anyone have an axe?

We arrived in Portland last night.  I didn't sleep well, mainly due to a late night, crunchy pillows, queen sized bed, etc.  Despite the poor sleep, I woke up eager and excited to start my day.  Jim and I headed out at 7:15 am, him to his meeting and me for a walk.  I asked for map and some guidance at the concierge desk.  I was very excited for the great walk ahead of me.

The sun was coming up and the weather was warm.  I had a wonderful 3+ miles walk.   It was a little hairy navigating the bikers.  I've never seen so many bikers before.  And it wasn't a race.  They were coming and going in every direction.  People had on work clothes, work out gear, kids strapped to special seats, big messenger bags to hold all their work stuff...my oh my...never seen so many bikers on a Thursday before.  This picture doesn't really show ALL the bikers I saw, but they came whizzing by every few seconds.  Thankfully they were nice and rang their bell, said 'on your left' and let me have my space.  Portland has to have the most bikers per capita of any city. 

The weather was grand and the scenery beautiful.  I encountered some homeless people sleeping, people heading to work, people exercising, boats heading out on the river, people just living and doing.  I loved that I had no agenda.  Here are a few pictures from my walk.

I got back to the hotel and realized I was HUNGRY.   Other than a cup of coffee in the room (from some really bad packet supplied by the hotel) I hadn't had anything to eat.  I stopped at the restaurant and passed on the buffet, opting instead for 2 eggs baked with tomatoes and spinach topped with pecarino cheese.  It was DELICIOUS!  I went up to the room, showered and set out to explore Portland.  First stop - VOODOO Donuts.  This place was first rate.  I  had seen it on food network.  Thankfully I found it with ease (got to LOVE Portland's rapid transit system - tri met, bus, max - it's so easy to get around).  After a 5 minute wait I selected 3 donuts, a maple/bacon bar, vodoo donut and a raspberry filled glazed donut.  I brought them back to the room.  Jim's timing was perfect - he came back for 5 minutes at the break.  We gobbled up these delicious donuts!  They may look ordinary, but I assure you the they are not.  Delicious goodness for $5.45.  Sadly, my foot started hurting and I decided to put my boot on (to help my plantar fasciitis) for about 30 minutes to give it a good stretch and ease the pain.

Here are two more pictures of the donut shop. As you can see in the case, very unusual donuts filled with all sorts of delicious goodies.  The menu on the right helps decifer all the choices.  The place smelled wonderful as they make all the donuts in house.
 





After fueling up with the donuts and resting my foot, I set out to the bead shop in the Nob Hill district.  It was fun walking through the neighborhoods, the quaint charming houses, the shops etc.  I didn't find what I was looking for at the bead shop but I sure enjoyed looking at all they had to offer.

By this time my foot was causing a great amount of pain.  It took me about 30 minutes to walk 1/2 a mile.  (about half my normal speed).  I could barely contain my frustration.  The pain was getting worse and I didn't know what to do.  I googled 'foot massage' and found a great place nearby that specialized in feet.  It was ridiculously relaxing.   In the 2nd picture my feet were soaking with hot stone massages between the tones and a mud mask on my calves. 

 

The one hour was heaven.  Kristin called and we chatted about her lab job, school, etc.  Always good to hear her voice and she sounded happy.  I was happy too.  But it was short lived.  The massage felt great, heck all massages feel great.  But when I stood up when done, the pain was still there.  It had never went away, it just seemed like it did because I was relaxed and not putting weight on it. 

At this point, I was over 2 miles away from the hotel, tired and hungry.  It was now 4 pm and the donuts were consumed at 11 (and hardly an adequate lunch).  I used urbanspoon to google a wine bar.  I had read they were plentiful in Portland.  I selected one along the water front (and near me via max train).  Though I only had to walk 2 blocks after getting off the transit it took me 20 minutes.  My foot was on fire at this point.  I ordered a small meat and cheese plate and a flight of pinot noir wines.  Being happy hour, the price was right.  I sat and enjoyed the fabulous view and noursihed my tummy while resting my foot.  Here is a picture of my food, my drink, my view.  Pretty sweet, huh?  Too bad my foot was still hurting.

Getting back to the hotel took 45 minutes.  I should have taken a cab, but the waiter at the restaurant said it would take over 20 minutes and I wanted to save money.  Dumb idea.  Though I didn't have to walk far, I did have to walk.  And any amount of walking triggered pain.  It felt like I was walking on sharp thumb tacks.  No matter how I stepped it hurt.  I finally made it back to the hotel at 6:30 and cried.  Thankfully Jim had some ice in a bag for me so I could ice my foot, and brought me some wine.  I nibbled on the leftover meat and cheese I had brought back.  And took ibuprofen.  3 hours later, I am still in pain.  I want to hit something, I want to cry, I want to AMPUTATE MY FOOT.  Seriously, it hurts that badly.  It's had many flareups before, so I know what to expect, but what bothers me is why.  I didn't walk up and down many hills, it was relatively flat.  But looking back on the past 2 weeks, it's been hurting off and on.  Perhaps I should have seen it coming.  I do have an appointment next Monday with the dr. (follow-up).  He mentioned surgery previously, I am afraid that's what will happen.  And it irks me.  I am doing everything he said to make it heel and it's not heeling.  I roll my foot on a frozen ice bottle, I do the exercises, I wear the boot, I take ibuprofen, I only walk on flat surfaces and it still hurts.  DAMN. The pain is so frustrating, the cost of the surgery makes me ill (we have crappy insurance).  So, this is me now, wearing the boot, while my foot throbs, twinges, shoots pain up my leg and makes me want to scream.

