Before it Begins

This past weekend (my "weekend" being Friday and Saturday - a schedule thing), Josh and I headed out of town to get some one-on-one time together. Josh is starting to take the prep classes for the Washington Bar exam. The classes and studying for the bar is super intense - i.e. imagine finals time but extended for about 7-8 weeks. With all this starting Monday, 6/7 we thought we'd go on a mini-trip before it all begins (okay, technically it's started already. Sorry I lagged getting this post written).

It was actually a last minute deal for us. We thought about going on a trip, but didn't have any specific plans until the night before heading out - very spontaneous for us. We had specific criteria and sorted through a few ideas, but we ended up deciding on The Dalles area. Basically, eastern Oregon. We found a cute hotel online in Dufur (eh hem, not dufus).

Before leaving, Josh setup a system where we could upload photos to my Flickr site, which then updated a website all using our iPhone cameras as well as my fabulous iPad (tech geeks!). We vowed to take pictures every hour on the hour so our trip was documented in photos. You can see this at our Hours in the Dalles website, thedalles.joshwbrown.com. Note the copyright line - that's all Josh. See what law school does to people!

By 1pm Friday we were on the road with iPhones in hand. As we reached the Gorge area, we started to make random stops whenever we saw something beautiful or cool. This started at the Lewis and Clark park and then some following viewpoints. We made a stop in Hood River for a walk around town and for some grub. We ate at a nice placed called Brian's Pourhouse where we shared some tasty pizza and salad. Then we headed back on to the road toward our final destination of the day, Dufur.

As we reached the road from The Dalles to Dufur, we were gifted with some incredible lighting. The sun came out, but the night clouds were out in the distance. Not to sound too British, but it was quite lovely. Once we reached our hotel, The Balch Hotel, I ran out to take photos of the nearby silos and farm stuff (tractors 'n stuff). In anticipation to your question: No, we didn't stay on an actual farm. We actually stayed in a historic hotel. In fact, it's in the National Register of Historic Places - totally true...there is a placard on the front near the door to verify this fact. However, this meant no television or phones. Not to fret though, there was wireless Internet and with our iPhones and my iPad we were covered.

The hotel owners were quite delightful people - Samantha and Jeff. To start, they hooked me us up with a discount (always a plus in my book). They were the most hospital people offering us cookies, giving a whole hotel tour, etc. There weren't a bunch of other guests, but they were all very pleasant. It was interesting to talk to the other guests and hear all their stories and whatnot.

Included in our stay was a full three-course breakfast. Before eating, Josh and I headed outdoors since it was the annual Tour de Hood bicycle ride. There was a rest stop at the hotel for the bikers. These were the recreational bikers, but the pros turned up the road. Some of the guests at the hotel had a daughter that was running the tour (not running literally, but manage it, etc). Apparently she was a very talents biker and was runner up for the Olympics - cool stuff.

Anyway, fast forward to breakfast. We started with some fruit-nut parfaits, followed by a potato-spinach-feta frittata and a toffee nut coffeecake. All the guests were served and we sat and chatted it up. With full tummies, we took a few more pictures and headed out.

On the return route, we took a brief detour to the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. As we neared lunchtime, we opted for a meal in Hood River again. This time we ate at a British Pub called Horse and Hound.

After lunch we continued back on the Oregon side. I was driving and made a few random stops including the Bridge of Gods. I also make an impulse stop at the Horsetail Falls. Then I persuaded Josh to go with me on the upper trail hike. At the top, we saw the...wait for it...the back side of water (Disneyland, I miss you). There is a quick video on my Flickr site as well.

The final, and not any less important stop, was YoCream. Oh yea, that's right; can't miss the froyo. To top it off, there was my favorite cookies 'n cream. Heaven. In. A. Cup. I contemplated trying to transport it home, but decided it sadly wouldn't survive the 2 something hour drive.

That's about it. A one-night outing, but a fabulous time. I think the great weather really helped too. We've had some unusually late rain here in Eugene (makes me feel better to here the locals say this is unusual). It seems like this weekend may have been the turning point in the weather and we'll be getting some better weather now.

Don't forget to browse my photo album on Flickr. I took the site pro this weekend just so you could see more pictures. Enjoy!

The Graduate

Josh wasn't Dustin Hoffman this past weekend, but he was a graduate. An official graduate of the University of Oregon Law School. Three cheers! Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray! Hip Hip Hurray! For he's a jolly good fellow! And all that jazz.

Yes, we are all excited. Josh even got excited once finals were over. Graduation called for big time celebration. All the families convened to make this one dang special event. My parents and Josh's parents all flew up for the ceremonies and festivities. Although it rained, it did not rain on our parade (I really need to stop these pop culture references, huh? I think I'm so clever sometimes).

My mom was the first to arrive on Thursday late afternoon. Before we did the Josh-centric weekend, we took a few hours to have mother-daughter bonding time. Although my mom's flight was a few hours delayed, we managed to get our mani/pedi time. While we were indulging a bit, Josh's parents arrived. While my mom and I were bonding, Josh spent some parent-bonding time as well. Thursday dinner I took my mom on a Heather favorites spree - Yi Shen for dinner and TCBY for dessert. Then we did mini / pseudo shopping at the Dollar Tree. Thursday was just the beginning of the fun though.

Friday I had to work in the morning until 10:30am. That's no biggie though (plus I still have to bring in the big bucks - I refrained for saying SBux). We all gathered at our little place and headed out to a lunch in the wine country. I had made some lovely reservations at King Estate Winery. I had been there previously and it was quite enjoyable. This time wasn't quite the same. We look back and laugh, but our food took forever and it wasn't that tasty. However, we did get a free bottle of wine - not too shabby (and make some of us happier). The view was also nice.

After a ehh-lunch experience, we headed to Prince Puckler's to get ice cream (this place was revealed to Don Thursday night apparently and it was love at first bite). We breaked afterwards for some R&R (I have been getting up early a bunch lately and needing nap time). During nap time, my dad arrived too.

Friday dinner things continued and we headed to Humble Beagle. We all enjoyed our first celebratory meal (meaning everyone had now arrived). And this was also the first meal that both sets of parents were together and it went splendidly. Afterwards it was gift time. Josh got to open cards and gifts. I have to say my gift a hit. I just asked Josh as I was typing what his response was and he replied, "overjoyed!" The gift was a Fossil leather laptop briefcase. I also got it a set of ampersand bookends - very artsy and Josh loves ampersands. In addition, the parents got some generous gift certificates and the like. I think Josh felt very happy - see picture.

Saturday was the big day. We started with a hearty breakfast together at Midtown. Josh had to be at the ceremony location, The Hult Center, by 11:30am. We had a bit of time, so we did some roaming at the 5th Street Market. The ceremony began at 1pm. Nada took the lead and I was her trusty right-hand man on getting prime seating in the orchestra area. As the graduates progress to their designated seating, they walked right past our row. Josh almost tripped as we  yelled his name while passing us. Then he got mixed in the sea of jester-like hats below. I spend a large portion of the beginning seeking him out. I found in about the fourth from the right and 2-3 row up - Brown last name you know. A then B (yes, I can spell).

Yada yada yada at the ceremony. Some speaking and reasons why to love law and "go get the world" type stuff, then cheers and progression out. It was blur of photos and smiles, then we were off to the reception. We met some more law friends and ate the small cheese and fruits. Once the formalities were over, we headed to dinner at Red Agave.

