Distractions

I have a lot of shit to do(see last post). But in between complaining about how busy and stressed out I am, I'm planning my next road trip with Pat instead of getting shit done-real things with deadlines etc. I just get so distracted planning things for fun instead of planning things I have to plan-which is still kinda fun but of course less, because you have to (and because the event is in less than two weeks).

One of Pat's good friends from college is getting married in Montana at the end of July. So naturally we are turning it into Ghost Town road trip part two- on crack(or bath salts, your choice). Because we're also going to try to go to Yellowstone. And visit Michelle who lives in seriously the bottom of Idaho. Oh and PS attend a wedding.

But there are some out of control awesome ghost towns in Idaho and Montana. With plenty of standing buildings, and hopefully less abandoned motor homes and piles of trash (I'm looking at you Oregon). I'm really into the old jails, and I think a couple on our agenda are still standing. One of them (fingers crossed!) still has standing gallows. And so many cemeteries.

Ghost Town Road Trip

I have been wanting for ages to take a road trip through Oregon to visit ghost towns. I really love old abandoned things. Abandoned house on the side of the road? If it's unlocked, I wanna be in it (or if there's a me-sized hole to crawl through). Underground city tour in Seattle? Pretty Awesome. So 100+ year old abandoned towns? Basically the best thing ever. Oregon has lots of old lumber and mining towns that are now dead* and empty*.  Since Pat's into history and also because I kinda like him, we took this trip together. We each took a 3 day weekend so that we wouldn't have to rush through the trip. I mapped out a route to take us through 9 ghost towns. They were Bridal Veil, Ortley, Boyd, Friend, Shaniko, Antelope, Granite, Sumpter, and Bourne. We also went through Kent, which is a ghost town and there were a ton of old abandoned things on the side of the road.
Pat and I went shopping for this adventure the morning before leaving. Tuna is one of our staple meals since it's a meat that I'll eat (/ love too much to give up. It's a serious weakness) and because he can put barbeque sauce in it. However, since we were already packed up/on our way and hadn't brought the various accoutrements for tuna (him: bbq sauce and/or cajun spices. me: mayo and pickles) we explored the world of pre-made tuna salad. I went for tbe Bumble Bee standard tuna salad. (Click that link. WHY is it available on amazon?!) The ingredients were mayo, carrots, celery, and a lot of not pronounceable stabilizers.  Pat got adventurous and chose lemon pepper tuna and thai chili tuna. I can't even find a link to post for these. I was really nervous about buying premade tuna salad. Not for normal reasons of the fact that it's, well, premade tuna salad- but because I'm pretty set in my tuna salad ways. Always tuna in water. Always mayo and pickles. Sometimes pickle juice and/or mustard. Sometimes celery/onions.  Once upon a time this post was about a ghost town road trip.
Our first town was Bridal Veil which is near Multnomah Falls.  We managed to find the tiny little post office which used to be I believe a tool shed of sorts for the Mill that the town was built around. This post office is teeny tiny and there's one lady in there with her dog. I failed to take a picture of the adorable post office but I found this one on the google.

The only reason this little bitty post office is still surviving is because women love to have their wedding invitations sent through here to get the post mark.

We asked the nice lady to direct us to the cemetery because as I think has been mentioned previously, I love me a cemetery. This particular cemetery was very depressing. I know most people find them depressing anyway but this was mostly children who, according to one of my ghost town websites, died from smallpox and diphtheria outbreaks. It was very pretty, despite the dead babies.

 

After Bridal Veil, we headed to Ortley, which was one that I was really excited about. The story goes that some folks decided they were going to build this European style apple growing community in the Gorge. But whoops, the wind kills your trees on one side and its too dry in the summer. So they built up this whole town before they realized they were totally screwed. You can read a little more here.  But guess what, some jerk bought the property and put up a "no trespassing" sign.

 

jerks.

Pat apparently has some kind of issue with trespassing on private property. He wouldn't let me hop that dinky little chain across the road. I'm really upset that someone bought a ghost town and then closed it off. 

If I bought a sweet-ass failed apple growing town I would at least leave the road to it open. Sheesh.

We continued on to Boyd. There wasn't much but a cool old bridge, a big building that I think was a grain silo, and some little shacks I couldn't get to. There was one really neat looking building but someone had parked their motor home next to it. This would become a pattern. 

