As I sit once again at my desk in the office looking out at the rain/snow and contemplating deadlines, I can't keep my brain from wandering back over the wonderful spring break week that is now sadly ending. For eighteen years, I have looked forward to this week in March when the promise of springtime is in the air, homework can be procrastinated, and (in recent years) travel and adventures happen. To this day, the trip Andy and I remember most fondly is our spring break week in the red rock country of southern Utah. Before moving to Moscow, my birthday always landed during the spring break week (a very happy birthday by my standards) and quite often it was the week of pruning fruit trees and earning the first sunburn of the year.
This year, Andy and my nearby sisters weren't able to get vacation time from work, so I was flying solo for my last spring break and was determined not to spend it watching the rain and snow from my desk chair.
Susan and Margaret came to the rescue with a scheme to get me to Portland and back without me making the long drive alone. (Keep in mind that I am a pedestrian by nature and merely married into car ownership and commuting. Driving is just one of those necessary evils in my book). Anyhow, Suzie drove over on Saturday and spent the evening and night and Sunday morning with Marie and Beth while Andy and I went to Clarkston for a wedding and time with old friends.
Then, Suzie and I hit the road to Portland for a week of my kind of R&R: some minor sleeping in, trying new and very good food, celebrating St. Patty's day in style, watching some educational TV, furnishing the new house, playing with the puppy, working on home improvement projects, enjoying some time outdoors, and of course the quality sister time :)
The weather was such that dinner one night was made on the grill and we ate it out on the deck! A little chilly, but very pleasant and exciting anyway.
We got to play in the dirt and plant a few things in the garden!
We completed a little construction project in the garage to avoid the intermittent rain, and had it all insulated, shingled, painted, and installed by the end of day 2!
And, I got to be entertained by this adorable pup and even teach her a new trick!
On Friday afternoon, Margaret and Greg stopped by to pick me up on their way to Idaho to spend the weekend with us. Imagine my shock at the size of their Golden, Rusty, after spending 5 days with little Jersey!
It was supposed to rain all weekend, but we lucked out and the clouds held onto it until we were finishing dinner Saturday night. It was a beautiful day for some outdoor shopping and yardwork.
The winter's snow had buried our raspberries and did a number on the bracing system we had going on. The plants sprang back amazingly, but the coated wire was sagging hopelessly and the rotting end posts weren't helping.
Andy had some foresight and had picked up some treated 4x4's and other lumber to replace the rotting ones and we had a project on our hands! Margaret helped to bury the posts...
...and Greg helped to string the new wire. This job gets a thumbs up!
We worked up an appetite that was very satisfied by the delicious meal Margaret cooked up for us, and then we passed the rainy evening playing the game, Carcasson. We sent it to them for Christmas, and they brought it over to play with us - pretty intense at times, and very fun!
The evening ended with fruit pizza and a game of pool. Yes, the guys won, but not easily!
Margaret and Greg headed home this morning, Andy went straight to the shop to continue welding the truck frame so he can reassemble and get ready for the time-consuming finish work, and I settled in to catch up on laundry and such.
It wasn't long before the phone rang...
It was Don and he was in town and wanted to come out and see us! We got to catch up a little and it prolonged my "vacation" from the desk and computer just a little longer.
All-in-all, I'd say it was a good week, and now it's time to put the nose back to the grindstone. Have you noticed how fast that countdown is going?!?!
Much of the trail was like this - packed dirt hugging the cliff, with a steep drop-off down to the river. The sun was brightly shining, and I was experimenting with my new lens filters...so pardon the glare :) The warmth of it sure felt good!
Jersey had sooo many new smells to figure out as we trekked along. I think she's sniffing something in most of my pictures...and of course the girls are lookin' happy. We're hiking!
We made it!!
To get more of a feel for the scenery along the trail...
We arrived at Lower Punchbowl first, where the hiking book we had told us we could "peer upstream" for a glimpse of Upper Punchbowl.