This ranks up there with childbirth pain.  I'm thinking amputation could solve things.  Does anyone have an axe?

Food, Wine and Pie - 4th of July at Hayden Lake

 So proud to be an American!

Hayden Lake is basically the most awesome place EVER.  If you've never been, you are missing out.  This year there was a great mix of people - John, Kathleen, Will, Gen, Bob, Lynn, Jill, Robby, Cathy, Jim and Jake.  The recurring theme was clearly evident about 2 hours into the weekend.  FOOD - WINE - PIE.   Eat, drink, eat, repeat.

Thank goodness for the Pie Bible, seriously, this is a real book that Kathleen is familiar with.  I need to put it on my "must buy" list.  Bet amazon has it, they have EVERYTHING.  Anyway, her pie was awesome.  She starts out by making an incredible pie crust and uses 2 knives to cut the shortening into the flour.  Modern conveniences such as a pastry blender are non-existent so the old fashioned method prevails.  Then it was on to cutting apples.  Apple Pie = 4th of July, well, that and baseball.  Americana at it's finest.  She added some fresh cherries and craisins to the apple pie.  Oh my, it was divine.  In this photo she and John and are having a good laugh because they added a bit of special Hayden whiskey to the apple mixture. 

While Kathleen was making the pie, I was taking pictures and documenting the step by step process of crust making.  Which I think I was a good student - I made a peach/raspberry pie 2 days later and it was quite good.  That pie will be a future blog.

John and Kathleen had recently taken a trip to Napa and brought back 18 bottles of wine.  Quite the haul from the fun wine regions of California.  And guess what? They brought some to share, how cool is that?  We started off with a Schug Chardonnay.  It was freezing cold out and we were baking an apple pie, but we were at the lake and trying to do what folks who are in warm weather do while at the lake...drink white wine.  Hot cocoa might have been the better choice for the weather but this delicious chardonnay was perfect.  With 11 folks, a bottle of wine doesn't last long.  So, we opened another.  And another.  We played cards, prepped dinner, drooled over the apple pie smell from the oven and visited.  We caught up on life, work, travels, etc.  Being with family is so much fun.  :)  I am definitely blessed to be part of such an amazing family.

This was dinner.  And boy was it good.  John cooked a pork loin roast on the grill.  I made cole slaw, Kathleen made a great red potato salad, and then we had steamed green beans.  And more red wine.  It was so good and so comforting, despite the ridiculously cold temperatures.  The day had topped out at 63.  Which is very cold for this time of year.  Jake had checked the water temp, and it was a whopping 64 degrees.  WTH?  That is frigid.  The cold weather didn't deter us at all.  We have a big TV, but guess what, IT WAS NEVER ON.  We talked, played games and talked some more.  Who needs a TV when you have food, wine, pie and family?  And dogs.  John brought his dog, Jerry, and Bob and Lynn brought their dogs Tyler and Max.  Though they are nice dogs...I am so happy to be PET FREE.  When everyone was cooking and eating, the dogs were front and center - apparently their noses work well!  :)  Otherwise they were doing their normal dog things - butt sniffing and declaring dominance.

After a good nights sleep everyone was relaxed and ready to go for day 2.  The weather had not improved but that didn't deter Jill.  She is training for a marathon.  Yes, a marathon...26 miles, crazy huh?  She has a training regimen and she was to run for 90 minutes.  So, she gets on her running gear, eats a banana and heads out the door.  That's some serious discipline!  She comes back, hot and sweaty, not surprising if you've run 9 miles.  So, she decides to jump in the lake.  She may be very hot, but the lake is only 64 degrees.  And the air about 60.  She jumps in and swims frantically to the shore.  Apparently the water was quite cold.   Poor Jill.  But thankfully I was there to get a really cute photo of her wrapped in a towel when she was out of the water. ;)

With the swimming nonsense out of the way, we decided to play cards.  We started with go fish and then progressed to crazy 8's.  Oh my, the game took over an hour.  I think it was the longest game EVER.  We finally declared 2 pm as the stopping time.  Then we moved on to bridge.  Jim, Gen, Jill and myself.  Jake sat with Jill and  he attempted to learn.  He was confused though.  Gen and I were on a roll, had great cards every hand.   I really like playing cards with them, because there is table talk allowed (otherwise how do you learn?) and it's very relaxed and low key.  Nothing ruins the spirit of the game more than someone lecturing you on what you should have done/could have done etc.  You learn by playing, mistakes and all, not by being lectured at.  So, it was a great 2 hours of bridge.   So, by this time it's getting to be late afternoon and Lynn had been busy making 2 more pies.  Because you just can't have enough pies.  She made 2 rhubarb pies.  The entire cabin smelled divine.  She had also made a wonderful marinade for the numerous fillets of salmon she brought. It was clear we were going to have a feast.  By this time we had noshed on lots of cheese, crackers, sampled wonderful wines and simply relaxed and enjoyed each others company.  A great day.  Until...the croquet game makes it's appearance.  The front yard of the cabin slopes and the course was quite haphazard, but we took on the challenge anyway.  I think if there is ever a professional croquet circuit, we should sign up.  We rocked.  With wine glasses in hand, we could still rule the course! 

