Record Road Trip

I spent a Sunday the other weekend at home listening to new, old records, selecting one after another and discovering I had started my new record collection with some great music.  How grateful I am for the generosity of Sue, a local Oregon author I discovered just a year or two ago.  I was still living in Wisconsin when I first read her book, Shoes Full of Sand.  I so loved reading her story of moving from California to Oregon and then following her adventure through her blog, Unleashed in Oregon. The summer before moving to Oregon, a friend and I did a week long road trip down the Oregon coast.  Sue kindly accepted my request to meet for lunch to pick her brain about Oregon and she was just as nice as I expected her to be.  Little did I know that in just one year, I too would be having my own adventure of moving to Oregon.  Today marks the sixth month I've been an Oregonian myself and I could not be happier!

Sue posted on Facebook last month that due to inclement weather during her garage sale, she had some items left over and wanted to give them away to anyone who was interested in putting them to good use.  One item in particular on the list caught my eye, records.  I quickly expressed my interest and we arranged a time for me to stop out to her coastal home the weekend after my trip to Wisconsin to pick them up.

Morgan, Cole and I arrived at Sue's in the early to mid-afternoon and visited for awhile.  It was fun to see, in person, the places she writes about in her blog, meet her dog, Annie, and even her neighbor for a bit.  The neighborhood was just as she describes in her writing, quiet and tucked away, surrounded by tall trees in all directions.  It seems like the perfect place for a writer to work and live.  Once inside, I was delighted to learn there were four boxes of records waiting for me with a selection that varied from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Mathis to Jackie Gleason. It was hard to contain my excitement as I flipped from one record to the next. 

South Beach State Park, Oregon

South Beach State Park, Oregon

After leaving Sue's house, we headed just a little bit down the road to South Beach State Park.  There, Morgan and I let Cole off his leash to romp around in the soft sand.  The sun was slowly beginning to make it's decent toward the edge of the ocean and the light that came down through the mostly clear skies cast a beautiful golden glow upon everything around us.  There is a point where the waves stop rolling in on top of the sand and then retreat back out to the ocean.  We strolled down that point of the beach for some time and reveled in the surprisingly warm, calm, sunny December air.


Once we had our fill of sun and sand, we hoped to check out a bookstore that we heard good things about in Newport.  Unfortunately when we got there we learned it had already closed for the day.  We decided to grab an early dinner instead and chose a dog-friendly seafood place where we devoured tasty scallops, mine grilled and Morgan's fried.  It doesn't get much better than dining on a seaside patio in December on a warm night among good company, with beer in hand and your dog by your side. I suppose a trunk full of records waiting to be played is just icing on the cake.

My new records, day one

To check out photos from the beach, as well as my other nature photography, please visit my Flickr page here.

Going Home

After six months in Portland, it was finally time to go home to Madison, Wisconsin and visit with friends and have an early Christmas celebration with my immediate family.  With Cole safely at a friend's house, my journey home begun at 4 AM on a Thursday morning the first week of December.  After a quick shower, I left my apartment and began my day of travel.  This, of course, is when the problems began.  First, I had to wait for a freight train to pass by before I could get to the Max stop to catch the light rail train to the airport.  Figuring I had plenty of opportunities to grab a bite to eat at one of the four airports I would be visiting that day, I decided to skip breakfast in Portland.  Unfortunately both the flight from Portland to Los Angeles and the flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City were running late so my layovers were minutes long and left no time for grabbing a bite to eat so I sustained myself on airplane pretzels and cookies until I arrived in the cold, 27 degrees of Madison, Wisconsin at 6 PM. 

