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Day Trip to Portland

Jun 5th, 2019 by

While in Manzanita, the boys and I decided to spend a day in Portland, a 90 minute drive. We wanted to explore the Pearl and the Alphabet districts. Got there and parked in a garage in the Pearl district and started to walk around. We were in need of breakfast and stopped at McMenamin’s Zeus cafe in the Crystal Hotel.

After breakfast, we started walking toward the Alphabet district. I got a text from a my friend Mary, letting us know they were in Portland (they live near us in CA and what my plans were for Easter. She did not know we were in Oregon. I texted her back and we decided to get together for the day! They were actually in an Uber and re-routed to meet with us!

We pretty much just walked back to the Pearl district and poked our heads in a few shops, then spent an hour in the mecca of all book lovers, Powell’s Books, then a slice of pizza and Jone’s soda. Mary, Zoe, and Cameron needed to get back to their hotel, so we parted ways, and I took the boys to see Shazam at the Living Room Theatre. It was a fun day, full of unexpected blessings.

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Spring Break in Manzanita

Jun 5th, 2019 by

We kind of last minute decided to head out of town over the boy’s spring break. I found a terrific condo to rent in Manzanita. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, located above a retail store on the main street in town. It is one of my favorite places for us to get away to now. Coast Cabins Loft 6 Neahkahnie.

Spent most of our time walking the beach, reading ( I bought a bunch of books at their precious independent bookstore Cloud & Leaf), the boys playing video games and watching TV. David and I had a couple of nice date nights. One was across the street at their local watering hole, San Dune Pub,
and a more upscale dinner at Neah-Kah-Nie Bistro.

  • Books I brought…
  • Books I bought!
  • The property provided s’mores kits for the boys <3…
  • …and a big dog bed for the pups!

David and I will often take turns taking the boys to dinner while the other stays home with the dogs. He took the boys to Tillamook for a tour of the cheese factory. It is a terrific, informative, entertaining, and delicious tour. They all enjoyed it immensely.

I also took the boy to Manzanita’s Big Wave Cafe.
It’s a nice, casual place that is good for families, but also fine for a night out. We split their homemade chocolate eclair pie. I have to say I think this is my favorite dessert ever. I can’t think of any other dessert off the top of my head that made me swoon like of few bites of this tasty morsel.

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Mystique Dining

May 21st, 2019 by

I have a run buddy who has a boyfriend who is a professional magician. He lives in L.A., but comes up to perform at Mystique Dining, a fantastic, intimate dinner show experience.

Our Ragnar Napa team got together and had dinner to watch George Tovar perform. He is crazy good. I sat in the seat next to him and could not see how he was doing the tricks. So fun!

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Fun Day with Elyse

May 21st, 2019 by

my friend Elyse and I drove into the country to check out a couple of boutique breweries. We live just on the suburban side of the country so it only took maybe fifteen minutes to get to our first stop. the second stop was five minutes from the other.

Beautiful drive. Beautiful weather. Beautiful conversation.

First stop was Goat House Brewing in Lincoln. They rotate food trucks every day and on this day it was the Cousins Main Lobster food truck. You might recognize the name from their pitch on Shark Tank. They made a deal with Barbara Corcoran.

The sun was out. The ground was wet. The goats were friendly. The beer and food, yummy.

Next stop was Dueling Dogs Brewing. They also had a food truck, but we did not eat there. Instead of beer, we did a sampler of the mead and ciders. The ambience of both places was one of community. Children and parents playing games and talking together. Although clearly there was alcohol, partying was not the focus. Dueling Dogs also has a table with garden items for sale…

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Spring in our Backyard

May 21st, 2019 by

We live on an old golf course that is now green space. We have had a much wetter than typical season. Lovely.

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Some Misc. Run Shots

May 21st, 2019 by

I stopped running in November due to burnout, but got the stirring to restart again in February. Taking it slow and easy. Here’s a few misc. shots with friends…

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Oakland Day Trip

May 21st, 2019 by

David and I drove to Oakland for the day to visit Paul, Shannon, and baby M. We went to a park along the bay that had a terrific view of San Francisco. Windy and cold, but no rain, so we had a good time.

This was from a different day, but too cute to not post.

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The Birthday Club

May 21st, 2019 by

I’m blessed to belong to a group of precious friends who seek to celebrate each other’s birthdays through the year. Even if we don’t see each other at other times, we know we will see each other for a birthday night. These photos capture one of these nights. I don’t recall who we celebrated, but it was a sweet night of Thai food and then closing down a coffee shop.

Yummy thai.
Perfect night for sitting outside.

Friends for Eternity

Coffee and Chocolate. <3

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Ryan’s Ramen

May 21st, 2019 by

Ryan loves ramen. I mean, he really LOVES Ramen. It’s his go-to snack. He is always rummaging through the fridge to see what he can add. He also talks about making a makeshift ramen shop in his dorm in college. Here’s one of his creations…

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Maui 2019

Mar 10th, 2019 by

Happy to start the new year at one of our favorite places. We did not ring in the actual new year there, but went shortly thereafter.

Our timeshare was booked so we ended up staying at Napili Shores. They ended up upgrading us to an oceanview. It was the nicest location we have stayed at that property.

The view from our lanai

We did our fair share of sleeping, walking, playing in the water.

First time trying Spam
I tried to get them to wait to cook it up at home,
but they wanted to eat as is… :/
Napili
Along the Kapalua Coastal Trail
Getting ready for the beach!

Post water play

My cousin Jenna and her family were here at the same time. We had a nice dinner together, and we took her boys for an overnight. They played in the surf, played a trivia game, and enjoyed The Gazebo’s famous macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup!

An Italian restaurant in Kapalua had a trivia night on Wednesday nights. I took Ryan to it the first Wednesday. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed the trivia. They had two winners. One table one for having the most correct answers and another table one for having the most correct answers based on the average number of people at the table. Ryan and I ended up winning this! We got a $25 gift card.

The following Wednesday, Alex and I went to dinner and trivia. Believe it or not, we ended up winning again! I was able to apply both gift cards to the dinner. I don’t know what happened to the photos I took with Alex. 🙁

David and I spent a day upcountry together. We shopped Makawao, then drove to the Lavender Farm, then to Maui Wines, then lunch at Kula Lodge.

Plumeria <3

The boys scuba dived Molokini crater. They got to see a white tipped reef shark!

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