pub crawl for the out of towner with an intermission for a mossy hike

Hello everyone! I had a fun weekend though I must admit I'm a bit tired and could use another weekend to rest up. Friday night I met up with Mark and a group of his friends at the Basement Pub. Mark had a friend, Beth, in town from New York for her first visit to Portland. We had a few beers there before going back to Mike and Eva's house for dinner. mmmm shrimp! We then drove to the Boiler Room in Northwest where there was some serious karaoke going on. We hung out and Mike even sang "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns n Roses. The crowd loved it! From there we went to The Tiger Bar for a drink and lastly to Kells. We certainly made the rounds to show Beth around. We happily left before bar time and took a cab home to sleepsleepsleep.

Saturday morning Jess came over to my house and I drove us out to the town of Cascade Locks in the Gorge. We stopped at a trailhead right before the Bridge of the Gods. We hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail for a few miles before coming to Dry Creek, so named because in summer it often dries up completely. The water was flowing now and the hike was beautiful and exceptionally mossy. We hiked up to the cliff wall, 300 feet of basalt with a slot carved out where Dry Creek Falls flows over the edge. The water drops about 50 feet. We sat on some big rocks along the creek and ate our lunch. There were a group of 4 older men there also eating lunch. I took a picture of them on their camera and they took one of me & Jess. They were the only people we saw the whole time. I was surprised to not see anyone on the trail. It was a cloudy day but pretty mild. The little canyon where we sat to have lunch though was quite cold due to the icy water from the waterfall. brrrr. We took some pictures than decided to head back to warm up. The cloudy light was flat and pretty terrible in terms of taking pictures. That didn't stop me from taking tons of photos anyway. Before we got back on the freeway to drive back to Portland we stopped at a viewpoint on the Columbia River right below the Bridge of the Gods. It was a really beautiful spot. It was a great hike and I really enjoyed talking with Jess while we passed mossy trees galore.

I went home and read for a while. I'm reading a great book by Edward Abbey called Down the River. I watched some Sex & the City even though I've seen all the episodes. Later that night I drove to Beaverton to Mark's friend William's house who was having a housewarming party. His home was beautiful and there was lots of drinks and food, including chinook salmon that William had caught himself near Astoria! Later in the evening Mark and his friend Erik played music in the living room. Mark played guitar, harmonica & sang while Erik played the stand-up bass. It was really cool to see Mark play for people and he had a great time doing it. I have much respect for people who perform for others. I hung out and talked with people until 1 AM when I was getting sleepy then I headed home.

Sunday morning I stopped at my local coffee shop for some breakfast and a mocha. I went over to Elaine & Dave's house and chatted with Elaine for a bit and posted some of my hiking photos on Flickr. I drove down to the museum for my volunteer shift. Again it was a very busy day with big crowds of people coming through to see the Hesse exhibit. I think it's going to remain crazy busy until the exhibit leaves the museum in late April. I did get a chance to walk through an exhibit of ancient Chinese art. There was some really unusual pieces and I wished I'd had more time to go through the collection. When my shift was over I walked across the street to the Park Blocks where I found a bench in the sun and read my book for a bit to decompress after the craziness at the museum. I called up Mark and went to the eastside to meet up with him at his friends Mike & Eva's house. We had beers in the backyard and enjoyed the last warmth from the afternoon sun. We went to the Laurelhurst where the guys played pool and we asked Trivia Pursuit questions. (Who offered Albert Einstein their presidency in 1952? Israel) We then drove to Caldera, a restaurant/pub on the side of Mt Tabor where we all had dinner. We had an amazing appetizer of bourbon soaked brie topped with nuts and brown sugar that was served with crusty bread and apple slices. heavenly! After dinner we went back to Mark's house for a bit then went to his neighborhood bar for some more pool before taking Beth to the airport. After repeatedly checking on her flight it seemed that the snowy weather in New York was not going to delay her flight and indeed she left without any problems. It's hard for me to imagine living somewhere with a real winter like that. Four winters in Portland have forever changed me. I saw an iris blooming the other day. amazing...

I'll post some pictures now and a few more this evening so check back if you'd like to check them out. Please let me know how you are and what you've been doing.

xoxoxo,
carolyn