Oregon trip - Portland (September 26-30) (3 of 3)

Last segment of Oregon trip - this part was based in Portland (part one is here) (part two is here).

Continued to have fantastic weather.  We liked everything about our experience (except we could have done with a few less hobos hanging around downtown and the Willamette River waterfront).

Some items:

I recommend "Carapulcra Con Puerco"  - Andina restaurant.

Rose garden

Japanese Garden scene

1.  Had good luck with restaurants, especially on our first visit to Andina (billed as Peruvian).  One of the pictures here is a menu excerpt - I had the pork dish with the chocolate - best meal of a trip where we had many very good ones.  We also particularly liked "Little Bird" (sister restaurant of "Le Pigeon").

2.  The microbreweries are really quite excellent; some (particularly Deschutes) also have better food than we expected.  I very much enjoyed this.  Photos include Tugboat, Hair of the Dog, Rogue; Deschutes tasting "menu" is below.

Willamette Valley . . . 

3.  Hotel Lucia - we liked the room and the location.

Willamette Valley wine country.

4.  Did our usual extended walking tours, including exploring the Pearl district, walking across the Willamette River to "Hair of the Dog" on the east side, walking from Deschutes up to the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Garden, walking onto the Steel Bridge and then along the waterfront, walking, walking . . .

Powell's City of Books

5.  Day trip into the Willamette Valley area.  Stopped at a few wineries; also did the roadside stand thing (peach and toasted hazelnuts, quite excellent).  Either we didn't go to the right places, or something; this was perfectly pleasant but we may allocate time elsewhere when/if we return to Oregon.

Crossing the Willamette River on a lovely evening . . . 

6.  Some celebrity chef had just opened a restaurant in our hotel - nice room, good place to stop for breakfast or something to sip on.  Public Domain - coffee.

"Hair of the Dog" "menu"

7.  Powell's Books was up to its billing - enjoyed browsing, actually ended up buying a used set of books.

Tugboat microbrewery

"Hair of the Dog" microbrewery - one of our favorites.  

Rogue "menu"

Deschutes Sept 2012

Oregon trip - Mt. Hood, Ramona Falls, Hood River (September 24-26) (2 of 3)

Per this post below, PJ and I toured Astoria and a bit of Oregon's Pacific coast.  Next was the Mt. Hood area.

When making our plans, we weren't sure where to stay.  Mt. Hood itself has a historic lodge - but we were a bit concerned with the weather "up there," plus felt the lodge might be like El Tovar at Grand Canyon (just without renovation for modern plumbing in the rooms, we had heard).  So we stayed at a quite-nice golf resort in the town of Welches - quite a bit lower elevation, a few miles west of the mountain - and this suited us just fine.

Sandy River (Ramona Falls Hike)

Mt. Hood area is surprisingly close to Portland - less than an hour east.  Beautiful car ride from Cannon Falls through Portland and onto Welches - forests for a big chunk of the trip.

Things we liked on this segment:

Nearing Ramona Falls . . . 

Ramona Falls.  PJ taking photos at bottom left.

1.  Found a little restaurant (named "Rendezvous") about a mile from the hotel and had dinner there both nights - these folks are doing very interesting stuff for a little place pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Featured beer was Ice Axe IPA from Mt. Hood Brewing.  Breakfast at the golf course restaurant at the resort - gorgeous setting.

Ramona Falls

Return hike

Return hike

Return hike, nearing Sandy River; Mt. Hood in background.

 2.  The highlight of this segment of the trip was a perfectly remarkable hike on the Ramona Falls trail - pretty high on the side of Mt. Hood.  Did this on Tuesday.  Very different from desert hiking, to say the least.  This is a loop, 7.1 miles total with 1000' elevation gain, and  wonderful but very different views on the two main trail segments.  First segment goes along the Sandy River - lots of forest but quite often open; great views here and there up to the summit of Mt. Hood.  Payoff point for the hike is the wondrous Ramona Falls - I'll let the photos describe it.  Return segment is much greener, shadier, tracking a small creek or river, sort of a "Lord of the Rings" atmosphere at the beginning of the return portion.  I would much enjoy doing this hike again.

15-second video on Sandy River:



3.  Another highlight was a road trip up to the Timberline Lodge (the place where we decided not to stay) - right at the timber line on Mt. Hood.  This is another wonderful Depression-era lodge - will need to read about this, they went for a "massive" look.  The third floor bar area was a delight - fantastic views of Mt. Hood, windows opening to the south to Mt. Jefferson, a large fireplace or whatever rising three stories, this was quite impressive.  And a beautiful drive to the top.  And we were really cold up there - great weather down in Welches but cold and very windy up top.  Should have kept a "beer diary" - here, I had the Mt. Hood "Multorporter."

30 seconds or so at Ramona Falls:

Surprisingly good local restaurant.

