movie we went to Sonic for half priced shakes.  I got my usual chocolate malt but both Cliff and Dad decided to be daring and get a mix of pineapple, strawberry, chocolate, and hot fudge shakes.  It was called a banana split shake and it was delicious. 

On Monday we drove (with the dog in tow) to Portland so that we could be ready to go early in the morning to get him to the airport.  We decided to head out to Multnomah Falls.  I always forgot how quickly the city fades away as you head east on the Columbia River Gorge from Portland.  The landscape is beautiful with the Columbia River, the tall trees, the rocks, and the lack of development.  

When we arrived at the falls we hiked to the bridge and then ate hot dogs and ice cream cones.  Rudy even walked up to the bridge with us.  Dad was pretty impressed with the scenery and who can argue.  It is one of my favorite places in Oregon.  In case anyone would like some facts about Multnomah Falls, the lower falls come in at 69 feet and the upper falls are 542 feet from top to bottom.  Pretty awesome.

The photo of Dad on the bridge might be one of my favorite photos of him ever.  So good.  To follow up on one of my favorite photos I will also post one of the funniest/most non-photogenic photos ever.  Cliff captured us as we really are in real life.  Also so good but in a totally different way. 

After the falls we drive back towards Portland and ate at Salty's on the Columbia River.  It was a really fancy seafood and steak restaurant.  There were all kinds of fun salads, really good tomato bisque, and seafood for all!  Cliff got sturgeon (the daily special) with some absolutely fantastic vegetables.  Dad got a combo of coconut fried prawns and crab cake.  What did I learn at the restaurant?  After years of not being able to eat shellfish the jury is still out for me on some things.  Baby shrimp?  No thank you.  Clams, crabs, and prawnes?  Yes, please.  We topped it off with two really decadent deserts.  The best part is that we got one for free as we used a card from our hotel.

Airports are tricky.  One of my favorite things to do in the world is pick up people at the airport.  I love looking down the gates waiting to catch a peak of loved ones as they come off the plane and out of their terminal.  On the reverse, I really hate taking people to the airport.  It is so hard to say goodbye.  I hope that Dad had a great time.  We didn't get to do everything on our list but it will just help feed the need for the next Oregon adventure. 

The Trip Part III: The Upper Midwest and North Dakota

Hello!

At this point we were already almost halfway through the trip.  We traveled north through Michigan over the Mackinac Bridge.  Jeremy and Kim (the wonderful folks that we would house/dog sit for) recommended that we go north up Michigan so that we wouldn't end up stuck in traffic around Chicago.  Michigan is rural but really nice.  Matt had warned us about the condition of the roads but thankfully they were only bad in patches.  It looks us a whole day of driving to get to the U.P.  (we got a late start) so we decided to camp at Brevort Lake State Park which was over the bridge and about 20 minutes west.


The Mackinac Bridge is a really nice looking suspension bridge with green railings.  Fun facts: it is five miles long (the third longest suspension bridge in the world), the roadway is about 200 ft. above the water and apparently it can sway up to 35 feet back and forth in severe wind.  Michigan is super smart and has several rest stops right past the bridge so that people can stop and see the scenic view. 

The State Park where we camped had really nice tent spots.  Fortunately for us there were not a ton of other crazies out camping in a tent during late September (however there were multiple campers right by our little tent) so we got a prime spot right next to the lake.  Cliff and I heated our canned soup, fed the dog, and went to bed.  Hunting is big in the U.P. so we heard shots first thing in the morning as there were already folks on the water looking for ducks.  Rudy is very gun shy so he freaked out.  He honestly sat between Cliff and I shaking for like a half an hour.  He could never be a hunting dog.  Oh- I failed to mention earlier that his barking in the car had almost stopped by this point.  Ignoring works!

The next morning when we got out onto the road we kept seeing roadside stands selling Pastys and gas stations that sold smoked fish and fresh jerky.  Obviously we stopped.  While Cliff cleaned the bugs off our windshield I got to go into an awesome gas station with fresh meat sticks (regular and spicy), smoked whole fish (along with some very large smoked chunks), and pelts on the walls.  I'm not saying pelts for decoration. These pets were for sale and by the dozen.  Squirrels, foxes, racoons, pretty much any small/medium sized animal you could imagine was for sale.  I got to overhear a conversation between a customer and the cashier about about their kids honing their hunting skills.  I bought two meat sticks (one of each kind) and a few post cards.  The meat sticks were super good.  Cliff said they were the best meat sticks he ever had (I think they might have been maybe my second or third meat sticks ever).  Sadly, I started to have some sort of allergic reaction after eating them so Cliff got to finish them all.

