Friday, August 31, 2012

The Last of Our Vacation

We were having so much fun on our trip, but like all good things, it had to come to an end.

Meg and Janet did a few bike rides together.  The last one they did was from Hood River to Mosier, about 5 miles in each direction.  The really cool part about this bike ride was they could leave from our rental house and bike to the start of the actual road, which is now a State Park and National Historic Sight.  The original road was built in 1913 and in the '60s was closed as there was a new interstate highway.  There were two tunnels that were filled in.  A few years ago, with donations, the tunnels were cleared out and the road re-opened - to foot and bike passengers only.
Phil and our new son-in-law, Derek wishing them a good ride!
Here is Meg, on the bike ride.  What is it about our children that draws them to the edge of cliffs.  This was as close as Janet was prepared to go.

Noodles didn't read the instruction booklet that came with the house, so Janet was really busy getting rid of all evidence that she had slept on the sofa.  She was good with the floor during the day, but snuck up on the sofa when everyone had gone to bed.
We were sad to leave our cute house with such a great location - except for those killer stairs that lead to downtown.

See our steep driveway?  We don't have a bike rack, so Phil removed the tires from Janet's bike to drive to Hood River.  He put the tires back on the bike at the top of the driveway and told Janet to start at the top and go for a short spin to make sure everything was working well.  Wisely, Janet took it to the street below and guess what?  One of the brakes wasn't hooked up!  More and more, we are inclined to think Phil has secretly upped Janet's life insurance!
Meg and Derek left on Sunday, so Meg and Janet went on Saturday to the Outlet Mall, Grocery Store and "Mother Daughter Pedis"!
The first time all of the girls and Janet went for "Mother Daughter Pedis", Meg was going nuts when they touched her feet.  She was so ticklish, she could hardly sit still.  Meg bought some super-cute sandals in Hood River that will look great with her pedi!

Pretty!
On Sunday, Bronwyn, Mike, Janet, Noodles and Pash went for a hike.  Janet used to say she was afraid of heights.  She no longer thinks she is afraid.  She now knows she is terrified!  The photo below shows the only flat, non cliff portion of the hike, that took about 3 minutes to do.  The rest of the hike was on a pathway that hugged one side of the mountain with sheer cliff drop offs on the other side.  They went for about 1 1/2 miles up the mountain until Janet (with an even greater upcoming cliff view in sight) declined to go any further.
It was really pretty, but Janet wasn't brave enough to let go of the shrubbery long enough to take any more photos.
On the way up, and down, Janet hugged the side of the mountain as close as possible.  One passerby pointed out there were Poison Oak warnings posted, but she said **** it, she was taking her chances with Poison Oak.  Other people that might have wanted to hug the side of the mountain were out of luck as Janet was holding on like grim death and nothing short of shooting her would convince her to let go.

As Janet is typing this for us, she clearly made it out - and we might add, without benefit of a helicopter rescue.



Friday, August 24, 2012

We Are Having Fun!

In Hood River, there are a series of stair cases that can take you from one street to the next.  If we want to go downtown, we have to take the longest of all the staircases.  We could also walk around, on the street, but Rockers is not supposed to walk for more than 20 minutes.  The stairs it is!
See how big it is?

Almost all of the stairs are concrete, with the exception of about 10 or 12 at the bottom that are open metal gridding.  We do NOT like these metal stairs and are trying to go down as fast as is possible.  When Noodles gets close to the bottom, she goes on the path beside the stairs.

After we get to the bottom of the stairs, we are in downtown.  Meg, Derek and Janet took us to go to the bakery to get some bread and some iced coffee.  Phil decided to stay and be active by going up and down the stairs.  Who shall we see upon our return - Mr. Fit as a Fiddle, or Mr. In the Back of an Ambulance?  Turned out he was still upright.

We saw this really cute guy downtown.
In the afternoon, Meg and Janet rode their bikes to the Farmers Market.  Look what they saw:
Janet says she wants a bunny, and a kitty, and a horse, and a goat and some chickens and.....

