Circus Forticus: October 2014

Readers, you may know that Mike and I were born in the same year, one that ends in a four, which means that this year we have pretty significant milestone birthdays. Last year was a milestone anniversary (10), which we celebrated by doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, so we decided that this year we would have an adventure, just the two of us. Making this happen was no easy feat, so before I say anything else, I have to offer up HUGE thanks to my parents, my sister Bethany, and my brother-in-law Joe. Bethany and Joe hosted the boys for the first two nights we were gone, and my parents took over the second two, which also encompassed two school days. My dad even gave up some of his precious vacation week to make sure the boys all got to and from their various schools each day (an hour round-trip, twice a day). We will never stop being grateful that they did this for us, and even though they made it seem like not that big a deal, it was a very big deal indeed for us.

A fun fact that you may not know about us: in our 13+ years of being a couple, Mike and I had never taken a flight together before Saturday morning, when Barb dropped us off at the airport and we settled in for a long but uneventful flight to Portland. Why Portland? I dunno. I've always wanted to go there (if you know me, you know that I always want to go pretty much everywhere), and after I showed Mike some of the delights the city had to offer, he was totally on board as well. We only had three full days there, but without kids in tow, we managed to see and do so much.

Straight from the airport, we hopped in our rental car (a Forte, how appropriate for Forts turning forty) and headed for Powell's City of Books, a truly massive new and used bookstore. We spent a couple hours browsing the shelves, and found plenty of treasures. Then we got a quick lunch and headed to the Pittock Mansion, high above the city. It's a lovely and well-preserved home and grounds with really amazing views.

After that, we checked out the Portland Japanese Garden, which was serene and peaceful. It was very quiet (especially for being part of a city), which was a nice change for us, and had so many interesting water features and nooks and crannies to explore. We could have spent the whole day there, but instead only had a couple of hours before it was closing time, as well as time to check into our hotel downtown.

Our strategy was to take advantage of the three-hour time difference between home and Portland (rather than just operate on Portland time and have to readjust when we got back home), so we were up and out the door at about 4:30 Sunday morning. Our first stop was Voodoo Doughnut, a Portland institution where the lines are long and the doughnuts are filled and/or topped with as many interesting ingredients as possible. It is open 24 hours a day, and I'm happy to report that there wasn't a line at all when we got there. We procured a pink box of doughnuts, and I ate one, but (and this may be the only time you will ever hear me say this) they were a little on the sugary side for me. Mike, not being a fan of sweets in general, didn't try any of them, so their value mostly was in being able to send pictures to the boys to show them what we were up to.

We hit the road and headed east to Trillium Lake, chosen because Mike wanted to get a spectacular view of Mount Hood, and his research revealed that this was a great spot for it. But to our sheer awe and delight, Mount Hood decided to give us a great view on the way there as well. Check this out!

I might mention here that to get that shot, we simply pulled off the side of a mountain road where there was a shoulder with guardrails at a curve. It probably wasn't the safest choice we could have made, but that early in the morning there were very few cars on the road.

I think it's safe to say that Trillium Lake completely lived up to its reputation for being a great place to see Mount Hood. The reflection in the water was just perfect, and we hiked around for a while, taking pictures from different angles and checking out the birds and the wooded areas. It was unexpectedly cold, which we were not really prepared for, but we kept warm by staying on the move.

Our next stop was the Columbia River Gorge. As we drove along through the national scenic area, the first waterfall we saw was Horsetail Falls. We stopped and walked around for a while, then continued on our merry way to the waterfall mother lode, Multnomah Falls, a two-part waterfall with a bridge going across where the two parts meet. We hiked up and across the bridge -- look, can't you see us there?

On the way back to Portland, we crossed the Columbia River and drove back through a bunch of tiny towns in Washington. The towns themselves didn't offer much to speak of (at least that we saw), but the views along the way were incredible.

Back in Portland, we explored the city some more, ate some great food, and turned in early. Sunday morning we hit the road well before dawn again, but this time headed west to the coast. Our goal was to get to Cannon Beach and see the famous Haystack Rock. What's it famous for? I don't know exactly, other than being featured in the opening scene of The Goonies. My face here kind of says it all: "Impressive. I guess."

