August 7 marked our ninth wedding anniversary! According to Google, “pottery” is the traditional ninth anniversary gift (or, the more modern option: “leather”). Instead of those fine goods, I suggested we go on a 40-ish mile backpacking trip around Mount Hood. It says a lot about Eric’s love for me that he quickly agreed and…
vista ridge.
Life is breezing on by, as it does. The last time we went hiking, we sweat it out in tank tops or short sleeves. Granted, it has been a while since we’ve hiked, thanks to Eric’s travel schedule and my penchant for jobs that require my nights and weekends. But our most recent trip to…
a long weekend around the mountain.
Am I about to write about something during the same month that it occurred? Heck yes, I am. Progress, my friends. Progress. Eric’s parents came to visit over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and we lucked out with unusually dry and sunny weather for an Oregon January.
summer.
There’s no time like mid-October to wrap up the summer, right? I’ve reached the point where I am so far behind on life documentation that I’m afraid I’ll forget everything we did this summer. But it’s kind of nice to stay in solidarity with these seasonal blog posts, yes? (Check out winter and spring, if…
mcneil point in the snow.
One of the reasons I love Oregon so much is because of how different it looks on any given day. Rain, sun, fog, snow, clouds, hail- they all turn Oregon into something unique. Sometimes when we’re driving through the city on a sunny day after a few days of clouds, the place is almost unrecognizable….
the timberline trail.
Let me tell you about the most perfect day.
long live the three-day weekend.
As someone who feels the average weekend flies by far too quickly, I love three-day weekends with all of my heart. This Memorial Day weekend was full of hiking, biking, and eating almost every meal outside. It’s what we call summertime perfection.
backpacking trip to palmateer point.
For my birthday weekend, we went snow camping. Apparently I’m into physical challenges for my birthday celebrations (see last year’s cycling in Bend adventure), balanced out with a healthy number of doughnuts. (Obviously, we stopped at Joe’s Donuts in Sandy on the way to the trailhead and tucked away a sweet treat to enjoy at…
mcneil point.
I think, maybe, we’re not great at camping. We’re at the point in the season where every weekend might be “the last nice weekend,” so we wanted to fit in one last camping trip before the rain sets in. I like to think of camping as a peaceful, calm, stress-free experience (the Instagram camping experience,…
ramona falls.
The hike to Ramona Falls has been on our list for at least two years, and we finally knocked it out over the weekend. Although I feel like we’ve done a ton of hiking in Oregon, it turns out that we’ve never really done anything in the area just west of Mount Hood. I’m pretty…
labor day weekend.
Eric’s parents came to visit us over the holiday weekend, which turned us into tour guides for a few days as we attempted to show off some of our favorite places. This was their first visit since we moved to Portland, so we finally got to show them some of the dreamy places we’ve been…
camping at lost lake.
What a weekend. We saw that temperatures were going to be in the 80’s. In April. In Oregon. And we knew we had to do something outside. So, in the spirit of summertime, we decided to go camping. We had both seen some pictures from Lost Lake and knew we wanted to visit, but I’d…
a mini-vacation (day 2).
The great thing about staying at a B&B is the real breakfast. Jerry, our breakfast chef extraordinaire, whipped up an enormous meal of chicken apple sausage, croissant french toast, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, orange juice, and coffee. And since we were the only guests, Jerry served as our breakfast entertainment as well. A few fun…
a mini-vacation (day 1).
I have my husband back! School is out for a whole month, so Eric and I are taking advantage of all this marvelous free time with a few little excursions. We all know that we do most of our vacationing with Groupons (or Living Social, in this case) to do lots of fun things on…