Sleeping Soundly in Seattle

First off...

Happy Birthday, Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully you spent the day doing what you enjoy without causing any injury to yourself. 

So, for my recent adventures, I spent a couple of days up in Seattle.  Maybe I was celebrating my Dad's birthday for him a little early.  :) 

I took the train from Portland to Seattle and stayed at the Moore Hotel, which is nicely located so that I was able to get around very easily without needing a car.  It was just a few blocks away from Seattle's famous Pike Place Market. 

I love this market place.  There are so many shops and such a variety of wares.  It's easy to spend a lot of time in there! 

Also, just near the market is the brand new Seattle Great Wheel.  It was huge and I immediately headed there for a spin. 

Up close and... up:

And a view of the city:

That evening, I met some friends for some artisan pizza at Serious Pie.  I enjoyed the roasted king trumpet mushroom pizza with truffle cheese.  It was delicious.  Seriously delicious.  Others had the fennel sausage pizza, which was also very tasty!  Much to my happiness, Serious Pie was less than two blocks away from the Moore Hotel, so it couldn't have been much more perfect.  The only down side is that the wait was a bit long, about 1 1/2 hours for a table.  And it didn't seem to be an unusual situation.  So if you go, anticipate waiting - but know it's worth it!

The following day, I spent a fair amount of time at the market and then headed out via taxi that afternoon to the Pacific Science Center which is where the King Tut Exhibit is located.  The King Tut Exhibit was amazing.  I still can't believe how detailed and beautiful the artifacts were.  It was a great experience.  Here are a few pictures. It's hard to tell the size of the items, because there's not much to scale them to. 

The sarcophagus for Prince Thutmose's Cat. Aw, kitty.  It is about the size of a laundry basket, if a laundry basket was a heavy box made of stone with a lid.  I REALLY wanted to touch this one, but I refrained, surprisingly: 

Kneeling statue of Hatshepsut.  Hatshepsut was a queen who broke tradition and took over the throne ruling as pharaoh.  You can get an idea of the size of it from the people standing behind it.

Statues of King Khafre and Menkaure.  Khafre (the statue on the left) is the pharaoh whose face is on the Sphinx.  Menkaure is Khafre's son. 

Gold Canopic Coffinette.  This was encased in glass (many exhibits weren't) so you can see the reflection of a couple of people in the picture.  This piece was fairly small, but so amazingly detailed.  It held King Tut's stomach.  Oh yay!  You can kind of see if you look along the right side edge that it is a two-piece item that goes together and closes. 

 Statue of King Tut.  This was huge.  I don't know how tall, but it was really big and amazing. 

King Tut's bed that it's thought he used while living. 

So, after doing my exhibit tour, I hoofed it about 3 minutes down the street to Key Arena to watch Neil Diamond in concert.  I LOVED it!  I would go see him again in a heartbeat.  As one person said as we were all making our way out the door afterwards, "He's a class act."  And I agree!  I had a good seat, but not a great one.  It was down on the floor directly in front of the stage and I couldn't take my eyes off of him and his band.  I only took two pictures, and neither turned out very well, so I don't have any to share.  I'm still savoring the performance.  Awesomeness. 

Well tomorrow is the company picnic, so I'm really hoping to share a new recipe sometime soon.  I feel so neglectful of my oven lately!!  :)

Again, a big ol' happy birthday to my dear Dad.  I'm still hoping that you get a much deserved foot massage.  :)

Meet Me In Montana...

Hello, out there!  What a busy last few weeks I've had, both at work and in the personal realm!  Most recently, work took me on a new adventure to Montana.  I've never been there before - ever - and was excited to see what I've heard so much about.  And I have to say that Montana did not disappoint me!  It was beautiful!  I spent a little time in Helena and a little time in Butte.  And because of the timing of things, I was able to enjoy some non-business moments with two friends and co-workers doing some very fun things!

As far as the non-business side of the fence goes, the first outing included going on a boat ride up (or down?) the Missouri River, tracing the path of Lewis & Clark.  It was a beautiful, well guided, dramatic tour of the Gates of the Mountains.  The link about the tour can be found here.  

