the farmers come downtown and I go east

Hello everyone!

I’m way way behind on this so I’ll have to do some summarizing. Friday night I went to bbq at Brian’s house. His girlfriend Shannon was in town from Washington DC so it was a fun get together. Brian’s roommate, Christopher made ribs which were fantastically good.

Saturday morning I met up with my friend Stephanie who is very far along in her pregnancy (her second). We went to the Farmer’s Market where we meandered and sampled jellies (I bought the rhubarb jam) and bought pigs in a blanket for lunch (a sausage wrapped in a hazelnut pancake). Stephanie and I worked together at Lewis & Clark College and randomly get together. She’s an exceptional person and it was great to see her so so so pregnant. I felt her baby (another little) boy hiccupping inside her, a first for me! My best purchase was a dozen fresh oysters. The seafood stand had oysters from Netarts Bay on the Oregon coast, packed in ice. Later that evening I brought them over to Elaine & Gina’s house where we watched a little video online about how to shuck an oyster than cracked those babies open. They were fantastically good!

Sunday I went on a hike far east in the Columbia River Gorge. It was about an hour from Portland just past the town of Hood River. This is on the east side of the Cascades so it is regularly sunnier and warmer there than in Portland. I timed my hike right because the wildflowers were going crazy. In a few months that area will all be baked brown but now it is gorgeous! First I hiked up to McCall Point at steep climb but the view of Mt Adams across the river got better as I went up and up. Next I hiked a lower, level area right along the cliffs next to the Columbia River. I took tons of photos and enjoyed the sunshine on my face.

I hope all is well and sorry for falling so far behind. Time to catch up!

xoxo,

carolyn