Day Six of the Snow

Six days later and it is still here.  The temperature rose a bit today and rain rolled in.  Now we are just waiting to see if school will be cancelled again for Cliff tomorrow.  Crazy.

Winter Wonderland

We got snow yesterday.  That doesn't happen all that often in these parts.  We were hit by frosty temperatures and quickly our one to two inches became two to four and ended up at close to seven.  The newspaper broke yesterday down into three numbers: five degree low, seven inches of snow and 259 car crashes in one day.

With the threat of snow on Thursday night, I went to Walmart to get a snow shovel.  We didn't have anything that would be helpful if we did get a bit of snow.  Fun fact: Walmart does not carry them.  They told me "we don't need them here."  What?!?  I calmed myself and saids "no worries as Jerry's is next door (think Home Depot of Eugene/Springfield).  They only had two.  Not two kinds...two total!  Not because there was a run on them but once again because we don't need them here.  Regardless, I grabbed the Rolls-Royce of snow shovels and headed home.  I paid $21 bucks and Cliff assures me it is the nicest shovel he has ever used. Go me.

I had to go into work yesterday and I anticipated Main Street to have at least been treated or plowed.  Nope.  Springfield apparently owns one deicer truck and two sand trucks.  That is it.  Not a single snow plow.  Based on what I saw yesterday I would have doubted that we had anything.  Just packed snow on the roads for as far as the eye could see. We don't do salt here so the snowy/icy roads are here to stay for a few days.   It was a quite day at work as only about 1/3 of folks made it in.  At about 2:30pm I decided to call it quits and take some work home.  The snow was not stopping and I was getting nervous about even my two mile drive.  Like I mentioned, no plows, no salt, just untreated roads.  This was my view from the parking lot....

I was so jazzed about driving that I decided to document my view from behind the wheel before I hit the road.  I drove very slowly (10-15 mph) and  gave myself plenty of room to stop.  With this said, I did activate my ABS twice during my two mile trip home.  The first time I started to panic until I remembered that is what they are supposed to do.  Oh my....

While I was at work, Cliff was amazing and shoveled our sidewalks, the sidewalk across the street as our neighbors have moved, and a friend's sidewalk.  He tended to them all day (pretty much the only person who did because apparently people really don't have shovels here).  It was awesome to come home and not fear busting my butt walking to the door.  When I got home I found this little creepy guy waiting for me.  I love him because he is holiday kitschy and creepy but the snow eyes...they take him to a whole new level.

I spent the rest of the day fielding calls about the postponed Christmas parade and daydreaming as I watched the snow from the windows.  I miss snow.  I wanted this storm so bad.  I felt warm and fuzzy all afternoon as snow days (even if they are only partial) are magical.

When I took Rudy out to go to the bathroom last night I decided to document the situation on the roads.  Deep trenches with no relief in sight.  It was official....we were going to be snowed in all weekend!

This weekend was going to be nutty.  Cliff was supposed to have a soccer game last night.  I was supposed to have the Christmas Parade this morning followed by going to a friend's open house in the afternoon and Cliff's work holiday party in the evening.  Tomorrow is another open house hosted by my boss.  In actuality last night ended up as us watching Battlestar Galactica until we traded it in for hot cocoa and Elf.  Today we made homemade pizza and walked to our friend's party (as we are within walking distance!).  Even at 3pm in the afternoon the road conditions hadn't changed and we felt walking was the safest way to go.  Just packed, icy snow roads.  I'm thinking we will probably be homebound again tomorrow.  Oh darn! (Note: that is said with sarcasm).

P.S. did I mention that Rudy doesn't like the cold but loves the snow?  See...snow is great!

O Tannenbaum

To help set the mood, I would like you to know that as I type this post I am listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's version on O Tannenbaum (Charlie Brown music) and looking out the window at 7-8 inches of beautiful fluffy snow on the ground.  We are snowed in and I am happy.  So get ready for multiple possible posts today.

Last weekend Cliff and I had a really festive Saturday.  We donated food to the local Mission, bought Christmas presents to support Small Business Saturday, and went to Northern Lights Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas tree.  This is our third visit to the farm but only our second tree purchase (as we couldn't fit a tree in our original Springfield dwelling back in 2007).