Rhino's Horn:

Devil's Slide:

The river:

This river ride is extremely relaxing and the guide that we had was amazing in his story-telling.  And another plus:  You can take a cooler with beer on the trip with you!  How can that be bad?? 

The following day, we went to Butte for the Montana Folk Festival.  There were so many excellent bands that were playing there, one of which was Diunna Greenleaf and and the Blue Mercury Band.  I LOVED them!  Here is a picture of me with Diunna that we took as she was signing my CD.  This woman has an amazing, strong, beautiful voice that gave me shivers even though I was sweating in the heat of the Montana sun!  I think people so related to her sound and her words that they were drawn to her.

Also while at the festival, there is a small garden of flowers that we walked through and took lots and lots and lots of pictures.  It was hard not to.  But here is one of my favorites that I snapped.  It was very pretty. 

I also completely fell in love with the handiwork of Theresa Gong.  She had some beautiful pottery pieces that I anticipate being an eager collector of over time.  I purchased one piece while I was there, and then my wonderful hostesses purchased another piece for me as a sweet gift!  You can go see Theresa's work here:  Theresa Gong Porcelain Pottery and Theresa Gong Porcelain Pottery Gallery. 

Lastly, I have to mention a brewery we stopped at, Quarry Brewing, and had a sampler of some very nice beers.  I learned that I really DO like porters (they have a fabulous one!).  And, as a group, we all voted positive for their summer brew, the Apricot Ale.  It was really, really good.  I was completely taken with the Mug Club that they have there.  If you click on the link above, you should check it out.  I thought it was pretty clever. 

Unfortunately, all of my busy business has not afforded me the time to do any baking whatsoever.  I barely have even had the time to cook regular ol' meals of late.  I do expect things to slow down here in the next week or two, and I'm anxious for it because I do have several new recipes that I've been saving up to give a try.  So stay tuned!!

It's fair to say that my first trip to Montana was a successful one.  I hope to get to return. 

As for other happenings, all the animals are doing well.  Bender recently started destruction work on his most recent "baby."  I don't know what it is about these types of babies, but they last him a long time before he starts tearing into them.  I think he's had this one for several months now, and I think it might even be a record.  Once he starting in with the de-stuffing, though, he seems to thoroughly enjoy it. 

For now, I think that's about all I've got!

Take care out there!!

Low Profile Sunday and Frito Pie Dinner

July is gonna be busy.  It started off that way, and will end that way.  One thing I will absolutely not be doing this month, however, is visiting Oklahoma.  It is way, way, way, way, way, way too hot for me in the summer. I am pretty sure that anything over 90 degrees will cause me to melt, and since they're in the triple digit heat range, I fear spontaneous combustion.  I'm thinking more along the lines of October for that trip! 

In the meantime, I (think I) have recovered completely now from The Mob's visit.  I did have visitors again this weekend, some family that was headed out to the airport this morning for a trip to Disney Land in Cali.  They were up for just relaxing and doing a big ol' bunch of nothing last night, so we watched a marathon of America's Next Top Model.  I'm slightly embarrassed about that, but I suppose it is time for me to just admit to the world that I really do enjoy that show!  I even skipped a season not long ago thinking I didn't really need to watch such a silly show anyway, and eventually, I went crawling back. 

Anyhow, for the first time in a very long time, my alarm clock, my phone alarm, and my coffee pot were all set to do their things at 3:30 a.m.  Anyone that knows me is fully aware that I am in the prime of my much needed beauty (and probably more importantly mood stabilizing) stage of sleep at that fine hour.  I guess I should note the obvious:  I did survive, despite myself and was able to safely drive the family to the airport and get myself back home.  Oh, yeah, and back to bed... 

I spent the better part of my day running between a couple of different pharmacies, taking Bender to get his vaccinations updated (yuck) and doing laundry.  This evening, the plan has been and is panning out to be all about just chillin'.  Showered, watched some non-brilliant television, painted my fingernails and then went for broke and painted my toenails, too.  (Different colors, even!)  In case you haven't guessed, that song, "Life in the Fast Lane" was written about me.  And to continue on with my daring activities of the day, for dinner, I had the "oh-so-easy-and-unhealthy-but-delicious- Frito Pie."  And a diet ginger ale.

