Like Words Together Reflections from the deep end of Practice.

Showing off Oregon – Part 2

While I taught yoga on while CK and NR went to a coffee shop, both to get a little work done. After teaching we headed over to pick up SAO. Quick lunch at Red & Black Cafe (where CK and I each ordered the same thing, again -- her a TLT and the Phyto Club for me) then some sweets & coffee from Sweetpea Baking and we were headed out.

The first idea was to go to the Evergreen Aviation Museum to see the Spruce Goose. Kind of a "second date" event for CK and I. Although that was really a fantastic, muddy hike in Forest Park in December 2007. I was hugely nervous on the trip we took there in January 2008, barely saying much. CK thought I was bored and/or irritated.

I'd suggested we nip into Sokol Blosser to check out some wines. It is roughly on the way to McMinnville, so it seemed like we could fit it in. I had spotted on their website that this was a big weekend celebration with tents, bands, and a new wine being introduced.

Inevitably we hit very slow traffic as we approached Dundee. We'd got out of town later than expected so it seemed unlikely that popping into one of the wineries would work. SAO and NR were not hugely into the museum so a spur of the moment decision was made to continue on to Lincoln City for a walk on the beach. The considerably longer drive would give NR a chance to see a lot more.

Just after leaving McMinnville CK spotted a sign for U-Pick strawberries. "Let's pick berries" she called out with great excitement from the backseat.

I looked in the rear-view mirror and calculated that suddenly braking for the sharp right turn would not mean the large pick up behind me would crashing into us. I said something to the effect of, "Oh! Uhh... hold on!" and pulled quickly down a gravel road. Whew!

At Farmer John's Produce & Nursery we were given plastic bags ("We're out of buckets right now") and I lead us out to the rows of strawberries. It was warm and smelled of earth & berries. We were soon all quiet and looking for the bright red of the strawberries peeking through the green leaves. Occasional "yum" noises were made as someone popped a perfect, warm berry into their mouth and ate it.

The self-pick bug took hold of us. I weighed in with 4.1 pounds of berries. CK had over 3 pounds as did NR and SAO. We were all sticky and I kept finding red stains on my pants. Laughing and much refreshed we piled back into the Outback and continued on towards the coast.

Predictably it was chilly and windy when we finally stopped at the Road's End State Park. We all piled out, pulled on jackets and started to walk north with the intent of looking at the tide pools. Along the way I looked for interesting rocks and agates. CK explained that I had an uncanny knack for finding them (I'm sure there are people better at it although I do have pretty good luck). There weren't a lot of rocks on the beach so I only found a couple of interesting things.

The wind was blowing really hard, making all of our ears and heads ache from it. CK and I noted that we should just keep a couple of hats in the car for just this kind of occasion. Since it appeared that the tide was pretty well in, meaning the tide pools wouldn't be a s good, and we were all pretty chilled, we headed back.