a case of house envy in downtown Portland.

[Nathan Loeb House, built in 1893]

Some of you may know I live in Portland Oregon.

What you may or may not know is that the neighborhoods around downtown Portland are filled with absolutely gorgeous turn of the [last] century homes.  I adore the fact that most of them are still private residences, lovingly cared for by their owners.

So you can do some serious house drooling around here. For reals.

One of my favorites is the Nathan Loeb House on NW 22nd Ave.  It's a stunning Queen Anne with even more stunning stained glass windows, scalloped siding detail around that big round front window, and a super cool bat light on the front porch.

[Nathan Loeb House, built in 1893]

[So sorry I thought I caught a shot of the bat light on the front porch, but alas...I didn't. it's this one from the wonderful Rejuvenation store in Portland]

Quite near the Nathan Loeb House is another favorite, which I'm not sure has a name:

Don't you just adore the paint colors? And the lacy corbels? And that porch? And, and, and...


I'm so glad I remembered to share these beauties with you today! Thanks for house-drooling with me, friends!

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a splendid summer - hiking Cape Falcon on the Oregon Coast

[down to the beach]. 

Whew! It's been a hot summer here in Portland. how has yours been?
To escape the heat, we've spent a lot of days hiking at the Oregon coast.

[Did you know that the entire 362 miles of Oregon's coastline is public land? Dang I love this state.]

One of our favorite hikes is at Cape Falcon, located in the Oswald West State Park about 10 miles south of Cannon Beach. We've done this hike 3 times and I'm ready to do it again!

Very important side note.

Now this is critical, pay close attention.

If you go through Cannon Beach, you must stop at Bruce's Candy Kitchen for the bestest saltwater taffy ever. Flavors galore! My favorite is the Marionberry of course. Jim's is vanilla. Three to five pounds seems to be our sweet spot.

[saltwater taffy, oh my!]

Ok. Now that we've loaded up the obligatory taffy, we can motor south to Cape Falcon.

There are a couple of trails here, the one we like is an easy to moderate 2.5 mile out-and-back hike [5 miles round trip] to the top of the Cape. At the top, you're rewarded with incredible views to the north and south.

[at the trailhead].

This trail winds through dense forests so it's wonderfully cool and shady. Perfect for those hot summer days. The trees are all gorgeous of course, even the fallen ones. Maybe especially the fallen ones, like this beauty:

[gorgeous trees and nursery stumps].

The trail is lovely and well-maintained.  It's described as family-friendly by portlandhikers.org and I'd definitely agree.

[on the trail].

We splashed through a couple of creeks and came upon a nice view of Blumenthal Falls, which feeds directly down to the ocean...

Just 1 more mile to go at this point, and then of course there's the big payoff at the top.
Where you can rest and eat taffy and listen to the waves and the birds.

[north view from the Cape].

What about you guys? How have you stayed cool this summer?

If you have any favorite trails, you know I'd love to hear about them!

Till next time...get outdoors and keep hiking!

 

perfectly portland - Columbia River Gorge sternwheeler cruise.

it's September and to me, this is hands down the best time of year to go sightseeing in Portland. the weather is cooling down and for the next few months, the city has been returned to it's residents.

one of our favorite things to do is take the sternwheeler cruise down the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge is the incredibly beautiful dividing line between Oregon and Washington.

[columbia gorge sternwheeler]

every year between May and October, the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler offers cruises up and down the Columbia River, expertly narrated by the captain.

what could be better than a couple of hours lazing down the river with a fascinating history lesson thrown in?

[the wheel. natch].

we start off heading West, downriver to pass under the stunning Bridge of the Gods...

[bridge of the gods].

there's a wonderful Native American legend that tells the story of the Bridge of the Gods.

[columbia river].

there are so many amazing vistas along the river, and the trees stretch out to eternity.

once we hit the Bonneville Dam, it's time to head back upriver.
there is a Landmarks cruise where you actually get to pass through the Bonneville Lock...that would be so fun!

[heading back up river].

further upriver we pass by the wonderful Skamania Lodge, on the Washington side of the river. shortly after is the turnaround point to head back to the dock at Cascade Locks.

[skamania lodge].

another perfectly Portland day.

bidding our Portland summer adieu.

it's mid-August here in Portland Oregon and my thoughts are inexorably turning to my all time favorite season, Fall.

but I can't do that till I bid summer a proper goodbye...

here in the Pacific Northwest, we're so lucky to have a gorgeous forest playground just 1 hour away, high in the Cascades.

[incomparable Mt. Hood, view from Timberline Lodge].

huh. while I'm super pleased with my picture of Mt. Hood, it sure doesn't look very tall! but it's over 11,000 feet. must've been my angle...

but I digress. wasn't I talking about summer and how lucky we are?
and we felt doubly lucky this summer because two of our cool nieces came to visit, one for a week and one for a whole month!

now I should start by saying that these girls don't necessarily love being dragged all over the place...so naturally the first thing we did was pile everyone in the car and drag them out to Skibowl at Mt. Hood for some summer fun. oops, sorry girls.

perfectly portland - summertime marionberry picking

Oh to be in Portland now that marionberry season is here....