One might would think that my fast-lane life would keep the animals in a state of high energy, but you could guess again. 

Oops.  this was obviously taken pre-toenail painting. 

I haven't had time for baking much, but did make a Raspberry-Blackberry Crisp on the 4th of July that was pretty delicious.  I'm going to experiment with it just a little more before I post the recipe here, but it'll be coming along shortly!

Stay cool and take care!

Traci

What do you find under a ponytail?

A friend and co-worker has decided that he is going to go hiking on a regular basis.  As part of this proclamation and with a little urging, he roped another friend (and co-worker) and me to go with him this past weekend.  Oh yippee, yay, whoohoot.  Ok, really, I'm not much of a hiker and I have a little bit of a difficult time making it "fun" for myself.  It is supposed to be fun, right?  And I live in a place that is covered with kazillions of hiking trails.  Amazing hiking trails.  I should be more appreciative.

So, Bender and I got up Sunday morning and met Russ and Lyn at Horsetail Falls, just east of Portland.  The hike started off a little bit steep with about five or so switchbacks, and then it leveled out.  At switchback three or four or so, I was totally ready to throw in the towel!  But I'm glad I didn't. 

This is Horsetail Falls which is visible from the roadside.  Very pretty!

As you hike the trail, you come across another waterfall, Ponytail Falls.  It is cool because it's beautiful AND because there is a dug out area beneath the falls that you can walk through and have an underneath view of the fall. 

I wish I had known about this trail and these falls when The Mob was here!! They would have loved the little cave-like area! 

Of course, the view from high up was amazing.  It overlooked the Columbia River and a wetland area. 

On the trail, we popped out in a different spot than where we started, so we had to walk back to our cars on the roadside.  During that stroll, we went through the Oneonta Tunnel that was rebuilt in 2009, but it smelled like fresh lumber.  It smelled good!

After our hike, we drove over the Bridge of the Gods into Stevenson, Washington and had burgers, beer and tea at the Big River Grill.  It was a nice day for it, and Bender and I were glad we went! 

Independence Day is quickly approaching.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!  Please remember that while fireworks are a way of celebrating our country and the men and women who have fought to protect it, there are ways to support our retired and active military year-round and directly.  Stay thankful!

Beach, Bumpers and Brave!!!

"Someone" has been very busy!!  The Mob left to return to Oklahoma on late Monday night, and I'm just now getting around to posting about our final outing to the beautiful Oregon Coast!!  For starters, we seem to be having an extra long winter here, so the temperature has been between 60 and 73 degrees and often cloudy or raining.  And when it feels cold here, it feels even colder on the coast.  I think I've acclimated (and truly LOVE!) the weather here, but The Mob was freezing most of the time during their visit. 

When we got to the coast, it was misting and cloudy and slightly foggy.  We stayed at The Inn At Cannon Beach, which was lovely.  I will totally stay there again.  They had a beautiful court yard, they're pet friendly, and there were little bunny rabbits all over the place (the tiny little brown spot in the middle of this picture by the ornamental grasses is a baby bunny!!)! 

Cannon Beach is special to me.  It's the very first place I ever went whale watching upon moving to Oregon back in 1999.  Time flies... 

Upon our arrival, we dumped our stuff in the room and headed straight to the beach in our sweatshirts!

Some of us walked the surf.  Others were a little more daring in the 55 degree (or close to it) water.  We enjoyed the drama that Haystack Rock provides to this part of the coastline. 

During low tide, The Mob was able to walk out to the base of Haystack Rock and check out some tidepools.  I didn't go - I went to the beach and parked my keester on a large piece of driftwood and just enjoyed the view and the peacefulness that the ocean brings to me.  I love it there.  A lot. 

One of the days we were there, we left Cannon Beach and headed about 10 mies north to Seaside.  Our first stop was the Seaside Aquarium.  They have a pool of harbor seals that are awesome.  The aquarium sells food that you can toss into the seals, and some of the seals have learned that if they do a special trick, they're more likely to get more food.  There's one seal, Regan, that will actually splash onlookers when he wants attention and food.  It is so funny because it can be quite surprising to the unsuspecting feeders.  Here's a slightly fuzzy action picture of a Regan splash moment!

