Snowy Pines in November

When we arrived in Cleveland late last year, I had a bag full of film in my bag - rolls of photos I'd taken over the time we were out in Portland. It was mostly 35mm film, taken on the 30-year-old Nikon I've had since college that used to be my grandpa's. When I got it developed, the film lab guy was amazed at all the places I'd been to...and I guess they were some pretty amazing places!



I never posted any of them on the blog, since I didn't scan anything until March or April of this year, but I was editing unrelated stuff the other day and thought I should post some every once in a while! I've definitely fallen into the easiness of digital photography and phone snapshots, but in my mind nothing tops film. It could just be that I can't afford a nice enough digital camera to replicate film. Or it could be that there isn't a digital camera that can replicate film. I'm not sure...all I know is that I like the pictures I take with my film camera a million more than digital. They can somehow capture the mood of a time better. Maybe there's an organic warmth that pixels can't capture and analog film can? Who knows! Enjoy some photos :)

These are from my mom's first visit to Portland, early November. A snowy, magical trip to Mirror Lake, on the slopes of Mt. Hood.











Then, a few days later, a trip to Hood River, a yarn shop with cats named Knit and Purl, and the Columbia Gorge (a slightly different season from our hike!).

September

It's September, and it's the start of my favorite season! This September is off to a fun start with a visit to Cleveland over Labor Day weekend. It might involve kayaking, baseball, grilling, family time, a certain Maggie dog...or all of the above. I thought it might be fun to have a look back at what we've been up to the first week of Septembers past!

September 2014 + + +

At the beginning of last September, we were heading into the end of our stay in Portland. We tried to cram in a bunch of stuff before we left, so the first week, we went up to Olympic National Park for the second time. We did the famous Hurricane Ridge hike, used AirBnB for the first time, went to a cidery, and had a great time. Places like this are one thing we miss about living in the Pacific northwest - but I think in the end, living there helped us appreciate beauty in our surroundings, no matter what our surroundings are. (We keep talking about how when we lived in New York before, we never went to the park. It's such a nice park! It has huge trees and beautiful views! How did we not appreciate it?)








September 2013 + + +

We went to O-tsukimi at the Portland Japanese Garden, a nighttime festival that celebrates the full moon. It was so nice to walk through the garden in the moonlight, almost the whole thing to ourselves! We also made risotto with chanterelle mushrooms - the most delicious things in the world, that we'd never had until we lived out west.







September 2012 + + +

My dad and stepmom visited us for the week and we travelled all around Oregon! We went to Hood River and actually saw Mt. Hood (it wasn't even cloudy at all), stopped at Multnomah Falls and the I-84 gorge overlook. Then we drove out to the coast and stayed in Lincoln City, did a whale watching tour where we saw no whales but were immersed in a foggy world (just as awesome!) and visited the Newport aquarium. We always like showing people our part of the world, wherever that part of the world happens to be.









September 2011 + + +

Our first September in Portland! I think we spent most of the month looking for jobs even as Seaborn Press became more and more of a real thing. In the meantime, we went to Sauvie Island and the farmer's market so much that I started canning lots of stuff. Peach jam and pepper jelly and fig preserves - all kinds of stuff. Later we realized...maybe too much stuff. But in early September, it was nothing but canning!

The Last Days of (PDX) Summer

An overdue update - photos from our last few weeks in Portland! We visited the Japanese garden for O-tsukimi (autumn moonviewing), printed new Christmas cards for our shop, ate at some of our favorite restaurants for the last time, visited the Pacific Ocean to say "til next time!", and packed and packed and packed. 

Hiking : Timberline Loop Trail

This is one of the hikes we've wanted to do since we got our hiking book - part of the Pacific Crest trail, which goes from Mexico to Canada, and part of the Timberline Trail, which circles Mt. Hood. The part of the trail that we did starts at Timberline lodge and goes under ski lifts (still carrying skiers up to the slopes!) through alpine meadows to a lookout over a 700' canyon. Our book told us to go in August to see the wildflowers and we were skeptical (it's so late in the summer!) but the book was right, as always. There were tons of flowers everywhere!

After about a mile, we came to the Little Zigzag River and its tiny canyon - and a stream crossing! The landscape was constantly changing from meadows to forest to barren rocky hills. We didn't expect any shade on the trail at all, so we were happy to find ourselves walking through trees for some of the hike! We even had views of Mt. Jefferson, the second-tallest mountain in Oregon (second to the one we were on).

There were so many other hikers on this trail! It was probably the most heavily trafficked trail we've ever hiked - and we were a little surprised. We should have known, though, since late summer is the best time of year up here! There were lots of backpackers, solo and in groups, and hikers who looked like they were going all the way around the Timberline Trail (40 miles or so). Maybe someday! Another mile past the Little Zigzag River, we got to the regular ol' Zigzag River...and a slightly deeper canyon.

That tiny river all the way down there is actually pretty big! We sort of felt like we were on the moon, or in the desert, in these rocky slopes. We stopped and had a snack (and so did a bunch of other people) and headed back the way we came. We realized that the trail had seemed so nice and easy on the way out because it had been ever-so-slightly downhill the whole way. The way back was, unsurprisingly, just a bit more difficult. Luckily, we had Timberline lodge waiting for us - and delicious food!

We had drinks and a tasty cheese plate full of some of the best cheeses we've ever had - and they were all locally produced! After we'd regained some energy, we headed back down to the campground and drove home (thunderstorms forced us out a day early). All in all, a wonderful trip up to the Cascades!

Camping at Trillium Lake!

When my mom visited last summer, we went to a nearly perfect mountain lake up by Mt. Hood - Trillium Lake. It's a lot like lots of other lakes around Mt. Hood that we've been to (Lost Lake, Mirror Lake), except you can easily drive right up to it instead of having to hike or take winding back roads to get there. When we visited the first time, we did a hike around the lake and saw campsites and thought - we need to camp here!

So back in May, we booked a campsite - we weren't sure how full the campground would be when we got there, because when we booked it, it was mostly empty (except the perfect spots near the lake!). But it was completely full when we arrived, and the campground host told us that people reserve "their spots" as early as 6 months in advance. It was pretty easy to understand why - it was a perfect campground! Our campsite was huge, full of trees, had lots of spots to stick a tent (we moved ours from its first spot above) - we felt like we were totally alone in the woods, since we couldn't see any of our neighbors. 

Of course, being a five minute walk from this view wasn't too bad either:

There was a full moon, so we didn't even need lights to walk around the campground at night. We had an amazing campfire (rare!), slept pretty well for sleeping on the ground, and woke up bright and early...so we went down to the lake again. It was completely empty, with only a few people fishing quietly. Super different from the day before, when it was full of swimmers and kids and lots of noise. Basically, it was perfect.

After we got too hungry to sit by the lake anymore, we went back to the campground and had some breakfast and a (not as amazing) morning campfire.

After our not-so-amazing fire didn't stay lit for very long, we decided to head out for the day on a hike up on Mt. Hood - which I'll post separately, since (as usual) I took way too many photos!