I'll let you in on a secret. Portlanders are seriously proud of [and not to mention crazy about] their local magical blackberry hybrid known as the Marionberry. A native Oregonian, it was developed at Oregon State University in 1956, it's a cross between two blackberries and it's pure heaven!

[marionberries and blueberries. yum!]

So as you can imagine, no summer in Portland is complete unless you've been marionberry picking [or blueberry, or raspberry or whatever floats your boat...for me it's always and forever marionberries!].

[marionberries]

Last weekend we joined some friends at the beautiful Blueberry Hill Farm in Sherwood, Oregon. The wonderful staff at the farm gave us shallow boxes [marionberries don't like to be squished] and directed us to where the marionberries were planted. They're at the back, high point of the farm so we got to meander along a lovely lakeside path to get to them.

[lakeside path to the marionberries]

We picked like crazy for an hour or so.
I just couldn't stop. It's possible I overdid it.

But that's ok, when I got home I separated out about a gallon's worth, rinsed and tucked them into the freezer. I'll bring those out this winter when I'm seriously jonesing for them and probably make some great muffins.

I confess that I did manage to pick a bucket of blueberries too:

[blueberries too]

[at the entrance to the farm...don't just love hay rolls?]

Bumping along the farm road on the way out, I had my husband snap a shot of these hay rolls. I just love seeing these every year in the fields around our house. But I usually don't catch them when they're stacked so this was a lucky shot.

So what's in season in your neck of the woods?

a lovely and too brief stay at the Old St. Francis School hotel

I've been wanting to stay at a McMenamins hotel for a long time and finally realized the dream a few weeks ago when we had a much-too-brief overnight stay at the McMenamins Old St. Francis School hotel in Bend, Oregon.

It was as wonderful as my expectations! The rooms are converted from actual classrooms, covered wall to wall [and ceiling!] in wood and log accents, with McMenamins' classic murals, clever celestial accents, and a healthy dose of wit.

[old school drinking fountain outside our room; oh yes, it works!].

We stayed in the Robie Anderson room, complete with a funky portrait of Robie himself. The room was clean, spacious, with tons of thoughtful items like a coat rack and bench right inside the door, plenty of great armoire storage, 2-chair desk and super-comfy reading chair.

[light fixture in our room no. 114].

[our room no. 114].

The bathroom was great and lovely as well. On McMenamins properties, no wall is safe from clever mural painters. not even the bathroom. thank goodness, because they're always fantastic.

[our bathroom room no. 114].

I can't say enough nice things about the staff, who were so friendly and attentive, with that great laid back personality I've come to expect at all McMenamins properties; I felt like I was a treasured guest at the home of a good friend. Even down to little touches like asking what kind of coffee I like, as they have a coffee maker in the room but grind your preferred bean flavor fresh every morning and leave the grounds outside your door for you to brew in your room. 

The crowning touch: the heavenly heated saltwater soaking pool, with about 1/3 of the ceiling open to the sky...must be incredible when it snows down into the pool. I could've stayed there all day!

[to the soaking pool].

[oh so heavenly saltwater soaking pool].

[unbelievably gorgeous murals surround the pool].

another lovely portland christmas.

every year come september, I start to get excited for winter and christmas in the pacific northwest. strolling in downtown portland, dropping into the always lovely benson hotel for a spiced cider and a little tree-gazing...

[christmas tree - benson hotel - downtown portland or].

[christmas tree - benson hotel - downtown portland or].

then heading down to the pearl district, where it seems that the lights on the street trees twinkle the brightest.

[pearl district trees - downtown portland or].

ah, christmas in portland. sigh. however did I live without it for so long?

an icy gift from a lovely Thanksgiving snowstorm.

thanksgiving 2010. my cousin samantha flew up to portland for our second annual 'rebel thanksgiving', so called because we skip the family chaos and spend the week in peace. it snowed on the monday [a near miracle for portland metro in november], then stayed below freezing for four days. leaving behind gorgeous scenes like this:

[ice fountain.]

[ice fountain].

not to mention our own bit of slipping and sliding in my hilly neighborhood.

autumn drive.

autumn is my favorite season, without exception. here in the pacific northwest we see glimpses of it in late august, but she really starts to strut her stuff around the autumnal equinox.

yesterday we were hit with a 'let's go on a big drive' bug, so we made our leisurely way down hwy 26, dubbed 'sunset highway'. with the headlights pointing west and the fleeting scent of woodburning fires in the air, we passed through forests and over creeks with magical names like nehalam, tillamook, & clatsop.  interspersed with the deep green of cedar and pine I glimpsed what will surely be flaming oranges and reds before October goes.

once we reached the end of the sunset highway, the question had to be answered: north or south? it had been a while since we'd been to Astoria, so north it was. 

[view of astoria bridge from astoria column].

I love visiting Astoria. I love the Astoria Bridge, the Astoria Column, and gazing at the mouth of the Columbia River where she oh so reluctantly gives up her freedom and joins the Pacific.

[liberty theatre, downtown astoria].

[crossing the astoria bridge].

[crossing the astoria bridge].