Here we all are at dinner.  Looking good, huh?

Not long after it was time for a bonfire on the beach AND fireworks.  

Not long after it was time for a bonfire on the beach AND fireworks.  

Our 4th of July was awesome.  Hope yours was too.  Wonderful to celebrate living in a country where we have so many freedoms.  We are truly blessed.  And I give my thanks everyday, do you?  Of course, there were lots of family members missing and we talked about them and wished them well and missed them.  Kathryn will be back in the US soon, she's been gone a long time in Japan teaching English.  She's making a beeline right to the lake and her family when she returns, and boy does she have her priorities right! :)  Nancy's family had work and other obligations, but we'll see them, hopefully in August.  Kristin is in Rome on a study abroad having so much fun (and working hard) that she doesn't even have time to communicate with us.  Sarah was working and hanging out with her Pullman friends.  Joe is traveling through Paris and Spain with his girlfriend and Liz is working back east.  It would have been great to have EVERYONE together.  But that's not feasible, and most likely never will be in the future...8 cousins are 18 or older and they have their own lives with work/school etc.  For those of us that were at Hayden over the 4th...I enjoyed it immensely.  I look forward to more gatherings with whomever is available to come.
Since we never know what tomorrow will bring...we need to live each day to the fullest.  Embrace it, love it, own it.  You'll never get it back again.  (That was my touchy feeling plug for the day.)   Oh and get yourself a Pie Bible because everything tastes better with pie. :) :) :)

dinner & dessert and a fine red wine

Dinner tonight was really good.  Baked salmon fillets, mushroom risotto, steamed broccoli and a delicious malbec from Tagaris winery.  I had about 2 TB of an herb and cheese spread left over so I spread it on top of the salmon fillets, sprinkled some shallot salt and pepper on top and a squeeze of a lime wedge.  Baked at 325 for 25 minutes.  Yummy!  For Sarah though, I made a teriyaki chicken breast as she does not do salmon.  Her loss.  It was really, really good.

I made a genoise cake for dessert.  It's my grandmother's recipe which I haven't made in a very long time.  My family is not big on almonds, so instead I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar and finely chopped pecans and then 2TB of brown sugar.  I sampled a small piece and it's quite tasty.  I have some grand marnier to drizzle on top and some thawed raspberries and a dollop of whipped cream.  YUM!

Great day in Orvieto

Today was another great day. We went to Orvieto via train. It was a nice ride up and took about an hour. Once we got off the train we had to take a funicular (tram) to the top and then a mini-shuttle bus to the Duomo. What a quaint, quite, charming small city. This is how I think of Italy. Little shops, tiny streets, beautiful buildings, lots of spots to sit and take in the beautiful view while sipping wine/beer. And the Duomo (church)...oh my goodness, so grand, so beautiful, truly breathtaking. We met some friends from Pullman outside the Duomo at 3 pm. (Craig and Kay Morris and their daughters Elizabeth and Anna - they are vacationing in Europe for a month). Sarah is best friends with Elizabeth so it was quite fun for all of us. Kay and I went inside the Duomo, saw some beautiful fresco's by Signorelli. It was interesting to note that Michaelangelo admired the athletic build of males in the fresco's and he did some sketching and used the similar style in Signorelli's fresco's at the Sistene chapel. It was just a wonderful relaxing day. Jake got some wonderful new leather shoes (young man Italian style...very chic) and a new leather wallet. Mike purchased a leather messenger bag. They purchased the wallet and the messenger bag at a small leather shop and met the 'maker' of the leather goods and saw him in action. How exciting to purchase such a neat item of excellent quality and meet the maker. I purchased several wonderful pieces of ceramics that the town is known for. They have been shipped back home so I don't have to worry about lugging them through the airport. (Several are gifts so I won't divulge the details). Sarah purchased a beautiful scarf and some clothes, Kristin purchased a very attractive dress and a handmade silk purse. Before heading back to Rome we walked around the perimeter of Orvieto and talk about stunning views....the city is built high on a hill with castle type walls to keep out intruders, you can see for miles and miles. It was hot again, but such a wonderful day we couldn't complain. Once we got back to Rome we went to dinner around the corner from our apartment. Had good seafood, proseco, yummy chocolate dessert...now we are ready to hit the sack. It's been a long day and we are heading to the cruise ship at 10:30 am tomorrow.
Ciao!