Made with 100% real unicorn tears

Selling a house is a pain. Add three indoor cats (it's your own fault) and it's a huge pain. It also provided the added benefit of getting to move all of our furniture a couple of times.

Furniture out (to the kitchen, the garage, the back porch, the neighbor's garage--we owe him big) carpet in.

old carpet

making the most of space

sans carpet

Recycled shoe underlay...I can't get away from this brand

Some of the furniture got to come back in for some fantastic staging done by my Mom.

Risa observes the staging

Adult looking house...eh?

Those are real apples. I made them into sauce after.

House for sale, cats (not) included

We also practiced taking the cats out in their new backseat nest. The cats were less than enthused by all of the above.

Pocket was not into the backseat

At all.

But the house is sold. Closing complete. Chapter ended.

And, we still got to take ourselves out on some adventures in Oregon prior to roaring across the states.

This included a couple of sunset dinners, which sound way better than they ended up being...it's windy in the high desert, so after the sun sets it becomes difficult for some people (read: me) to not freeze...yes, even in the summer.

Dining at the only downtown rooftop with dinner

Sun protection + pinot gris

The other was worth the chairlift ride--spectacular view, but thank goodness dinner was inside--far too windy.

Sisters and Brokentop from Bachelor

South Sister from moraine lake

We also adventured apart for a weekend--I saw more of the lakes, and Joe, along with some of our closest friends took to the river.

Lava tube inside later lava flow

Two canoes and four dudes:

Setting out on the Willamette (dammit!)

Setting off, take two

Following that we headed east, where we had planned to hike--hotel--backpack--home and instead hiked-- "hoteled"--got "thunderstormed"--and hot spring bathed instead. Not exactly what we had desired for our outgoing trips, but we saw some beautiful scenery, enjoyed having the hot springs basically to ourselves and generally just relaxing. I'd call it the calm before the storm, but it was already literally storming, so the metaphor loses.

Valley in the Steens

Incoming storm over the Alvord.

It was cold at the summit

Excellent cell reception at the summit...ah nature

We had a lot of time to chat about the move and life, the universe and everything, while also cracking up making jokes about unicorn tears and other silly things, like this cricket. We also started a tally in the dust on the dashboard, but have since forgotten what we were marking...

Eleven and the Coast

At cape lookout

We'd been wanting to visit this place for awhile and meet with the brewer/owner--and seeing a good couple of days without a work shift or house showings we packed up the car and headed to the coast.

Not a bad way to spend the summer solstice.

 








It had been about 9 years since we'd headed to this spot together and it was funny to recreate a similar scene. We even found the same bottle of wine (different vintage) to enjoy on the beach.


We didn't exactly make a "leaving Oregon" list, but we are definitely picking up on places that we've loved in our time here. Nothing wrong with a little sand in the shoes.

Eleven

A lovely view on our walking food tour

walking food tour - plus cops!

I find that my personal Oregon list-making is centered a lot around places that I want to go eat and drink (and be merry...for example). We did a bit of walking tour of town on the eve of our anniversary (no. 11 for wedding and 15 overall) and then settled in on our anniversary proper for an amazing five-course, wine-paired menu at a place we'd often thought of going to but booking a table was always a 30-45 day in advance experience (we took advantage of the fine weather and popped in at opening for non-reservable patio seating). It was exquisite. Also, one of the menu items is now a strong contender (up there with chili-fried ants) for "most unusual" item I've consumed--cow thymus, or cow throat, interestingly enough in the culinary world called "sweetbreads" (sorry, no pictures). It was chicken-fried, which added to our confusion about what the hell we were eating...fry bread? chicken? I don't eat chicken anymore and considered abstaining from the course entirely, but instead I got to puzzle over it. It reminded me of what the puree of chicken parts that goes into nuggets tastes like. The waiter was almost gleeful when he told us what it actually was--I imagine that the shock value goes a long way toward making the night enjoyable for the wait-staff. Either way, new, interesting and now identifiable.

Sunset in the Old Mill, last stop on our walking food tour

At green lakes

We've made a number of plans to keep being outside and exploring activities and places we'd always wanted to while also revisiting others. The July calendar is starting to look like a 3-4 day cycle of: pack car, travel/camp/hike/eat food/enjoy/travel, unpack car, go to grocery store, pet/feed/water cats, repeat. There's something a bit strange in traveling a bunch before setting out on the cross-country drive, but perhaps we can think of it in a "saddle time" kind of way...

Canoodling in Oregon

You may recall, we took ceremonial possession of Joe's canoe a few years back...Joe and Pat managed to find a system for the truck and then also for storing it in our very well-organized but cramped garage while I was away.

Since I've been back on the left coast we've been considering taking the canoe up to the lakes. We've been having some lovely weather and so my ability to protest regarding wind, rain, or sore muscles due to yard work was significantly diminished.

It was much lighter and easier to take down than I thought it would be from the garage ceiling perch that Joe and his Dad designed. Getting it up and down from the truck also proved to be relatively easy.  We received a number of glowing compliments as we walked it into the lake--it made us quite proud.

And for very little effort we were rewarded with a new view of the mountains and an island lunch break.

Not too bad.

We've mostly been taking mornings off here and there to do short hikes and such since this is now a thing:

But after 6 days on the market we received an offer this afternoon--apparently we aren't the only ones that like the canoe because it was written into the offer, right next to the washer and dryer. Clearly we will be countering.

I'd be very happy to go into contract after a week, because showings have meant dealing with the cats and quite frankly I have become the craziest cat lady on the block--although Joe got a turn yesterday.

Over the border

I wrote about how we had tried to hop the river and see the sites when Joe came to visit me while doing fieldwork. It was going to be quite a headache, so we opted against it. Well, we made good on our decision to try again and spent spring break on a whirlwind tour of some select spots. It was a fabulous way to meet in the middle (as it were) and for me to take a break from being professor...for a whole week!



It was absolutely stunning. We relaxed lakeside, nestled into volcanoes. We traversed a volcano and visited nearby villages. We kept the local breweries in business. We stumbled around cobblestone streets (no relation to beer consumption). We stared at ancient sites while being serenaded by howler monkeys. We hammocked. We snorkeled the reef with sharks, stingrays, turtles and colorful fish. And I still have sand in my shoes and the smell of sunscreen in all of my clothes.

Lago Atitlan

In Antigua

Shadows in Antigua

Arch with volcano shadow - Antigua

Tikal

Tikal

Main Plaza in Tikal

No subir

My Star Wars shot!

Incoming storm, Belize

Pelican

Hammocking

Brilliant seating

Coozies in Caye Caulker

Sunset, last night in Belize

Sunrise en route to Airport

We ate a lot of plantains and tortillas and I drank or ate my way through my weight in tropical fruit. Oh pineapple juice! The rest of our trip can be viewed on the trip photo site (link to right).

My nose is back against the grindstone and I am counting the days (25, lest you wonder) until I am on a plane home.

While keeping my Spanish fresh

This horrible truth.