In pure road trip fashion, once I decided that we were going to eat Pastys in Michigan we couldn't find a roadside stand to save our lives.  It very much reminded me of driving through Arizona with the Andrea, Stephen, and Nicole looking for fresh buffalo jerky after we had already unknowingly passed the last stand.  I pretty much had given up hope when we saw Colonel K's Pasty Shop in the last town before we crossed over into Wisconsin.  Colonel K's tag line is "the friendly food shaped like a smile".  Amazing.  Cliff got the traditional beef and rutabaga and I got a chicken and broccoli.  They were pretty wonderful little meat pockets.  For dessert we got a custard cookie (see the photo over Cliff's shoulder below) which was blueberry custard between two thin waffle circles that sat in the deep freeze overnight.  Another solid, hearty meal.  

After lunch we finished our tour of the U.P. and crossed into Wisconsin.  We pretty much just drove for the rest of the day.  Cliff started to get a headache so we set up camp at Lake Wissota State Park and went to bed early.  Fun fact: Lake Wissota is crawling with mosquitoes.  It was awful.  It has just rained so there was standing water all around us (I'm not just talking about the lake either) and they were everywhere.  They were relentless.  They even followed you into the bathroom.  As soon as the sun got up I was ready to hightail it out of there as I was done with Lake Wissota. 

Cliff still wasn't feeling well so we skipped a potential brewery tour at Leinenkugel's (recommended by our friend Allen) and instead went to Walmart to get Cliff some of the Midwest's finest Subway coffee.  It was only $.52 and it did the trick as Cliff started feeling better when we got to Minnesota. Also, they totally sell cheese head hats in  the Chippewa Falls Walmart.

Once we were well into Minnesota we could not find a rest stop anywhere that had food.  We finally lucked out as we found a little town with an A&W/Subway at their gas station.  We split a sub, fried cheese curds (amazing!), and a homemade dairy treat.  Food is a wonderful thing on a road trip. 

The upper Midwest is really flat with a ton of lakes.  We both thought that the upper part of Minnesota and Wisconsin were prettier than the southern parts.  We didn't really take any side trips so we only got to see what was to the side of I-94 but it was nice to drive through..

We crossed into North Dakota and I was so excited.  The first trip across the country I had a minor panic attack in South Dakota because the landscape was so different from anything that I had ever seen before (especially after you cross the Missouri River and get into the black hills).  I wanted to see if I had the same reaction five years later in the northern sister state.  I did not.  I loved North Dakota!  It was so relaxing to drive through the prairie.  I got homemade honey roasted soybeans at their welcome center, good postcards at their gas stations, and Cliff and I stopped at this really fun winery right off of I-94.  The Maple River Winery is in the tiny town of Casselton, ND.  Wikipedia reports that the town is 1.4 square miles.  The winery only makes fruit wines.  Honestly every type of local fruit wine imaginable.  They had chokecherry, crabapple, apple and jalapeno, dandelion, lilac, pumpkin, two kinds of rhubarb, plus a ton more.  Very fun.  Also, they apparently now ship to Maryland (can we say Christmas presents anyone?).  We saw their advertisement in the welcome center and got intrigued as we had never had rhubarb wine.   We met Adam, the salesman, and he told us all about the town, the wine, and were to eat dinner that night.  He also told us to camp before we got to Bismark as their was an oil boom in the western part of the state and all of the hotels and camp grounds filled up two days earlier (good tip!).  We followed Adam's advice and ate at Corner Pizza in Valley City, ND.  Valley City is a big college town in North Dakota (pop. of 6.585) and Corner Pizza is apparently so popular that they freeze their pizzas for distribution all around the state.  Per Adam's recommendation, Cliff and I got a taco pizza.  Good choice.  Plus we lucked out as we got two free pops because it was a Monday and two free ice cream treats for dessert as we ate in the dining area.  It was awesome.  They might have been a little heavy handed on the dorrito chip topping, but who I am to say. 

Driving through North Dakota at sunset was so wonderful.  I felt really content.  We had Fleetwood Mac's Rumors on the radio and I was happy.  The first two trips across I felt a lot of anxiety as we were always kinda rushed.   With this trip we allowed ourselves to just take our time and soak it in.   We are two lucky people.

That night we camped at a nice camp ground east of Bismark in Jamestowne, ND (we passed two white buffalo on the way) and once again we were the only tent set up in a field of campers.  Lucky, we got the best spot an the site as we had an awesome view of the prairie sunset.

Rudy was now a traveling dog.  No barking.  He was sitting quietly and nicely in the back seat as we ate quickly at restaurants. Just generally being an awesome dog.  Cliff and I decided to ease the reigns a bit as he seemed to have the hang of the whole traveling and camping thing.

I know that I have typed a ton so I am going to close with a pretty classic Kim and Cliff photo.  I took it (as you can see by the reflection in Cliff's sunglasses) and like always I forgot to zoom back out after the last picture. 

Good night!