Just a hop, skip and a jump from home.
We rented a motor home and took one of the most peaceful, romantic weekends of our lives. We crawled into the hot springs thinking we’d be there for a half hour, and ended up staying until the end of the day. If you’ve never basked naked in a pool of hot water that’s springing wildly from God’s green earth while talking to strangers - we couldn’t advise that you try it enough. Bring booze to share and be ready ready for a (non-sexual) good time.
While not the most spectacular falls on the island, Maunawili is a spectacular hike with beautiful water, a great little jump and will not disappoint.
The Willamette Valley. Not only is the launching point for all of our adventures, this is our home and an adventure unto itself. Lush greenery, winding rivers and rolling hills enchant us even as we commute to work.
Rain or shine this is one place we come to unplug from the routine and re-plug ourselves into mother nature.
If we’re doing a night on the town and we’re in Oregon, it means we’re in Portland. Swanky restaurants and dirty dives. Arcades and night clubs. We do it all, universally with a drink in our hands!
This was a phenomenal hike I did with my sister Liz and great friend Dave. It was warm, sunny and pleasant at the bottom… so I wore sandals. The pictures say a lot about what we found at the top, which was a bunch of snow - and unsurprisingly A GLACIER. The memories of the countless gorgeous waterfalls and perfectly stunning glacier were only slightly trumped by the fact that I literally thought I was going to lose a toe to frostbite and probably killed in excess of one thousand mosquitoes as they were devouring my hiking companions.
I would recommend this hike to anyone, any time who loves the great outdoors. Just bring mosquito repellent and shoes!
We lived on Calkins Lane in Newberg for almost three years, which were some of the best and worst of our lives for a lot of different reasons. All that to the side - this home, perched on the top of a hill, nested deep in the Willamette Valley, is probably one of the most desirable places one beauty appreciating human might want to dwell.
A fantastic aquarium (and one of the oldest in the world), run largely in part by the best of friends, John Casey.
Prosser is not one of the most interesting places in the world, but it does feature Desert Wind Winery, featuring luxury accomodations. This happens to be the sister company to Duck Pond Cellars, so we travel here periodically and do our best to enjoy the stay. Desert Wind is absolutely gorgeous, and the sleepy small town feel featuring big wineries is a unique feel and worth hitting up if you’re in the area.
Almost every single year we roast Hatch green chiles. Growing up in Santa Fe, it was a tradition to roast green chiles at the various grocery outlets around town in these giant spinning roasters. If you’ve had Hatch before, you understand that there is no comparable flavor - and once you’ve had Hatch you really have to have more. It’s such an obsession (or compulsion) that grocery stores even here in the Pacific Northwest will bring in boxes and boxes of green chile for the die hard fans (I assume mostly ex-New Mexicans??) to buy in bulk and roast their own.
The pictures feature a large scale, in ground roasting pit I created for roasting green chile but will also feature roasting large animals. Stay tuned!
The island is a time warp where days are three times as long and the amount of fun to be had and beauty to be seen is almost staggering. It’s Bloody Mary’s in the morning, hikes and diving in the afternoon, and late night talks with friends. Repeat each day until time has expired.
The convertible is mandatory. John Casey is mandatory. Everything else is optional from year to year!
Haiku Stairs are often, and famously known as “The Stairway to Heaven”. I assume it earned this name sending people to heaven on the way up or down. The stairs are so steep in places that they’re essentially a water tower ladder… with sheer cliffs on either side. It is basically impossible to capture the scale of such a hike. There were several relief platforms and a concrete structure with a satellite at the top.
I’m not sure why we look so normal and healthy in these pictures - given that for the first half of the ascent Amanda and I were both worried that we would pass out from heat exhaustion and simply plummet to our deaths. A few clouds and wind rolled in and our outlook changed - but this was definitely a beast for casual hikers such as we are.