Another pattern is Pat's problem with trespassing. He didn't want to walk down to the big building with me but I went by myself and kept thinking I was hearing things inside so I asked him to come with me. He was completely stressed out the whole time but he did come along. 

From Boyd we went on to Friend. Fun fact about Friend is that there is a family that bought the land, who have been on the land since it was a real town. We were driving up and on our right is the "Friend Store" which was an awesome old store front full of junk that I would have LOVED to dig through. However, right in front of us are 3 generations of men working on a tractor. Uh, awkward. So we get out to let the dogs pee and I walked up to the old man to ask him if this was "Friend" and he informed me that he grew up here and owns the land now. The other two men were his son and grandson. The store is full of his collection of old junk. This is adorable but I feel pretty uncomfortable taking pictures/poking around their home so we put the dogs back in the car and continue down the road. Since I didn't take photos, here again is one that I found on the google.

We kept driving and came upon the old Friend schoolhouse. We stopped to take a look. I checked the door and it wasn't locked so I went in. It was basically the cutest thing ever. Its been turned into a community center and they covered the walls with chalk boards. There's still an old piano in there, as well. This was my favorite part of our trip. We sat on the porch of the schoolhouse and ate lunch and let the dogs run around.

Friend was our last stop for day one. I had made a plan for us to stay at Hunt Park, which shares its space with the Wasco County fair grounds. It is the only place to camp for miles. We were a little creeped out and went looking for somewhere else to camp but that just didn't exist. So, we camped next to the track at the fairgrounds. This was our view.

In the morning, because we hadn't paid our fee yet (and honestly were hoping to just skip out of there without putting money in the little envelope) the campground steward or whatever they are called came over to see us. Joey of course tried to eat him. He asked us what we were doing out there and we told him about our road trip. He rattled off all the ghost towns nearby, the people on their preservation committees, etc. Apparently when you live in the middle of nowhere you know everyone else that lives in the middle of nowhere, even if they are miles and miles away. He also told us the history of the Tygh Valley, which is where we were at the time. According to our friend, Tygh means peace and all the Indian tribes used to go there once a year and while they were there they would all be under a truce for the time they were in the valley. The google hasn't verified this yet, but I liked his story. 

The next morning we went to Shaniko which is probably the most famous ghost town in Oregon. It was restored and revitalized as a tourist destination some years ago but someone recently bought the town, got into a dispute with the county about water, and closed all the buildings up. Apparently only jerks buy ghost towns. There was still a lot to see. My favorite was probably the old jail cells. My phone doesn't have flash and so I didn't take any photos that turned out. There was also a little old saloon I tried so hard to find a way to sneak into but no dice.

This building is full of old cars. Used to be a museum. The jerk locked it.

This is where my memory and photo taking both get a bit shitty. We moved on to Antelope which was the precursor to Shaniko until the whole town burned down. There was one great big school there that I liked. We wandered around looking for a way in. Again, no dice. But there was a swing set, which always makes me happy. 

We decided while we were in the area we would see the painted hills.  They were very pretty but we think probably better in the rain, when the colors are more vivid.

We camped that night at Clyde Holliday Park outside of John Day. It was a lovely camp site but cold as hell. So we huddled around the fire and ate our tuna sandwiches. Which were surprisingly delicious. A kitten kept coming  to our site to lick the tuna cans. It wouldn't let me make friends with it but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Joey, however, was upset about the cold and about being outside so he whined until we went to bed with him. The next morning we thawed ourselves and headed for some old mining towns- Bourne and Granite. They ended up being way up in the hills and full of little hunting cabins. Middle aged men walking down dirt roads with cups of coffee. Kind of lovely. 

We then got dinner and drinks in Hood River on our way home. I really enjoyed the trip and the time with my love but there was one thing about the ghost towns that sucked a little. Most of them were actually scattered with motor homes-both occupied and abandoned. It seemed like people just used these places as dumping grounds. I did not take pictures of the piles of junk that were throughout all of the towns because they were depressing. It wasn't old ghost towny junk. It was semi-recent piles of consumer waste and it was an eye sore and just reminded me of sad sad people living in the middle of nowhere. Which I suppose is the reality of these places but I just feel like there should be some sort of common courtesy not to dump your junk in the middle of a town.

