Fun in Portland Oregon

Our trip to Oregon/Washington for the Blooms to Brews Marathon was rather short. We flew in Friday night with enough time to catch dinner and a few drinks with Lee and Laura (they arrived hours earlier from San Diego).  We flanked the pre-race night with hotel stays at the boutique chain McMenamin’s.  We discovered this chain in 2012 when we spent a night in downtown Bend, OR at the St. Francis School.  McMenamin’s buys old buildings and repurpose them into hotels with breweries, soaking pools, concert halls, bars, wineries, and other fun things.  

Our Friday night was spent at The Kennedy School - an elementary school opened in 1915 that is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  Every corner of the property is decorated with paintings, concert posters, or other hand-painted touches.  Our room was named for the book Ireland and featured artwork relevant to the story.  The Courtyard Restaurant had to have had over 100 unique light fixtures.   We dined in the school’s Boiler Room which is now the pool hall/game room for the hotel.  We had a hard time picking another bar to drink at:  Cypress featured turntable reggae and rum, Detention played jazz, and Honor played opera.   We chose to have a drink at Honor because the bartender was lonely.   He gave us some insights on activities for our next day (none of which we ended up doing). 

The next morning we mulled over our plans at breakfast.  The waterfalls were too far out of the way of our final destination of Woodland, WA.  It was overcast, so the view of Mt. St. Helen may be limited from its visitor center.  We decided to do some things in Portland but did not know anything about the Portland sites.  The ladies at the next table heard our conversation and ended up giving us two free passes to the Portland Japanese Garden.  Why not?

The gardens were built into a hill overlooking the city. The $15 adult price gained us access to walk the grounds, see special displays (bonsai tree competition), buy gifts / snacks, or listen to the stringed instrument presentation.   We spent our time following the trails and taking pictures.    The weather was cooperating by not raining and giving us some sun for a few minutes.   We spent about 90 minutes walking the grounds.

How did we follow-up the Japanese Garden?  By taking a trip to the Chinese Garden.  The Lan Su Garden was in an up-and-coming area of town. That’s being kind.  There were several nice businesses near the garden, but the area was generally sketchy.   Lan Su is a walled-in oasis in the middle of some run-down areas.   For $10 each we could tour the gardens and dine in the restaurant.  We arrived in time to take a 30 minute (included in price) guided tour of the garden.   Our guide explained how all the components balanced each other and the significance of certain structural elements.  The tour was worth it.   It was amazing how much they squeezed into 2 acres.

For lunch we headed to the Pearl District (hip, clean, higher end than our last location) for lunch at a brewery.  Thankfully two of our favorites were across the street from each other.  Ten Barrel had a 35 minute wait for a table, and Rogue had no wait.  Rogue for the win!  Food was great and there were a number of beers available on tap. 

Before heading out of town for Woodland, WA we stopped at the city’s second Voodoo Doughnuts location.  Our wait here was only ten minutes - much shorter than the line we saw downtown. The people at Voodoo may have been the ones who started the gourmet doughnut craze. We picked up a dozen to eat over the next two days.

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After the marathon we headed back to Oregon for a fun afternoon at McMenamins Edgefield.  Located east of Portland Airport the large property was once the county poor farm.  Hotel rooms were created in the main dormitory and the infirmary.  Our room was large, but some of the furnishings were really old and worn, plus we were next to the common bathroom for those choosing rooms without baths.   We heard the clicking of the lock all night.

We spent the day bar hopping the property.  We ate lunch in the old Power House, had cocktails in the stables-turned-distillery, drank wine made on property in the cellar while listening to live music, and had dinner at the main bar.  We enjoyed exploring the gardens and would have considered a round of pitch and putt if it wasn’t raining.   Another unique aspect of the property was the in-house glass blowing studio.  If we wanted to see a movie the theatre was showing the new Avengers movie released that weekend.   Edgefield was the kind of place you’d check into for the weekend to just relax and explore all the property had to offer.   We liked it enough to consider a return trip back to do just that, or use it as a stop-over for a return trip to Bend.







While Portland isn't famous for sites we found there were plenty of things to see and the best source for options came from talking to the locals.  Servers, housekeepers, bartenders were all very helpful and wanted to be sure we saw some of the best their city had to offer.

2012 Race Recap

2012 was a big year in races for Team Tizzel. Holly added 5 more states to her 50 Marathons in 50 States goal. Race events brought us to Disney World 3 times and Oregon for the first time. Dave did his first distance beyond 5k.

January

For the past few years January has kicked off with the race events at Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend. This is the focused event of our Team AllEars fundraising efforts for breast cancer. Dave's Duffy the Disney Bear outfit for the 5k helped us to raise over $6,000; and the team over $70,000. Holly had fun doing the half marathon with our friend Jessica on Saturday. On Sunday they ran together again, but Holly participated in the 13.1 mile relay with our friend Jamison as a partner while Jessica continued on for the Full/Goofy. There's no relay offered in 2013 so Holly may have scored her only chance for a Chip and Dale medal.

