Month: July 2024

We picked a lot of cherries. While picking, we did quite a bit of eating…but then we noticed little holes in the cherries. So, we cut one open. See the little green maggot in the one on the bottom? Yuck. We threw away all the cherries.

We didn’t have much time to feel sad about our cherries because we had to leave on Dad’s 50th Birthday Road Trip!

First stop. Hood River for windsurfing. I tried it and LOVED it.

Dad did some wing foiling in addition to wind surfing.

We also hit the orchards and got some cherries to replace the maggoty ones.

12 pounds, in fact. And we ate them all in one week!

We also did some fly fishing on the east fork of the Hood River

and at Lost Lake. Still fishing, not catching.

We also stopped at Ferment for beers,

a pickled platter (pickles, sauerkraut, and kimichi), and a charcuterie board.

We also met up with two of Dad’s old friends, Jay Griffin and Ben Webster, for dinner at Taqueria:

Then it was on to Leavenworth, ‘a Bavarian-styled village in the Cascade Mountains, in central Washington State’.

We did a day hike to Eightmile Lake. It was ~100F outside.

You better believe we swam in this lake.

After the hike, we hit the Nutcracker Museum. TWO floors of nutcrackers.

They had a whole collection just for Pop’s birthday.

And the Queen, of course.

I did some shopping too. I loved this hat. Loved it. But I could not part with the $85…

Then we hit the Munchen House for brats, beer, and pretzels.

I covered my brat in dill relish, raw onion, sauerkraut, and yellow mustard. Mom gagged a bit, but I loved it.

For the rest of our trip, we planned on backpacking. The Mother did a shoddy job of planning this part, so I took over. I mapped out a route and we started out on Chatter Creek trail on Sunday. The forecast called for a high of 103F.

The Bigs started to get worried when we had already climbed 1000 ft by lunchtime and this is what we saw in front of us. Ut oh.

Here we are on the top. Cloud cover kept it from ever hitting the predicted 103 F.

But we weren’t done. We had to go down.

And through snow.

Until, after 4800 feet of climbing (this is a LOT people) we made camp at Lake Edna.

This guy came a little closer than we were comfortable with.

and the bugs were horrible. But it was a beautiful spot.

In the morning, we decided we would hike to a few lakes, but not take our heavy packs. The day before was a bit much. We hiked through tons and tons of wildflowers…

until we got to Flora Lake. I had my rod, of course…but what are the chances there are fish in an alpine lake in the middle of nowhere?

Oh, there were fish. I caught three before my rod BROKE!

Next we went for a second swim (we swam in Flora) in Brigham Lake. Yes, that’s snow.

I had to rock climb down to the water. It was awesome.

Two lakes weren’t enough, so we headed to Upper Florence Lake.

More snow. These were REFRESHING lakes people.

The wind starting picking up in the evening. At first we were excited because it blew the bugs away.

But it blew all night and we were sure the tent – though reinforced with ropes – would collapse on our heads. It did not, but it filled with dirt. There was not much sleeping.

In the morning, the wind had stopped. And everything was beautiful again, even the toilet.

Then it was time to start the long hike down.

The Bigs thought I picked an amazing route and could not believe all the beauty we saw or my amazing endurace. To be honest, it wiped me out.

I’ve been sleeping in a lot, but I’m recovering quickly. I made breakfast burritos for dinner this week.

And mango sorbet just for fun.

Now it is time to get ready for our trip. I listened to podcasts on the American Revolution, Paul Revere’s Ride, and the Boston Tea Party in preparation for Uncle Jim’s. I also supervised while Dad packed my bike.

See you soon!

As you will remember, I spent the week at Camp Tamarack.

So, The Bigs spent the week sitting on the couch eating bon bons. Not quite, but they did eat lots of things they knew I would hate. For example, sauteed greens and fried eggs on wild rice pancakes,

or white miso ramen.

They also went to a restaurant that does NOT allow MINORS and ate all kinds of things I would have liked.

Mussels:

short ribs with bone marrow:

and scallops.

Apparently, it was delicious. Don’t they look happy?

While they were tempted to continue a life of eating at minors-not-allowed restaurants, The Bigs did pick me up on Friday. They were quite worried I would be the only child ever to not enjoy Camp Tamarack. I was not.