While there, we also visited the bumper cars and tilt-a-whirl.  I was riding on the tilt-a-whirl, so no pictures of that, but Chaini and Talon were fierce drivers in the bumper car arena!!  Yes... Chaini is the blurry one because she was travelling at the speed of light practically!! 

When we left the beach for good, we decided to head south a little bit and head to Tillamook Cheese Factory for a quick tour.  Really, it was more for the ice cream and the cheese curds.  Who are we kidding? 

The drive down Highway 101 is just spectacular. 

So, we did finally make it back home.  On their last day here, we went to the movies and saw Brave in 3D at Cinetopia, my favorite theater ever.  Here's a picture that Talon took of The Mob rockin' those oh-so-cool glasses.

I did have to take a nap that day.  I finally ran right out of gas.  I'm glad to report that The Mob has safely returned to the surface of the sun (as my brother put it) to 100+ degree weather.  They are no longer chilled, needless to say. 

It was great fun to see my family.  Getting to spend time with my nieces was priceless!!

Squatchin'! Oh, yeah... and Mount St. Helens!!!

This morning we all crawled out of bed the best we could to face a new day of activity.  Bender did his part in climbing over Chaini and Talon and squeaking his toy, but they were still a little slow movin' this morning. 

After loading up with water, soda and snacks, we drove about 45 miles north and about the same distance east to get to Mount St. Helens.  The drive that direction is beautifully scenic and dramatic.  A lot of hills and thick tree growth.  Bryan was telling the girls to watch out their windows for Sasquatch.  He kept saying, "We're going Squatchin'!"   Wyler even did a Squatch Call at one of the view points we stopped at.  Go Get 'Em, WD!  (She ain't afraid!!!)

The highway that we drove had several stop off sites that were just amazing.  Our first real stop was at the Forest Learning Center.  It had a nice gift shop and a very nice trail with many great photographic views of the mountain. 

The road also has many bridges that have been built since the 1980 eruption.  Some of them are quite impressive like this one, which had a sign saying that we were going into the burn zone. 

Can you believe it's been 30 years since Mount St. Helens erupted?  I was 12 years old.  What I remember most about it was seeing on TV how some people refused to evacuate and seeing people who didn't even live terribly close to the eruption wearing masks and walking in ash that looked almost like snow. 

We pulled up to another forest visitor center that had an even more amazing view than the last.  Family picture!!

There was a raised platform where the view was great and there were binoculars that you could use to look for elk down in the valley.  I think Wylder and Chaini had the right idea.  I don't know what to say for Talon and Bryan's method.  Poor Cappi.



We made one more stop off.  The view was so incredible we couldn't help but to pull over and take pictures.

This particular spot was just a short drive away from our final destination, the Johnston Ridge Observatory.  Since dogs aren't allowed up there, Bender and I had to stay down in the parking area and entertain ourselves there.  The sun was shining and it was nice and warm, and at this point, bordering on hot.  In the middle of the parking lot there was a pile of snow.  As soon as his feet hit it, he dropped down and cooled off.  At first I thought he had slipped, but it was 100% intentional! 

It musta felt soooo refreshing!  Unfortunately, as you can see, the snow was quite dirty.  And when he was done, so was Bender. 

But he was soooo happy!   I was glad to be driving. He rode in the back between Bryan and Talon. :) 

We have a busy weekend planned!  It might be difficult for me to do much blogging for a couple of days, so don't expect to hear much until Sunday evening! 







Did Someone Say Voodoo... or was it Sourdough?

Whew!  I'm tired!  And I'm not the only one.  When I said goodnight to everyone at 8:40 tonight, Bryan was already laying in bed, and Cappi was commenting that she needed to go to bed because she was tired enough she was getting grouchy.  And at one point, Wylder said she would need a nap before we did anything else.  The Mob is tired.

Yesterday we started off the morning dropping Bender off at "school" to hang out with his favorite teachers and friends while we were off doing our thing.  First we went out for breakfast at Voodoo Doughnut.