It turned out that Josh's two law friends, Katherine and Anne, also reserved tables at Red Agave. We basically took over the restaurant. We all sung Happy Graduation to each of them (think the Birthday song but insert Graduation instead). Dinner was delicious and the drinks tasty - all very much enjoyed.

Saturday concludes the graduation celebration. Don and Nada headed back to Portland airport Sunday morning to head home. However, before driving up they stopped for a fabulous breakast at a place with superb servings: Valley River Starbucks. I'll write a post next on the photos and visits. My parents also joined the fun.

My parents weren't headed out until Monday morning, so Sunday was a low-key but fun day exploring Eugene. I had to work again that morning, but I was able to finish by noon. We ate some lunch, did a tiny hike with views and trees (classic Oregon), and then ended it all with a lovely dinner at Marche.

Oh, I surprised Josh with a graduation banner, balloons, and outside sign with "congrats grad" written everywhere. Cute, right?

Now that graduation is over, it's on the the next phase: the bar. Dun dun dun. Josh has a few days of freedom, but then it's back to the grind. Finishing the bar will require more celebrations, stay tuned.

For you to live some of the celebrations, I have some videos and pictures to share...

The Progression:



JW Brown JD from Nada Brown on Vimeo.

Getting the Degree:



Josh Law Graduation from Heather O'Neill on Vimeo.

And check out some pictures on Flickr.

Family Fun

Sheesh, stop jumping to conclusions. I didn't go to the Family Fun Center or play miniature golf. Actually, it was fun times with family. And not just my immediate family, but all the relatives. This past weekend I was able to fly out to Chicago (elongate the "a" in Chicago as you say it). Not only was it to visit family, but to celebrate some momentous events. Momentous you say? Yes. Grandma Ruth turned 89 years old and Cousin Erin is having her first baby. Let me tell you about the weekend in bullet points - it's the easiest way and not to mention my favorite.

• Traveling: My flight to Chicago started at the wee hours of the morning on Friday. Eh-hem, yes I know I get up early for work and should be used to it. Let me tell you something...you don't get used to it. period. But it was worth it. The itinerary was having me start in Eugene with stops in Denver at then Madison. Denver was being Denver (crazy weather, etc) and my originally on-time flight was late due to our pilot having to slow the speed approaching Denver and then circling until we got clearance. I get off the plane and run to my connecting flight, but it was closed. Luckily I got transferred to a flight straight from Denver to Chicago. Sadly that got delayed with mechanical issues (mention of starting with just one engine as we taxi to the take-off queue - hmm), then it snowed and possible de-ice, and last we had to wait for our turn. Although all this happened, I (A) still got to Chicago by 3:30 when I was original scheduled for 2:30pm - not bad, and (B) I got some awesome views from the plane at Eugene take-off. Please Note: I tried talking to the Eugene representatives about getting on a different flight because of my tight layovers...they said I'd be just fine...yea right! The return flight was only through Denver and both were early arrivals. Not to mention great views again.

• Erin's Baby Shower: The first day was preparing for the shower. We picked up some delicious cupcakes from Sensational Bites (we also snuck in some apple-ras crumble to snack on that night - yum!). And I did some wrapping extravaganza. Saturday we had a luncheon-style baby shower. It went really well. We had some great salads and cupcakes of course. There were also some fabulous games: (1) Name that Baby - everyone brought their own baby picture, we posted them on the wall with numbers, and people had to guess who was who. (2) Sock Laundry Timing - Erin got a buck of baby socks, mixed up, and had to match & fold them while being timed. Beforehand, everyone guessed how long it would take her. (3) Future Baby Story - a sheet with places to guess the baby's life. For instance, favorite subject or activities as a teenager. On the game topic, I did get in 2nd on the Baby Sock game - just 7 seconds off. Then just chit-chating and whatnot. On an ending note, Erin is a beautiful mother-to-be! Oh, and it's a boy!

• Grandma's Party: Immediately after the baby shower was Grandma's birthday party. It was a party day! We headed to Hackneys (more to come of food) where we had a private room for all the relatives to gather. Practically all the family showed up - the Peru Aunts, Bossharts, Lesses, and O'Neills. We enjoyed some catch-up time with all. The cousins formed a table, and we got to have cuz time. I met Scott's girlfriend, Katie, who was super nice. Man, us cousins are growing up. Grandma got some cake and presents. Just a good ole birthday celebration.

• Billy Elliot: Sunday was a day out to downtown Chicago. We headed over to the Theatre District to see Billy Elliot, the Musical. It was playing at the Oriental Theatre which was very cool inside - ornate and classical (ok, I don't know art decor terms, sue me; I think you get it though). The play was great. I enjoyed the ballet and tap dancing. It was a nice balance of singing, dancing, and story-line. All Elton John music too. In a nutshell, very fun and very worth it. I've had the movie from Netflix to watch beforehand since it'd been a while since I saw it. I didn't get to it before, so now I plan to watch it in the next few days. [Side Note: Across the street we made a quick pit-shop in the old Marshall Fields, now Macys - you'll see pictures on Flickr. I also found an interesting article on Frango Mints.]

• Merkner-Time: More family fun! Monday mom, dad, grandma, and I headed out to McHenry-Wauconda area to visit my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sue. I also got to meet their little doggies, PJ and Lulu - very cute. Even more exciting was Uncle Chucks Extensive Train system. It was a whole room dedicated to trains. Literally a whole room. The entire space was filled staring with a table and four different train systems. A little town, noises, controls. Crazy. Then we enjoyed lunch together at a near-by waterfront restaurant, Lindy's Landing.

Uncle Chuck's Train System from Heather O'Neill on Vimeo.

• Baby Time: My Uncle Terry and Kellie have the two most adorable kids. Riley (20 months) and Emily (8 months). I got some quality time with Riley on Monday afternoon. In my life I haven't had many babies around, so it was a special time to get to know my newest cousins. It was so fun to bond with Riley (and she apparently looks like me when I was a baby). We played at the playground - when down a slide, roamed around, we played with all sorts of toys at home, read some books, and I watched her eat some dinner and take a bath. So Cute. I didn't see too much of Emily because the poor thing was not feeling well and Kellie took her to the doctor to get checked out - she's okay though.

• Food: According to my parents, there are some must-go restaurants to "hit-up" when we're in town. I don't know if this requirement comes from some childhood memories, that "these are the best" places to go according to many, or just plain habit. Whatever it may be, we must go every visit. Plus, each restaurant has a very specific item that you should order (emphasis should, I rebel and usually get something different based on my eating habits). Like most trips, we managed to squeeze them all in. Here's the list: (1) Gale Street Inn for ribs, (2) Hackney's for ribs, (3) Portillo's for Italian Beef, and (4) Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza.


• Humor: My uncles have quite a sense of humor. I carried some of this humor back with me. I told the muffin joke and ocean joke to co-workers. They laughed and then said I was goofy. I also showed them the new fist bump, or alternatives to the bump me. Bump it and blow-up and the park-the-bumb.

P.S. Photos on Flickr for viewing. Or check out the video of grandma.

P.P.S. My forefinger feels better from the time off. It gets tired at work holding the milk pitcher and punching at the register. Poor finger.

Northern Exposure

Runners Up (on Blog titles): I had a hard time deciding, so I thought I'd mention these too...Neighborhood Watching, Sleepless in Seattle, Scoping Seattle, and a few others which I've forgotten now so they must not have been that great anyway. Oh and one with following the 5 to the Emerald City, a Wizard of Oz reference. P.S. I didn't watch Northern Exposure so I hope there are no crazy deeper meanings.

