iconic Haystack Rock

Love this cute little town full of quaint shops, scrumptious restaurants, and craft breweries! I want to live here–IF I could afford it and IF they didn’t have all those dang Tsunami Escape Route notices all around. Living on the edge…of the Cascadian Subduction Zone. Check out this exciting read:  after-the-big-one

gorgeous dunes

windswept trees

my dream house

the. Columbia River

Took a ride with the fam up the Columbia River Gorge. Marcus and I were here just last Fall for an extended visit, but I never get tired of some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth.

Multnomah Falls

Took a bit of time out to escape across the Cornelius Pass to Hillsboro. Destination: the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, one of some 50+ McMenamin’s brewpubs/resorts in the Pacific Northwest. We had visited their Edgefield location, east of Portland, to see Bonnie Raitt in concert last September, and wanted to check out some other ones. Their MO is to turn old, interesting properties into casual eating and drinking establishments. Edgefield was once a 77-acre poor farm in the days before welfare. It now offers a hotel, a brewery, a distillery, several restaurants and pubs, and a great music venue. Cornelius Pass Roadhouse was a six-acre farmstead. McMenamin’s still maintains the apple orchard, has a music venue in their meadow, and hosts special events in the octagonal barn. Today we enjoyed the outdoor patio of their restaurant on a perfect Oregon summer day.

the restaurant

the brewery

the house

Just spent a wonderful week with my four sisters and brother and their spouses, two nieces, a nephew and his wife, a great-nephew, and my son and his wife. We rented a beautiful house outside of Portland, Oregon, and had this gorgeous view of three of the Cascades. Great times!

View from the deck. Three Cascades: Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Adams (off to the right). The Columbia River is in the foreground.

me and my sibs