Tree prices ranged from $4.50/foot - $7.50/foot.  In the past, we have always selected the cheapest as we are pretty frugal people.  This year, we decided to go fancy.  We opted for a $7.50/food Nordman Fur as we were told that they were the best at holding heavy ornaments.  Plus they are beautiful.  They look like how Christmas trees are supposed to look.  Their color is nice and mossy green and their undersides are white with green lines.  Pretty cool.

I always forget how difficult it is to select a tree at a tree farm.  You walk down rows of trees upon trees.  They all look ok and it is hard to compare.  You size up the tree, note the pros and cons and then walk to the next trying your best to remember which one was more awesome.  In the end, I always feel bad when we select a tree as that means we are going to cut it down from its home.  That sounds a little Eugene crunchy...but it is true...I get a little emotional and feel guilty.  We counted the rings and our tree was (is) nine years old.

This year we picked a winner.  Fun Fact: Nordman Firs take a long time to cut down.  In the past it has been a two minute process and we are on our way.  This year it was like five-seven minutes of sawing away.  Also, we always forget to bring something to kneel on so Cliff always has to get his pants dirty.

 Once back at the barn, we asked them to shake the tree and bail it.  We normally don't opt for the $3 bailing service but this year like I said...we went fancy.  Plus we knew it would help us get the tree in the Honda Fit.

Which brings me to the fact that I love our car.  We picked a winner.  We fit a 6ft Christmas tree in it! The seats all fold independently so the tree got the right side of the car and Cliff and I got the left.  Oh and we buckled it up for safety.

We learned a very important lesson this year.  Always know the size of your tree stand before you leave the tree farm.  When we got home we found that our tree trunk grew slightly curved and it was too fat in some areas.  It didn't fit.  We currently do not own a saw so Cliff had to use a serrated kitchen knife to trim it up.  It took us, no kidding, 45 minutes to get the tree to fit and stand kinda straight.  We got the tree up and I decorated it while Cliff rowed (holiday challenge).  It looks beautiful.  However, it is a pain to water.  It is still really round so it is pretty difficult to find an area that allows for water to flow down into the well.  It requires two people and a flashlight.

The house is now decorated and it looks like Christmas threw up all over.  I am particularly happy this year as I found the red, green, and white warm round lights that we used to have when I was a kid.  I loved them and have been looking for years.  I bought them at Walmart the day after Halloween (yes, I was that girl).  Oh man, I love Christmas decorations.  Love.  Love. Love.

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.

Freezing Fog

Take a gander at the freezing fog...

It has coated everything in little ice crystals.   There is currently an advisory for freezing rain tomorrow from 4am - 12pm.  I have my fingers crossed for a two hour delay.

A Night In Portland

Photo by the Oregon Zoo

On Saturday Cliff and I headed to Portland.  We needed to exchange a lovely Christmas present from my mom and wanted to spend some time with Kathy and Jill.  I'm so excited that we got out of Eugene for a brief bit of time.  We have been stuck in thick fog for days.  FOR DAYS!  It hasn't burned off.  It hasn't moved.  It is just everywhere.  Driving to Portland was like driving in a thin grey tube.  We couldn't see the fields that sit close to the side of the road.  Billboards were difficult to make out until you were right on top of them.  It was crazy.  With this said, we saw 19 hawks on the drive up.  They were all right on the side of the road.  We don't know if the fog brought them closer or what but it was really fun to spot them as we drove.  We think they were red tailed hawks.  Cliff said he usually sees a few on the trip but never as many as we saw on Saturday.  (Side note: we also saw 13 on our way back down to Eugene yesterday.)

In Portland it was beautiful and sunny.  We could see Mt. Hood.  It was amazing.  I forget how different you can feel when you see sunshine.   We felt like we were on vacation.  What am I saying...we were on vacation.

Cliff got a nice razor for Christmas from this really swanky shop called The Art of Shaving.  Sadly, Cliff already has two razors that he uses and loves.  No worries.  There isn't a store in Eugene so we needed to go to Portland to exchange the items  It was really fun to be in the store.  Lisa, our helpful sale clerk, walked Cliff through the process and got him set up with some pretty cool items.  Cliff is now the proud owner of a badger hair shaving brush, shaving oil, shaving cream, and shaving lotion all made with lavender essential oil.  Nice!