The Distance:  The distance between Eugene and Seattle is closer than many would first think. It's actually driveable and takes roughly 4-5 hours. We opted to drive so we had my car and navigation system (we started calling the system Wifey on this trip). Josh did the driving on the way up Friday morning - we got there in 4 hrs 15 mins. I took over the wheel for the majority of the city navigating with some awesome parallel parking. In general, it could probably be called Mrs. O'Neill's wild ride.

Sunday we headed back in the afternoon just in time for the rain to return (so that's an indirect way of saying we had good weather all weekend). And it returned in torrents. The windshield wipers were seemed to be on crack and the rain came down in sheet. Luckily, I got us safely down to Portland. Due to the stressful conditions, Josh took over and drove us safely home. The return drive took roughly 5 hours (longer if you include the stops for gas, dinner, rain, traffic, etc).

Exploration: Take a look at this chart. Now, you can imagine why I was slightly panicked at the amount of exploration and investigation necessary on our ~2 days in Seattle. I calmed down after sitting down and reading though some other articles. And calmed down even more so after talking with our Seattle friend, Andrea. Andrea gave us the low down on all the neighborhoods. In a nutshell, keep north. Our favorite areas included: Ballard, Fremont, Green Lake, Queen Anne (lower), Bellevue, etc. Another fun fact about downtown street names is that they go in twos - two P's, two U's, two M's, and two S's (PUSM sounds funny tho). We now have a much better idea in mind on how the city is setup and where to begin if/when the time comes. Oh, and a Farmer's Market on Sunday = yay!

Non-Exploration: I haven't mentioned yet that Josh's parents were able to join us for our weekend adventure. They were our fearless passengers as we bopped around the city. It was great seeing them and enjoying some time together. Also, we meet up with our friend Andrea for lunch on Saturday (recall: mentioned above she gave some good Seattle tips). We had a nice little lunch catch-up time. We even squeezed in a quick hi and hug with Vince and Jonita, Brown family friends. I guess we not only saw Seattle, but friends/family too!

Food: Nom Nom Nom <-- That's the written version of me munching on tasty food. I imagine you now know that we ate some good food. A few sweet highlights include: banana bread at Columbia City Bakery, orange currant oatmeal cookie and raspberry oat bran muffin from Fresh Flours. As for food, a few savory delights included: crepe at Miro Tea, lunch at Purple Cafe, and dinner at Long Provincial Vietnamese. Seattle definitely has a happenin' foodie scene and the blogs that have been screaming Seattle as the current food trend were not lying.

Frozen Yogurt: I (practically) didn't have this all weekend. Yes, opposed to popular belief I can go without it for a few days without a meltdown. Don't get me wrong, it's tough, but possible. But it turns out Seattle was sadly lacking in this department. I did have the radar turned on though. You probably noticed I put "practically" in parenthesis in the first sentence. This is because I did taste some at a shop in Bellevue called Shnoo. However, I didn't not get a yogurt. For one, it was in the morning and I don't allow myself to eat it before noon (note: a few exceptions). Also, after a taster (or two. ok three), I decided that it wasn't that great. It's the trendy tart stuff and I deemed it just mediocre. Fear not, I have some bookmarked for future ventures north.

Pictures: I'm working on pictures. I forgot my camera, but luckily Don brought his along. I already have a few on Flickr that I took with my iPhone, but more should be coming soon. Keep checking out Flickr.

It was a great weekend and get-away!

Josh & Me in Fremont

Home Sweet Home

This past weekend I was in sunny San Diego. And yes it was sunny - WooHoo! It was a really nice weekend visiting my family in Encinitas and going to my childhood friend's wedding. Rather than have run-on sentences (ok, that'll happen anyway) and unorganized babble, I thought I'd set this up in my favorite style: bullets.

Travel

• I was able to snag a couple days off work and head down Thursday after work and return Sunday. The flight down to SD was like a trip to Europe - it took forever with all the layovers. I had stops in Portland and in San Fran. To give you an idea, I departed Eugene Airport at 5:45pm and got home at midnight. To top it, the last leg of the flight was uber-turbulencey and the flight attendants didn't even come out nor did we get our beverage service. The return flight was one layover in San Fran, but still long and late. And to throw in the pity card...I returned at midnight and guess who got to open the next morning...2-3 hrs sleep, oh boy. Needless to say, the travel portions weren't glamorous - but worth it!

Friday

• Froyo Alert - Yes, my radar went off yet again this week. I spied this place as I was enjoying Chicks, a lunch favorite, with my mom (more specifically, the chicken bowl dish). The new shop was in the TJ Max center across the street and I saw the glorious words...frozen yogurt. We popped on over for further investigation after our lunch. To my delight, the flavors included my all-time favorite, Cookies 'n Cream. That raised the place up in my book. The name is Swirls, and apparently there are a couple of them here in North County SD. It passed the taste test and ambiance with flying colors. The texture was smooth and rich and tasted oh so yummy. The store had the trendy, almost IKEA style going - very white, clean, and sleek. The logo was also nicely done. This is officially now my new place to go when I come home (not to mention, it's closer to our home than Golden Spoon - I still love GS though mind you). Please stay Swirls! Maybe I should seek out the owner and ask them to test the Pacific Northwest market.


• Blast from the Past - Being retired, my mom has been helping out at the school she taught 4th grade, La Costa Meadows (LCM). It also happens to be the elementary school I attended oh-so-many years ago. We had to make a pit stop there Friday to drop of some art project. Although there were many changes, it was like a blast from the past. I remembered the old classrooms and playground. It was weird to be back.


• Intense Relaxation - The afternoon was intense, or should I say intensely relaxation. It began with my hair. I headed to my usual girls at Entourage. These girls are great. Josh and his parents went to this salon when they lived in Carlsbad and were friends with the girls that own the place. Since I met Josh I've been going and kept it up since they do a good job. After hair, I hurried back, picked up mom, and we headed to the spa for our pedicures. It was a very nice place and we left with beautiful feet. Except...the crazy Russian lady that did my mom's nails. She just kept talking and we couldn't understand half of her conversation (but it did make for a funny conversation afterwards). The evening was finished with a nice meal at Sbicca and movie time with my parents at home.

Saturday

• Around Town - The morning my dad played tennis and went to a softball game, so my mom and I hung out. Of course, we ate breakfast at my favorite Honey's Bakery and Bistro. Yum oat bran muffin - the best ever! Then we roamed The Forum and shopped around. Then we met up my dad for lunch at yet another favorite, The Counter. Then we headed to the closest mall, UTC, since my mom needed eye liner. We ended up getting our make-up quickly done at Chanel for the wedding. Oh and a real mall = heaven.


• The Wedding - My childhood best friend, Jessica Trogler, got married! Yup, I came on this particular weekend because it was her wedding day on Saturday. She married Chris Anderson at Rancho Valencia, a gorgeous resort in Rancho Santa Fe. The ceremony was outdoors with a trellis at sunset (beautiful but a bit blinding with the sun - you'll see in the picture). It was a smaller wedding, but very lovely. The reception was at the resort. I enjoyed how they did the first dance upon entering the reception. Also, there were some cool things like the 1,000 cranes and guest book with polaroids. In a nutshell, a beautiful wedding and good fun.