It was 100 F, so after pick up we hiked to a lake for a swim. For the entire hike I told The Bigs about camp in painstaking detail. If asked directly, I pretend I did not enjoy myself (it might be because The Mother suggested boarding school – it is in Vermont so I could see my grandparents all the time:) ) but it was clear from my descriptions I loved every minute. In fact, I even told The Bigs I only wrote them one letter while at camp because I was homesick for a day or two but after that I was having too much fun to write them. Plus, the things I got to eat. Stuff The Bigs would NEVER let me have. Chicken fingers. Corn dogs (gross). Oh yes, I loved camp.

The hike was to Blue Lake. It was much longer than expected. There was some whining. It was not me. It was not Dad. Blue Lake was, in fact, very blue. Like Crater Lake.

The Grandmothers would not have approved of the hike down, but it was worth it, the swimming was great, and we were the ONLY people at the entire lake!

It is NOT cooling down. The forecast for Saturday was 103 F. It hit 102 F. So, we went paddle boarding on Elk Lake.

Then we hit the Yacht Club for dinner.

There was a new food truck. Bread and Bunny. It gets 5 stars. I had a Philly cheese steak (without onions, The Bigs did not disown me, but considered it).

The Mother had a reuben. Do you know they offered it with the choice of Thousand Island dressing or MUSTARD. She went with Thousand Island, of course. The guy behind her, who was from Brooklyn, did the same. Who gets mustard on a reuben?

Dad got the steak sando.

Now we are off for a roadtrip to celebrate Dad’s 50th. Hopefully, exciting pictures to follow.

There is a statue in one of the roundabouts in Bend that gets dressed up for all holidays. Here he is in his 4th of July attire.

The morning of the 4th, we had spinach, mushroom, tomato, and goat cheese frittata with sweet potato waffles. No, The Bigs can’t make/eat normal food – sweet potato waffles, really?

After breakfast, we partook in my new favorite activity. Fly fishing.

Dad rented a rod. We both fished. We did not catch. This was A-Ok with The Mother.

After a fishing odyssey, I set up one of my now-famous bars.

For dinner, we had Zen Bowls with seared Ahi and pickled carrots and daikon:

This week I made normal (who puts sweet potatoes on a pizza?) pizzas for dinner. I’m going to have to talk to Pop about the dough, mine didn’t turn out great, but I was able to salvage it and make a nice pepperoni pie…

and a chicken and pesto one too.

This weekend we did some of the normal stuff, like mountain biking. Here I am on a brief break from a long, long hot climb up Ben’s (it was 82F when we started at 9:30 am).

Saturday was hot. Probably 98 F. Sunday was hotter.

We spent some time dunking in the Deschutes River. The river is about 55 F.

After a dunk, I headed to SLEEPAWAY CAMP. I was scarcited (scared but excited). The Mother had a stomach ache.

Here is my cabin, Elk Cabin.

I got a top bunk. I’ll be sharing Elk with 9 other guys.

The water features looked pretty sweet and should be a nice way to cool off because the ‘heat dome’ is here for a while.

You can also SUP or kayak.

Or do arts & crafts. The Mother is hoping for some nice macrame like the one on the right.

All kids had to head up to the tennis courts after checking in. The counselors nicely told the parents that once their kid stepped on the court, they had to go. Bye, Bigs.

The Bigs are now making every recipe they have always wanted to make but were sure I would not eat. Night 1. Kale, mushroom, and leek subji with wild rice pancakes.

This week, The Bigs did some much needed gardening.

While they worked, I trapped bees.

I found 6 different kinds on the catmint plant. Here are two of the kinds I found.

I only kept them captive for a short time and then I let them go. Unfortunately, this appears to have generated some bad insect karma, as later in the day, The Mother was stung/bitten by something that caused her arm to swell until it looked like a hamhock. Oh well. Isn’t our prickly pear cool?

Guess what’s coming? Cherries! A few more weeks and we should be living on Cherry St.

We did some mountain biking. I now ride on logs and rocks and other things that make The Bigs hold their breath and pray to the femur god.

I also parted with some of the allowance and gift money I have been hoarding and bought myself a fly fishing rod. I spent about an hour casting in the front yard.

After looking at this picture, can you guess what I made for my dinner of the week?

I was inspired by a recipe Uncle Chris sent for BLATs (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwiches), so I made BLEATS. How can you not add a fried egg?

I topped each sandwich with a piece of bacon. Why not?

The Mother made Pizza Cali (pesto, broccoli, and feta) and

Recovery Pizza (garlic butter sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, bacon, goat cheese, and runny egg in the middle. If Dad and I had been in charge, there would have been a lot more eggs on this pizza. I think next week I’ll make ‘real’ pizza. You know, with sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.

And, one day for lunch, Dad made pesto tuna melts.