There is an alpaca farm close to the center that we had been scoping out the entire time we had been there, so we decided to stop and check it out. It is a family run place called Day Creek Alpacas.
A very nice woman, Janice, brought us in to visit with the alpacas.
Our dreams were realized, and they had a ton of alpacas, as well as two baby alpacas, one born on Mother’s Day, and the other on the 4th of July. She invited us to pet them, which we did. They were really soft and friendly. Alpacas are the perfect pets, and even though we didn’t get to pick any up (one of our summer goals), I think it prepped us a little bit for the next chance.
Our next stop on our way to Portland was a winery. Pasck cellars was located next to a strange mini-mart type place so we were skeptical. It ended up being really nice on the inside, and their wine was actually pretty good. Kate bought a bottle of pineapple wine for Alan as a birthday gift, and we got a bottle of chardonnay to share.
We headed to Seattle to get some vegan food we had looked into, as well as organic vegan donuts! We ate sandwiches and soup at Chaco Canyon Cafe (which we didn’t take pictures of, surprisingly enough!) and then headed to mighty-o donut. Their selection of donuts was wonderful, we got to see donuts being made, and they were all completely organic (including sprinkles!) We settled on six of the best, not entirely knowing what we were getting ourselves into. They were the most perfect donuts ever, and require a picture to partially convey their amazingness.
We ate most of them on the road, heading to Portland.
We spent six nights in Portland. It was plenty, but I think we both wish that it could have been longer. Spending time with Alan, Noah, and Jordan was really great but it is sad knowing that we won’t see them for awhile. The day after we arrived was Alan’s birthday. That day I went out to lunch with my cousin Eric who lives in Portland. He took me to his apartment because his parents were visiting Portland too. It was really nice to see Eric and Sharron, and surprisingly not strange or awkward considering how long it has been since I have seen either of them. Then it was back to Alan and Noah’s to figure out some exciting birthday plans. We decided that we would try to go ice skating but the cost and time led us not to. Instead we went to go see Wall-E. I think everyone liked the movie well enough, in one fashion or another. Afterward we went and got Mexican food and ate it on the water in Forest Park.
After we went to Jordan’s house and had a little fire in her backyard. Despite Alan almost pushing Moses (a dog that lives at her house) and his favorite toy into the fire, it was a success.
Later that night we went into downtown Portland to wander around, ending up at an arcade/bar which was fairly exciting. Kate and I played Tetris, and Kate played Donkey Kong while we cursed Billy Mitchell and his world record scores. We also ended up going to Voo-doo Donuts to get late night donuts (my second time that day). We watched a guy try to eat a giant donut in 80 seconds to get it for free, but he failed pretty miserably.
We decided that the next day would be “B” themed, even though it was past Alan’s actual “b-day.” Activities for this “B-day” included: getting bagels, going to “the bins” (which is really just a Goodwill outlet with several large bins that have a lot of stuff thrown in them), hanging out with sweet buddies, having baked goods, and seeing the new Batman movie The Dark Knight.
All of these events were extremely successful, especially the last one. If you have not seen The Dark Knight yet, you need to.
Another day in Portland we to Mount Hood.
Full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we decided to head up the mountain.
Jordan quit pretty early on since she had a stomach full of cream of mushroom soup that did not fare well against physical activity. Having planned on the mountain being cold, we all ended up very warm and inappropriately dressed. This made everything more difficult, but not impossible. After awhile I decided that I didn’t feel like going any further. Alan, Noah and Kate continued up for quite awhile until they got to a small lodge that was the site of a child’s fancy birthday party.
Luckily the people there were kind enough to give them some water so that they were prepared for the way back down.
We all headed down the mountain to meet of with Jordan and go home.
Love,Cheryl
We did a lot of other things in Portland, too. Including: eating vegan pizza by the slice, seeing Mattress play in a bar (you can smoke in them in Oregon…yikes) and belt out his hit single “El Dorado” with harmonica in tow, watching a lot of Frasier projected onto a big screen, petting rats, and talking about Star Trek almost exclusively sometimes.
Our last night in Portland we drank wine and played Pass the Pigs and a unique version of the game “Guess Who?” on the porch. This version of “Guess Who?” determines the character through personality traits instead of physical traits. In the typical version of the game, you try to figure out the other player’s person by asking if they have blonde hair or brown eyes. In our version, you ask things like “Does your person love their mother?” or “Does your person own a MacBook?” It was me and Kate vs. the team of Alan, Noah, and Jordan. We played three games and correctly figured out their person all three times. They got our person on the last game, so we decided to quit while we both had just won.
