Portland Day two
Aug. 16th, 2016 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessBut before I go into that I wish I could bitch about something that happened at work but since I'm not supposed to know about it yet....
I did find out I AM @300$ short of my insurance deductible so I guess I will have to buy those pills. And I didn't know whether to laugh or cry but I got a letter from work saying I'll be making 4% less than what my contract says I'm supposed to be (which is better than last year when I made 7% less) and in that letter was an 'insurance' sort of card that gets me access to mental health counseling.
My new (used) stove is in. It's an older Kenmore with an analog dial instead of digital. Let's hope it holds up. First Landlord is all 'what happened to your back door?' Dude for TEN years I've been telling you it got warped by rain and last year you killed carpenter ants here. Remember?? I showed you then that the door frame is totally eaten away. I had to tell him that four times today. He also didn't want to remove the stove. Oh it's just one burner that's bad. Maybe I can fix it. No LL, the wiring burnt. I'm not turning the power back on to that thing. Oh and the oven coils are burnt out. 'But I just replaced them!' Yeah but I TOLD you. The arcing burner put a hole in a stock pot which FLOODED the whole stove. Then he looks and goes, oh I see it burned a hole in the top of the stove (no shit) and his helper looks and goes how did this not burn down the house? I'm FAST and I'm smart and I stopped it okay? So now I have a stove and a promise to fix the door before winter that no one believes will happen.
Also Loot Crate tricked me a bit. I thought (and it is my mistake) that if you signed up for 1 month at a time (which is the most expensive) you got to pick and choose which crates to buy because if you wanted to buy them all why the hell not signed up for the cheaper multiple months. I'll cancel that soon and just resign up whenever I want a crate. BUT they were very fast on the customer service when I said I didn't get my crate which was a mistake on their end.
And see I DID drive into a
tornado.
So on to Portland!
Day two: Random things the tour guide said I should Google: that the two founders of Portland wanted to name the city after their home towns back east, Portland Maine and Boston. It was decided on a coin flip. And that in the 1890s there was one bar for every forty people.
Today's trip was back to the Gorge then out to Mount Hood. I couldn't find a trip that didn't have that overlap and I figured I could hardly complain about going back to those lovely falls. Which is what we did. Did I mention yesterday that the Gorge is the only sea level passage in the Cascades and that it is volcanic in nature? Oregon is in the ring of fire. The gorge has over 800 varieties of wild flowers (but all I saw was freaking Queen Anne's lace which I can see in acres around my place). Did I mention that Oregon produces most of America's Hazelnuts (Filberts as they call them there)? This tour, Wildwood Adventures, gave us baggies of them. Yum.
So I went back to all the same falls as the day before (and unfortunately this tour guide was young and a bit insecure, constantly asking me how his tour stacked up against my first on in this area. How many ways can I say you’re both good before I say the other tour guide was better because he wasn't constantly asking me to compare?!?). I didn't mention yesterday there were Wahkeena falls and Bridal Veil Falls as well which we drove past and nearly 80 falls in total. (I wouldn't mind staying in the gorge area and seeing all the falls and doing some of the trails IF I were in better shape.) Also in the area was Shepard's Den, a wooded area with a fall (duh) set aside by Mr. Shepard for his wife Anne after she passed as a memorial. It worked since we're still discussing her a hundred years later. Also there is a convent/Catholic school that owns a private fall, Coopy falls, the only non-Public falls (Oregonians seem big on public ownership vs private privilege).
I felt a wee bit bad as I held up the tour in Multnomah. I got trapped in the gift shop getting something for dad :( Other random facts about the area: The Columbia River has legends of water monsters ala Nessie which have been known to snatch underwater welders off their security lines, and the welders are unsure just what happened. We do have seals and sea lions that do swim up river and sturgeon that can get over fifteen feet for those looking for a less cryptozoological answer. Speaking of cryptos, Oregon IS Big Foot country, and our guide had a few unexplained happenings with his friends out hiking, like unknown sounds, broken trees, decapitated rabbits and their camp being ringed and the things with the glowing eyes not running at the sound of gun fire.
From there we were off to Mt Hood, over an hour away. Mt. Hood has its own cloud system sometimes, even on clear days. On our way up we went through the 'fruit loop' as tons of apples and pears are grown here along with cherries, blueberries and black berries (in fact owning a U pick it 'farmette' on your land is a way to greatly reduce your outlandish property taxes. OR has no sales tax but makes up for it in very high property and personal income taxes).
We stopped in Hood River which I loved. It was cute town. I ate at the Full Sail brewery (I've had their beer before. The one thing Portland has no shortage of is brew pubs, no, make that all of Oregon). I got their session wheat and a hummus platter. YUM.
We also stopped at a cider place in the fruit loop. By then I was a bit tired from lunch and wasn't overwhelmed by their 10$+ jellies/butters. What I didn't know was the cider house was fermented cider. Oops. From there we continued the ascent to the Timberline Lodge.