Sunday

• Taxes - Blah! That's about all I can say. Blah taxes! But they're over. Yippee! I spent the morning working on my taxes with my dad around to help with all that tax mumbo jumbo.


• Pizza Port - This place was discovered over Christmas at home. Josh saw it in a micro-brew beer magazine...I guess it had good beer, but it has good pizza. Although my dad declared it a bit noisy inside.


• Randomness - After some stuff at home, the four of us (mom, dad, sister Lindsay) roamed around North County doing a bit of shopping. We found some invitations, my mom got instructions on how to use the make-up she got Saturday, food for my flight, etc.

As usual, I'll end with some photos. To jazz things up a bit, I've made my pictures into a slideshow below for your view pleasure (some random photos in there, I know).

Lastly, in the words, of Porky the Pig, that's all folks.



Wedding & Weekend Home from Heather O'Neill on Vimeo.

The "Big" City

Two notes before you begin this blog: (1) It's not in chronological order, (2) you might enjoy listening to this Cake song as you read - at least the beginning of the song seems fitting at parts because of the hipsterness of the area...Now onto the post:

Here I am sitting in a tiny, cute-as-a-button coffee house in Portland while Josh is hard at work (cool logo/branding too - makes me think of Scrubs ostriches). He's taking an ethics exam that's necessary for lawyers in a some states. Washington doesn't need it, but neighboring Oregon and also California do require it...really it's just in case dash who knows where we'll end up safety. So, while he is busy taking the exam, I'm out exploring.

Exploring is a favorite pastime of mine (aka roaming). I love walking around new areas and finding awesome places such as this coffee house on Alberta Street called Random Order. I ended up on Alberta Street, after roaming around the University of Portland (where Josh has the exam). I took a few shots of cherry blossom trees as well as some nice river views. It's a pretty school. At least, as cool and neat as schools go, but only 20 minutes of exploration is really necessary. Now we transition to...Alberta.

To be perfectly honest, I've been in this area previously. In other words, I'm not exploring a entirely new area. However, I didn't roam much last time and recalled thinking it was deserving of more exploration. For some background the last exploration, we basically were here just to eat and network. It was at a place called the Tin Shed and Josh and I met up with a gal I met through an Acxiom co-worker when I was pursing the Portland job market more vigorously (pre-Eugene living).

I'm excited by my return to Alberta Street. There is definitely one end of the street that the newer and more trendy, hippy. The other end was in more need of growth and stores. Since it was an absolutely beautiful day, I walked the length of the street . To my dismay, most stores don't open until 11am. Ehh, back to the nicer area and find a place to chill (or plop down, to say it in a fun way) for the remaining time. That brings us here, to this moment of me writing this blog in a free wi-fi coffee shop.

<<RING RING>> Josh just called and the exam is over! Blog to be continued...

Okay, now I'm back home in the evening to finish this off. Before I go on to the rest of the day with Josh, I'll mention Friday (note: today is Saturday). Friday after work and an appointment, Josh and I packed up and headed to Portland. We got into town and checked in to our hotel, Hotel Fifty. We got a great deal on Priceline and it was conveniently located downtown. The trip started off really great with a street parking spot right in front of the hotel - that means no paying for pricey hotel parking. Woot! We threw our stuff in the room (ok, we didn't literally throw, but you get the idea), and headed out for a stroll to uptown Pearl District for dinner. I was very hungry, so we opted on a tried and true favorite, Silk. We were not disappointed. It was a awesome meal of fish and curry. We even splurged on dessert of banana bread pudding with tapioca pudding....melted in our mouths. Tummies full, we strolled back to the hotel via Powells Book store. Josh did some final studying and I did random computer stuff.

Back to Saturday before the exam. We had to get up early - ugh, early on a non-work day (boo). Aren't I a dedicated fiancee? We got breakfast at North Star, which turned out to be quite good coffee. That was just a side note since I wanted to mention the breakfast place. Now, back on track. I picked up Josh after he called and we headed back to the awesome coffee shop for lunch. We enjoyed pot pie (Josh) and sandwich-salad combo (Heather). We strolled around the part of the area I didn't quite get to thoroughly. We also got tasty tea at Townshend - btw, we've tried it in Bend before and liked it immensely. So we strolled with our drinks on a sunny day. And if I like anything more than exploring, it's exploring with Josh with me! Heavenly day.

Oh, and that's not it. We drove back across the bridge to downtown and hit up the real mall experience and Pioneer Place. How I missed you mall! I got a free mini-facial (with product sales, of course) at Origins. Josh got a Mac Store "fix" and all we well in the world.

And I'm still going. We ended the fine day at YoCream. You CAN'T, I repeat CAN'T, go to Portland without a stop for decent, real froyo. I was a bit disappointed in flavors, but I still loved it.

After all this, we drove home and here I am. One complaint: I have to open the store tomorrow (aka wake up insanely, inhumanly early). But I I'm going to go watch some How I Met Your Mother and be happy.

Pictures to come soon, Here's some as a preview. Perhaps a video (thinking about it & whether my "old" computer can handle it). Perhaps Perhap. Oh, and in case it didn't make send, the song reference on top is because Alberta, and Portland in general, is hippy and it's a hipster type song.

Heather's Exploration Shadow

Re-Charging Our Batteries

Yes, super mini. I say super mini because we left Friday afternoon and returned Saturday evening from a little getaway up north. Josh received some Bed and Breakfast gift certificates (a combo birthday and xmas gift from my folks), so we decided to put them to good use and head out of town. The timing was perfect because I had two days off work in a row and it was the weekend before Josh's last semester begins.

After some debate early in the week - beach, mountains, vs. city and then exactly which B&B - we ended at the Camas Hotel which is a cute little Parisian-style boutique hotel located in Camas, WA. Camas is just over the Oregon border (that would mean Washington) and along the Columbia River Gorge about 20-30 minutes outside of Portland. We thought we'd get more bang for our buck out there and it'd be peaceful, quite, and quaint.

Josh took a week long, one unit Corporate Finance drafting course before the semester began that ended Friday. After his class, we high-tailed it out of Eugene up the 5. The rain was coming down in torrents so the driving was a bit tough (thanks Josh for taking over the wheel.

Finally, we arrived in Camas just in time for a nice little pizza dinner at Twilight (not related to the movie mind you). We wrapped up the night up with a martini and apple crisp at the recently opened restaurant next to our hotel, Harwood's restaurant.

Saturday morning we opted to get a bigger breakfast instead of the continental option at the B&B (which was sparse by 9am when I scoped it out in the dining area). We took a few steps down the road to a diner called Natalia's Cafe. The order? A Josh-like meal of hash browns and a Heather-like meal of egg whites and veggies scrambled. Not too shabby, and it was an adorable little diner to boot. Then we walked around for a bit since it wasn't pouring at the moment. The town did turn out to be quaint and cute, but pretty small. You can tell it's really trying hard to build up, but it's not quite there yet. There is a paper mill at the edge of town that has kept the area running over the years - a mill-town in other words.

Next up: Vancouver. That would be the closer Vancouver, the one in Washington as opposed to Canada. We walked the waterfront area, but it was pretty small. Nice condos and apartments though. After a quick walk on the water, we hopped in the car and found downtown. It was uber quiet - oddly quiet in fact - in the little downtown square we found. Our overall opinion of Vancouver: its a nice, quite place to live.

We then headed back over the bridge to the sales tax-free Oregon (always nice when eating out). We went to our favorite area, the Pearl District and walked around like we lived there. For example, we were giving people directions. Also, we hit up a few of our favorite shops, which of course means a stopat Oblations, "the scene of the proposal."

