date night dinners

Steve and I took advantage of our kids' festive activities in the last few weeks to have a couple of date nights at delicious restaurants. 

We enjoyed Chelo at Dame, while waiting for Liesl at Gabby’s birthday party on the far east side.

 

shrimp on masa, with veggies and mole sauce

 

a Mexican pizza (tlayuda), with a masa base

 

branzino with pinto beans and roe and veggies

After taking pre-prom photos of Seb and friends, we had dinner at Lilia. We had gotten a little dressed up and it seemed a shame to waste it. Liesl opted to stay home w Ella, pizza, and a movie.

quinceañera party

Liesl's soccer teammate Gabby celebrated her quinceañera on Saturday night with a big dinner dance party. Gabby wore a gorgeous sparkly princess dress -- the whole event was purple butterfly-themed. There were a few others of Liesl's teammates there, and she said there were a lot of speeches and various ceremonial things (something like a shoe ceremony? a group blessing, a choreographed dance with her sisters and brother). Anyway, it was different and fun. I'm glad she got to go and experience it.

Sauvie Island

Seb and a couple of friends drove out to Sauvie Island on Saturday night to walk the river beach and take photographs of the sunset. They took Jasper, and he was apparently ridiculously happy and running/rolling/splashing everywhere. 

bike adventure w Anne

Anne and I drove out into the Columbia Gorge on Friday afternoon for a bike adventure. We parked at Wyeth trailhead and rode east on the Columbia River Highway trail. It’s a paved trail, in three sections, that follows the path of the old highway. It’s very scenic, with both striking views up and down the river as well as quieter forested sections. 

 

The newest section of the trail is the reconstruction of the Mitchell Tunnel, which I think was originally dynamited through the side of a mountain in the 1920s. (Actually, I'm wrong -- this article describes the history of the entire trail and the new tunnel.) It was restored and opened for foot traffic earlier this spring. But on the map, and in the description of the area, it seemed like the tunnel was a 1-mile stretch of trail disconnected from the rest of the trail system. Anne and I set out to see if there was any way to get between the official end of the old paved trail and the beginning of this new section. 

 

We had a number of dead ends. We went into the forest and the trail ended abruptly at a creek -- the pavement literally was sawed off, and you could tell a bridge had once been there. We followed another trail and hopped over another creek only to find that the foot trail ended on the other side. Finally, we discovered that we had to walk very close to the highway for a couple hundred yards, and then a wide gravel trail started again (it shrank to a narrow hiking trail after a bit, but persisted.) We found the new parking lot and the entrance to the reopened tunnel, and it was pretty spectacular. Wide views up and down the river, a really cool-looking tunnel with semi-circular cutouts, just really fun.

We rode about 14 miles, with another mile or two of bushwhacking. Such a fun adventure.

prom

Seb went to his high school prom on Saturday night (juniors and seniors attend one single prom). It was at the Portland Art Museum, a dance (no dinner).

Since he's outgrown Steve's formal wear, and is still growing, we went to Mr. Formal to get a suit and all the fixings (shoes, cufflinks, shirt, tie/handkerchief).

Unlike all other school dances, kids mostly coupled up for prom night. Seb asked his friend Gabi (who used to go to Lincoln, but is now at a different school) with a promposal sign. Apparently it's the thing to do, even when you're asking a nonromantic interest. Pretty cute.

We had a moment checking the fit and figuring out the cufflinks.

Seb gathered with some of the neighborhood guys at Cason's house to get dressed and take photos and carpool together to the pre-prom dinner that one of the families was hosting at their club.

The girls arrived separately and it was so, so cute watching them all figure out the corsages and boutonnieres.

This was a near-stabbing incident. I tried to help, but it kept falling over. Steve finally stepped in.

And then there were photos. So many photos! All the boys, all the girls, everyone together.

backpacking in Enchanted Valley

Adrienne, Marin, and I drove up on Friday morning to the Olympic peninsula for a 3-day backpacking trip along the Quinault River. We parked at the Gates Creek trailhead and hiked in 7 miles to O'Neil camp. It was a long uphill slog with very heavy packs, hard going. We set up our tent, filtered water, ate dinner, and were asleep by 8:30.

 

The river gorge as we went over Pony Bridge.

Our gorgeous campsite, next to the river (for filtering fresh water), under this enormous maple tree.

 

 

On Saturday, we left the tent and stoves and most of our food behind at camp, and hiked 7 miles (14 roundtrip) along the river to Enchanted Valley, where an old chalet stands. The valley is beautiful, surrounded by tall snow-capped peaks and spring waterfalls. The trail was mostly flat, tracing the river, with amazing moss, ferns, cedars, alders, maples, etc. A remote and gorgeous rainforest.

 

 

 

 

This was our view entering into the Enchanted Valley - snowy peaks surrounding us, and spring waterfalls coming down the cliff faces,

 

 

 

This chalet was built in the 1930s, briefly in use as a place to get hot food and stay overnight, and then used as emergency shelter and mostly left to decay.

It was good to return to camp in the late afternoon, to rest, eat, play cards, and just hang out under our giant maple. 

On Sunday we woke up, ate breakfast, packed up, and hiked back out to the car. We were at the car by 11, just in time -- a heavy rain started as we were driving out. After a stop for Salvadorean tacos and pupusas, we were home by 4, in time for mother's day dinners and hugs.