Oregon adventures continued: Voodoo Doughnuts

We approached our trip to Oregon like every trip we plan, with strategy!  We start by talking about all of the "must see or must do" items on our list.  Then, we talk about the things that might work into our plan. Then, we leave somethings open to chance.  I am much better at the planning and less comfortable with the "by chance" idea.  There are some non-negotiables in this area - like choosing a hotel.  I always need to know where I am staying that night.

So, we were both doing our research and my husband reminded me that we had to go to Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland.  We had watch something on them on the Food Network and decided it was a "must see." 

We learned that they had a few locations and the Old Town location (near Chinatown) was right next to the Saturday, Market, another item on my "must do" list.

We took out walking early in the morning because we get up freakishly early on vacation.  Add the time difference and the time change happening while we were traveling and we could have been there early enough to help them make the doughnuts!  The plus to all of this, no lines!

 I loved the funky little joint with the pink boxes and the rotating case of donuts.  I tried the Bacon Maple Bar and loved it.  (It was kind of like the Maple Bacon Bar at Varsity Donuts.  I think in a competition, I would give the edge to our hometown favorite - Varsity. The difference, the bacon.  Plus, I like that Varsity uses donuts instead of doughnuts.  Is that a regional thing?)

We enjoyed sitting outside on the picnic tables, just eating donuts and watching people.  We saw some colorful people!

Plant geek: What do you do with an afternoon off?

 The weather for the past week has been spectacular in Kansas. It is so rare for us to have temperatures this cool in May.  We are also experiencing low humidity which is simply a miracle.

The spring weather also has me anxious to do some serious house cleaning and to work on the garden and flower beds.  We have a pretty good start on the garden and last Sunday was one of those all day cleaning days.  There is still so much to do!

I had been thinking through my schedule and discovered an afternoon with no appointments.  I went ahead and decided to take some vacation leave and see what I could accomplish.

It happened that the weather was super - sunshine and a cool breeze.  The blue sky and white clouds were stunning.

My first order of business was weeding in the garden.  Weeding isn't necessarily fun, but with a beautiful view and great weather, it's not so bad.

 I enjoyed seeing what was growing and loved thinking about the possibilities ahead.  Our potato plants have the tiniest of buds.  (I am a huge fan of these little flowers.)

 I was also glad to see that our rabbit prevention system worked for our broccoli.  Our broccoli plants were rabbit food until we put up this crazy contraption.

 My weeding continued to a couple of flower beds around the yard.  The clematis was blooming!  And, I am sorry that I didn't give it some attention earlier because a lot of the growth was trailing on the ground instead of around the support of the old school bell.

 One of my favorite sights in both leaving the house in the morning and coming home at night is the violas by our cellar door and the pansies by the front door.

 This deep purple clematis is near our garage.  It's never had better blooms.

 The irises are blooming in this amazing rotation - first, the white flowers and then it's just this chorus to different colored blooms.

 And, the columbine is beautiful again.  This color is "old fashioned" to me.  It makes me think of my grandma and how much she would have liked these blooms.

So, on an afternoon off, a plant geek works a little and geeks out over whatever is blooming at the moment. I am also saying many prayers of thanks for the blessing of beautiful weather.

Spring adventures: Oregon natural wonders

 We wanted to share a few images from our trip to Oregon.  I fell in love with this place when I visited as a college student and we visited as a couple around seven years ago.  The beauty of this state and the kind people just swept us away. We had hoped to plan a return trip and made it work this March.

Here are some of our favorite natural wonders we enjoyed along the way.

Crown Point and the Vista House is one of those iconic stops along the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway.  The view from the vista is really beautiful.  On this trip, we were able to tour the Vista House and go to the observation deck for the best view.

 No photo can do justice to the vibrant yellow-green lichen (if that is the right word?  Biologist friends, what is the right term?) on the side of the waterfall.  This was a large waterfall, but not the largest or most famous.  We still loved the short hike to the fall and back.

 Along the highway, there are so many great places to stop.  These stone bridges are all along the roads and trails and they usually have a mossy covering.  I loved this one with the moss and ferns adding so much character.

 This is the famous Multnomah Falls.  I visited this spot in college and called my now husband (then boyfriend) to rave about the beauty and power of this place.  It was so special to visit here with him a few years ago and to come back again.

This time around, we learned that the bridge over the falls was closed because the bridge crumbled.  If you look in the photo, you will see on the right side of the bridge that there is a break and some fence is closing off each side.  We felt lucky that we had hiked to the top and also over the bridge during our last visit.

