Up next, a visit with Yaya and Papa. We had dinner at The Collective with Uncle Geoff, Tobin, and Aunt Jessica.
I spent A LOT of time playing with Theo
and Coby. I LOVE them.
Then we headed up to Vermont. Is this the nicest welcome center ever?
We rode our bikes from Waitsfield to Bristol.
This required going over the Lincoln Gap. It is the highest vehicle-accessible mountain pass in Vermont and steepest paved mile in the US.
It was hard,
but I made it.
The next day we rode from Bristol to Rochester. I indulged in a creemee.
I also had a bit of fun with the light fixture in our room.
The last day we rode from Rochester back to Waitsfield. This ride required two gaps. No problem after riding Lincoln Gap, right?
WRONG, Braintree gap was basically a 4-wheel/drainage ditch. We pushed our bikes for a long time.
Before our second pass, we stopped for a swim in Roxbury Falls.
When I made it back, I was tired, but it was my birthday and there was an ice cream cake waiting for me.
Yaya and Papa had some temperature control issues, but I knew whose cake it was.
The next day, we all went blueberry picking.
And, I went swimming in the Mad River.
Then we went to American Flatbread for some delicious pizza.
I ended the trip with a MAPLE creemee.
We stopped by Dad’s friend, JP’s, house on our way to the Cape. He had two amazing dogs and one super cool cat. Here I am with their Newfie, Alta. He was bigger than The Mother and didn’t get up much, but I thought he was pretty awesome.
We stopped at the Dartmouth Skiway. on our way out of town.
Uncle Jim and Aunt Cheryl took us on a whirlwind tour of Boston. The first night we had dinner on JIm’s roof deck. I LOVED it. Check out the view:
On Day 1, we went to the library (first public library),
walked the Commonwealth Mall to Boston Common, and then went on the Freedom Trail. This is Paul Revere’s house.
Then we had a delicious lunch (and sweets 🙂 ) in the North End.
Next a carousel ride,
followed by a duck boat tour.
For mere mortals, that would be a pretty full day, but Pop told Jim I have to go and go and go, so the day was not over yet. Next up? Top of the Prudential Building. The absolute BEST way to see the whole city.
Day 2 started with the MIT Museum.
Then we rode along the Emerald Necklace to the Arboretum.
And then on to the Museum of Fine Arts
for dinner (where The Mother confused the Chihuly behind Uncle Jim in the picture below for a real plant),
and an amazing treasure hunt through the museum (best way to see a museum EVER).
Afterwards, we biked home – stopping at Northeastern – where the original Red Sox stadium was located.
I had so much fun hanging out with Uncle Jim and Aunt Cheryl. It was hard to leave.
It was also hard to leave because we had all our luggage and bikes to get on the train :).
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.
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.
Two Fridays ago, Dad and I hiked part of South Sister and skied some laps.
I had to start out in sneaks and carry my skis.
Dad carried his skis and my boots.
The snow was sun-cupped and tricky. Maybe you can see the huge dimples in the surface…
But I still skied like the champ that I am.
After a couple of runs we skied/hiked out.
And had a late afternoon Cliq chair picnic.
Two days later, we went backpacking. We tried to find somewhere quiet and pretty, so we chose the Black Canyon Wilderness.
Here I am, ready to go.
One minute into the hike, there was a river crossing.
A few minutes later, there was another.
And then another.
And so it went, for FOURTEEN river crossings.
The trail was quiet.
It did not appear that many folks had hiked here – so we had to make our way through long grass and sometimes hunt for the trail.
It was very pretty and we didn’t see a soul, but we did see 6 rattlesnakes and countless other slithery reptiles and there was cheatgrass everywhere – leaving painful grass seeds in our socks and shoes.
After we set up camp, I tried out my new filter bottle from Uncle Chris. Awesome.
It was Father’s Day, so The Mother made us take many pictures.
The next day, it was cold and rainy. No one was particularly excited for the hike out, but we soldiered on.
We took a roundabout way home from our trip and stopped in Portland for the night. We ate dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. We had fresh salad rolls: vermicelli noodles, carrots, bean sprouts, lettuce and basil. Wrapped in rice paper, served with homemade peanut sauce.
The Mother had Banh Xeo Chay crispy crepe: a savory crepe stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, jicama, served with fresh lettuce and dipping sauce.
Dad had ginger chicken in a clay pot: braised chicken in caramelized shallot soy sauce with fresh ginger, served with jasmine rice.
I had the Sai Gon combo: vermicelli noodles with an assortment of grilled chicken pork, beef and shrimp. Served with fish sauce dressingÂ
When we got home to Bend, I took Dad to the Yacht Club (thanks, Pop).
I’ve been in a planting kind of mood and bought flowers for and planted six pots for the front walkway.
Mom’s friends Katie and Brad have a boat and fly fishing equipment. They offered to take us ‘drifting’ on the Deschutes and show us how to fly fish. We went on Saturday.
It was 91 degrees out, so we were overjoyed to stop along the river and stand in its chilly waters trying to catch fish all day. It was absolutely beautiful and a ton of fun. Thankfully, Katie didn’t tell mom how much a fly fishing rod costs until we were all done using theirs…
On Sunday, I hit the trails and tried out some new moves I learned in mountain bike camp.
I made two meals since my last update. My, now, famous chicken marbella.
And, I attempted to recreate the yummy dinner I had a Pelican Brewing. Brats and bacon sauerkraut. The meal at the restaurant came with potatoes but The Bigs said I needed to make a green vegetable, so I made brussel sprout salad.
There may be a few more days of school left, but for me, summer is here. I hit the pool with Jameson…
and made The Bigs take me backpacking. Dad planned a trip and we got all set to go, but then we found out storms were predicted for where we planned on camping. We pivoted and found a route that was warmer and dryer. It also had a bit more climbing than our original destination. More on that in a bit.
The ride was called Lush, and lush it was. There were wildflowers everywhere.
Check out this flower on the ponderosa tree. Looks like a starfish, doesn’t it?
I kept climbing and climbing and never complained.
I ended up climbing 2261 feet in one day. A record.
With spring flowers come skeeters. Here I am trying to protect my head while I read a book.
In the morning, it was cool and raining. I was unbothered. I got another bag for my bike, so I can carry all my own stuff. Now I only depend on The Bigs for food. Soon I’ll be able to get rid of them altogether.
If it is in the middle of Oregon, on the side of a mountain, is it still called a beach rose?
The rain made it a bit muddy. Can you even see Dad’s tire tread in this picture?
There was a bit more climbing, but I finished up strong, and before lunchtime!
We ate all kinds of new dishes this week. The Bigs made pistachio, pea, and mint soba noodles from East (Auntie Cheryl, if you haven’t tried it, you should. Yum!)…
and black bean burgers with a sweet potato salad.
The Bigs told me that I had milked the broken leg excuse for long enough and it was time for me to start making dinner again. I made tacos with pulled pork, coleslaw, and guacamole…
topped with some queso fresco and pickled red onions (Nan, you better start pickling for my visit!)…
and edamame and corn salad.
The Bigs made Green Envy bowls (rice, miso greens, edamame, avocado, rice, and fried egg) and