February

February brought two unique events. First, the Jost Van Dyke Invitational 5k. This is a 2 person race between Holly and our friend Dan over the hills of beautiful Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Next, we trekked a few hours over to Goshen, Indiana so Holly could participate in her first indoor marathon - the Maple Leaf Marathon. 204 laps around a track with 8 other participants.

March

Saint Patrick's Day Weekend was spent in Virginia Beach. On Saturday Dave and Holly participated in the 8k event. The next day Holly ran the marathon. These events were well-run, had miles of shoreline, and great  after-parties on the beach. This became a family event with Holly's parents, brother, and nephew cheering her on along the way. Holly's favorite race this year due to her whole family being able to watch her finish and the excellent post race parties.

April

Holly was able to squeeze two marathons into April. First was the Go! St. Louis Marathon. Two weeks later was the Kentucky Derby Marathon in Louisville. With Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan checked off we are running out of driving distance marathons.

May

The spring ended up being a busy travel time. A week after Kentucky Derby was the Expedition Everest 5k in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. The night race combined obstacles and puzzles to create a really fun event.

July

Fourth of July morning kicks off with the Antioch 5k. This is a pretty big local race. Hot as heck this year. When Rock and Roll announced moving the Chicago events to July we thought they were nuts. It was warm, but not as bad as it could have been for a 5k (Dave) and half marathon (Holly). We had a fun day Saturday with Team AllEars friends and enjoyed the post-race Cobra Starship performance.

September

Back on the road this month. Labor Day Weekend was spent in central Oregon with the focus on the Sunriver Marathon. A few weeks later Dave participated in the Fox Lake 5k and got an age group award. At the end of the month Holly took off for Disney World to participate in the Tower of Terror 10 Miler - another night race. Dave stayed home for that one and attended Tizzel's Food and Wine Festival.

October

Back to Virginia for Washington's Marine Corps Marathon. A great event that Holly wants to do again. The only thing that brought the weekend down a bit was Hurricane Sandy and having to leave via rental car immediately after the race.

November and December

The winter brings shorter-distanced themed races to Chicago. November brought the poorest organized event: Hot Chocolate 5k (Dave) and 15k (Holly). December was the opposite with the Santa Hustle 5k.

2013 Plans

Currently in the plan for 2013:

• Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend - Dave and Holly are both doing the 5k and half marathon (Dave's first). Holly is adding on the marathon to earn another Goofy Challenge medal and unofficial Dopey title.
• Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend in Disneyland - Holly and Dave will both do the 5k and the half marathon. This will give us both Disney's Coast to Coast Medal. This will also be the end of Dave's half marathon career.
• Little Rock Marathon, Arkansas - We'll be joining a few friends for the race with the biggest medal in running. Holly will be doing the full while Dave snacks.
• Flying Pigs Weekend Cincinnati, Ohio - Pigs is a big race/party weekend. Dave is doing either the 5k or 10k (can't remember which one he registered for) and Holly is doing the 5k, 10k, and full which will earn her an additional medal.
• Chicago Rock and Roll Half - Holly should get something special at this one since it's her 5th Chicago RnR in a row.
• Atlantic City Marathon, New Jersey - Looks like a fun location for a race.

Hope we see you out there in 2013!

Making Oregon Ugly

Here we go! Dave takes what are usually nice photos and puts them through the wringer using different apps to create artistic photos. to see some of the apps used, check out prior photography posts.

Oregon Part 6: Fly Fishing, Lakes, Mountains

To see related posts in this series, click this link.

We had one scheduled event today: A Fly Fishing class at Bend's Orvis store. We found this free 2-hour class via a Facebook post from Visit Bend. There were 10 students with varying ages and degree of fishing skills. One guy has been fly fishing for 50 years. Dave's never taken a fish off a hook. Sing with us: "One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong". Trey, our instructor, gave a decent overview of equipment, casting, how fly line differs from regular fishing line, etc. after over an hour of class room time we went out to the lawn and practiced casting. This was fun...especially when a local cat chased after the instructor's line. We casted for about 25 minutes then headed back in. There were 3 more topics left and only 15 scheduled minutes- this was going into overtime. At that point we decided to cut bait and said our good byes. This was a great intro to a world we knew nothing about and on our next trip into nature we may look for a 1/2 day fly fishing excursion.

We knew we wanted to drive by Mount Bachelor but we weren't sure of the best route or if there was anything else in that area. We stumbled upon the Central Oregon Tourist Office and got some maps and advice. The lady suggested we go to Elk Lake Resort and have lunch. We really wanted food from 10 Barrel, but what the heck.....

There's one road to Mount Bachelor from Bend and it was full of slow moving trucks and under construction. Great......Finally we made it close to Mount Bachelor and some other mountains. We kept on going and hit the north-end of the lake district. It was similar to the Chain o' Lakes area we live in, except there were no homes or towns, the water was clean, and it was pretty.