After our experience at The Art of Shaving, we met Kathy and Jill at Hopworks Urban Brewery.  We had eaten there last year when we pet sit fort them and remembered them having the most amazing, fresh (and organic) food.  We went in thinking we would split a calzone and salad but we lucked out as it was almost happy hour (on a Saturday!).  We opted for a little of everything: a few beers, giant buttered pretzels with beer/cheese sauce and spicy brown mustard, jalapeño poppers, fries, pizza with lemon chicken and green chilies and caramelized onions, a house salad, and spicy southwest quinoa salad.  It was a really great affordable meal which is so awesome since all of their stuff is organic.  The quinoa salad was perfectly filling, spicy, and healthy.  I want to make it at home so Cliff and I can take it for lunch.  If you are ever in the Portland area and like good pub grub...eat there.

We decided to get a movie and stay in since Toby, their dog, wasn't feeling all that well.  They took us to a  movie store called Movie Madness.  Their goal is to "maintain the largest and most comprehensive collection of movies available to rent on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Video."  It was really fun to be in an actual movie store.  They have movie memorabilia all over the place (note the photo of a Drew Barrymore outfit from Never Been Kissed).  It was like a mini Planet Hollywood.  I won't lie.  I was overwhelmed with their stock so I was happy when Kathy suggested Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.  We all knew about the movie but surprisingly non of us had seen it except for Cliff (and he was happy to watch it as it meant that we weren't going to have to watch something he hates).  Victory for all!

Since we were all still pretty full from happy hour, we opted for an ice cream dinner from a food cart.  I got a pumpkin ice cream dipped in dark chocolate (it was the $2 special), Kathy got a cake batter sundae, Jill got a chocolate chip banana and Oregon hazelnut hot fudge sundae, and Cliff got one scoop of chocolate chip banana and one scoop of green coconut curry.  I know what you might be thinking.  Green coconut curry ice cream?  I know as I thought it to.  Cliff thought it was delicious while I thought it was a little weird.  It seriously tasted like a sweet curry and had a spicy aftertaste.  Cliff was especially proud of his pairing as the chocolate chip banana went really well with the curry.  It was cold outside (30 degrees) so we all huddled near a heater in the make-shift food-cart food-court.  I would like to eat at more food carts.  They are really popular in Portland (probably also every other city/big town in America).  They all have decent menus.  Vietnamese food.  Thai food.  Mexican food.  Pizza.  Burgers.  Kathy and Jill complained that food cart food is no longer as affordable as it once was.  I mean there are apparently now two carts where you can get artisan cheese plates.  How Portland.

What would a trip to Portland be without a trip to Ikea?  I wanted to get a few frames so that I can finally hang stuff on my office walls.  We got free coffee (since we joined the Ikea family program), looked through the sample rooms, ate meatballs for lunch, shopped in the market place and then ended with a celebratory ice cream (it's tradition).  Kathy and Cliff played with stuffed animals for a while as they all are kinda odd and creepy this time around.  We also sampled a traditional Swedish drink that is consumed around the holidays.  It is a soda that is flavored with hops and malt syrup.  Really good at the first sip but then we found it hard to make our way through the rest of our serving.  All in all, it was a successful ikea trip.

Afterwards we left sunny Portland and headed south.  About 45 minutes down the road we were greeted by the fog again.   Apparently we will have it until Tuesday afternoon.  Oh well.  We have hunkered down at the cottage.  We have a fire going and we are roasting our Cinderella pumpkin so that we can make pie, soup, and freeze a bunch for future meals.  Cinderella pumpkins smell really good when they are roasting  Better than other squash in my opinion.  They smell buttery and delicious.

Mount Pisgah at 7:30am

Yesterday Cliff and I decided to get up at our normal Monday-Friday wake up time and hike Mount Pisgah.  It was clear.  It was frosty.  It was beautiful.

We got trekking poles for Christmas and have used them twice.  We bought them for backpacking.  We also bought them because I tend to fall a lot so an extra set of legs on the ground could be beneficial.  They are pretty awesome.  I was really frustrated when I used them the first time as my mind couldn't figure out where to put them and I was constantly accidentally dragging them or kicking one.   Seriously.  I got so frustrated that I cried on a trail (really embarrassing but it happened).   Apparently I just needed to chill out and use them on a hike that totally winds me.  My brian kicked right in at 7:30am and worked those pole to help me haul my butt up and down a steep (and at times) frozen hill.  I like them now.