Eventually our tummies rumbled for some lunch so we jotted over to another favorite, Silk. I got a delicious curry with yams, eggplant, and chicken while Josh got a Vietnamese beef sandwich. We tacked on some tea to share since it was chilly. A perfect cold weather lunch. To top it off, Josh got a spicy mocha at Masterpiece.

Before heading back home, we did a Heather-must-feed-the-addiction stop at YoCream. I think I about died and went to heaven when I saw cookies 'n cream (my all-time favorite), Irish mint, and chocolate macadamia nut. Yummy in my tummy. Even though I wasn't incredibly hungry I ate a very large yogurt (dang that self-serve spout), but it was worth the pain...glorious.

A super great mini trip ended on the YoCream high and then back to Eugene. Need ed to get out out town..check. Good food...check. Spirit of Adventure...check. Relaxation...check. Recharge batteries...check. Well, you get the point, we checked off all our needs. This translates to...an excellent weekend!

As always, photos for your viewing pleasure on Flickr. The sneak peek picture below is along the Vancouver Waterfront.

Vancouver Waterfront

Sunday Stroll

This past weekend of 2010 turned out to be a the best of the year so far. Not to mention, it's the first weekend of the year, so it'd be hard to beat at this point. Just fun to say. Seriously though, it really was a great weekend. I had Saturday off and worked earlier on Sunday, so it was almost like having a full weekend. Better yet...Josh isn't back at school yet so we could do fun stuff together.

As my title suggests, Josh and I decided to take a little stroll through Eugene's Alton Baker Park on Sunday after work. It was a non-rainy day; just gloomy but that added to the winter scenery of park (i.e. trees without leaves). I got to sport my new Christmas cold weather wear. Check out the red jacket, rain boots, jeans, warm vest - okay, the whole outfit (but so comfy, so warm). Anyway, enough about clothes, the walk was very nice. I got in the picture taking spirit and captured some of our walk in photographs -- I got a snapshot of Josh in front of Autzen Stadium to commemorate his time at the law school, some attempts at artsy pictures, and then some shots Josh took of me. The one below is me with some trees. Yes, enormous trees, little itty bitty Heather. That or I'm little red riding hood.

Taking a step backwards, Saturday was also a nice day. Saturday I got the entire day off. I started it with a much needed trip to my favorite grocery store: Trader Joes. Our house was in much need of food after being down in SoCal for the holidays. With food in the house, Josh and I opted to go out for lunch - HA! I've been feeling under the weather, so we got some pho (sorta like chicken noodle soup). Then off to Target. Did I mention I love Target? I could spend a long time just roaming around. There is so much to buy and so little money - sigh.

Saturday night we enjoyed a get-together at a Starbucks co-worker's apartment. She is leaving Starbucks for a local coffee shop. It makes me sad that she's leaving, but she's still in the area so we might actually get to hang out more not working together (for instance, shift schedules might not conflict as much). It was a fun night - we all brought different wines and cheeses. Just hung out and chatted it up. It was great to hang out outside of work - we were all wearing stuff other than black, white or tan too!

Over the weekend, we also hit up TCBY for my froyo fix. I can no longer say I haven't had it all year (I can say I haven't had Yumi all year though, tear). We also headed to Barnes and Noble (my wall in the office is lonely. I'm looking for a calendar - unsuccessful so far), Cost Plus (just a few odds & ends), and Sports Authority (JB cold weather running wear). It was almost like the scene in Old School where Will Ferrell talks about Bed, Bath, and Beyond - see seconds 23 to 40 on the video.

Now, I'm sitting on the couch with a cold. The sore throat from New Years went, but then a stuffy nose and all-around achy head cold came last night to replace it. Thankfully I have today off, but I don't like colds. I don't like just sitting around - it drives me crazy. I need to get up and do stuff. Err.

Let's end on a food note since Julie and Julia inspired me. I cooked a new dish yesterday for dinner. It was from a Martha Steward magazine I bought for the plane trip home (I don't like Martha much - good things, etc - but I do like some of her stuff and ideas). It was Pork Paillards with Sour Cream Paprika Sauce. I added some roasted potatoes and a salad. It turned out great! Earlier this week my when-in-doubt, safety meatloaf meal and turkey ragu were on the menu. Tonight (assuming the cold doesn't get the best of me), it's Eggplant Lasagna (remember that from last year? I did a posted on it).

Little Red Heather Hood

Party Hardy, Napa Style

AKA: Mom's 60th Birthday Napa Trip Extravaganza

I knew this weekend's trip to Napa to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday was not going to be a simple wine tasting affair the minute I received an email from my father. This email was a minute-to-minute itinerary of our trip with maps, reviews, and reservations - a 33 page document (and I'm not kidding). Usually this sort of itinerary is for our mega Europe trips and the itinerary is neatly organized into a white binder which we've all come to know as the bible. This was not in a white binder, but it was awful close especially considering we were gone for only 3 days.

It all began after my morning shift on Thursday. I dashed home, de-coffeed (I have to do this now b/c after work I smell like fresh brewed cup of coffee), and rushed to the Eugene Airport. I flew to Oakland with a stop-over in Portland. Actually, as I was waiting to take off on the Eugene to Portland segment, the flight attendant came up to me and asked if I worked at the Starbucks near the mall. Why yes I said. Well, they enjoyed a wonderful cup this morning from us. Too funny! I got good service on that portion of the trip. The rest of the trip went well, and I arrived to Oakland where I was picked up by Don & Sue Hartley and Pat Richardson. We all drove together to met up with the rest of the entourage already in Napa (or I should say, St Helena's). With us all there (albeit late in the evening), the celebrations began!

This celebration involved the gathering of family and friends (friends that are so close their family now really)--The Harleys, The Richardsons, The Troglers, and our little immediate O'Neill fam (we missed you Chicago fam!). The majority of us stayed together in a house that the Ink House B&B rents out for big parties like us, a place called the Carriage House. It's a very cute little B&B up in the St. Helena area.

But really the weekend was about two things: Mom/Jan and Wine. My mom was in high spirits the entire weekend (in fact, those of us in the B&B know from the singing from the shower) and the wine was plentiful. Now, I'm not a wine fanatic like some in the group, but we did taste some very fine wines. And how could we not? We visited practically all the wineries in the area, so we were bound to get some good ones. Here's the run down on the vineyards:

• Friday Wineries: Spottswood, Quixote, Cliff Lede, Vine Cliff, Robert Mondavi, Alpha Omega


• Saturday Wineries: Chappellet, Schramsberg Sparkling Winery, Duckhorn

We toured almost at each winery, so now we are all highly educated in the Napa wines and vines. We all thought it funny, and very accurate, when I called my dad Teacher's Pet. He was in his element--walking ahead with the winery's tour guide, asking questions (edging on interrogation), and giving his input. A classic pose is displayed on my Flickr site (fyi-I created an album for this trip). My mom was just happy drinking the wine and enjoying the company.

To go with the wine, we had some very tasty food. The big birthday dinner was at Auberge Du Soleil, a fancy restaurant. shmancy were you get courses and such. The other delicious meal was at a Don Giovannis, a nice Italian restaurant. A other fun spots were Taylor's Refresher, Dean and Deluccas, and the Model Bakery. Yum!