The day we left Portland we got brunch at a diner, and then walked to the Rose Quarter to see some weird basketball festival. Some highlights included a 3 point shoot out contest, an animatronic dinosaur, a table of clif bar samples, ionized water creeps, and a wacky dance contest between a whole crowd of little kids. Little kids always have the weirdest dance moves. We walked back along a river, and stopped at one point to check out the view and some ducks.
Then it was back to the house, where a dog party was getting started. In the park just a block away a bunch of people had gathered with snacks and their dogs. The number of dogs and owners running around was pretty overwhelming.
There was even a pool set up for the dogs to jump in, which must have been wonderful. A dog named Charlie lives at Alan and Noah’s house, and he was a delight to hang out with both at the dog party, and at the house.
There was a volleyball net in the park, too, so we took the opportunity to play. Originally it was a 4 against 1 game, with all of us versus Noah, until Jordan decided to join his side. Overall, we were pretty terrible.
We left Portland and headed for Carlton, about an hour drive southwest. When we got to the vineyard, we were greeted by 4 tiny kittens, which is always a great way to arrive anywhere.
Also greeting us was Felix the winemaker, and Katie, another WWOOFer. We got a tour of the winery, vineyard, house, and garden,
and then sat down a dinner that they had made. We had some of Felix’s wine to go along with it, and it was really good. We talked a bit, then went to bed. Our rooms were in the attic, which was really comfortable. My window had a really stellar view of the vineyard.
We worked 6 hours every day that week, starting at 8 and usually getting done by 3 with lunch and all. We did everything from picking black currants, planting beets and carrots, watering, working in the tasting room, weeding, and doing lots of work in the vineyard.
The vineyard work was my favorite, as it went by really quickly and was almost kind of fun. We did pruning, hedging, and shoot positioning with the vines.
After we worked we all came together to make dinner.
We had Felix’s wine every night, and often ended up at the dinner table until 10pm, talking and drinking. We both feel really spoiled to be working at such a great winery, and to be able to drink really fantastic wine every night in result. Also to be able to eat so well, mostly from garden produce.
After work one day Cheryl, Katie and I went into McMinnville, which was a neighboring town of a bigger size, and we bought Purple Rain. Cheryl and I watched it that night. We also bought a Hall and Oates record for a dollar, which is a super steal if it can make it back to New York without getting warped. And since you’re probably wondering, the album is H20. There are a lot of quality songs on that one. We also made jam at one point from the black currants that we picked. We also made sour cherry jam, but I think the black currant jam turned out much nicer.
On Saturday we had the day off to go wine tasting in the area. There were almost a hundred wineries spanning from Portland to Salem, but we hit 7 carefully selected ones during the day. My favorites were the wine and people at August Cellars
and the view and garden at Penner-Ash.
When we got back we started to make seitan, and Felix made a lentil and vegetable dish with ginger rice. Combining forces with that and coconut milk led to a great dinner, with a few friends of Felix’s invited over, and his daughter Madeline. She was there for half the week and loved the kittens a whole lot.
Yesterday we left Carlo&Julian winery to come to Eugene, Oregon. Leaving was sad, as to be expected when you get comfortable with a place and the people in it.
Felix sent us off with a few bottles of wine, one we will give to Marc when we get to New York. One night we drank an Adair Frontenac that we had brought with us, so I’m excited to be able to share Felix’s wine with Marc. Felix also sent us off with a recommendation for his friend’s winery that was on the way to Eugene. We went there and met David, the winemaker, who was really nice and made great wines. He gave us the deal of a lifetime and we left with a bottle of tempranillo and estate reserve pinot noir.
We drove to Eugene, which didn’t take much longer than two hours. My aunt Betsy lives here, so we went straight to her place. Eugene has always been one of my favorite places ever, so coming here was really exciting. We talked on the porch for a while with her and my cousin Elijah, then unpacked and hung out some more. We walked to the market and grabbed a paper to see what was up this week. The paper only went up until Thursday, so we don’t entirely know what we will be doing this week yet. However, Spiderman 3 is showing for free today at the library, so I know for a start that we will be doing that, along with all of the children and Tobey Maguire fans of Eugene.
Love,Kate
1 comment:
Those kittens are too cute. Too bad you couldn't bring one of them home. (kidding) They do melt your heart though. The blog is great, keep writing. We all look forward to new entries. Keep safe and watch out for those wild fires in California. Love ya
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