Day 10: Portland

We really couldn’t have nicer hosts than the Gronlis. After sleeping in a comfortable bed in their beautiful basement. We took a shower, did some laundry and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of pancakes (recipe by Gwenth Paltro’s dad), bacon and eggs.

Kelly and Dane working in the feilds

Today was strawberry picking day! We went to a local farm and picked organic strawberries. This was much harder than you would think since the strawberries were much picked over and the best ones were left hiding behind the spiky pants. I would call Dane a trooper for sticking it out in the hot sun and not complaining once, but he literally did not complain (or cry) once the entire weekend we stayed with them.

This is a Dane Selfie.

When we arrived home, Dane and I went down for our afternoon nap, the sun had taken a tool on us. The adults collected the ingredients to prepare a wonderful dinner (ribs, risotto, veggie burgers and corn).  Then we went down to Hawthorne Street and enjoyed a beer and some tots at Baghdad, a brewery that is also a movie theatre. The people watching was great and so was the entire street. We decided this would be a great place to live and it would be close to our dream vacation home in Trinidad (Oregon).

We ended our night with some great dinner and conversation, strawberry jam making and a game of Euchre. 

*I have more pictures on my camera- the only ones I can upload are the phone pictures. 

Day 9: Cascadia, OR to Portland, OR

We left early and stopped at Walesback Beach, another recommendation by C & C. The trail to get to the beach is steep and overgrown but worth it. Through the thick fog we could see small islands in the ocean. The beach was gorgeous and hard to describe. It was the perfect start to a new day.

We drove until about lunch time and stopped at a small place called the Crab Shack (maybe that is wrong but the picture will show the name). Filippo enjoyed his first clam chowder and a fresh crab sandwich. It was so good that we wanted to bring some to Portland to our cousins. The man suggested we go to the boat on the dock and buy the same alive one he had just bought to make this sandwich. He said it should be fine in the back of the car. If it starts to get angry just put it in ice water, that’ll calm it down. Sadly this sounded too dangerous so we went with some freshly local canned tuna.

We arrived at Portland at Patrick and Kelly’s house around 6, a little behind target but grateful to have finally reached our target. We were greeted by the worlds most adorable two-year old, “Hi”, Dane said confidently. I would go as far to say that Dane may be a golf prodigy. He is incredibly talented and smart. I even tested him, holding up a golf club, I said “what’s this”. The answer I was looking for was “club.”

“Iron”, he said with a smile on his face. Not being a golfer, I wasn’t sure if he was telling me the metal it was made of or didn’t know what it was. So I held up another. “putter,” he said still smiling. He also knows his colors, some dumbers and letters. And “Go Pack Go.”  In Minnesota this kid is kindergarten ready. I don’t know if they are raising geniuses in Oregon but Dane is pretty impressive (and did I say adorable).

Filippo capturing a picture of the cutest kid in the world.

After putting our stuff downstairs, and taking a break from quizzing Dane, We all went to the Hub, a local family friendly brewery where we were treated to great pizza and great beer. After Dane went to bed, Filippo and I were taught a game that we quickly became obsessed with, Euchre. For those of you saying to yourselves, I’ve taught you that game before- I forgot how to play and I forgot how much fun it was. It took us all a while to understand if Filippo understood or if he was cheating, but by night two his confidence reached a peak and it was clear that he understood. 

Day 8: San Francisco, CA to Cascadia, OR

Filippo could tell that I wasn’t too excited to be in an over crowded city after seeing such beautiful wilderness and offered to let us skip it but I thought about it briefly but we decided to stick with the plan. As I was internally trying to get myself pumped up for the day I remembered Frisco held a treasure I had been dying to see, Alcatraz! Nothing gets my blood moving in the morning like the potential of seeing a prison or going on a historical tour.  The combination of the two was a fair equivalent of a double espresso on a whale watching ship. So we did some research and to our disappointment dogs were not allowed on the tour. After one unsuccessful attempt, we found a doggie daycare. This woman was not impressed with Bumble’s energy level and would not take her on a regular basis but … “if we were just going to Alcatraz and back then this would work.” So we left Bumble in the hands of a crazy person. We drove around, found parking for 8 dollars an hour and went down to Pier 39 where they told us to go to Pier 33.  We arrived shortly after 11 with our goal to get on the quickest tour so we could be out of Frisco by 5. The next available tickets were at… or on July 1^st.

The closest we got to Alcatraz. 

 

Next up China town. Here we did some shopping for little cousin that we were about to see in Portland. Although the swords tempted us we ended up in the kite store. We enjoyed some fresh sushi and Filippo bought some Duck Tamale at a sweet store. Then we went back to pick up Bumble from Grateful Dog. “She had a really rough start. She had a lot of separation anxiety but she won’t have to go to the bathroom for a while, she went here.”

China Town

“Great, thanks.” I said as the lady yelled many commands at Bumble to try to get her off her keyboard, commands that Bumble doesn’t know- and the lady should know bumble didn’t know because she had me write down all the commands that she did know. . . which did not include “off the keyboard”.

We got out of town around 2 o’clock and headed to Elk Meadow campsite in Oregon, one that Callie and Corey had recommended. On the way we stopped in a small town called Trinidad. We saw the most beautiful sunset and watched a man coming in with two king salmon. If we ever strike it rich, this is where we will get a vacation home. We arrived at Elk Meadow around 10 pm. There was a little sunlight left in the sky as we made the six-mile trek down the dirt road through dense woods. The campsites were beautiful right on the ocean. Unfortunately they were also all taken.

We got back on the road and drove as far as we could. Around midnight we reached a town with many hotels.  The first hotel wasn’t dog friendly so they sent us to another. They were also not dog friendly so sent us to a third. They were dog friendly but didn’t have any dog friendly rooms. The man suggested leaving the dog to sleep in the car. When we said that wasn’t an option he said there are no open hotel rooms for hours but he will have this room for us if we come back and want to leave the dog in the car. We smiled, laughed and inquired about other dog friendly hotels. He said maybe Anchor Beach (Filippo heard another B*tch), but they wouldn’t have any rooms. We arrived at Anchor Beach, got a room and hopped into bed without dinner. At this point sleep was more important than hunger. Around 2:00 a.m. I woke up to hear a Bumble fart and instinctively I shouted… NO- As one should when they hear a fart that could be more than a fart.  At about 2:01 am Filippo woke up to screaming and the smell of Bumble’s poop. He took her outside to finish and I cleaned up. Bumble spent the rest of the night in the Kennel. Now it all made sense from the dog place. Bumble had diarrhea from that bone they gave her at Smoke. When we left her at Grateful Dog, she cried because she had to use it. They thought it was for us, she pooped, they felt like we did right now.