Sa Bai Thong - Best Thai food in Madison

After picking up the rental car, which I begrudgingly agreed to a free upgrade from a fuel efficient compact to an SUV, seeing as it was the only option, and running a quick errand, I met some friends at my favorite Thai restaurant, Sa Bai Thong.  After catching up while enjoying delicious food and wine, a couple of us headed over to the Vintage for $3 beers.  Another friend surprised me and met up with us there and then we headed over to Mid Town Pub whose specialty was "porn corn" which I hope got it's name for it's desirable taste and not for the many other less appealing ways in which it could have come about.  After saying goodnight to one of my friends, we headed over to the Free House in Middleton where we were delighted with the fine sounds of 90's hip hop.  Wanting a change in soundtrack, we headed over to the Hody which is always a fun, guilty pleasure spot to people watch.  Once it was time to call it a night, I headed over to my friend's place to crash and apparently slip into a coma.

My dad's famous Old Fashioned

I awoke the next morning a little past noon.  Apparently my day of travel and night of hitting the town had taken it's toll on me.  I got ready and headed out as quickly as possible and after a quick bite to eat, attempted to do my one-stop Christmas shopping in 20 minutes where I was surprised to come across a man that I swear could be my dad in another 15 years.  I managed to find everything I was looking for and wrapped it all on the tailgate of the SUV in the parking lot outside the store.  Once finished, I hurried off to Topp's Hideaway in Windsor to meet my sister so we could make the hour drive east together to our parents house in Delafield for our Christmas celebration complete with Old Fashioneds and homemade lasagna.  The night ran late, as usual, but it was good to spend time with my parents and sister.  I believe it may have been the first time in a very long time that it was just us four and there was something kind of comforting about that. 

Me, my Mom, Dad and Sister

After a rough night of sleep on my parent's couch, which I remember to be so much more comfortable than it was that night, I showed my parents some of my photos of my adventures in the Pacific Northwest over breakfast of left over deviled eggs.  Once through those, my sister and I said goodbye to our parents and then were off, headed back to Madison.  After dropping off my sister, I met up with a group of friends for a sushi lunch at Takara, home of the best California Roll ever.  It was fun catching up with everyone but slowly, one by one, people had to head out to continue on with their weekend plans.  I had hoped to catch the movie Wild but unfortunately it was not in theaters yet in Madison so a couple friends and I ran some errands together so we could keep the conversation going.  Once those were done, we met up at Louisianne's in Middleton to listen to Johnny Chimes play piano while we sipped cocktails in the warm dark glow of the lounge.  Hilary's Annual Tacky Gift Exchange Party had been postponed so once the music ended, instead of heading to her place, we went to Le Tigre Lounge.  If the name doesn't give it away, it is a lounge covered from ceiling to floor with tiger themed decor.  We stayed until close and then one friend and I, being the last two still going, had a late night/early morning greasy breakfast at the local Denny's restaurant. 

Sushi lunch at Takara with friends

Not getting to bed until about 4:30 in the morning, I decided to cancel the plans for brunch at noon at the Green Owl and just hang out with a friend and her daughter at their place until it was time to head to the airport.  Once the time came, I said goodbye and headed to the airport to return the rental car, do a little white elephant party gift shopping in the airport and then caught my first of two flights back to Portland.  My flight got in to Portland later than expected from Salt Lake City but my friend picked me up from the airport with Cole in tow, a wonderful homecoming! 

All of us with Johnny Chimes after his performance at Louisianne's

All in all it was a great trip to Wisconsin.  It was wonderful to see and catch up with friends in person after six months away.  It was equally good to come home though to the mild 50 degree temperatures of Portland.  Although it felt as nothing had changed the minute I started driving around in Madison, I know for certain that Portland is home and where I am meant to be.  I love it here!

The Adventure Continues

The company I work for recently opened a Seattle office and I was eagerly looking forward to traveling from Portland to Seattle the week of Halloween to help get things setup with supplies, furniture and such.  I was all set to leave Thursday morning for the overnight trip and make the three hour drive to Seattle.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to squeeze in some time to explore the city Thursday night when I was done at the office.  Unfortunately, I woke up Monday that week with round two of an awful cold.  My fun work trip just turned into a not-so-anticipated obligation.

