Wintery Beach Escape

The beach is the most wonderful place...any time of year.  The January wind didn't keep us from running in the sand, and collecting surf smoothed stones.

We also visited the obligatory souvenir, antique, and taffy and rock shops (I wanted to take home all of the gemstones in Lincoln City!).

After the holidays, it was so nice to get out of town, breathe some fresh salty air, and leave work behind...if only for the day....

Nature's Retreat

It was off to the wild for a day of warm sun and nothing to do but listen to the river rush along.  Spring ferns were uncurling, all of the new plant growth was lime green in the sunshine.  Electric.

Between dipping feet in the river water, there was time to read, paint, and close my eyes.  I taught MyBoy how to play Rummy, and MyGirl reminded me how to play GoFish with a regular card deck.  I got caught up on a jewelry design I'm working on for a friend.

Mostly I regrouped from a long three months of being way too busy.  I thought about the end of that, and the way I want to appreciate the more manageable months ahead.

A pair of hawks circled around in the blue patch of sky above our little day camp.  Triumphant screeching echoed through the river valley.  As I lay there in the sun, content to feel the earth beneath me, the sky open above me, I felt a bit of that freedom in my bones.

Gold Panning on Quartsville Creek

First adventure of the season:  gold panning!  Only two hours from Portland is the most beautiful place.  Mountains, river, reservoir, sky and fresh air, and no media or homework allowed!

We spent the whole day... Just.  Being.  There.

Quartsville Creek comes out of the Western Cascades and forms Green Peter Reservoir.  The water is emerald in places.  We made our day camp up stream from the reservoir a few miles and had the whole place to ourselves.

While Matt panned for gold (he found four or five tiny little golden specks!), MyGirl and I tried to weave a basket out of river branches, and MyBoy read his book in the sunshine (he's on his second tour through the Hunger Games series).  The puppies got to play in the water and rough house with each other.

I spent the day enjoying doing absolutely nothing, mini vacationing in the wilderness.  The sound of the river, the happiness of everyone around me, and the slow time of nature was much needed.

It is exciting being in a new place and exploring the area for the first time.  I can't wait to see what else we discover about the beautiful forests that surround us here.

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. 

~Kahlil Gibran

Field Tripping, Portland Art Gallery

The fourth grade really outdid themselves on this field trip!  They have some seriously ambitious teachers to take on such a big adventure.  Lucky for them there were quite a few of us parents tagging along to lead smaller groups.

Here was the itinerary:

>Take bus to the Max station (8:05am)
>Ride the Max Line into downtown Portland (40 min.)
>Tour the Art Gallery
>Take small groups to Historical Museum
>Sack lunch time
>Complete scavenger hunt walk about around downtown
>Back on the Max
>Back on the bus
>Return to school (2:00pm)

Crazy, right!?!?

My group ended up being really well behaved so I took them to Starbucks for cake pops, which was kind of a forced issue since the other group leaders were feeding their groups McDonalds fries....eww.

Anyway, I needed a coffee.

On the way to get coffee with my little group, I was asked to sign a petition.  I looked down at the guy's poster and realized he was wanting to legalize marijuana.  I declined, as it wasn't the most field trip appropriate topic!  Funny.

The art gallery was just amazing; we saw native american artifacts and I found myself enamored with every mask in the gallery...but especially the transformation masks.  These are masks within masks that  "transform" through the pull of a string, hinges, and some very innovative design.  As the dancer wearing the mask tells his story in dance, he is able to change the mask to accentuate the story.

Via

Via

I felt like a mama duck in charge of my group, adventuring around the big city.  Back at home, I needed a big long rest.

Chicken Ragu Because Cooking Is Zen

The best part; chopping those veggies

Making the sauce and pasta

What I like most about cooking is the chopping part.  So my favorite recipes always end up calling for chopped veggies.  It takes a certain amount of zen to mince garlic by hand or dice an onion without losing a finger.  I wouldn't say I hide behind the cutting board, but it has always been a place where I can find some solace at the end of the day (*bonus* you don't have to feel guilty for not entertaining the kids because you are cooking their dinner!).

Saturday was that kind of day, the kind where if you don't have something to look forward to, you won't make it to the end.  Nothing specific, just a million errands and tasks on the list which always leads to random unplanned-for adventures.  

Like how we were at Target because MyGirl's allowance was burning a hole in her pocket.  

