Back in the Saddle

 *The blogger pokes his head into the pocket and looks around. Hmmm. Looks like no one else is here. "Helllooo?" he mutters quietly and then pauses to listen. There is only silence and dust floating in the air. It feels safe, so he hesitantly begins to type for the first time in many months...*

I know I said I was done blogging about my daughter. But I had the idea that I could try to blog without putting the spotlight on Charlotte. 

Why not? When it comes to hobbies, the only rules you have to follow are your own. If you want to bend those rules, who's going call you on it? Yourself? Probably not. You're the one who grabbed the rule book and twisted it in the first place. 

So, here we go...

Our Summer Trip

This might be my favorite picture from the trip we took last June. I took the picture in our Portland, Oregon hotel room after we ran inside to escape the rain.

The reason I like this picture of beef shawarma so much is because it looks so bad. It just makes me laugh. I snapped this picture, reviewed it on my phone, and then showed my phone's screen to Daphne. She made a face, and I giggled, "That's just not very appetizing is it?"

"No, it's not," Daphne agreed with a smile.

"It just kinda looks like a picture of a food log. And I don't think 'food log' is actually a thing."

"Please put your phone down, and let's eat. I'm starving." 

I nodded in agreement, and we dug in by passing the shawarma back and forth to one another. Other than its picture, the beef shawarma was quite good. 

We got this afternoon snack from Abu Omar's Gyros & Shawarma food cart. 

In Portland, food carts are like food trucks that don't move. These carts gather in groups called pods, and you can find various food cart pods located all over the city. 

The Hawthorne Asylum food cart pod was a surprise. We were trying to get to Pine Street Biscuits, but our bus didn't arrive. We tried to walk there, but it became obvious we would be too late. We happened upon the Asylum while on our way to another bus stop. 

The early June weather was cool and rainy. So, it was neat that this food cart pod had fire pits to sit by while you enjoyed your lunch. Locals kept telling us, "This is the wettest spring we've had in 80 years." 

And yeah, it rained everyday, but the rain was more of a mist than a heavy shower. Still, the weather kept us from spending a day at Cannon Beach. We took a waterfall tour instead. Might as well. We were wet already.

Our tour guide was entertaining and informative. He drove us in a van to six different waterfalls and gave us about 30 minutes at each stop to enjoy the sights.

Do you see that bridge? You can walk across it.

It's just a .2 mile scenic walk to get there.

Here's a video of the waterfall from the view on the bridge.

Char did a nice job using the rule of thirds when taking this pic.

Our tour guide took us "off path" to get as close as we could to the last waterfall. This is not the best picture, but the people standing on the left provide scale to how big the waterfall is.

Waterfalls might not be unique to Portland, but this video store is. Movie Madness is a nonprofit video rental store that is known for its vast collection of films and film props. Here's a video clip that explains it better than I can -----> link

I had read that they were going to have a free screening of The Pagemaster on the Sunday, so I called ahead and reserved us three seats in their Miniplex. 

We arrived late because our new bus driver had accidentally driven "off route," but they let us in anyway. The Miniplex was really nice, and it was fun seeing one of Char's "childhood favorites" on a big screen. When we reminisce about that day, Charlotte mostly talks about the M&Ms Daphne bought her...

I got a kick out seeing the prop knife that was used in "Scream."

We did make it to Pine Street Biscuits, and we agreed it was worth the trek. I ordered "The Reggie" sandwich which consists of fried chicken, bacon, cheese, and gravy. This was as close to a sandwich served at Seattle's Serious Biscuit that we could hope for.

Another popular food stop for us was "Pip's Original Doughnuts and Chai." Yes, we knew that everyone is supposed to try Voodoo Doughnuts when they are in Portland, but lines there were long, and we had been to a Voodoo Doughnuts twice when we were in Florida.

Pip's small doughnuts are made fresh when you order, and their size make you feel a little better about yourself when you inhale three in about a minute.

Yes, you do.

As you might guess, it didn't stop raining until the afternoon of the day we were leaving. We did have a great lunch at PDX Sliders, though. 

Look, blue skies!

Charlotte agreed this was a great place to eat, "These sliders are sooo good!"

Daphne found a park nearby after lunch, and the highlight was the huge trees that Char enjoyed climbing. Then a couple of hours later we were in an airport waiting for a plane to arrive on time... which it did.

We did a lot of other things in Portland, but I'm leaving the pictures and videos of those events on my phone. Char is front and center in those. These events included a three-hour bike tour of the city, dinner in a haunted pizzeria, shopping at Powell's Books, touring a rose garden, hiking on a path in the woods, eating at a farmers' market, buying a designer dress, and riding the Aerial Tram. 