The Timberline's exterior was used as the Overlook's in The Shining. From the outside the Timberline isn't much to look at but it was built in the 1930s as a back to work Depression thing entirely by hand. It had to be impossible, grueling work and the inside of the hotel (which had no vacancies) was really nice. Mt. Hood has a year round skiing and they average 33 feet of snow. Skiing is actually free here. You only have to pay for the ski lift. Across from it you can see Mt Jefferson and the Sisters mountains. In the 1950s the Timberline fell into disrepair used as a gambling hall and prostitution (I assume they were servicing the gamblers because there's shit-all else up there). Finally smart people realized what a great location this was (I'm not sure who thought it was a great place to build in the 1930s. Was skiing that big then??). I have to say I was slightly disappointed in a couple things. Mt Hood was prettier at a distance. Up close it was just grey rock and snow cap, not particularly pretty. I was also disappointed we had only 20 minutes there. I know there was 3 hours of travel time to and from Portland (not counting our stops on the way) but for 130$ I would have liked time to at least hike around on the mountain. Others agreed. I guess I should have asked was there just a half day trip to the mountain or something. Oh well, still over all it was good.
Other random facts to look up, the Oneonata falls in the gorge have unique species living there and in Portland there is the world's smallest park, Mill's end which is big enough for just one person.
I forgot this last time. My bacon maple bar from Voo Doo Donuts (yes it's blurry, told you, my hand shakes too much)
Just some random art across from the The Nines Hotel.
Another shot of Columbia Gorge from the Vista House
I liked how hazy this Gorge pic was.
Another one at Horsetail Falls
Hood River, really liked this town.
Timberline lodge
Mount Hood
Mount Hood
Me & the mountain
Mount Jefferson & the sisters
I did find out I AM @300$ short of my insurance deductible so I guess I will have to buy those pills. And I didn't know whether to laugh or cry but I got a letter from work saying I'll be making 4% less than what my contract says I'm supposed to be (which is better than last year when I made 7% less) and in that letter was an 'insurance' sort of card that gets me access to mental health counseling.
My new (used) stove is in. It's an older Kenmore with an analog dial instead of digital. Let's hope it holds up. First Landlord is all 'what happened to your back door?' Dude for TEN years I've been telling you it got warped by rain and last year you killed carpenter ants here. Remember?? I showed you then that the door frame is totally eaten away. I had to tell him that four times today. He also didn't want to remove the stove. Oh it's just one burner that's bad. Maybe I can fix it. No LL, the wiring burnt. I'm not turning the power back on to that thing. Oh and the oven coils are burnt out. 'But I just replaced them!' Yeah but I TOLD you. The arcing burner put a hole in a stock pot which FLOODED the whole stove. Then he looks and goes, oh I see it burned a hole in the top of the stove (no shit) and his helper looks and goes how did this not burn down the house? I'm FAST and I'm smart and I stopped it okay? So now I have a stove and a promise to fix the door before winter that no one believes will happen.
Also Loot Crate tricked me a bit. I thought (and it is my mistake) that if you signed up for 1 month at a time (which is the most expensive) you got to pick and choose which crates to buy because if you wanted to buy them all why the hell not signed up for the cheaper multiple months. I'll cancel that soon and just resign up whenever I want a crate. BUT they were very fast on the customer service when I said I didn't get my crate which was a mistake on their end.
And see I DID drive into a
tornado.
So on to Portland!
Day two: Random things the tour guide said I should Google: that the two founders of Portland wanted to name the city after their home towns back east, Portland Maine and Boston. It was decided on a coin flip. And that in the 1890s there was one bar for every forty people.
Today's trip was back to the Gorge then out to Mount Hood. I couldn't find a trip that didn't have that overlap and I figured I could hardly complain about going back to those lovely falls. Which is what we did. Did I mention yesterday that the Gorge is the only sea level passage in the Cascades and that it is volcanic in nature? Oregon is in the ring of fire. The gorge has over 800 varieties of wild flowers (but all I saw was freaking Queen Anne's lace which I can see in acres around my place). Did I mention that Oregon produces most of America's Hazelnuts (Filberts as they call them there)? This tour, Wildwood Adventures, gave us baggies of them. Yum.
So I went back to all the same falls as the day before (and unfortunately this tour guide was young and a bit insecure, constantly asking me how his tour stacked up against my first on in this area. How many ways can I say you’re both good before I say the other tour guide was better because he wasn't constantly asking me to compare?!?). I didn't mention yesterday there were Wahkeena falls and Bridal Veil Falls as well which we drove past and nearly 80 falls in total. (I wouldn't mind staying in the gorge area and seeing all the falls and doing some of the trails IF I were in better shape.) Also in the area was Shepard's Den, a wooded area with a fall (duh) set aside by Mr. Shepard for his wife Anne after she passed as a memorial. It worked since we're still discussing her a hundred years later. Also there is a convent/Catholic school that owns a private fall, Coopy falls, the only non-Public falls (Oregonians seem big on public ownership vs private privilege).