Fortunately, this little bunny was in focus, unlike to two above.  As you can see, Janet's photo skills remain at an incredibly bad level.  This little cutie was 6 weeks old.
Here is Meg, dancing and singing at our vacation rental.  Janet thinks Meg gets her irrepressible enthusiasm and spontaneity from her.  Please, Janet, give your head a shake.  Who in their right mind would put Janet and spontaneous in the same sentence unless the word "not" was included.
Noodles has no clue what she is doing.  Enthusiastic, absolutely.  Great singing voice, maybe not so much.  Hang onto that day job, sister!

This is how we rock in Hood River - this is Derek's idea of a really great gift.  He was pretty excited!
Two big containers of Darigold Chocolate Milk!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

More Great Days in Hood River

On Monday, Meg and Janet went for a fun bike ride.  Here are some of the really nice things they saw:
Pears, ripening on the tree.

All the cherries have been harvested.  These ones, which are perfect now, must have been too small at the time.

Check out these cuties!  There was a third one they thought was pregnant as she was a much fatter goat than these two.

That is Meg's cute bum in the forefront, but check out the beautiful orchards ahead of her.

On Tuesday, Bronwyn came back with Pash.  She, Janet and the three of us doggies went on a little car trip, to take in the local scenery.
Can you see all three of us, jammed into the back of Bronwyns Mikes car?  Ouch, it's crowded!

This is taken from the highest vantage point on their little trip.  Crazy Lady had to get Bronwyn to take the photo as she was too afraid to go the edge - it had a big stone wall!

The people decided part way through the little trip it was too crowded for three dogs in the back of the Sube.  Guess which dog gets to upgrade to the backseat - the car owners dog!  Noodles spent the rest of the trip glaring at Pash through the dog gate.
After our trip to Mosier and Rowena. we stopped at the State Campground they used to stay at the first time they came to Hood River, about 30 years ago.  We, of course, weren't around, but Janet says they had a lot of fun.
This tent trailer is not unlike the one they used to have.  They also had a tent, that two children slept in.  Looks like fun...wish we could do that now!
Here is Meg, the new Phil from the early '80's...shreddin'!


Last, this is the sunrise from our bedroom at our vacation house rental.  Isn't it beautiful?



Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Our Excellent Adventure Moves to Hood River

With great sadness, (not really - this is the first time we have ever seen Janet smile at 8 in the morning!) we left  Ocean Shores and headed to Portland and then Hood River.  We met up with Mike and Bronwyn at Podnahs' Restaurant in Portland - best BBQ in town!  Janet ordered the same thing she always orders, Brisket Cobb Salad.
It comes with house made blue cheese dressing.
Off to Hood River!  We easily found our vacation rental house, and it is nice.  Meg and Derek arrived shortly after.
Here's Rube, checking out the situation at our rental the next morning.
The next morning, Bronwyn and Mike arrived for the day and with Janet and Meg, they set off to do a hike.  Pash and Noodles also got to go.  I had to stay home because of my bad leg and Ruby had to stay home because she is Ruby, plus she's really old.
Bronwyn was choosing the hike, so Janet was very specific about it - no cliff edges because Janet is afraid of heights, afraid of bugs, afraid of rodents, afraid......never mind, you get the picture!

You can't tell from Janet's photo, but behind Bronwyn at the edge of the big boulder was a sheer drop off into a river, far, far below.  Janet was unable to show the drop to the river as she was too afraid to get closer.  Janet was having a fit!  Surely, if Janet is afraid of heights, Brownyn should be too, right?

Oh great, Janet is thinking to herself, but wisely said nothing.  Are we lost?  We now have limited water and one granola bar.  She knows they will all say the younger people need the granola bar in case they need to go for help.  Another one of Janet's fears - she will fall and break a leg and will then be at the mercy of two of her daughters to haul her to safety.  What if they have bad, unresolved childhood memories, percolating just below the surface?  Will they drag carry Janet to safety as comfortable as possible, or will it be pay back time?