It was a weird trip, though. Things didn't really go as planned, but it all worked out in the end. 

For example, we thad planned to take a train from the airport to our hotel, but we had to get off mid-way because the train bridge was temporarily closed. We were directed onto a bus that was taking us to God knew where, and Daphne's phone wouldn't open Google Maps. But a nice teenager reassured us that we would be close to our hotel when we got off, and she was right. We only had to run three blocks in a downpour before we found our hotel. We were soaked, but we laughed as we ran through the hotel's entrance.

All-in-all, I'd say the Portland trip was like my shawarma picture. It wasn't what we expected, but it all made me laugh, and we still had a good time. 

Wait! They Have That?

 I don't pay much attention to the ads that come in the mail. They usually go straight from our mailbox to the recycling bin. For some reason, this ad for Boss' Chicken & Pizza caught my eye.

The ad boasts "State Fair Quality Beer Battered Cheese Curds," and I said to Daphne, "That's a pretty bold statement." She agreed.

I checked their website, and it turns out that the Boss' Chicken & Pizza chain is orginally from Sioux Falls, SD. Maybe that's why the ad seemed familiar? I've probably seen a Boss's Chicken & Pizza when we were visiting. I was curious about their appetizers, and while I was reading the menu something stopped me in my tracks. It's right there under boneless wings.

Whaaa? They have chislic? In Des Moines?

No way! I love chislic, but I thought that I could only get it when I'm in South Dakota. The last time I had an order of chislic was in 2019 when we were on our trip to the Black Hills. 

For the uninitiated, traditional chislic is cubed red meat (usually steak or lamb) that is fried and seasoned with either salt or garlic salt. It's simple, but it's simply good, too. 

Chislic is popular enough in South Dakota to be declared the official state "nosh." The Sioux Fall restaurant Urban Chislic is dedicated to the dish, and the town of Freeman will be hosting the Chislic Festival on July 30. 

So, yeah, it's popular with those in the know. But getting chislic in Iowa didn't seem posssible. I even called Boss' Chicken & Pizza to confirm that chislic had crossed the state line. I was assured that it was on their menu. Daphne and I stopped by on Sunday, and I was not disappointed.

Taa Daaaa! Iowan Chislic! And it tasted just like I remembered - awesome.

 

The chicken at Boss' is broasted, and Daphne and I split a four piece dinner with potato wedges and coleslaw. The chicken was stellar. I grew up eating broasted chcken, and I'll take it over fried or baked chicken every time.

What a great lunch.

I don't know if the Boss serves cheese curds that live up to State Fair standards. With chislic on the menu, I might never find out.

(Yes, I know I said I was done blogging, but Char's nowhere in this post, and anyway, I got excited... Good food does that to me.) 

Hmmm...

When I close the blog to invitees only, I can't see any of the videos that I have posted. That's not what I'm after. I want to see the videos, too. I'll have to leave this open for a bit and see what's happening here.

So, here's a bonus post:

Blink and You'll Miss It - Part 12

  Easter 2011 (nine months old)

Easter 2012

Easter 2013

Easter 2014 (Just a little grumpy about going to church.)

Easter 2015 (Pretty happy about going to church.)

Easter 2016

Easter 2017 (It's irresponsible to take a child with a fever to church, but she can still hunt Easter eggs at home.)

Easter 2018 (Hmmmm. That dress looks familiar.)

Easter 2019

Easter 2020 (You don't have to dress up for online church.)

Easter 2021 (Officially too old for the children's sermon.) 

Easter 2022 (New glasses and experimenting with hair color.)

Insert the "time flies" cliché here.

Actually, it isn't a cliché; it's a law.

Spring Training

We were making travel plans to Canada right before the pandemic hit. Plane ticket prices had plummeted, and we snagged three round-trip tickets for about $260 each. We didn’t get to use them of course, and those tickets turned into flight vouchers that were about to expire. 

Plane tickets cost much more now, and we couldn’t fly anywhere fun for our Spring Break with the vouchers unless we spent a lot more. I was wondering if it would be smarter to just stay home and let the voucher money go.

Daphne, my hero, had a better idea. We could still use the vouchers, go somewhere fun, and not break the bank. 

Daphne’s plan was to leave her car at the Des Moines Airport, drive my car to Osceola, and we'd ride Amtrak’s California Zephyr to Chicago. The train trip would take seven hours and only cost us $125 in total. We could then buy passes for the CTA buses and trains to get around the city. To get home, the voucher money matched the cost of the flight from Chicago to Des Moines. That sounded great!

