Max and Becky are workign today (and so am I actuakly).. But diane and I hgot out for a freeat hike on the Boreego trail loop op in the mountains about 20 minutes away. It was a good thing qwe had our spikes.. it was aa beutiful 4.5 miile loop and abotu a third of that was covered with ice !
The snow as really beutiful 

on the way hime we stopped off at a grocery store to pick up provisions for the week. One of our buys was a beutiful persimmon.. We took it hoem to try it.. Evidently it wasnt ripe.. it gave us botht he worst coottonmouth I’ve ever had.. It was disgusting.. We need to try again with a ripe one !

TOnight we walked to one of our favorite local eateries. Tune up Cafe.. the site of an old gas station. The family that runs the place is Salvadoran (I think. SO I had the veggie salvadoran plate.. pupusas!   so delicious !

 

Right after dinner we all went shoppinfg for thanksgiving.. FIrst stop was trader joes.. no turkeys.. Then whol foods. We got the last one !!!!!

Back at Max and Beckys plans for thursday dinner got cooked up a little more. 

Max showed us how to make mayonaise from their own eggs. I’d never seen it .. it was mostly vegie oil. one egg yolk to several cups of oil and a little lemmon.. then max used an immersion blender.. .. Voila ! it was a miracle to watch  (miracle whip ?)

its great being here 

nite sam, nite all
_me

We’ve had a great tiem here in portland. Gabe is such a great host … Noow its time for us to go do the 3rd part of of our stick season tour out of vermont. Around 6:30 we said goodbye to granddig Nova then Gabe drove us to the airport. 

The flight to santa fe was uneventful.. long layover in denver which was fun.  . The flight took us over soem great scenery 

We got in to Santa Fe  a little late. Its the cutuest tiny airport.. you basically have to wrangle your own suitcases down the mechanical baggae ramp. 
 

FInding our rental car was fun and quirky too.. The cars were scattered all over a dusty feild .. I think they were displaced because of roadwork.  As we drive theorugh the jumble of crazy parked cars, ll of us in the van were asked to use out keys to honk our rental cars horns. It was fun and goofy.. we finaly found our car and heaeded ot Atrisco to meet Max and Becky for our first SOuthwestern meal. >>

Super great to be here with them !
After dinner we got to our airbnb.. and then headed over to tho Max and Beckys house>> Greta to see granddog nova. 

 I found these cool tintypes  that max and becky had.. the one of them is actually an xmas gift from us a coulle of years ago.. a sittign at high dessert alchemy.. THe 2nd one was done by a local guy.. I’m fascinated with the technology

we’re very glad to be here !

Nite all. nite sam
_me

We qwoke up slowly at the AirBNB in Bend.. Eventually we soaked a bit in the hot tub.. then walked out togehter for coffee.  THis has been a great homey place to stay. There were tons of instruments here.. mandolin, guitars, bongos and pioano.. We had fun making noise.. and even a little music !

It was great finding a dog friendly place for Nova and Pep.. they even had dog toys including this squirrel thing that was one of our Chai’s favorites !

We cleaned up the airbnb to checkout and timed it so we could get one more “hefe” fish burrito at Parilla’s …. even though we’d had one for dinner   last night..  once again.. It did not  disappoint !

The drive home was scenic.. good conversations..we stopped on Mt Hood to stretch our legs.. They already had a good snow cover. Evidently the ski/snowboard mountain just a few miles away from here  already has a 4 foot base !

We got back to Gabe’s abotu 4.. whcih was really nice.. we did some laundry got mostly packed.. then went out for a last portland dinner. THis was at Khao Moo Dang. a thai place on hawthorne.. I love eating in this city

Then home for a cartoon movie and sleep..
It’s been a really great visit. 
Thanks gabe for being such a great host.. !We love you !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Last night Diane,. Gabe , Me , Nova , Sean, Mel and their dog Pep all piled into gabe’s car.. and we drove 3 and a half hours to Bend. We have an airBNB there (with a hot tub !).. . We came down to hie Smith Rock and to see friends. Both of which we did today 

Smith  Rock is about 30 minutes north of here. Its a very cool volcanic feature that springs up out of the high desert around it. .. We did a 4.6 mile hike up and around smith rock. Its a beautiful place.. it’s also (supposedly) the place where the sport of rock climbing really took off. 

here are some pics from the day

One cool featre there was called “Monkey Rock”.. its an impressive peiece of rock. You can really see the monkey part from the side. 

All through the hike we saw rock climbers.. so cool to watch.. so spooky to think about doing it.. even thinking about thinking about it freaks my freak !

We finished our hike and drove back to Bend. We dd a little hot tub soaking. then went out for a fun browsing dinner.. FIrst we went to a dumpling place called ‘The Dump”.. then down the street to Parillas.. for the BEST EVER fish burrito !

After that we went to the Crux brewery where we met up with vermont friends Will and Paulo , Tara, Rebekkah and Connor.. Will brought his huge dog otto  too ..  

So great seeing all these friends in their home base !

Super fun way to end our visit with Gabe !

NIte all, nite sam

-me