We found Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock very easily. It was raining, so the beach was deserted. We bought a cheap poncho at a convenience store and headed down to the water during a lull in the rain. Naturally, once we got down there, it picked up again and we got completely soaked, even with the (garbage) poncho. We got some coffee to warm up and pondered our next move, then basically flipped a coin and decided to head south along the coast. This turned out to be a great decision, because it led to my favorite part of the trip, a hike through Oswald West State Park.

I mentioned that it was raining, right? So we go to this state park, and there's a light drizzle when we get to the parking area. The only other vehicle was a big landscaping-type truck, and the only other people were a couple of guys doing some landscaping work. Mike stopped and asked them for directions, and they were very, very helpful. Then we made our way down the path, under a bridge and through an old-growth forest (I can't even start to tell you how big these trees were. It was really amazing!) and along a winding creek/stream with small waterfalls. Along the way, we passed another very friendly guy in a yellow rain slicker pushing a wheelbarrow, but didn't run into any other people. Eventually, the forest opened up at Smugglers Cove. Again, my description won't even begin to do it justice. We were standing on a cliff over a stormy ocean, and then we picked our way down into the cove and explored for a bit. There were more cliffs all around us, and waterfalls randomly dotting the landscape. It was almost overwhelming, the way that every new thing was even more beautiful than the last.

Once the tide started coming in, we left the cove area and hiked onward. We crossed a very slick and rickety (slickety?) sway bridge, saw more giant trees, and caught more glimpses of the ocean. On the way back to the car, we saw the same guy in the yellow rain slicker pushing the wheelbarrow ahead of us, and noted a detail we missed the first time around: the word INMATE in big block letters on the back of his slicker. And sure enough, back at the parking lot, we discovered that the landscape vehicle was owned by the state DOC. Ha! No wonder those guys were so nice to us.

I know I haven't said a whole lot about the food on our trip, but suffice it to say that it was great. We ate at restaurants and food trucks, casual places and fancy ones, and enjoyed a fine selection of locally brewed IPAs while we were at it. On our last night in Portland, we headed to an Irish pub for dinner, then ended our evening with a selection of unusual ice creams from Salt and Straw. We tried the Dracula's blood pudding (made with real pig's blood, yarf!) but neither one of us was a fan. We ended up with these four delicious flavors: cinnamon snickerdoodle, sea salt and caramel, freckled woodblock chocolate, and essence of ghost.

Overall, this really was an incredible trip. I'm so happy that we got a chance to go. As for being without the boys, we alternated the whole weekend between saying things like "This is so much easier without hungry/thirsty/whiny/tired/bored kids" and wishing they were with us to see so many wonderful things. We are already trying to figure out when we can all go back together.

Since Mike had to work on his birthday, we decided to postpone the celebration until today. So this morning we got everybody up and around and took the boys to Lincoln Park Zoo. The last time we were here, Liam and Max were little (SO LITTLE!), and Henry wasn't even in the planning stages. Since we don't live in the city anymore, it's just so much more convenient to go to Brookfield Zoo since it's much closer when we visit family. In the intervening years, I almost forgot how much I love this place. It was a beautiful day, and we managed to see just about everything, including a black bear that was sleeping just on the other side of the glass from the boys. We ventured to get our picture taken on the bridge with the skyline in the background, and we checked out the farm too. It cracked me up that Henry was so excited to see the goat, considering the amount of time all the boys spend inside the pen playing with Tater (my dad's goat).

To top off our lovely morning -- and this is the part where the birthday comes in -- we went north to our old favorite pizza place, Tedino's. Mike got his favorite, pepperoni with mushrooms and fresh garlic, and the boys got a pizza too. We got calamari, which Max was nice enough to share with the rest of us (that kid LOVES calamari), and by the time we got back in the car to head home, we were all totally stuffed. As an added bonus, Mike had leftovers the next day!