Vacation, all I ever wanted
I'm one of those people who can turn off pretty completely from work during a vacation -- not so much when I take just a day off, but when I'm actually taking a vacation, I shut down pretty much the minute I shut down the computer for the last time before I head out to wherever. This is a beautiful thing.
Usually, the Smelmooo and I take summer vacations that are all about reading and relaxing near some body of water (at the Jersey shore, by a lake in a teensy town in Maine), and doing not much of anything. This year, we switched it up a little and spent about eight days hopping around Oregon, where I had spent a couple of days for work a few summers ago, and which I loved. I remembered Portland as teeming with friendly, outdoorsy people walking their dogs along the river, having a wonderfully efficient, clean public transportation system, and being beautifully sunny and warm, but not hot.
All of that was pretty much the same in Portland, where we spent our first couple of days. This time, I also learned that there is a-maze-ing food in Portland. We had lunch at the culinary institute, which involved four courses for $12. We ate breakfast at a place called Bijou, Cafe, on the recommendation of the Smelmooo's friend who lives in Portland, where they served organic oatmeal topped with blueberries, blackberries, bananas, cherries, peaches, plums, melon, some other kind of tiny berries on a stem, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. It was extraordinary.
For three hours after breakfast, as we walked along the river and strolled through the outdoor Saturday Market, I moaned, "I am sooooooooo full!" Until we found a little place called Pizza, Schmizza. I didn't have high hopes for pizza in the northwest, but it was also delicious, as were the burritos we had for dinner at Cha Cha Cha! before going to a taping of Live Wire , a local radio show.
Luckily, after all of that eating, we headed out of the city for tons and tons of hiking (although, for the most part, we continued with the excessive eating). On our way to Mount Hood -- where we stayed in a gorgeous lodge in a tiny room with twin beds -- we stopped at Multnomah Falls, and hiked to the top after spending a good long while marveling at the waterfall from the ground. At Mount Hood, we hiked up to the top of the ski hill, and the next day hiked a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes from Mexico to Canada (we ran into a bunch of people who were about four months into their journey up the entire trail. I am, definitively, not someone who would be into that, but I did enjoy the couple of hours we spent on the trail).
The best part of the trip, I think, was Crater Lake, where we spent two days. The lake itself is just breathtaking in its breadth, in its clarity, in its color. We took a boat tour that included a three-hour visit to Wizard Island, which sits in the middle of the lake; we hiked all around the rim; we had dinner on a veranda overlooking the lake; we listened to rangers giving evening lectures around a campfire and walked back to our cabin underneath a gazillion stars. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, something that the huge photo I'd been seeing for years in my colleague's office did no justice. Our hundreds of photos do it no justice. Seriously, you need to go there. You will leave the world behind -- pretty much no cell service, no internet, no televisions, not even a newspaper that I saw -- and it will be a beautiful thing.
From Crater Lake, we headed to the last leg of our trip, up the coast (more or less -- our GPS had no interest in sending us the coastal route), through Salem (where we stopped at the Capitol building), through a little dairy town (where we stopped at a cheese shop with free samples, delicious ice cream, and a petting zoo out back), up to Cannon Beach, where we stayed in an insanely chichi inn right on the ocean. There was a cookie jar stocked 24/7 with homemade cookies; there were two-and-a-half hours of free drinks (wine in the afternoons, nightcaps in the evenings); there was an insane breakfast buffet that featured more kinds of fruit than were on my oatmeal at the Bijou. We had mostly cold, cloudy, drizzly weather while we were there, but that meant that we actually had a chance to read (much better than I expected: Best Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner. Thanks, Jenni and Lori, for the suggestion!) and do nothing. We ran on the beach in the morning (the second day, I could barely see five feet in front of me, it was so foggy), we played cards, we ate and ate and ate.
All in all, a pretty much perfect vacation. And it was good to get home: to our dog, who had stayed with the Smelmooo's sister all week, bless her (the visit did not begin auspiciously -- pretty much the second I brought him inside, he lifted his leg and peed on a living room chair -- but seems to have gone well overall); to our house; to our real life. I feel ready to go back to work tomorrow, after such a solid chunk of time being totally checked out. But now, it's time to plan the next vacation -- it's always good to have something to look forward to, right?