I think this was the first time I've spent in Napa were I tasted the wine and found some were my usual "hum" (as in, it's ok) was like more of a ohh, hmm (as in, actually not bad & might drink 1/2 a glass). My favorite was Quixote with it's neat architecture. It reminded me of Sintra, Portugal and a castle there with lots of color and interesting shapes. Others said it reminded them of Barcelona and Gaudi.

The end of our trip was a half day in SF before our flights. We did a quick stop at the Ferry Building. Then we did a mini walk at the Land's End & Cliff House area, which was beautiful as ever. And as we headed back to Oakland, I made a pit stop at Yumi. Heather Returns! It was heaven again (I haven't hyped it up in my mind, it's still just that good).

Spottswood Winery

Gobble Goodness

Josh and I no longer have problems with those dang turkeys that roam around our front yard now that Thanksgiving has come and gone. Did you think I was serious? I mean that last picture I shared earlier in the year had them eating off the road...YUCK! Like we'd eat those turkeys. We did, however, make our first Thanksgiving turkey this year. Okay, it was only part of a turkey, but it was a whomping 6 Ib bone-in turkey breast.

Since I worked everyday during the Thanksgiving weekend with the longest hours on Thursday, we decided to celebrate on Friday instead when I only worked until 2pm. I prepped everything in advance, so Friday went smoothly. I followed a combination of two recipes - Alton Brown and Ina Garten. We decided to brine the turkey (which we've decided that we'll always do from now on since it makes it so delicious). And the herbs from Ina's recipes really added a nice touch. In fact, I would consider doing this same herb rub technique with a chicken or pork too! We did have some troubles with the roasting time since our little thermometer was apparently broken. But not to worry, we just popped it back in the oven and it turned out perfectly. Overall, the turkey came out a success - moist and flavorful.

We didn't just have turkey. I also made a sweet potato casserole I made with rave reviews last Christmas (everyone wanted the recipes). It didn't let me down this year either. Then one of our guests said that it wasn't Thanksgiving without green bean casserole, so I whipped up one of those as well. I'd never made one before so I tried another Alton Brown recipe - another keeper. The other food was brought by our guests - cornbread stuffing, creamy cauliflower, roasted carrots, chocolate bourbon cake, pecan bars, and more. A feast indeed!

Since Thanksgiving is full of friends and family, we were excited to be able to see some friends from the Bay Area over the weekend as well. Jeff and Melissa, some very special friends, have family up on Roseburg, OR (about 1.25 hours south of Eugene). They were up seeing family for the holiday, so Josh and I drove down to Roseburg on Saturday to have brunch. It was incredibly great to see them - it had been since early summer when I left the bay area! For all you friends that are reading this...we miss you!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's on to Christmas. Bring out the music, the movies, the decorations!! And a movie review post is in the works too.

Thanksgiving Feasting

Home for the pre-Holidays

I just returned from a nice, long weekend trip to Encinitas, my other home. It was a busy, but fabulous weekend with my family. Sadly I won't be home for Thanksgiving, so this was a good pre-holiday visit and I got some quality family time. Because it was such a busy-busy weekend, I'm going bullet style on this one...

• Flying: Luckily I was able to fly instead of drive. The drive would be something like 18-20 hours (I think), so this way I got much more time with the family instead of time in the car. Since Eugene is such a tiny airport, there are not too many direct flights. Usually you have to fly to Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco and then onto your final destination. Yes, I could go to Portland airport, but that is another 2 hour drive and then you need to park, yada yada. Anyhoo, my flight layover was in San Francisco. Landing and seeing all the familiar sites brought back all sorts of good memories--made me miss the bay area. I even saw the green roofs of the storage building next door to my old apartment. Not to mention, the very common SFO delay.


• Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey: I'm not lying in my blog title, it really was an early holiday celebration. When I arrived home on Thursday evening, my mom had put together all the works: roast turkey, salad, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and butternut squash. Oh how I love turkey - gobble gobble goodness.


• Usuals: Every trip home is full of usual, must-do activities. To start, I got my hair cut at my favorite salon, Entourage. Nada, Josh's mom, introduced me to these wonderful ladies a few years ago. Nikki did my hair this time and we added some dark blond under-tones and a bit longer on the sides. Also, my mom and I went and had our oh-so-relaxing pedicures. I picked a fun Christmas color called Glove You So Much (aren't nail polish names fun--interesting job, nail color decider).


• Discovery: As I was betraying my Starbucks and getting a Winter Dream Tea Latte at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in the Forum, I spied a "coming soon" for the Counter Burger. Yes, one of my favorite restaurants from the bay is coming to Encinitas. If only it were open now! They say December - let's certainly hope so I can eat it on my next visit home.


• Dogs:  Not just Keely, but many dogs. Many, many dogs. In fact, I counted about 25 dogs. And all at the Vista Sun "Dog" Park. This is my mom's dream come true, while I was reminded of the movie All Dogs go to Heaven. On week nights, the neighborhood dog owners all come out and let their dogs lose at Sun Vista, a "new" park down the street from our house (the area below the former "dirt area" off La Posta and I say "new" because it's not really new but still seems new to me since it was build after I moved to the bay area). The dog people were talking about walking at the Encinitas Christmas Parade - HA, that'd be hilarious.


• Olivenhain Craft Fair: Bummer for mankind, no scrunchies or Judy's pies this year at the fair (many of you may know the story of Jessica and I hosting a stand at the fair when we were kids). Saturday morning, Sue, Pat, my mom, and I were dropped off at the fair (dad=taxi). Mom and I used to go to this fair every year, so I was line memory lane walking around. I got a fuzzy, soft scarf to help battled the cold Oregon weather. FYI - Olivenhain Meeting Hall is the area were Lindsay and I used to ride horses!


• Oregon Influences: I made a comment at the hair salon how nice the weather was that day--they all looked at my weirdly. Good weather? It's like mid 60s and it hit me that this is SoCal, not Oregon and this is cold. Here I am all happy it's warm; my SoCal roots are failing me! Then I had to get gas for my mom's car, and I was actually happy to pump my own gas (rather than awkward instruct the gas person "uh full tank, filler 'er up, regular, uhhh...).


• Food: O'Neills are big on food, so I am obligated to write about some highlights on where and what was eaten. Qe'ro, a super delicious Peruvian restaurant on 101 in downtown Encinitas. I had tasty sweet potatoes, sage roasted mushrooms, and swiss chard dish. All caramelized goodness. I even sneaked a few bites of my mom's chicken and quinoa. Roy's La Jolla, always a favorite with the melt-in-your-mouth misoyaki butterfish and Hawaiian Martini. Chicks, my hole-in-the-wall chicken rice bowl favorite.


• Froyo: Back to California means back to froyo land. Hurray! Of course I had to indulge daily. Sadly former favorite, La Costa Yogurt Shack was a bit of a disappointment since they apparently changed ownership and yogurt brands a few months ago (yes, I asked). However, Golden Spoon came through as usual (must say they are consistent there and never fail to please). Plus more seem to be popping up--just too little time! Most notable flavor of the visit: cinnamon.


• Lindsay: Lindsay has been crazy busy with applications and the end of the semester, so we decided to meet halfway between Encinitas and Pasadena - at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. We made Grandma Ruth jealous and had lunch at Claim Jumper (that's one of Grandma's favs). Lindsay opened her b-day gift from me (btw her actual b-day is 11/18 which happens to be my parent's anniversary as well). Then we shopped around the mall for some early Christmas gifts. Last, we ended up at Starbucks for a tea break--apparently I just can't get enough (that or my family found out about my discount).