I felt a wee bit bad as I held up the tour in Multnomah. I got trapped in the gift shop getting something for dad :( Other random facts about the area: The Columbia River has legends of water monsters ala Nessie which have been known to snatch underwater welders off their security lines, and the welders are unsure just what happened. We do have seals and sea lions that do swim up river and sturgeon that can get over fifteen feet for those looking for a less cryptozoological answer. Speaking of cryptos, Oregon IS Big Foot country, and our guide had a few unexplained happenings with his friends out hiking, like unknown sounds, broken trees, decapitated rabbits and their camp being ringed and the things with the glowing eyes not running at the sound of gun fire.
From there we were off to Mt Hood, over an hour away. Mt. Hood has its own cloud system sometimes, even on clear days. On our way up we went through the 'fruit loop' as tons of apples and pears are grown here along with cherries, blueberries and black berries (in fact owning a U pick it 'farmette' on your land is a way to greatly reduce your outlandish property taxes. OR has no sales tax but makes up for it in very high property and personal income taxes).
We stopped in Hood River which I loved. It was cute town. I ate at the Full Sail brewery (I've had their beer before. The one thing Portland has no shortage of is brew pubs, no, make that all of Oregon). I got their session wheat and a hummus platter. YUM.
We also stopped at a cider place in the fruit loop. By then I was a bit tired from lunch and wasn't overwhelmed by their 10$+ jellies/butters. What I didn't know was the cider house was fermented cider. Oops. From there we continued the ascent to the Timberline Lodge.
The Timberline's exterior was used as the Overlook's in The Shining. From the outside the Timberline isn't much to look at but it was built in the 1930s as a back to work Depression thing entirely by hand. It had to be impossible, grueling work and the inside of the hotel (which had no vacancies) was really nice. Mt. Hood has a year round skiing and they average 33 feet of snow. Skiing is actually free here. You only have to pay for the ski lift. Across from it you can see Mt Jefferson and the Sisters mountains. In the 1950s the Timberline fell into disrepair used as a gambling hall and prostitution (I assume they were servicing the gamblers because there's shit-all else up there). Finally smart people realized what a great location this was (I'm not sure who thought it was a great place to build in the 1930s. Was skiing that big then??). I have to say I was slightly disappointed in a couple things. Mt Hood was prettier at a distance. Up close it was just grey rock and snow cap, not particularly pretty. I was also disappointed we had only 20 minutes there. I know there was 3 hours of travel time to and from Portland (not counting our stops on the way) but for 130$ I would have liked time to at least hike around on the mountain. Others agreed. I guess I should have asked was there just a half day trip to the mountain or something. Oh well, still over all it was good.
Other random facts to look up, the Oneonata falls in the gorge have unique species living there and in Portland there is the world's smallest park, Mill's end which is big enough for just one person.
I forgot this last time. My bacon maple bar from Voo Doo Donuts (yes it's blurry, told you, my hand shakes too much)
Just some random art across from the The Nines Hotel.
Another shot of Columbia Gorge from the Vista House
I liked how hazy this Gorge pic was.
Another one at Horsetail Falls
Hood River, really liked this town.
Timberline lodge
Mount Hood
Mount Hood
Me & the mountain
Mount Jefferson & the sisters
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no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 02:22 pm (UTC)Sorry about work. We get a $1 an hour raise spread out over THREE years, That's not a $1 each year, but 50 cents the first year & then rest broken up over 2. And the company acts like they're giving us a $100 raise every 6 weeks. >.> Plus they think nothing of cutting everyone's hours down. The only ones who don't get cut only work 4 hours a day & if they could make everyone work that little they would. >.> Plus they gave this woman I used to worked with a very HARD TIME about ending up in the hospital with a serious kidney problem, that left her on dialysis, for 2 weeks. The woman nearly died & the company was put out by her taking sooo much TIME OFF. >.>
Anyway... YAY! for a new old stove! May it be safer & work better than what you had! Hopefully they can fix your door soon too.
LOVE the photos!! It sounds & looks like you had an awesoem time on your vaycay!! :D So what does a bacon donut taste like? Forget about being Jewish, food allergies keep me from eating bacon. XD Just being around cooking bacon makes me lightheaded & unable to breathe. XD
no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 05:53 pm (UTC)companies don't give two shits about any of us.
Here's hoping this stove holds out.
Is it the nitrites in the bacon that you're allergic to? they're in lunch meat too. It tasted like bacon on a maple donut.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 05:18 pm (UTC)*giggles 'I have the answer because I binge on American Experience!'*
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) during the Dirty Thirties (see above American Experience bingeing*) commissioned out-of-work people in the Dust Bowl to build things like where you went and high schools and things like that. So, yes, it was all built by hand and tons of time went into it because they were only making $25/hr and sent most of it back to their families.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-16 05:55 pm (UTC)