Whew!  They found their way out.  What do they do after the big hike?  Same thing they always do in Hood River - they go the Taqueria Hood River and enjoy some excellent Mexican food.
Janet had what she always has, Taco Salad.
Bonus about this restaurant - dogs are allowed on the patio!  Normally, Noodles would misbehave as it's her nature, but she was far too exhausted from the hike.




Saturday, August 18, 2012

Noodles and Rockers Excellent Adventure!

What a surprise!  We were caught off guard as Janet and Phil were packing up the good ol' Volvo on Thursday night from the basement!  We should have known better - first off, where is the Leaf?

Anyhow, Our People got up at 4:35AM on Friday morning and were in a bit of a panic.  This is weird.  We finally put the pieces together - we are going on a road trip!  Yay!!

We took the ferry to Port Angeles and spent a very leisurely day checking out State Parks and camp grounds.  Lucky Rubs - she has a road AND a beach named after her! 
Where the ****  is Noodles Road and Rockers Road!?!

Not to mention Noodles Beach and Rockers Beach!  We would also be happy with Noodles and Rockers Beach.  We don't each need our own.
  One of the highlights was Rialto Beach.
Here are Phil and I taking photos.  Noodles was off with Janet, being a major pain in the you know what.  Noodles is in her worst  behaviour mode.  This was a really beautiful beach.  You can barely see the rock outcrops at the top of the photo - Janet thought I was the most important part of the photo.
Janet and Phil  researched, for a couple of days, a place to stay on the Peninsula  for one night.  In the end, they Phil decided on Ocean Shores, Washington.  Along the entire coast, Janet said dog friendly hotels were few and far between on such short notice.

Almost as soon as they turned off the road to go to Ocean Shores, it was like driving into a huge fog bank.  Goodbye sun and blue sky and hello low grey ceiling with so much moisture it was almost like rain.  Our first clue!

Ocean Shores  turned out to be a major disaster.  Janet and Phil were envisioning a quaint and charming ocean side village. Wrong!  Envision faded glory, that was  faded more than 15 years ago.

We checked into our hotel - Ocean Shores Inn and Suites - sounds good, right?  We could tell Janet wanted to cry.  The very first thing Rockers did was try to pee on the green carpet!  Janet was very angry!  She hauled Rockers outside really quick.  Perhaps he thought the "lovely" green carpet was grass?
They really enjoyed the retro tube TV.

The only food prepared in the kitchen was our Doggie Chicken Tartare.

Check out the foil lining on the stove top!
Oh dear...and if this wasn't bad enough, here are the next door neighbours:
They had two chairs in a parking spot at our dump "inn and suites" watching the .....cars go by?  They were in their pajamas and enjoyed their cigarettes and brewski all afternoon in front of our unit.   Now, Janet did cry.
There were a number of lovely dining opportunities to choose from, including the one below.  Oddly enough, Janet and Phil opted not to go to Sharkeys.  Janet said she was really glad they didn't do this trip 25 years ago, in which case, our children would have outvoted her and Sharkeys it would be!
Instead they went to Bennett's Shrimp Shack:

Before the trip, Janet said she was going to check out alternate dog friendly hotels for the next time we went to Ocean Shores.  Five minutes into town., she told Phil that was not happening....they were NOT going back again.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Janet's Expensive Vegetables

Earlier this summer, Phil bought two raised garden beds for Janet to put in the vegetable garden.  The old beds were made of wood, that over the course of time, rotted.  When the beds arrived, Phil lost said the screws to hold them together were missing.  He ordered more screws, which took quite a bit of time to arrive.  After that, Phil ordered some gardening soil, which he hauled to the new raised beds.  A lot of time has now passed by.

Janet thinks she is a lame vegetable gardener, but we think that is an insult to people who actually are lame.   She needs to do a lot of hard work to elevate her skill level to lame!