And that concludes my wonderful (and sunny/warm) weekend at home. Next trip coming soon...Napa for my mom's 60th B-day in December! Oh, and don't forget to check out more pictures on Flickr!

South Coast Plaza Xmas Tree

Olivenhain Craft Fair

Forget Lazer Tag, Let's go Bowling

Okay, so I wasn't very good at lazer tag. However last night's bowling turned out to be a great success (for me that is). Now I wouldn't go far as to say that I'm a great bowler, but I did in fact win and I was better at it than lazer tag. Also, I would like to say for the record, that although there was bumpers up, I did not in fact hit them or use them in any way, so my win (and score) was totally legit. Below is a picture of the score board for proof.

We didn't just randomly decide to go bowling. Our Starbucks store went to celebrate a good customer review score and have some team bonding time. Josh and I were on a alley with my manager, Rebecca. We had a fun time and it was nice to introduce Josh to all my new co-worker friends. What can I say, just another fun Sunday night with Heather and Josh (and I'll admit it...winning did have some factor in making it more fun than not - wink wink).

Heather's Score - 135

Meandering the McKenzie River

Today we thought we'd venture out and explore the area east of Eugene. Josh has a fun Central Oregon trail book and we thought we'd give a hike a try. Although Friday's weather was stormy, the weather today turned out chilly but otherwise sunny and nice (side note: I'm finding out that the weather changes day-to-day and hour-to-hour here in Oregon so layers is key).

After a quick breakfast we headed on the road taking the 126 east toward McKenzie River. The drive was absolutely gorgeous with all the fall colors. We kept saying "pretty" and "look pretty" - yes, that's as far as our vocabulary went, but what can I say, it really was pretty!

As we got closer, we started to lookout for a sign for our decided McKenzie River Trail #61. We stopped at the Ranger Station, but it was closed (you'd think they'd stay open for the weekend, silly). Oh well, onward ho with the tiny book map. Using the book map, we passed all the book's landmarks and then suddenly we were too far. We shrugged and decided trail #62, Sahalie and Koosah Falls, would work just fine.

The trail was took us along a roaring river and waterfalls. And it was not just water, we also went "through forests of 6-foot think Douglas fir and droopy-limbed red cedar." I have quite a few pictures posted on my Flickr site. The waterfalls were my favorite though, mostly because the pounding water created some beautiful rainbows!

On the road home, we made some random stops. Here's the stops:

1. The first was the Christmas Treasures store. It did not disappoint with the number of Santas and reindeer ornaments. I saw some of my mom's favorite Salvation Army caroler figurines too. But one can only take so much of that store, so we make it a <5 minute stop.


2. Our next stop was the Goodpasture Bridge, which is a beautiful covered bridge. We drove across it (scary, but cool), took some pictures, and then continued on again.


3. Lunch was entirely necessary as it was late in the day already. Our lunch stop was at a cute BBQ place along the road. I thought their sign was funny, which said they were open 8 days a week (wowzers!). Josh got to have his Fritos pie - beans, BBQ meat, Frito chips, cheese, jalepanos, and probably some more I don't recall. I just smoked turkey sandwich.


4. Our last stop was a fruit stand that was extended into a pumpkin patch. There was lots of produce, animals (pigs, ducks, donkeys), and other random things. It was like a miniature Bates Nut Farm for all you So Cali's.

And that completed our fun day outing! And Trail #61 some other day. Check out the "on the road" video:

[flickr video=4040713073]

A Tea Party Without Tea

This would make just a party. More specifically, a Halloween party. This Saturday one of my Starbucks co-workers threw a big Halloween party. And as the title indicates, I went as Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Sadly, the Mad Hatter couldn't make it to the join me at the party since he was sick (and probably drinking tea celebrating his happy un-birthday). Okay, I'll stop making the Alice in Wonderland references/jokes.

I ventured to the party solo. I thought I was fashionably late (not like the Rabbit--just had to add one more reference), but even so when I arrived nobody from work was there yet...ecck! So I went around introducing myself to the other party-goers. Soon enough my co-worker friends arrived. It was fun because everyone really did dress up--doctors, three amigos, hill-billies, vampires, geishas, and more. It was also great to meet up with co-workers outside of the store. Just a bummer that Josh (em, the Mad Hatter couldn't  join).

Speaking of Alice in Wonderland, for you movie-goers, a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp version of it is coming to theaters soon. I hope it's good (and seems to have promise). Check it out.

Coastal Cruisin'

Whenever I say mini trip, I think of Bridget Jones Diary. I'm a dork, but yes that is one of my favorite movies. Bridget says she's going "on a full-blown mini-break holiday weekend." It's cute (or at least I think so). Anyway, I bring this up because Josh and I took our own mini trip to the Oregon coast for his birthday - my gift to him.

We started out Thursday afternoon (he doesn't have school on Fridays and I didn't have work either). We hopped into the car (not a convertible like Bridget, but my reliable Honda) and headed out towards Florence. Florence is the closest beach city to Eugene. We went there in early September with my parents actually (check out that post). I made reservations at a little restaurant called the Waterfront Depot in Florence. We sat at a window seat which looked out onto the inlet. The restaurant was very quaint and was an old train station I believe. I was a bit upset when we first arrived and the hostess said we didn't have reservations and thought we were supposed to come the night before - whatever, I KNOW I made the reservations correctly and when she frantically flipped through the pages, I didn't see my name anywhere. Errr. But, we only had to wait 10 minutes or so and they squeezed us in at the originally requested window-side table. Whew! The food was good seafood fare and we enjoyed the dinner. I had crab encrusted halibut and Josh a seafood linguini.

With full bellies, we continued up the coast to our final destination for the evening, The Shamrock Lodgettes. These were little lodges that are right on the coast. Josh saw them featured in Sunset Magazine's Top 10 Romantic Cottages a while ago while looking up the Waimea Cottages in Kauai (I couldn't afford to take us there unfortunately). We got the Bay View lodge room which was pleasant and had a little wood stove fireplace inside which was cozy (and indeed has a bay view).

The next day we grabbed a muffin and latte at a tiny coffee shop (no Starbucks there) called the Village Bean. We then drove up the coast making random stops when we felt like it - Beachside State Park, Waldport Bridge viewpoint, Seal Rock. We ended the coastal cruising once we hit Newport. There, we popped over to the Rogue Brewery to check out the local Oregon brews. Josh bought an interesting one called Chipotle Ale (I say, "ehh" to beer, but than again he doesn't complain about some of my froyo creations). Also, we grabbed lunch at the same spot we did just about 2 years ago on the day after our engagement! It's a small seafood restaurant called Local Ocean Seafood.

Lastly, we cut inland from Newport over on the 20 (yes, I will and will always say "the" in front of highways) towards Corvallis. The drive inland was also gorgeous with all the fall colors. It also went alongside an old railway route. We pulled over for a stroll in Corvallis and to check out enemy grounds (that's Oregon State which rivals University of Oregon). The town was nice - reminded me a classic college town (that doesn't sound too descriptive, but not sure how else to describe it).

The 5 took us home to Eugene which thus ended our mini trip. We had a great time, and I've posted some pictures on Flickr (and just a few on FaceBook as well).

