first snowfall

Hello everyone!


I had a wonderful, long weekend. I left for Trout Lake straight from work on Thursday afternoon. I had Friday off for Veteran’s Day. I arrived at Wampler’s house and we decided to go up to the Inn for taco night. The Inn was jammed! Hunting season has started so there were lots of hunters and lots of locals eating $1 tacos. We ate our dinner then headed back to Wamp’s house to brew some beer. Sara was waiting at the house when we arrived. I started a fire in the woodstove and Wamp & Sara began measuring out ingredients. The recipe he was using makes beer like Rogue’s Arrogant Bastard. Jason and Danny came over along with Joseph and Barb. The house got all stinky (wonderfully so) with hops (including some grown by Jason himself) and malt.

We talked about the recent washout of Hwy 35. This is the road that leads to Mt Hood Meadows ski area that was destroyed by the recent storms. They believe part of one the glaciers broke apart and melted with all the heavy rains causing massive flooding and debris flow in the White River. The north side of the highway is a sea of mud and boulders (some of them 10 feet high) while the south side of the road is completely gone, with the White River re-routing itself and digging out huge channels where once there was a road. Jason was particularly distraught over the news since he had spent over 50 days snowboarding at Meadows last winter. They’re about to begin repairing the road but snow has begun falling and there’s no estimates as to when the public will actually be able to drive to Meadows.

Friday morning I woke up to gray skies and rain. The temperature was dropping though and the rain quickly turned over to snow. This didn’t surprise me so much as the fact that the snow was sticking. Wampler made some soup and cheesy bread for lunch and I read my book for a while. In the afternoon we began working out some ideas for my website. Wampler is helping me set up a website where I can sell my photo cards and prints of some of my photographs. It’s going to be set up through the Trout Lake website that he currently runs. I’m so excited to finally be taking some steps towards doing something more with my photography. We set up a naming scheme and I began a database listing all the photos I wanted to use along with short descriptions. After several hours of this we were both tired of staring at computer screens and called it a day.

We were going to a potluck at Damon & Amanda’s that evening so we began preparing our dish (stuffed acorn squash). We went over to their great cabin in the woods and ate a wonderful dinner. Jimmy and Andrea were there as they had closed the Inn for the night. The snow had driven all the hunters out of the area and they had no live music scheduled for the night. It was great to hang out and drink some wine in their cozy cabin. We spent a large portion of the evening perusing an erotic art book that Danny spied on Amanda’s bookshelf. Outside it was warming up and all the snow melted away in the drippy forest.

Saturday morning a group of us gathered at Danny & Greg’s place for a big breakfast. They live in a great A-frame house which I really, really love. Breakfast was delicious (egg bake, corn bread with blueberries and peaches, and potatoes). Afterwards I went back to Wampler’s house where I showered then packed up my stuff and hit the road back to Portland. It was clear in Trout Lake and all the snow was gone at the lower elevations. Somewhere around Cascade Locks I hit a torrential downpour that went on for some time. About 20 minutes from Portland it cleared up and I was happy to be home.

I went over to Elaine & Gina’s house and we drove to Tabla on NE 28th and Davis to have dinner with their parents to celebrate their mom’s birthday. We know one of the chefs at the restaurant. The food was spectacular as always. We all ordered from the prix fixed where you choose one appetizer, one pasta dish and one entrée. I had the razor clam (delicious!), the ravioli (one giant ravioli with a poached egg on top mmmm!) and the Oregon bison with polenta as an entrée (super tender and flavorful!). We all left full and so happy with the delicious meal.

The three of us then drove to their friend Nova’s house for a birthday party. We hung out for a while and played some card games on the floor before heading out. We went from there to The Goodfoot where Cross-Eyed Rosie was playing a cd release show. The show was absolutely packed and Cross-Eyed Rosie sounded fantastic. There were tons of Trout Lakers there and lots of dancing going on. The show was really great and they played until 2 AM. From there we stopped at Big Bertha’s on Hawthorne for some late night gyros then dropped off birthday boy Brian at his house before going back to Elaine and Gina’s. It was past 3 AM when I finally got home and into bed. Needless to say I slept in on Sunday.

I spent all of Sunday watching Netflix and making photo cards. Later in the evening I went to Elaine and Gina’s house and the girls made a wonderful dinner of pasta with alfredo sauce and broccoli and chicken. Eventually I met Elaine down at the Rose and Raindrop where Dave’s band (Jim the Bad Goat) was playing and recording a podcast. Wampler played accordion while Eric was on banjo, Bill was on stand up bass and Steve on mandolin and a variety of other instruments. It was great to hear Dave’s songs and hang out with everyone. The windstorm arrived at 10 pm just as predicted and I was happy to get home in my bed and out of the nasty weather.

So that was my weekend! Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been up to!

xoxo,
carolyn