Downer, I know. Overall, wonderful trip and it was pretty cool to see some more of Oregon. I recommend visiting ghost towns. I also recommend reading novels I write on my blog. Well done.

Thanksgiving with my family pt. 3- Balls Out!

While I went to tea, Pat went bowling with my uncles, dad and brother. Then, they came home and apparently my dad developed a craving for Jager. So as I'm coming home from tea my dad is making a liquor store run.
He comes back and my dad, brother, and boyfriend drink a bottle of jager one shot at a time at our kitchen table.
None of them are seeming as drunk as they should so my dad lets us know that he has some tequila in the garage. My mom says, and I quote, "aha! Tequila! Balls Out!"
Tequila does not happen, instead Pat and I watch our stories (American Horror Story and Walking Dead) On Demand, sober up, and then drive home at midnight so that Pat can watch his English soccer game in bed in the morning.

Barn Dance

On October 1st, I had my first event. Not the first event I've worked on, but the first event that was actually mine. There's been some turmoil at work, which I won't go into, but it felt really good to get an event under my belt and plus it was super fun.
The event was a Barn Dance and Pig Roast in our Grand Hall which is actually an old Arabian Horse barn so it was perfect. I spent hours cutting and stringing pennants and we used a fork-lift to get 7 1,000lb bales of hay into the space. I arranged flowers for 30 tables and spent hours planning and tracking details. We had a line dance instructor, live band, and DJ. I spray painted little tiny plastic farm animals gold for the centerpieces.

Over 200 people came and folks really enjoyed it, which is the point (that and making money, of course). Pat line danced for over an hour which was, bless his heart, one of the more ridiculous things I've ever seen. Melissa came. All of the Shadypeak boys came, and so did my parents and my friend Jake who brought his lovely girlfriend. It was really great to have people there supporting me and being enthusiastic about something that I really enjoyed creating. I was pretty busy/exhausted/in work mode and didn't take many pictures but when we get them back from the photographer I will definitely post them. The one above is the only one I took. Before we had tables or really anything in there besides pennants and hay.

My mother is going to kill me for posting this. She doesn't always look like that.

Jake and Krystal. Pretty darn cute, right?

Pat being wonderful supportive boyfriend. Also, there's a bull outlined on the back of his shirt. The photos below are of Pat and I dancing at the end of the night.  Photo 1: Aw how sweet.  Photo 2: Inappropriate!

           

Sea Lion Naps

I had a wedding in Pacific City this last weekend. Pat kindly accompanied me and lent his assistance in lantern and paper crane hanging. He's handy that way. Pat, Myself, the planners, and their husbands all stayed in a lovely beach house near the Pelican Pub where the wedding was held. They had something like 6 different Michener books. It took a LOT of will-power not to steal them. Hardbacks. That match my copy of Caribbean. Maybe not everyone knows how wonderful Michener books are. Well, they're wonderful. Put one in your brain. This one or this one are my suggestions.
The wedding was small and super easy. But there was of course one obnoxiously drunk gay man who insisted on serenading the bride and groom. Which in itself, isn't necessarily bad. However, his song choice was strange, if not totally inappropriate. China Girl, by Bowie. I don't think that there was a single Chinese or otherwise Asian person at the wedding. So strange. Besides, I think it's safe to assume that any song with the word 'swastika' in it is NOT a wedding appropriate song.
We had Sunday to ourselves and Pat suggested we go to Bob Straub park. It was cloudy but not cold and we actually had a really nice 2 hour walk on the beach. Because the beach isn't one of the super popular ones, I found all kinds of treasures. Totally legit sea shells and my first whole sand dollar! Pat helped me treasure hunt. There were also little jelly things all over the beach but they didn't have tentacles. I had to investigate most of them. Some were orangey. One blue one. Lots of clear ones. Still very curious what they are. The internet has not been able to answer this question in a satisfactory way.

Impressive, right? Usually you have to purchase sea shells this awesome.

