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.