And, Mount Hood from a distance.  We left Hood River on our way to a lilac farm - which ended up being a bust because it was too early in the spring and it wasn't yet open for visitors - and had this great view.

 The beaches are so cool.  I love that you have so much variation across the landscape.  While the day was windy and cool, we still loved walking along the beach and hearing the sound of the ocean.

Beautiful views and an awesome mist in the air to make it magical.  We loved the drive along the coast because of the beautiful views all along the way.

Spring adventures: McMenamins Edgefield

 

We are still sorting through photos from our adventures in Oregon over spring break.  One of our first stops and perhaps my new favorite find was McMenamins Edgefield. We were just off of the plane and a little tired since we had a very early start to the travel day.  The first order of business was lunch.

We decided that we would search for a local place.  A sign caught our eye - McMenamins Edgefield. We thought we would take a chance, but we felt pretty confident because we were familiar with the McMenamins name.  On a previous trip to Oregon, we learned about two brothers - the McMenamins - who bought historic properties and renovated them into bars, restaurants, hotels and other great places that people could enjoy.  In fact, we planned to stay in one of the McMenamins properties later in the trip.  (I think I want to be the McMenamins when I grow up.  What better mission than renovating historic properties and offering wonderful food and places to gather?)

We discovered that McMenamins Edgefield has a restaurant - The Black Rabbit.  We not only enjoyed our first lunch of vacation, but also went back for dinner that night.  We enjoyed delicious food and a great environment.

The story behind the property was really fantastic.  It was built in the early 1900's as the county poor farm.  There is now a working vineyard, brewery, gardens and a little golf course.

After we enjoyed lunch, we walked around the gardens.  I was really excited to see that the daffodils were in bloom.

 We spent a little time walking through the wine production area and loved looking at the vines in their vineyard.

 I am really fascinated by the wine making process and loved seeing all of the equipment.

 Our visit was a little too early in the spring to have the gardens in full bloom.  It was still really easy to imagine the beauty.  We found the place to be peaceful, quaint and magical.  This little garden cottage was adorable with the vines draping over the side. This would make the perfect backyard studio.

I am a huge fan of great local food and places with a story.  We hit the jackpot with this find!

A dream realized: IKEA

I am not really sure how we have made it this far in life and not been inside an IKEA.

When we landed in Portland for vacation a few weeks ago, we saw an IKEA along the way to our first stop.  I made a mental note that when we returned on our last day that we should try to make it to IKEA to shop around.

We did make it on time and spent some part of the evening wandering around.  We did a lot of looking and our only purchase was some kitchen towels.  These are the perfect kitchen towels - great price, absorbent and they have held up really well after some washings.

I understand that Kansas City will soon have an IKEA.  We will have to add another stop to our Kansas City shopping list.

Vintage finds: backroads of Oregon

 Over the past few months, we have enjoyed several trips.  Over spring break, we returned to Oregon and had the chance to revisit some of our favorite stops from a trip we took in 2007.  We also found some great new places.

On a rainy afternoon, we stopped in a small town and found a bakery.  After enjoying a couple of cupcakes, we asked the staff about any good vintage shopping in the area.  We were directed to a small town a few miles away.

There, we discovered a two-level stop with so many treasures!  Some of my favorite finds are the sweet, primitive wooden wagon.  It has moveable wheels and the BEST color.  I am in love with the chippy-looking paint.  This found a home on my studio table to hold gift certificates and coupons.

 We found these two tin lunchboxes - one with a cowboy motif and the other with an American-Indian motif.  We first found the lunchbox with the red lid and I was pretty sure that I wanted to buy it, but was stuck on the price.  We decided to employ the "walk around" strategy to see if we still loved it after a little more shopping.

Then, we rounded a corner and found the brown lunchbox in another booth on the other side of the floor.  It has the child's name written on the top!  I was sold!

And, how could you leave one behind?  These are the perfect addition to our kitchen.

Creative friends

 One of the best things about our Prairie School Farms adventure is meeting so many great people.  We continue to be blessed by opportunities to collaborate with creative and talented people. 

We belong to several different creative communities and one of the benefits is sharing ideas and items. We won a contest and had the chance to connect with Colleen from Pennsylvania.  She makes really beautiful cards.  Check out her Etsy store.

She custom designed notecards for us in two different styles.  The cards include photos from our Facebook page.  We LOVE the cards and can't wait to use them!

Please take some time to look at her work - nice things made by a nice person!