Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

So I do work in July, but we still had lots of good summer fun.     Visitors   First up, we had a lovely time with Amanda and Stephen! This was their first time visiting us in Oregon (missed out on a Pacific City visit) and their first time coming to our home! So that was fun. I've known these two since middle/high school, so it was fun having them stay at our place like we're all adults or something. But we had a great visit with a bike ride to Gabbiano's, a Gorge trip for waterfalls, fruits, lavender ice cream, and guessing all the flavors at Stave and Stone Winery. We got to meet up with Amanda's West Coast fam too for a Japanese garden day ( after  a big breakfast at the house, walk to Alberta St. shopping, and a lunch at the Paper Bridge ). It was a full day by 3pm.      My parents came up for a week at the end of July. Months ago, I had called Crater Lake Lodge just throwing out a long shot to try to get even just a night over the summer and...

 "Do you want to check out this Beats on the Bay event up in Bellingham with me?" Kaila asked one day. Heck yeah! So I drove up on a random Tuesday to meet her in Seattle and keep heading north with her for this event. We enjoyed a lovely sunny lunch at the food carts before, got my kayak and our trunk wine, and paddled out with all these folks to enjoy the show. This band, Corazones de Cedro   had this lovely dude singing, dancing beauty that somehow came from Mexico to Bellingham and his family flew in for this event. They were so lively and sweet. This was so worth the trip. Oh and the fantastic dinner at Red Light where I need to go write a raving review right after I click publish on this. We wished we would've gotten a week's supply of their "tea eggs."     

    My first summer month off kicked off exactly how it should: floating with two coworkers off Maureen's houseboat. We tied ourselves to the boat, cracked open the rosé, and watched our tan lines activate. A pretty strong start.     Oh, the day before, I had started getting in full summer mode with a key lime pie, fresh squeeze lemonade, fish tacos, cold brew… I ordered an inflatable pool even to prep for the hot days to come (sad spoiler alert, I wound up returning it for annoyingly practical reasons. Stay tuned/hopeful for better options to come?) My first Monday off was spent with another coworker, Cathy, grabbing lunch at the Island Cafe before hanging by the pool and taking a dip in the river. Next time we'll make it to the pool early enough to claim the coveted in-the-water lounge chairs. Those looked primo. Dylan and I rode down to Sellwood for a swim on one of the first days too. Seems to be a new tradition Bike Rides Some lovely and fun and silly bike rides...

We have done a lot of bike rides since moving to Portland, but this one 100% deserves its own write up. It started out with such vigor and excitement. I got home from work and we made our plan for our night ride with our fancy new bike lights. Around 4:30, we saddle up and head north to the St. Johns neighborhood, blasting some Leon Redbone Christmas music, admiring the lights along the ride. Legs feeling great like we could ride all night. A pit stop to pee in Mcmenamins in St. Johns turned into a perfect treat of some tots and a beer.  Then it was time. Time to go the reverse way on the Leif Erickson trail in the dark! Ready to fly down the mostly downhill trail for like 7 miles, then exit the trail into downtown in search of our tasty Indian dinner that would be so perfect and warm and well deserved.  The initial hill to get onto the trail from this direction was a bear. We shamefully dismounted and walked our bikes most of the way up until finally getting to the entrance. ...