4.  To get to Portland, we decided to drive around the back side of Mt. Hood up to Hood River, and then drive into Portland via the Columbia River Gorge.  This definitely was another highlight.  Best part of thus segment was a stop at Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River (we walked into Full Sail right down the street - the main brewery in town - but preferred the look of Double Mountain).  Here I encountered my best beer of the trip (which is saying a lot in Oregon):  "Ferocious Five Bourbon-Barrel Brown Ale."  Wow.  Even their pizza was quite good.  And there were these two yucks from Portland (Kansas State alums) sitting at the bar who were really quite entertaining.

Breakfast view, resort, Welches, OR

5.  Driving through the Columbia River Gorge - very enjoyable, we crossed to the Washington side and stayed off the freeway for much of this.  Stopped at Multnomah Falls - which is fine, but probably would be very fine had we tried one of the hiking trails there.  There had been some wildfires and things were a little hazy in the first miles coming out of Hood River.

View from Timberline Lodge (Mt. Jefferson)

View from bar, Timberline Lodge - right up to Mt. Hood summit.

Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood

Timberline Lodge

With K-State buddies at Double Mountain Brewery - Hood River, OR.

Hood River, OR

Multnomah Falls

Onto Portland . . .

Oregon trip - Astoria (side trip to Cannon Falls) (September 22-24) (1 of 3)

Hotel is farthest building out on the Columbia River.  Looking across to WA.  Taken on one of our walks.  

(Click on any photo to enlarge all, per usual)

PJ and I had pretty high expectations for our trip up to Oregon, and they were consistently exceeded.  We didn't know much about Oregon, beyond recommendations via news articles and Mayo co-workers.

View from hotel room.  Astoria, OR.

We wanted to spend part of the trip on Oregon's Pacific coast.  I'm sure most of the beach towns are quite nice; but we settled on a bit larger town situated right at the mouth of the Columbia River - Astoria.  Some things we'll remember:

Clemente's - delightful lunch and dinner.

Walking about in Astoria.

1.  Fantastic hotel - about five years old, built out on the Columbia on a pier, intentionally evocative of the canneries built out onto the river on piers a century ago.  The river slips by quietly right outside the room on its way to the Pacific; the bridge crossing north to Washington State shelters us on the east; steady traffic of all kinds of boats (including two cruise ships docking a quarter mile to the west); fireplace; very nice happy hour and breakfast; views that won't quit; delightful.  We didn't get tired of watching the shipping, perhaps because it's such a novelty for us.

Walking about in Astoria (#2)

2.  Named after John Jacob Astor - part of early 19th century fur trade efforts - first US city settled west of the Mississippi - historical neighborhoods.

Tasting at Ft. George Brewery - Vortex IPA was a good find.  OR beers were every bit as good as advertised.

3.   Great walks throughout the town - with quite a bit of climbing - fine views down toward the water at pretty much every turn.

Our hotel room.  On the mighty Columbia.

4.  Ft. George Brewery - our first Oregon tasting session.

Ship traffic viewed from hotel room.

5.  Farmer's market was in session - I'm always looking for peaches.  Success.

Maritime Museum.  

6.  Traditional downtown.  Nice restaurants.  Loved Clemente's.

We had no idea how dangerous this area was for shipping . . . 

7.  And how about the maritime museum.  I didn't know this area was so dangerous for shipping - the "Bar" - something to do with the huge Pacific beating up into the immense Columbia discharge - very interesting.

Lunch in Cannon Falls . . . nice view of Pacific Ocean and the "Haystack."  Yup, that's a Vortex IPA.

We were sorry to leave.  Had great weather throughout.

Haystack . . . 

But onto our next stop - the Mt. Hood area.  Drove down the coast a bit before heading east toward Mt. Hood - stopped for lunch at Cannon Falls.  Saw the famous "Haystack".  (POC reminded us that something named "Goonies" was filmed there.)

Our trip was off to a great start.

Showing Astoria, mouth of Columbia River, Pacific Ocean, "The Bar"

The power of marketing

ASU's Schola Cantorum - a fine group to which CPG 'n me don't even belong - must be gunning for attendance records at its upcoming concert.

Just look at the eye candy they're using to lure in a crowd.  I hope there isn't some kind of riot when the attendees discover the brazen bait-and-switch.

Observing the start of another NFL season . . .

Not that its loss would have been a tragic setback for our culture - but I did want to preserve the below video.  DVRs do have a shelf life (as we've seen several times), and this clip has been sitting on our DVR way too long.

The murmurings of the replay ref and announcers at the beginning of the clip are mundane.  This is all about a Philly fan who is either very passionate, or lacks any sense of proportion given the utter insignificance of the official ruling, or - most likely - both.  (As a result of the coach's challenge, the Eagles are faced with second and goal from the six-inch line - instead of first and goal from the six-inch line.  Sheesh.)