So we leaned out over the river and tried to see. Then waded out a little into it, and leaned some more...and all we could see was this wimpy drainage along the cliffside. Beautiful in its own way, but there was no way this was the big falls!
So we wrung out our socks and pant legs and decided to hike up the trail more to another place they said you could see Punchbowl.
And, we did find it! But, you were way above and far back from them - held back with a thick rope fence. This is as close as we could get...
But, we decided to hike up the trail a little more and see what there was, and we found a little side "trail", if you could even call it that, and slid down it and climbed around until we were right above the roaring falls! Here's my timid attempt of putting the camera out over the edge to catch a glimpse (Colleen caught a better one, if you check her blog):
We then looked back downstream and saw a die-hard photographer in chest waders, carrying his gear and a tripod to the middle of the river in order to catch that "glimpse" the book was telling us about! The cheater. :)
The return hike was mellow - we'd already seen the scenery and just meandered back to the car enjoying the sunshine and time together. We passed a lot more people going this direction, and were very glad that we didn't hike it at the peak time of day.
Ahhh...what a perfect afternoon...
That evening, Greg and Margaret drove up to take Andy and I to dinner. We did a little shopping while waiting the hour for a table at the popular P.F. Chang's, and it was well worth it. I had some absolutely delicious shrimp in a creamy sauce with honeydew melon. A pretty good combo, it turns out!
Something had us both in the cooking mood too, and we put together some gooood dinners! Grilled tuna steak with a cucumber sauce and a side of asparagus on Friday, biscuits & gravy, eggs, and seasoned potatoes on Saturday, and Celestia's sour cream enchiladas and a fresh green salad tonight. Delightful!
Oh, the little things that make us happy!
It was pleasant, sharing stuffed biscuits and gravy with 2 close friends from school before we all headed to our 9:30 classes. After that, I had no more class and didn't really feel like doing homework. What I really wanted, was to go home and prune all the fruit trees but the weather just would not cooperate with that idea!
Just knowing what was awaiting me for dinner, had my mouth watering! Andy had ordered some take-out Thai food and we broke out the china to enjoy a fancy little dinner of orange chicken, fried rice, pad thai, and a spring roll....yummmmmm
Dinner was followed by a relaxing feel-good movie, assembling a gift from Andy...
...and sharing the cutest little birthday cake I have ever seen!!
Now all is said and done, and I'm onto another exciting year with a new kitchen island (perfect for storing my baking supplies and rolling out my pastries), a deep stir-fry pan, a new cookbook, a beautiful hand-crafted necklace, sketchbooks and drawing supplies for London, a camera case and filters to try out on the camera, numerous cards, and countless emails and facebook messages. Thank you for thinking of me! You are all wonderful!!
We got to play in the dirt and plant a few things in the garden!
We completed a little construction project in the garage to avoid the intermittent rain, and had it all insulated, shingled, painted, and installed by the end of day 2!
And, I got to be entertained by this adorable pup and even teach her a new trick!
On Friday afternoon, Margaret and Greg stopped by to pick me up on their way to Idaho to spend the weekend with us. Imagine my shock at the size of their Golden, Rusty, after spending 5 days with little Jersey!
It was supposed to rain all weekend, but we lucked out and the clouds held onto it until we were finishing dinner Saturday night. It was a beautiful day for some outdoor shopping and yardwork.
Andy had some foresight and had picked up some treated 4x4's and other lumber to replace the rotting ones and we had a project on our hands! Margaret helped to bury the posts...
...and Greg helped to string the new wire. This job gets a thumbs up!
We worked up an appetite that was very satisfied by the delicious meal Margaret cooked up for us, and then we passed the rainy evening playing the game, Carcasson. We sent it to them for Christmas, and they brought it over to play with us - pretty intense at times, and very fun!
The evening ended with fruit pizza and a game of pool. Yes, the guys won, but not easily!
[compliments of: www.dcwild.com]