Lunch at Elk Mountain Resort was basic (and by resort we're talking 18 cabins and campgrounds) but offered a quiet setting to enjoy some great views. After lunch we headed back to Sunriver on some fun mountain roads. One 4 mile stretch of the trip was on a gravel logging road. Hertz must have had fun washing that car.





the rest of the day Was spent at the pool, hot tub, dinner at Sunriver Brewhouse, and then The Owl's Nest.

The next morning was departure day. We had to get up early for the almost 4 hour drive to Portland. For the return trip we took Route 2 on this map through portions of the high desert and the Mount Hood National Forest. The desert portion of the drive was different, we never expected this kind of landscape in Oregon. We drove by rocky formations and over canyons you'd expect to see in New Mexico. There weren't many places to pull over for photos and by the time we found places you couldn't see through the thick forest fire smoke. Oh well.

As we drove onward we were treated to a fairly constant view of Mount Hood. The spot we chose to pull over for a picture was pretty lackluster, but at least we got one.

Just when we thought we had visited our last brewery.....Rogue and Laurelwood had locations in our terminal. Both locations featured nice malty beers. Perfect last impressions of Oregon.

Oregon Part Five: Chow Boards Beer Canoe

To see related posts in this series, click this link.

With The Sunriver Marathon behind us it was time to do some of the other events on our list.

Monday morning (Labor Day) we left our resort and headed to Bend. Today's plan was to go out for breakfast, rent paddle boards in the park, visit the remaining breweries on the passport, collect our prize from Visit Bend, and then (depending on the time) go back to the hotel and canoe, bike, visit the pool.

Breakfast this morning was at Chow. Dave lucked into finding this place while using Urbanspoon. Chow was in a residential area in an old house. It follows the sustainable/farm-to-table philosophies. There was a nice deck and patio area out front, with lawn chairs set up for guests waiting for tables. An outdoor bar was set up for morning favorites. We took a patio table and froze for the first twenty minutes until the sun hit our table. We ordered breakfast cocktails and some great entrees. Holly had the crab cake eggs benedict and Dave had the banana pecan french toast. Great food! The staff was friendly and the owner/chef checked in on us. We were also lucky enough to be there when the singer started. This is 9:30 in the morning. Nice touch and helped to set the mood for a relaxing breakfast/brunch. Thanks to him we established we were once again the odd visitors from Illinois.

We made it to Riverbend Park exactly at 10am, which was when the Sun Country Paddle Board rental sight was supposed to open. Apparently Labor Daywas the start of their fall hours with the new opening time at eleven. The kid showed up at 10:20 and we tried to con him out of an early rental. No luck. So we sat on a rock until 11am. The rental cost us $20 each for an hour. The Deschutes River was clear with lots of views to the bottom. We passed under a bridge and by rocky canyon walls. Lots of other people were out enjoying the park by kayaking, tube floating, paddle boarding, biking, and playing fetch with their dogs in the water. It was nice to actually paddle somewhere you didn't have to worry about clueless boaters and constant wake from skiers.

After all that work it was time for a beer. We drove over to 10 Barrel and the place was packed! Lots of folks taking advantage of their large patio on a nice day. Unfortunately we we still stuffed from breakfast so couldn't think about trying anything for lunch - too bad since it all sounded good. We were  in luck here with a couple dark beer choices. Sinister Black and the seasonal porter were right up our alleys and bargains at $4 each. Good news was our hotel had Sinistor on tap! We got our passport stamped and took off for the next stop.

The last passport location to hit was Silver Moon. They were in a re purposed building in the older industrial section of town. It had a little bit of that retro diner edge. We lucked into the fact that it was locals day so pints were $2.50 (Dave got the lowest IBU beer possible) and the 22oz bottle porter Holly had was $3.85. Combine those with a pork quesadilla and we were out of there with a $12 bill. Everything was really good and I'd consider a return visit there. With our last stamp collected we headed to the Visit Bend office.

Other than race items, we hadn't purchased any souvenirs yet. We spent $72 in the Visit Bend store. We collected our free Silipints for finishing the Ale Trail then bought a long-sleeve t-shirt, poster, regular pint glass, hydro flask, and sticker. Everything we bought was nice and represented our trip so far.

We already accomplished a lot today so why not go canoeing? We headed back to the resort and drove out to their marina. We rented a canoe for $65 so we could take a six mile trip down the Deschutes. We haven't canoed together in 18 years because the last outing resulting in an argument. Needless to say we were nervous of a repeat. Happy to report there were no fights. Just a nice trip where paddling was only necessary to keep you away from other boats and the shore. Dave sat in front to take pictures and video while Holly steered us along. We had a really nice time and this was the highlight of the trip. The scenery was gorgeous and totally different than what we get to see on a daily basis back home.

The resort had a pickup spot with vans ready to meet us and take us back to the marina. Before driving back to the room we stopped at Hola, a Peruvian restaurant by the marina, for a cocktail. Here's a quick video from Paddleboarding and canoeing:

Nothing else happened after this. We skipped the pool and biking. We ended up at the hot tub by our room with a couple of beers, followed by a visit to the resort's bar, The Owl's Nest, dinner at the main restaurant, then back to the nest. A very fun day!