Elaine turns 30!

Hello everyone! I had a lovely weekend, my first entire weekend in Portland since June 16th! Friday night I stayed home and watched Deadwood on Netflix. I wrapped Elaine’s birthday presents (as best I could).

Saturday I made myself breakfast and read the Mercury. Jess came over around 11 and we drove out to Oneonta Gorge in the Columbia River Gorge. We parked and walked down to the creek. We were so happy to see no one else there as last weekend when I stopped by there were lots of people around. We started by carefully climbing over the massive logjam. This was formed in 1996 when Portland and the surrounding areas experienced major flooding due to heavy rains and a quick melt of winter snow. The logjam is the biggest I’ve ever seen. Many of the logs are huge and it’s pretty easy to climb your way across. It’s most dangerous if the logs are wet as they become quite slippery. Once over the logjam we began walking back through the narrow gorge. The creek was very shallow in most places with the water to our ankles or sometimes our knees. We came through one particularly narrow spot where the water was much deeper than we expected. Suddenly we were waist-deep in cold, cold water. We jumped up and down on the rocks on the other side, bringing back the blood flow to our numb toes. Just a minute or so later we were at the far end of the gorge with a 70 foot waterfall cascading over the cliff wall. We took lots of photos and marveled at the green gorgeousness around us. We began walking back and said hello to a few other hikers that had come in behind us. We quickly waded through the deep water again. We had planned on going to some other places in the gorge but now we were much to wet for any further exploring.

Back in the car we cranked the heat and felt our feet slowly return to life. Once we got home I changed into dry clothes and made myself some lunch before heading over to Elaine and Gina’s house. The birthday keg was already tapped but I waited several hours before having any, knowing that I had a long, fun night ahead of me. I got my pictures of my camera then began chopping vegetables. Elaine turned 30 on Sunday so we had a big dinner planned followed by an even bigger party. Wampler came down from Trout Lake and the four of us (Gina, Elaine, Wamp and myself) began preparing dinner for 12 people (plus 2 babies but they don’t eat the porkchops). Wamp worked on tons of yummy appetizers while I prepared the big salad. Gina and Elaine worked on the main course, pork chops with apples and acorn squash (baked with brown sugar and butter of course). Elaine also whipped up a big batch of her famous hummus. Greg, one of their neighbors, brought over a large glass carboy jug filled with 9 bottles of red wine (he’s a wine distributor). Gina added a two liter of Squirt, a two litter of Hawaiian Punch and a whole pile of cut up lemons, limes and oranges. Sangria! Dinner turned out perfectly and there were lots of full bellies in the house. Elaine and Gina’s parents came by with a carrot cake and german chocolate cupcakes for the birthday girl.

After dinner some of the dinner guests, particularly those with babies, left for the evening, while other party guest began arriving. Gina started a fire in the new chiminea in the backyard. The fire would be kept going late into the night with a constant circle of people around it. The party was tons of fun and I got to hang out with lots of friends that I haven’t seen in a while. At midnight we lit the candles and the cake and filled the kitchen with our marvelous singing voice. Happy Birthday to Lainee! The carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting of course) was phenomenal. Other highlights of the evening include playing the telephone game around the fire and late night arm wrestling with Bridget (she beat me, Camille and Elaine). It was such a fun night and I didn’t head home until just before 3 AM. Thankfully I live just 10 blocks away.

Sunday morning I woke up and ate some toast and coffee and watched some Netflix. I showered then went over to Elaine and Gina’s house. John and Gina were watching football. I ate a cupcake and got my photos off the camera. Elaine went to her parents house to pick up her dog. When she came back we decided to have early afternoon bloody marys. I read the Sunday paper and hung out with the girls. Later I went home and napped, read my book and watched Oregon Field Guide and Antiques Roadshow with Camille. It was a lazy Sunday and I love it. It’s been awhile. I spent the rest of the evening reading my book and cleaning up my room.

I’m off to NY in a few days. Yeah! Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been up to!

Xoxox,
carolyn