Trillium Lake

We've been having gorgeous weather this week in Portland (except for today, BRRR!), so on Tuesday we decided to head out of the real world and snowshoe around Trillium Lake, situated at the base of Mt. Hood. It was great to get out of the city for a day and just enjoy the pristine beauty of the lake.

Not a single cloud in the sky all day

Show us the way

You have to hike in about 3 miles to get around the one side of the lake and emerge from the trees, but once you do, this is the view you are greeted with.

Wow.

The lake is surrounded by campsites, which we definitely intend to check out soon (maybe in the summertime though...). Of course the lake and everything around it is frozen over by now, so we stopped off at a frosty picnic table to enjoy the view and take a little break.

We almost froze our butts off. Literally.

Time to move on.

We decided to stick around for at least the beginning of the sunset to take some pictures. We came across this dock that provided a perfect view. So perfect that there was another photographer there. :) He was super nice, a very serious amateur, and gave me some good tips. He was even nice enough to take our picture.

Taking a break on a bed of snow

We couldn't stick around for too long since, after all, the sun was setting and we're out in the woods... but we did get to see the mountain turn a really pretty orange.


And even though we couldn't clearly see the mountain on the trail back, it was a gorgeous sunset nonetheless. Just look at this.

The moon rose just as the sun set

And of course, we took some video while we were there. I used iMovie to piece it together and set it to a little ditty by Passion Pit.



And we were back to the real world by dinnertime. We are certainly lucky to have such a wonderful playground an hour's drive from home. Expect to see more of Hood this winter!

Love,
Jenny

Thanksgiving 2009

Well, only a full week late... but here is the Thanksgiving post! My parents ventured to PDX for the holiday (after visiting their long lost slot machines in Vegas of course). It was a short trip, so there wasn't too much time for anything other than hangin' out and prepping the big dinner... so that's what we did. :)

Oh, and this post is a combination of my photos and my Dad's (since at any given moment, one of us was snapping one).

Relaxin' all cool.

Buckley getting reacquainted... kisses!

"Ok, NO!"

He eventually settled down.

Whatchu lookin' at?

On their first morning here, they woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Mt. Hood.

From their room (from my Dad's photos).

Breakfast at the Pearl Bakery.

In the Pearl, on our way to grocery shop for Thanksgiving dinner.

Walking back home with the goods.

After shopping for dinner, it was time for lunch. Somehow, I convinced my Mom to give the food carts a shot! Epic win. I didn't even care what we ate for the rest of their trip. I think when I mentioned a cart with pierogi, that changed everything for her.

We ended up with potato & cheese and farmers cheese pierogi from the Polish cart, some pitas from the Bosnian cart (both the spinach and meat varieties), and bratwurst from the German cart. And they loved it. Woohoo! So glad they got to taste a little of true Portland.

After hours and hours (well, maybe more like two) of prepping, we all headed to Deschutes to enjoy some beer. Deschutes is a brewery out of Bend, OR with a satellite brewery a couple blocks from our place. I used to think their beer was just OK, but recently it's grown on me... they have a sublime imperial stout (The Abyss) and oak-aged barley wine (Mirror Mirror), and they usually have some sort of experimental/small batch/special brew on tap which has always been good.

We prefer our beer in snifters.

The weather was total crap on Thanksgiving, so it was pretty much an indoor day. I cooked (most of) my first Thanksgiving dinner! And it was a success! Cooking a turkey is way easier than I thought it would be. My mom helped with everything and Paul made the giblet gravy, so I cannot take all the credit.

The feast

Our little table

I was so excited for these napkins... ah, the little things

What else would I be doing?

After dinner, turkey naps, and several rounds of Catch Phrase, their visit was pretty much over. It was nice to have them here for the holiday, even though it was short... but we get to see them and the rest of the Mayo gang in a few short weeks in Michigan! It's crazy how this year has flown by.

As a bonus to the holiday, Paul and I also went to see Holly Miranda, The xx and Friendly Fires the night before Thanksgiving at the Doug Fir. Quite possibly one of my favorite shows I've been to, for realsies. We hadn't heard of Holly Miranda before, but whoa... she has this effortlessly beautiful voice that sorta blew me away. As expected, The xx and Friendly Fires rocked as well. It was kind of hard to take really clear photos with the low light, but I did my best.

Holly Miranda

The xx (they're not even 21 yet, totes adorable!)

Friendly Fires set list

Friendly Fires

We even managed to take a couple decent videos with our new Kodak zi8, an HD video camera about the size of a Blackberry. It's crazy! It does not take the highest quality video (I mean, it is 1080p, but it's sorta shaky and not great in low light), but it's great for fun stuff. If this works correctly... this should be The xx performing Crystalised:

And Friendly Fires performing On Board:

Paul and I tried our hand (foot?) at snowshoeing this week also, so I have a whole new post to follow this one! Coming soonish!

Love,

Jenny