I like how the fan appears to come to grips with the non-disaster - then loses it one more time.

Anyway, the NFL is back.  It's become a bit of a time-dominator, but RedZone does help.

Ubi caritas (or, a great way to spend two and a half minutes)

I ran across this version of "Ubi Caritas" while looking for something else on youtube.  I flagged it because it strikes me as being so precisely what sacred music should be - Scripture-based, centuries of tradition behind the text, mysterious, vaguely wistful, inspiring, perhaps gently putting us in our place.

This initially seemed like a thoroughly unpromising recording. A whatever small-college American choir on tour in UK, in a whatever rehearsal session, picked up by somebody at distance with a hand-held camera (maybe just a cellphone).  (Though it is pretty cool that this is CS Lewis's boyhood church.)

But the version really works.

And it's not just Durufle's musical setting - it's very much the traditional old words with which he worked.  I very much like (and don't think I can too strongly recommend) following along with the text while listening.

(And how about the musical phrases starting at 0:53 (with accompanying text)? This is the only section in which the sopranos sing, otherwise female is all alto.)
_______________________________

"Ubi Caritas is taken from the antiphons sung during the ceremony of the Washing of the Feet at the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. As is the entire Mass of the Last Supper, this hymn is intimately connected with the Eucharist, and is thus often used during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Recent tradition has the first line as "Ubi caritas et amor" (where charity and love are), but certain very early manuscripts show "Ubi caritas est vera" (where charity is true). The current Roman Missal favors this later version, while the 1962 Roman Missal and classical music favors the former."

Latin:

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.

Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

English: 

Where charity and love are, God is there.

Christ's love has gathered us into one.

Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.

Let us fear, and let us love the living God.

And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Even HBR can see it

I'm glad HBR posted this - even if it seems so obvious as to not require posting; full post is here.

Seems odd, but this strategy should result in victory . . .

. . . because Romney doesn't seem capable of being a strong enough candidate.  And even moreso because what - 57% now? - of Americans receive a government check.

Year eight starts tomorrow

This online diary, or whatever it is, commenced August 12, 2005 with this test-post about my favorite birds.

PJr birthday

PJr's birthday today (though Nedda and he aren't in the US to celebrate).   So in honor of the occasion, here's a birthday photo from 2003 (same year as this birthday photo).

Not sure what was up in summer 2003 - this photo was taken August 3 - missed the actual birth date for both EPG and PJr for whatever reason.

In any event, all clearly was made well at this celebration due to (1) two birthday cakes; and (2) Pat H's lusty singing of the birthday tune.

Happy birthday.

Laguna Beach, Santa Monica (August 2-6, 2012)

My delightful traveling companion.  Friday evening.

PJ and I first did a hotel stay-over in Laguna Beach in July 2010, and liked it well enough to make a return trip in 2011 (this latter trip coupled with a visit to EPG in Santa Monica).  This was a repeat of the 2011 trip.

Friday evening sunset from our hotel room's balcony.

Taken while wandering around Laguna Beach on Friday morning.

Similar/delightful experiences in Laguna Beach.  Mostly stuck with the same restaurants that we had enjoyed so much on prior trips; also had a fine lunch at Watermarc on Saturday.  Did a very long walking tour of some of the Laguna Beach neighborhoods on Friday morning; long beach walks (heading south) both evenings; Starbucks breakfast sitting on the bench overlooking the ocean at the main park; couldn't be nicer. We started getting reports from PJr/Nedda who were arriving in Paris.

Our regular breakfast spot - hard to beat.

EPG's homage' to Kerry.

Then onto Santa Monica.  EPG had identified a restaurant named "Ink" for Saturday night - this was a delight - we had five sharing dishes, seated at a corner of the bar (no reservations to be had), easy to see why the place is thriving.

Delightful breakfast at the local farmers' market on Sunday morning - I had a real peach for the first time in quite awhile, burrito and coffee = awesome.  Wandered around Rodeo Drive area; then to LA County Museum of Art - which was much enjoyable.  I'll probably post some of what we looked at over on the "review" website.  I think the most interesting area was the 1920s/30s German expressionism - after reading a bunch about this era over the last couple years, it had a whole new interest for me.  (UPDATE: LACMA information is now posted here.)

Late lunch at Umami burgers; a Racer5 IPA at some SF-themed bar (because Umami didn't have a liquor license); a bold attempt to visit the Griffith Observatory which was a fun ride but too crowded to really take advantage of; late dinner at Mercado something-or-other, another very wonderful sharing concept, this one with Italian food.

Madonna and child, times two.  LA County Museum of Art.

An unnerving lamppost forest at LACMA.

Monday arrived way too fast; breakfast at Starbucks and EPG off to work; we drive back after shopping some at the outlet mall (where I love to shop) and having a bite at Strand in downtown Phoenix.  PJ a delightful traveling companion, EPG a great host.

Nice.