Life Indoors: Reports from the Weather Underground

Weather Report: It seems that the Oregon rain season is upon us. The first few days of rain started this past week. I posted a small picture earlier--the official first day. We've had a few rain days intermixed with days of sun this week, so we're still getting some sun. I am worried about the colder weather expected to come. I mean it's only mid to upper 50s and my feet are ice already (not that this isn't typical of me, but not so early in the year). In the coldest of SF area weather I had my feather blanket, quilt, blue blanket, fuzzy tan blanket, and often a throw on me at night. Hmm, we'll see; I might have to invest in an electric blanket, flannel lined jeans, and more fuzzy socks. I appreciated my car's seat warmers previously, but now I think I'm going to come to love them (I picture Josh walking into the garage to find me hanging out in the car just to have the seat warmers and heater blasted on me!). Happy news is that the leaves are starting to turn colors now--it's beautiful! I'm going to take some pictures and post soon.

Movie-Going: Last night we went to the cheap theater to see The Hangover. By the way, the cheap theater is awesome. On weekends it's only $2 to see movies that are not really at main theaters anymore, but not out on tape yet (and it's $1 during the week). The theater isn't stadium sitting, but it's the regular theater experience, so you really can't beat it--great deal! Anyway, The Hangover was a bit over-hyped for me. Everyone said how funny it was, and it was funny but not as funny as everyone said it would be. The movie was really pushing it with some of the humor and it some of it was just wrong. Don't get me wrong, I did think it was funny and I laughed a bunch, but it's just wasn't Old School or me. As for previews, I think Extract looks freakin' hilarious & can't wait for that to release. Our other cheap movie fun is Netflix. Right now we're going through the first season of True Blood (more vampires).

In the Kitchen: I'm still on the muffin quest. Yesterday, I tried bakig Pear and Apple Muffins. These tuned out pretty well. I cooked half of the batter to see how they were, and decided to add more sugar and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc) on the second batch. The second batch was better. But there is something I'm missing. I think it' an oaty, bran texture and nuttiness that I love that my attempts have failed to meet. Josh is the lucky taster (I don't think he minds). I've still got plenty of recipes to try though. Next I might add oat bran to the recipe to see if that helps me with the texture I'm looking for. Again, I'm open to any recipes you might want to share --please send!

SBux: This is going great--I'm enjoying the people and job. The change in weather brought some big crowds to some of my shifts. It can get pretty crazy with a long line-up of cups to make, but it really makes the day go fast (and learn quick). Also, you may have seen all the commercials on the newest product, Via. It's the micro-brew 100% Arabian bean coffee. You should really try it (really, it's good). I used it to bake some biscotti and there are so many more recipes that call for instant coffee which will work perfectly with this stuff.

P.S. I can now wear my Crocs with the soft liner around town unabashedly. Unlike the Bay Area, they are true Oregonian style so nobody judges you wearing them around. I'm enjoying this, although I do think I need to find a nice pair of cute, water proof, versatile, comfy shoes.

Polos & Pants

There is a dress code with my new job, and the days before my first day I was on a quest for a Starbucks warerobe: white or black polos, khaki or black pants, and closed-toed black or brown shoes. By the way, the first thought that came to mind when I heard this was "wow, this would fit Dad perfectly!" But going back to my quest story, besides the khaki, these items are surprisingly difficult to find. And for some reason all my nervous energy (aka Heather anxiety) about the job decided to manifest itself in finding these items. They had to be perfect--i.e. comfy, stylish, water-resistant, yet inexpensive shoes. Trying to find these items practically drove Josh nuts as we went from store to store. We really didn't find much on our excursion unfortunately. In fact, the real success was the evening after my first "orientation" / first impressions day. My boss recommended Target and that is were I had ended up having the most success. Still need more, but now I'm equipped with something!

All this fun took place last weekend. And with wardrobe set, I was able to head into this week & weekend fully prepared. And now I have a week on the job under my belt. It's really a TON to learn. There are so many different drinks and combinations-- it's craziness. I feel like it's only just starting to click after a week. It will definitely take me some time to get this all down (pumps of syrup, espresso shots, sizes). Plus, the job is more than just drink making, but register, calling out the drink, writing it on the cup, doing in-between time, clean-up, store maintenance, etc etc. Yaaouzzas!

I'll be sure to continue to write updates on my training. I learn something new each day. And fun stuff too. Not to mention, some nice coffee perks. Also, I got to taste some new Via (you should try it)!

Adventures in Oregonland

This past weekend was the Labor day weekend and my parents were in town visiting. And not just any visit, but the first visit to Oregon with me as an Oregonian in my new Shasta home with Josh. To help acquaint my parents, we planned some fun adventures around Oregon and hit up the local Eugene favorite spots.

• Thursday: My parents arrived in the afternoon. First order of business was lunch. And what better place than the Beir Stein, a fun German pub-type restaurant. After our tummies were full, Mom and I abandoned dad at the hotel (btw, Josh at classes all day) and got our pedi's at the Pearl Day Spa...Ahh relaxing! To wrap up the day, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Belly.


• Friday: Josh had to get some school work done, so I took my parents out to the Eugene Wineries. My dad was able to quiz the local wine makers on their knowledge of French wines and bottles (yup, the favorite one was asked: why the different bottle shapes). We started at Silveran Ridge then headed over to Sweet Cheeks (my favorite since it has a very sweet wine option). We rounded out the winery tour at King Estate for lunch. I think my wine-loving dad would say "not so bad" about Eugene wines...that translates to: success! To finish the day, we headed over to Red Agave, which Josh has wanted to try ever since coming to Eugene.


• Saturday: A day of...rain! Well, the first part at least. I drove through the downpour to get us safely to Ashland where luckily the rain ended. Before arriving we made a pit-stop at Rogue Creamery to taste some blue cheeses. Not my favorite cheese (go goats), but for blue cheese not bad! Upon arriving to Ashland, my froyo radar went off. I found the ever-so-popular self-serve type froyo spot (dangerous stuff man, I tell ya). The Yogurt Hut is decent, but it ain't no Yumi Yogurt. But I'll take it! After some Heather indulgence, we roamed the cute town. The big event of the day though, was the play (Ashland is the Shakespeare "capital"). We opted for one of Shakespeare's lighter plays, Much Ado About Nothing. If you haven't seen the movie version, you should! Great play, no rain (outdoor theatre in true Old Globe style), and great company.


• Sunday: We headed out of our Medford's lodging, and picked up breakfast and some shopping/walking in the cute historic downtown of Jacksonville. We saw art and llamas at the Sunday (no sarcastic talking llamas sadly - that would be a Emperors New Groove reference). Next we ventured into Applegate. Don and Nada's old home was looking great and peaceful as ever. We also tasted the local Southern wines at Woolridge and Schmidt. Then a leisure (late) lunch along the Rogue River. A quick stop for a shaved ice (ahhh Kauai days) at the Ice Shack in Grant's Pass and then the rest of the day was driving home (better weather of course with Josh behind the wheel).

Historic Jacksonville

• Monday: Let's go to the beach! Monday was a fun day in Florence, our closest beach town from Eugene. We walked along the water, grabbed lunch at the local fish restaurant, and then roamed the cute old town. The highlight for me, was the Heceta Lighthouse, just up the coast a few miles. We hiked the 1/2 mile up to the lighthouse for some spectacular views.

View from Heceta Light House

Tuesday my parents were supposed to have a little morning time in Eugene, but unfortunately there was some flight issues (their later flight was delayed so they needed to grab an earlier flight to ensure their SF connection). So good-byes were quickly said, but the great weekend was remembered!