Matt came home from Christmas in Michigan with puzzles, and I learned that Matt gets super obsessed with puzzles.
It’s not like I had ever seen him gravitate toward a puzzle when they came into his orbit. But I hadn’t seen puzzles in the Orange Door, and I think that was the difference.
This puzzle was two-sided. He did the first side in Michigan, and came home and puzzled together the other side.
He’s got mad puzzle skills though. Very impressive.
When I finished painting the front door, I wasn’t really finished with the job, because I needed to put up the new address numbers. And, more than two months later, here I am finding the time to do it (thank you 9/80 day, and Matt out of town)
When I bought the numbers from Modern House Numbers, I paid an extra $6.00 to get both a vertical and horizontal layout, as I wasn’t sure which way the numbers would fit best. They are much bigger than the numbers that came with the house. Good call, because vertical won out.
Here, I tape the template.
And here, the numbers are installed. Not pictured: a trip to the hardware store to buy epoxy and a specific size drill bit; me slicing open my finger trying to open the epoxy; and me making the holes a bit bigger because the specific drill bit size I was instructed to by was slightly too small.
Aren’t they pretty?
And here you can see the old numbers and new ones together.
Three days later, someone was dropping a package on the back porch as we ask, and said, “Is this 8004?” and I wondered how he had possibly missed both address numbers.
I also put up the new circular mirror, which is not actually new, but new to the Orange Door. I still think those mirrors are too high overall, but the circular mirror nicely covers the hole where the guitar hanger was.
Someday we will repaint this room and I will lower those mirrors.
I enjoyed Matt’s birthday meal at Arden so much that we went back for my birthday celebration.
As with Matt’s celebration, we had the prix fixe menu. As with Matt’s celebration, the dinner ended with cheesecake and sorbet. Delicious!
Our TV has been advertising daily trivia in their main menu, but it only intermittently gives us access. Very weird. It’s 10 questions, and they aren’t hard, but the most I had correctly answered was 9, either by myself or with Matt.
But tonight we finally got 10 out of 10 questions! I was a little disappointed to see that the congratulations screen is just the same as for 9 out of 10 correct.
They could have thrown in some fireworks or something.
Matt channeled his worried energy re: the 2024 presidential election into writing letters for Vote Forward encouraging people in Georgia to vote.
He wrote 300 letters, for which he had to get extra permission. 200 is the letter-writing max.
This is not the first year Matt has done this. He wrote letters last fall, and for previous elections. Here is 2022, for comparison.
On the way back, we stopped at the Bonneville Lock and Dam, which I hadn’t visited since I was a child.
Outside, they had recorded information about the site, which was nice and also had me worrying about park ranger job longevity.
Do you know someone who is both dead and who also loved roses? This garden is for them!
Timer photo!
I neglected to take pictures of the fish ladder, but here Matt and I are as lampreys.
I was hoping to spot a lamprey, but no dice. Apparently they don’t migrate, so seeing them is rare.
We walked out to the powerhouse, and I took pictures of the great art deco details.
Our next big staycation outing was trying out the railbikes in Hood River.
Matt waits in the station. Aside from railbikes and train rides, you can also rent ebikes to explore Hood River for the day.
Matt on the bike. One person gets to control the level of assist. Matt was in charge of that on the way up. We had about a 45-minute ride up to the fruit company, and then I was in charge on the way back.
A quick self-portrait at the Fruit Company.
Me on the way back down. I got cold and put on my coat, accidentally zipping my safety vest under my coat.
On the way back, we got to stop so our guide could take our picture at the waterfall. She remarked that she hadn’t seen an actual camera in a very long time.
To celebrate my new job we had the prix fixe menu at Coquine and had many amazing things.
Here, Matt enjoys the sweet corn soup.
Aside from our five courses, they also brought us a few snacks, plus bonus dessert.
It was a delicious meal.
We drove to Kah-Nee-Ta for the day. It gave us a chance to read from the books, an activity that has fallen by the wayside as the number of our streaming services have increased.
It was a good day for Kah-Nee-Ta as it was gray and rainy in Portland, but sun-sun-sunny on the other side of the mountain.
At the turnoff, there was a sign that we were on open range, and indeed, three horses were hanging out in the road. Matt took this picture.
We checked in, grabbed lockers in our respective dressing rooms (lockers were spendy, and also my locker rental kiosk charged me twice) and explored the various water offerings. We made brief visits to the children’s spa and walked through the children’s play area (there were no children playing at the time.) We checked out all three wellness pools, from the nicely warm to the very hot.
We then rested a bit, before trying out the lazy river. This was my first lazy river. It was super fun. We both had pool noodles, and when we stepped into the “river” (actually a pool about 4.5 feet deep with an inner pool that was not part of the river), the current pushed us around in an undulating circular path. It was quite relaxing and fun.
The middle pool had both a volleyball and a basketball net, so we played some ball. We also ate lunch (it was fine, but also I didn’t choose the Indian Taco option, which was probably really good) and then soaked/rested/lazy rivered again before taking a walk.
We played miniature golf, and checked out the lodging and teepees., then went back for one more soak before showing and heading back. I took this self portrait outside the entrance.
And then Matt joined me so we could do a time photo. (Such a classic timer photo!)
On the way back there were more horses.
Overall, this was a good trip. Because lodging is rather spendy, I think this trip would be a great to stop when coming back from Bend. It would break up the drive nicely.
When we visited, there were not many people, but I’m not sure how things go in the summer. There is an option to rent a cabana, or various permutations of deck chairs. We did not opt for that. The free chairs are not padded, but they were nice, and there were a ton of them.
On the way home we stopped at DQ for dinner and a Blizzzard.
We’re having a small summer vacation, as opposed to our extravagant Disneyland trip in March. Our first stop: The Portland Spirit, the boat that runs regular cruises on the Willamette River
After having our picture taken while boarding (regulation, according to them, but also so they could try to sell us the photo for $15) we climbed to the third deck and grabbed chairs near the railings.
We opted for the Happy Hour Cruise which was the shortest in duration and had no food included. It was a good choice.
While you cruise, there is guided narration. Here we pull away from the dock.
Here is the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, the South Waterfront, and the OHSU Tram.
Looking back at the Sellwood Bridge.
We turned around and came back a little earlier than I thought we would, but I guess that’s what you get when opt for the least expensive cruise that is shortest in length. Back at the dock, Matt could touch the dock as we pulled up to it.
One last self portrait.
And one last look at the Hawthorne Bridge.