Funny to note, Cliff was like a fish to water with them.  Apparently Cliff had quite a thing for making walking sticks when he was little.  Knowing this I'm not sure why we didn't get them earlier. 

Did I mention that is has been kinda cold here?  It's only been getting up to the 30s the past couple of days. There was a frost on everything.  There was even some snow in the shadier spaces.  With it being so cold it has made me realize how much I want to see snow this year.  I want inches of snow.  I want to be snowed in.  I want to chop wood in snow and drink hot chocolate by the fire.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We have really lucked out the past two weekend as it has been clear.  In January!  It just goes to show that even in Oregon you can have a little unexpected sun during that long stretch between October - June.

Coos Bay Adventure

This weekend Cliff and I did a few activities to get us into the holiday spirit.

On Friday, we had our Winter Wonderland event at work.  We had photos with Santa, two live reindeer, face painting, a ton of holiday crafts, hot chocolate and sugar cookies at Mrs. Claus' kitchen, snow, violinists playing holiday music, train rides, a gingerbread competition, and a festive sweater contest.  Cliff even volunteered and decorated the top of the bouldering wall to look like a penguin village (think snow, lights, inflatable penguins).  It was adorable and the event was a success.  

Yesterday, we went with my awesome co-worker, her husband, and two kiddos to Shore Acres State Park for holiday lights.  Shore Acres is south on the coast (that's right we got to see a part of the state we hadn't before!) and for the holidays they put up over 300,000 lights.  It was a long day in the car but it was totally worth it as we got to see a few pretty cool things:

1) Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area:  On the way down to Coos Bay there is an elk viewing area.   The area is a year around home to about 100 Roosevelt Elk.   We decided we needed to stop by to see if we could actually see any. Holy cow they were there!  There is a little pit stop area where folks can have a picnic, go to the bathroom, and watch the animals.  They were super close to the road.  I felt like we were back in Yellowstone.  I'm a big fan of elk. 

 

2)  Fun Food:  We ate at the Blue Heron Bistro in Coos Bay.  It is a German/seafood restaurant.  What could be more fun?  At our table we had fried oysters, cod fish and chips, steamed muscles, bratwurst, sauerkraut, stewed red cabbage, German potato salad, and cucumber and cabbage coleslaw.  It was tasty.  The whole restaurant was covered in old Norma Rockwell images.  

After dinner we went to Cranberry Sweets and More as we heard they had tons of free samples.  They literally have a sample for every item they sell.  Every. Item. They.  Sell.  No joke.  They even had free coffee and cider.  It was all decked our for Christmas.  We sampled cranberry and raspberry chocolates,  cookies, candy canes, fudge (Cliff was really brave and tried their neon cheddar cheese fudge) , jelly candies, spicy chocolate and a ton of other things.  It was nuts (but I didn't eat any...haha).  I asked to buy a chocolate covered cherry and they gave me two for free.  Awesome.  I highly recommend the stop for anyone who is going to Coos Bay. 

3) Shore Acres Holiday Lights: So apparently Shore Aces State Park has some of the most amazing scenic cliff and coastline views in Oregon.  With this said, we got to the park once it was dark.  But that is ok as  we could hear the ocean so we knew it was close.  We will need to go back in the summer when it is light, green, and the flowers are in bloom.

Every year for the last 26 years, Shore Acres State Park has decorated with lights.  Each year, more and more lights have been added and now there are over 300,000 lights in the park.  We all got bundled and walked around the gardens.  We enjoyed more cider and cookies and listened to girl scouts singing Christmas carols in the gazebo.  It was pretty great.  

They had little light displays of marine life (whales, seals, crabs, frogs, herons, etc.).  A few of the light displays had actions.  The frogs jumped and croaked.  There were underwater glowing Koi.  They had lights in bushes to create glowing hydrangeas (I love hydrangeas!).  They sold these special 3D looking glasses at their gift shop.  When you looked through them at the lights every bulb turned into a gingerbread man, stocking, and candy cane.  I tried to take a photo of the effect.  See below for the first of my terrible photos.  The one to follow is actually of Cliff and I.  My photos rule.

It is crazy to think that we are just a week out from Christmas.  All of our gifts are in the mail, the tree is up, and we are all set to watch Christmas Vacation or Love Actually tonight.  It is finally starting to feel like Christmas.