I left the house Thursday morning and picked up the rental car.  At my first stop for fuel, I noticed that in my foggy, virus-infused haze, I had put on my sweater backwards.  After resolving that issue, I continued north through the rain which varied from light to heavy all the way to Seattle.  I arrived in one piece, although my head felt somewhere else and after greeting the staff and a quick bite to eat, proceeded to get organized with my plan for helping the office come together.  When I was done with the planning phase at the office, I had just three blocks to drive to get to the hotel.  Unfortunately, the rush hour traffic inadvertently diverted me onto the interstate and my easy drive to rest and comfort turned into an hour long affair.

Once checked into my room, I mustered up the energy to grab some sushi nearby which lucky for me was having a happy hour in the lounge so all the food was far reduced in price.  Once back to the hotel, I loaded up on the NyQuil and dozed in and out of sleep all night.

The next morning, I was surprised with a fever which made my navigating the city and running errands all day oh-so-much fun! This is where I learned that all day, not just rush hour, the traffic in Seattle, no matter where you go, is atrocious.  My last stop at Home Depot ran way longer than it should and after a series of comical customer service experiences (which warranted a lengthy letter once I was feeling better), I high tailed it for Portland.  The delay in getting out of town left me stuck in stop-and-go traffic pretty much the entire way back to Portland.  The trip was less than fun but it did feel good to do the work that needed to be done without postponing the trip.  The next time I go to Seattle though, I will be sure to take the train which I'm told is a beautiful ride, sans stop and go traffic.

View from my new home

November 10th was my eagerly anticipated moving day.  I cut out of work early to pay my deposit, pick up the keys and see my apartment for the very first time.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in addition to the courtyard view I was promised, I also had a nice view of downtown Portland.  After completing my move-in condition check list, I picked up the U-Haul I reserved.  Once back on the east side, I started to load up the truck.  Luckily my roommate was home and helped with a few of the bigger furniture items.   By the time Morgan arrived, there were only a handful of things left.  With Cole on Morgan's lap, I drove off to my new home, my first apartment rental in Oregon!!!  The combination of security door and elevator to the 5th floor proved a slow unloading for the two of us but we pushed through and dropped the truck off a little after 9pm that night.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading back to the apartment to fall fast asleep.  With all of my furniture and boxes still in Wisconsin, my apartment is a bit bare but I do have the essentials I need to get by for now.  I am officially home!

Hilary, Me and Morgan exploring Portland's night life

A week after moving into my new place, I had a friend from Wisconsin in town and she stayed with me for the weekend.  That Friday night, Morgan and I took her out to a few of the fun places to eat and drink around town including Departure, Jackknife, Gruner, Vault, Driftwood and Muu Muu's. The next morning, although unusually cold for Portland, we grabbed some coffee and hit the Saturday Market.  While at the Market, we did some shopping and ate yummy food-cart food and then went over to Tugboat Brewing for a low-key evening of board games and beer.  We walked over to Sizzle Pie for some pizza and then to Pints for a quick beer before heading home to get comfy and watch a movie before calling it a night.  Sunday morning Morgan had to go to work but Hilary and I went out for brunch at the Daily Cafe (which was delicious).  All too soon it was time for Hilary to head back home to Wisconsin but it was great to be able to host a friend from back home and show off some of the awesomeness that is Portland.

Cookie decorating on Thanksgiving

Having no family in Oregon, I was thankful to be invited to a friends family Thanksgiving dinner with her husband, daughter and daughter's boyfriend.  With Morgan, Cole and the pumpkin pie I baked the night before in tow, we headed out to enjoy a lovely afternoon with delicious food and fun conversation with Genie and her family.  It was a great opportunity for Cole to get familiar with their home too since just the next week, he would be staying there for four days while I traveled back to Wisconsin for an early Christmas celebration with my family and friends.   The two cats seemed to be relatively OK with Cole's presence so I felt good about leaving him there, especially since Genie and Ed are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.

All in all, my ever-evolving transition from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest is coming together splendidly!!

To see my PNW adventure through nature photography, please visit my Flickr page here.