This is what the "Victory Garden" looks like to date.  See those teeny, tiny little plants on the far left?  Janet says they are carrots.  Janet also says she might be harvesting them in November!  If  they were banking on the bounty from this pathetic display, both of them would weigh 95 pounds!
The bottom line on Janet's little garden is that it was planted way, way too late.  Then came Meg and Derek's wedding and the whole thing was pretty much forgotten.
We heard Janet tell Phil that she thinks the radishes may be the only thing to come to fruition, and that being the case, she said each radish has cost about $50!  Our nephew, Brad is a excellent vegetable gardener and he has already told Janet he will help her next year.  Please, please, Janet - take Brad up on his offer!

Noodles and Janet went for a walk over by the Marina, and look who they bumped into:
It's Neighbour Wendy and Mr. David Burr! We like them!  Neighbour Wendy had a little doggie, named Druce.  Druce was really cute and old and has gone to Doggie Heaven.  Funny thing about Druce, even with the loss of eyesight, Druce was still able to guide visitors to the cookie jar!
It looks nice and sunny out, but we had another thunder storm!  We hardly ever get thunder storms, but have had three this summer.  We were nervous!  Janet stayed with us in the kitchen so we could calm down.
Janet and Phil had lunch at their favourite pizza place.  They had a delicious appetizer special of crostini.  The bread was topped with Heirloom tomatoes, pulled prosciutto, fresh cheese, basil and onions.  There were a total of four pieces, but they are such pigs, they inhaled the first two before taking a photo.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

It's a Hot Day In Victoria

We do not often get days that can be considered really hot - today is one of those days.

We started off the morning with me giving Janet the really, great big puppy dog eyes.  She is a major sucker and before you know it, breakfast is on the floor. It's actually shocking how quickly she falls for this routine.  We think it's a good thing her children didn't do the big puppy dog eye gig when they were little, or Janet would have been toast.
Seriously, who could deny me?  Do you think I need braces?  I see in my photo that a couple of my teeth are misaligned.
I had to eat my breakfast in my jail as Noodles wasn't in the kitchen and Janet didn't want me slipping and sliding around the house until Noodles showed up.  After breakfast, Janet let me out of the jail.  Noodles, little pig that she is, had to finish up the tiny bit of food in my bowl.  She knocked over the jail wall by accident, and boy, did she jump!
Oh well, now that it's knocked over, I may as well continue cleaning my brothers bowl.

Phil has been working on inputting new listings onto his website and he is wilting by the minute.
Yesterday, he had on an outfit that was marginally better than this one.  Janet told him he looks like a welfare recipient today.  He doesn't seem too bothered about it. Maybe that's his retirement plan?
Noodles and I did our best to pitch in and give him a hand so he could get out of the heat. 
Noodles did him one better and went outside to actually "relax" on the hot deck.  She is panting like crazy, but won't come into the house.
I am smart enough to stay in the relatively cool dining room.  Phil hooked me up with his phone and headset so I can take his calls.  "WOOF!  Thanks for calling, Rockers speaking!"
Phil always does this to us, and Janet thinks it's mean.  She immediately set Noodles ears free.  I can only go on walks that are not longer than 20 minutes right now.  Janet almost always takes Noodles for at least another 20 minutes, but Janet has to literally drag her until Noodles knows she is on her way home.
Look what Janet made for their supper:
Crabcakes with a Chili Mayo sauce, potato salad and the first fresh, local corn.  They love corn season!  I had our usual Chicken Tartare with Seasonal Vegetable Melange.  Noodles has a sore tummy, so she is eating Locally Sourced Ground Beef with Steamed Brown Rice and Organic Cottage Cheese.  Sounds fancy!
Last but not least, here is our Aunt T when she was here for Meg and Derek's wedding.  She made our Chicken Tartare.  Janet was happy as normally Phil does it, but he was too busy.
Aunt T even looks like she might be enjoying it!