Other beach happiness? Stepping on those sea-weed balls and they make that awesome popping sound. Which, makes me think of these super awesome little yellow balls with spots that me and my brother used to love to step on at my grandparents house in Hugo. Everytime I tell people about these expecting that they too will recall the childhood delight of annihilating these crispy little balls, I get blank stares. And I am crushed. I have thought for years that I made these things up. Sometimes I have really realistic dreams. BUT, the internet has come to my rescue. This, my friends, is a Gall.

See how festive it is? How poppable it looks? The inside is kinda furry. It turns out that this is basically a little protective home that oak trees create for larvae of various insects. This is the only picture of a Gall that I've found that looks exactly like the ones I used to step on. I think that I was stepping on dry dead ones.

UH, apparently kinda all over the place on this one but. CHILDHOOD MYSTERY SOLVED!

Back to our beach stroll. We came upon what looked like a dead seal. Which was sad but also I wanted to investigate. I was crouched next to him looking at his adorable dead little face when he opened his eyes and lifted his head up. Totally not dead! Pat kept his distance but I went over to the little guy(not little) and started saying "heeeey buddy. whatcha doin?" He didn't answer me, but he did raise his fin at me. A friendly greeting, one would suppose. I did back up a little when he started to stand up. Pat then said that we should probably head back. I was worried that he was all by his lonesome and stranded on the beach or sick. I couldn't leave the little guy in distress so I googled and then called stranded mammal hotlines until someone answered at the Seaside Aquarium. I described our friend and the nice man told me he was a sea lion. And here's the best part. Sea Lions take naps! Seaside Aquarium guy told me I probably just woke him up from a nap and he was groggy. Apparently when they get sick of swimming, they plop themselves on a beach for a snooze. Aquarium guy said he'd send someone out to check on him anyway but I was already very happy that I'd met a sleepy sea lion and not a dying one.

They have the cutest freaking faces.

Once we got back from the beach, we decided that food was necessary. When we parked at the restaurant, Pat noticed that next to us was a truck that held the biggest dog I have ever seen. So naturally, I snuggled him. He was amazing. He was still there when we came out so while Pat walked around the corner for an energy drink I creepily hung out next to someone's car and snuggled his giant dog.

That is my hand. I do not have tiny hands.

So, good beach trip.

Birthday Fun

I turned 24 last month and my lovely friends and boyfriend helped me celebrate by being wonderful people and being very sweet to me.
A few friends had a gathering at Shadypeak and I totally overdressed and shot a potato gun and smoked a bunch of swisher sweets. I know, kinda gross right? But I was celebrating. Don't worry, I've been coughing ever since and probably learned my lesson.
Pat and I went to a beer and cheese pairing at Rogue which was delicious and then to Andina for some tapas and the most delicious pina colada I've ever had. Pat made me try ceviche. For those of you that don't know, it's fish that's basically 'cooked' by being marinated in citrus juices. The acidity cooks it or whatever. Anyway. SICK. I eat fish mostly because I have a weakness for canned tuna and beer battered cod. Biting into ceviche was like pulling a fish out of the water and chomping down before it was dead. The texture, the look of it. Yech. But besides that, it was a lovely evening.
And then the next morning when I got home, my sweet room mates had made me cute signs and left me a piggy bank. The piggy bank is full of contributions from some of my closest friends so that I can get a tattoo. Pretty freaking awesome gift.

This is one of my favorite dresses. It's a $2.50 Goodwill Find.
Also, Jason got in a bicycle accident and tore up his face.
He doesn't normally look like that. Yes, that's a star sticker on his face.

Andina was very cute/I bet the food is great.
Our appetizers were really good...besides the ceviche.
And this Pina Colada...yuummm

Sage advice for my 24th year includes: Don't get pregnant, don't ride your bike with a sleeping bag on your back (that's how Jason got hurt), don't smoke 1/2 a pack of swisher sweets, Do eat more burritos, Do be naked more often, and learn how to rap.

Now I actually have to get on top of my shit and decide what my tattoo will be...

I'm excited for 24 even though I'm starting to get scrunchy face wrinkles.
But besides the getting old part, I'm pumped. Pretty darn happy these days.

Powells

All of these books are about the civil war. Yep, all of them. And they all belong to my boyfriend, Pat. Well, half of them now belong to Powells because they bought them from him. But, seriously, this is impressive. And also, incredibly attractive- ifidosaysomyself. Right, ladies?