Usually, the Smelmooo and I take summer vacations that are all about reading and relaxing near some body of water (at the Jersey shore, by a lake in a teensy town in Maine), and doing not much of anything. This year, we switched it up a little and spent about eight days hopping around Oregon, where I had spent a couple of days for work a few summers ago, and which I loved. I remembered Portland as teeming with friendly, outdoorsy people walking their dogs along the river, having a wonderfully efficient, clean public transportation system, and being beautifully sunny and warm, but not hot.
All of that was pretty much the same in Portland, where we spent our first couple of days. This time, I also learned that there is a-maze-ing food in Portland. We had lunch at the culinary institute, which involved four courses for $12. We ate breakfast at a place called Bijou, Cafe, on the recommendation of the Smelmooo's friend who lives in Portland, where they served organic oatmeal topped with blueberries, blackberries, bananas, cherries, peaches, plums, melon, some other kind of tiny berries on a stem, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. It was extraordinary.
For three hours after breakfast, as we walked along the river and strolled through the outdoor Saturday Market, I moaned, "I am sooooooooo full!" Until we found a little place called Pizza, Schmizza. I didn't have high hopes for pizza in the northwest, but it was also delicious, as were the burritos we had for dinner at Cha Cha Cha! before going to a taping of Live Wire , a local radio show.
Luckily, after all of that eating, we headed out of the city for tons and tons of hiking (although, for the most part, we continued with the excessive eating). On our way to Mount Hood -- where we stayed in a gorgeous lodge in a tiny room with twin beds -- we stopped at Multnomah Falls, and hiked to the top after spending a good long while marveling at the waterfall from the ground. At Mount Hood, we hiked up to the top of the ski hill, and the next day hiked a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, which goes from Mexico to Canada (we ran into a bunch of people who were about four months into their journey up the entire trail. I am, definitively, not someone who would be into that, but I did enjoy the couple of hours we spent on the trail).
The best part of the trip, I think, was Crater Lake, where we spent two days. The lake itself is just breathtaking in its breadth, in its clarity, in its color. We took a boat tour that included a three-hour visit to Wizard Island, which sits in the middle of the lake; we hiked all around the rim; we had dinner on a veranda overlooking the lake; we listened to rangers giving evening lectures around a campfire and walked back to our cabin underneath a gazillion stars. It was like nothing I'd ever seen, something that the huge photo I'd been seeing for years in my colleague's office did no justice. Our hundreds of photos do it no justice. Seriously, you need to go there. You will leave the world behind -- pretty much no cell service, no internet, no televisions, not even a newspaper that I saw -- and it will be a beautiful thing.
From Crater Lake, we headed to the last leg of our trip, up the coast (more or less -- our GPS had no interest in sending us the coastal route), through Salem (where we stopped at the Capitol building), through a little dairy town (where we stopped at a cheese shop with free samples, delicious ice cream, and a petting zoo out back), up to Cannon Beach, where we stayed in an insanely chichi inn right on the ocean. There was a cookie jar stocked 24/7 with homemade cookies; there were two-and-a-half hours of free drinks (wine in the afternoons, nightcaps in the evenings); there was an insane breakfast buffet that featured more kinds of fruit than were on my oatmeal at the Bijou. We had mostly cold, cloudy, drizzly weather while we were there, but that meant that we actually had a chance to read (much better than I expected: Best Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner. Thanks, Jenni and Lori, for the suggestion!) and do nothing. We ran on the beach in the morning (the second day, I could barely see five feet in front of me, it was so foggy), we played cards, we ate and ate and ate.
All in all, a pretty much perfect vacation. And it was good to get home: to our dog, who had stayed with the Smelmooo's sister all week, bless her (the visit did not begin auspiciously -- pretty much the second I brought him inside, he lifted his leg and peed on a living room chair -- but seems to have gone well overall); to our house; to our real life. I feel ready to go back to work tomorrow, after such a solid chunk of time being totally checked out. But now, it's time to plan the next vacation -- it's always good to have something to look forward to, right?