She and her brother decided to blow money on some meaningless plastic bits and could not wait till even the car to open the packets.  So off to the bin they went, still in Target while I am answering the zillionth question on the credit card reader (yes, I want it all on one card).  

And the toy jumps out of the packet and into the bottom of the trash bin.

With otherworldly powers of Mama Zen, I calmly went to the customer service desk and asked for a little help.  That woman should win some kind of award for Nicest Target Employee Of The Millenium or something.  She came to the rescue with sanitizer and plastic gloves and dug through Target slushies and half eaten hot dogs.  I almost asked if I could hold her hair back, but thought that would be a little weird.

She found my kid's little plastic bit at the very bottom and we were finally free to get on home.

So all day, I looked ahead to making this recipe.  

I followed it a bit loosely and it turned out delicious! Have you ever heard of chicken ragu?  It took a long time to make, the recipe requires making your own chicken stock.  But mostly you are simmering and occasionally stirring so I was even able to get my reading assignment done for class, which was good because the assignment for it was due at midnight.  And I doubled the recipe for leftovers (pasta is always better the next day).

All I have to say is that any day gets better when there is homemade ragu at the end of it.  Really.

Chicken Ragu & Rigatoni

Don't forget to enter to ***WIN*** a pair of my earrings over at Clussster!

Another Beachy Getaway + Air Museum

You may know that I can't stay home ever, and am always wanting to discover new getaways.  This week's adventure found us heading towards Tillamook.  We wanted to check out the cheese factory.  Did you know that they make blocks of cheese that are 45lbs?  But that place is a zoo, I recommend getting in and out and not even bothering for free samples.  Rather, we drove back down the road towards the Blue Heron French Cheese Company which was much more quaint and relaxing.  How can a petting zoo and wine tasting not be??  We bought some cheese curds in lime and dill which came in handy when we decided spur of the moment to stop at the Air Museum.  We ate our cheese and watched through the wind shield as a guy armed with GPS was trying to act nonchalant while (obviously) searching for a geocache.  Hilarious.  Inside the Air Museum, my favorite things were the old hand painted graphics on the planes, the mannequins serving to depict what war was like back in the 40s, and the huge wood structure that housed it all (15 stories high and worth the trip just to see that).  Meanwhile my adorable husband (who is an air traffic controller and completely enamored by anything with wings except birds) explained things like...umm...well I can't remember, but I know he was especially excited by the Tomcat because it has movable wings.  You'd think that would all have been enough of an outing for one day but no, we continued on to the beach listening appropriately and coincidentally to NPR about WW11 and why it has been concluded by scholars with no political preference (of course) that the bombing of Japan was unnecessary in ending the war.  We took extra long getting to Rockaway Beach because there was a horrible accident involving a bicyclist (still sending hope that way).  I've always thought I was just a baby about riding in traffic, but now feel my concerns have been validated.  All that was left of the bicyclist was a shoe and a lot of blood.  Scary.  Finally arriving at a lovely uncrowded stretch of Rockaway Beach, I actually took off my sweatshirt and  got some sun.  I realized that it's not so cold if you stay close to the warm sand.  I read a book.  The kids made sand castles with Matt.  We ate leftovers from the cooler.  As the day ended, the waves turned silver, pelicans fished swooping in line with each other (dinosaurs in our modern sky), the temperature called us back home, and I thought about being thankful.

Forest Park

Yesterday, I dug out my hiking boots, camelback, and daypack for what turned into an 8 mile exploration of one of Portland's amazing trail parks, Forest Park.

We are so fortunate to live in a city where over 70 miles of trails are available for hiking and biking within the city limits.  It was interesting feeling like I was in the middle of a forest, secluded from it all, but could still sometimes hear the sounds of the city filtering in through the trees.  Yesterday, the trail showed me creatures; snail, slug, caterpillar, crow, finch...and plants; trillium, fern, catchweed, maple, foxglove, mushroom...only to name a few.  In a month there will be so many berries; huckleberry, salmon berry, and even raspberry.  Already salmon berries were ripe for picking.  The sun was brilliant but we were shaded beneath a canopy of giant trees covered in moss and vines, the air was humid.  Through the peaceful shade of the trees, tiny bursts of sunlight found its way down through it all to land on spiderwebs and light up leaves.

I'm looking forward to returning to hike the ridge, where there will be views of Portland's beautiful old bridges and Mt Hood.