None of this would have occurred to me, and that’s why I let Daphne plan our trips. 

You need to arrive 30 minutes before your departure time in case the train is early. Our train was running 20 minutes late, but that’s how it goes. The gals are on the left. Char's playing a game, and Daphne's checking the train's schedule.

The California Zephyr is pretty impressive. It’s a big train, and I didn't even film all of it arriving at the station:

The assigned, coach seats are also big when compared to what you get on an airplane.

I spent a lot of my trip in one of the observation cars. These seats are not assigned, so if you shuffle your feet, you could lose your seat. 

It was fun trying to take a decent photo through the glass window as the train whipped through the countryside. 

Flying can be really stressful for me. I know that turbulence is normal, but a shaking plane still scares me. When the trains shakes, however, I’m not afraid we’re going to crash into the ground like a lawn dart. 

This is what it looks like when you cross the Mississippi River. 

We arrived at the station just a little after our estimated seven hours. Not bad.  A 20 minute bus ride got us to our hotel at 4:00, and a 7-11 across the street helped us get supplies for our room. 

It was really cold on that Friday in Chicago, but we braved the frigid winds to eat at a Shake Shack. 

Char ordered a vanilla shake despite the low temps. 

The high on Saturday was 20, so we opted out of attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 

It was cool to see the river dyed green. But I'll readily admit I was relieved that I didn't have to drive a car in the aftermath of the Paddy's Day Parade. There were people everywhere, and the streets were packed with honking vehicles and weaving pedestrians. 

During our three full days, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, The Navy Pier, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The 60s 727 on display at the MSI was cool to walk around in.

The Swiss Jolly Ball machine at MSI was also really fun. 

Riding the Centennial Wheel at the Navy Pier was a fun experience, and a little bit scary for me.

I was glad to step out of the enclosed gondola when the ride was over. 

Daphne and I enjoyed seeing the famous paintings at the Art Institute, but Char... well, she put up with it.

I think it's a visitor requirement to visit Millennial Park and take pictures of yourself in the reflection of "The Bean" (aka "Cloud Gate").

With the help of Daphne’s navigation skills, we were able to visit a Goodwill store! I love that Charlotte is now excited to go thrift shopping, but Daphne... well, she puts up with it. 

This a great way to sell excess DVDs.

Char picked out two hoodies and a Squishmallow octopus named Veronica. 

But belive it or not, GoodWill was not my highlight from our vacation. My highlight was a fast-food lunch.

I've written about White Castle before on the blog, so I'll just quote myself:

    "My mom was excited to get Chinese takeout when we visited my Great Aunt Elnora (we called her Grandma) in Minneapolis. Mom always ordered chicken chow mein. I thought that was grossest looking stuff ever. Dad would bring back hamburgers from White Castle to make me (and him, I suspect) happy. These were memorable for multiple reasons. 1) There are no White Castle restaurants in Iowa. 2) These burgers are kid-sized, and I felt pretty grown up because I could eat more than one. 3) At 37 cents a piece, Dad would buy as many as I wanted" (Plus, they taste good!).

I was a little worried about what Charlotte would think when she tried her first White Castle slider. She's been eating some of the plain hamburgers served at school lunch, so I had a hope she wouldn't hate White Castle. We placed an order for 10 sliders, and I mentally crossed my fingers. 

After removing the pickles from her sliders, we all dug in. Pretty soon Char looked at the pile of empty slider boxes and asked, "They're gone? How could we have already eaten ten? Daphne pointed out who ate what (I ate the most), and it added up to ten.

I asked, "Wait. Are you saying you want more?" Char nodded her head, and I couldn't have been happier! I popped up and hurried to the counter. It is such a great feeling when your kid appreciates something that you do, too. 

"White Castle is the best!" - Charlotte Monson

The flight home was uneventful. We were only in the air for 50 minutes. (I will be so happy when I can take indoor pictures of my family's full faces...)

I'm glad we were able to fly home and use our voucher money, but next time I think we'll just take the train to Chicago and back. It's easier, cheaper, and there's a lot less stress. 

“Trains are wonderful.... To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches, and rivers, in fact, to see life.” - Agatha Christie.

The Urbandale School District's spring break is ten days long. We spent five days traveling, and five days hanging out around home. We agreed that it felt like having two separate vacations. I'll have to try and remember that for next year.

Nah, I don't have to remember that. 

Daphne will.