It was an interesting experience.  Chaini grabbed the Oreo doughnut and went to town.  It took Talon a bit to find one that she enjoyed, but ended up happy with the Fruit Loop doughnut.  Wylder seemed content with a chocolate doughnut with coconut on it. 

After our healthy breakfast, we headed off to OMSI to do some scientific stuff.  We were hoping to go to the zoo, but were again rained out.  It worked out okay, though, since OMSI was on the agenda anyway. 

After walking through a few exhibits, we ended up in "the lab" where we had to wear safety goggles.  Safety First, People!!

I thought the picture was a little fuzzy because of my own smeared goggles, but apparently the picture really was out of focus a little bit.  :)

The girls sat down and started doing some of the experiments they have laid out for kids to do, and I look over to see Bryan standing behind them holding his breath and acting like he was swimming.  Poor kids...they had no idea.

We then went to another room where there was some electric shock involved.  First, a static electricity demo by Talon and her hair...

Then a little shock therapy using the middle person as a conduit.  Wylder's expression kills me. 

In this one, Wylder can't seem to bring herself to watch as Cappi is saying, "Ow!...Ow!...Ow!" as the shocks come. 

Bryan and the girls built a water system using a little southern ingenuity... 

Afterwards, we headed off to watch a movie about the Arctic.  I thought it would be a fun one to see since I remember Cappi liking polar bears and knowing the girls like animals.  Well, it was good and had a good message, but I think when we left, we were all slightly stressed and near crying over the plight of the mother bears.  The diminishing arctic ice is sad and awful, for certain.  And we all were terrified that we were going to witness the death of a polar bear cub.  I am pretty sure that at one point Cappi, Chaini and Talon all had their hands over the eyes preparing for the horrific doom of a cub.  Thank goodness it didn't happen.  There would have been tears flowing without a doubt. 
Immediately following the movie, Cappi, Chaini and Wylder toured the blueback submarine that is at OMSI.  Bryan, Talon and I toured it a couple of years ago, so we opted not to do it again. 

We wrapped up the visit with a walk through of the natural disaster display at OMSI.  There was a map that had "tornado alley" outlined in red with Oklahoma being right in the middle of it.  I've decided that if Mt. Hood ever blows, even though I'm a ways off from it, I still might be too close. 

We ended the day with a stop off at Joe's Crab Shack.  Lots of seafood.  Lots of fried seafood, that is.  And much to my disappointment, terrible service.  They're gonna get a letter from me, for sure!!

Today we got up and had sausage biscuits for breakfast (and I learned that WD loves, loves, loves biscuits!) then headed straight for the The Oregon Zoo.  We were there from about 10:00 until about 4:15.  What a long day!! 

I told the girls when we got there that if they saw someone taking a picture and they photobombed it (examples of what photobombs are can be seen here) I'd give them $2 for each one they did.  Chaini earned $18 and Talon and Wylder each ended up with $4.  Chaini takes her money seriously. 

There was one exhibit where the girls could crawl into a dome and see the animals up close and personal.  Chaini went in and started taking pictures!

We ended the zoo visit with a little train ride.  It took us to Washington Park where we got off of the train and walked around and checked out the Rose Gardens.  It smells divine and is very pretty.

We met an older gentleman while we were there, Jacob Avshalomov, a composer and conductor, who was very interesting.  I just Googled him and found this:  Wikipedia Info on Jacob Avshalomov.  And he wrote a book called "Avshalomov's Winding Way" that he told us about that I also found online.  Interesting... 

So, after everyone pleaded being so very tired, we hopped back on the train and headed back to the zoo. 

We went to dinner tonight at The Old Spaghetti Factory where they bring out fresh, hot bread to the table to start things off.  Wylder was the first to dig in who declared it to not be very good because it tasted a little bit sour.  Yep, you guessed it - it was sourdough bread.  The whole night was one of a lot of laughing, mostly my own.  The Mob is truly a source of unforgettable and constant entertainment. 

Alright... off to bed again.  Otherwise, I won't be able to keep up tomorrow.  We're either headed to Oaks Park or to Mount St. Helen's visitor center.  We'll see what the verdict is in the morning!!  Here's hoping for another sunny day!