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Musings, Oregon

Heart in Oregon Necklace Giveaway

April 13, 2015

heart in oregon necklace
I’m a sap for sentimental jewelry. I love wearing pieces that connect me to a story, and when I found these sweet little Heart in Oregon necklaces on Etsy, I just knew I’d be wearing one soon. I bought mine last week (and I’m wearing it right now!), and I’m excited to send a matching one out to one of you lovely readers: anyone, anywhere on the planet.*

To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions in the widget at the bottom of this post.

Congratulations to winner, Irene W.!

Read on for tidbits from jewelry designer Amanda Senten at Freshy Fig about her jewelry design, her childhood memories, and her upcoming travel dreams. Continue Reading…

Food, Oregon

Long, Long: Rambles from Lincoln City (and Life)

April 6, 2015

My little brother calls Lincoln City the “Chile of the Oregon Coast.”

The long, long skinny beach town hugs Hwy 101 for miles: a rambling collection of nondescript businesses, gas stations, and strip malls dotted with a few eye catching boutiques, outlet stores, and saltwater taffy shops. I remember my parents taking us to the shoreline in the eighties and nineties to watch soaring cloth birds fill the sky during the annual Summer Kite Festival, but my adult memories of Lincoln City consist of passing quickly through on drives to destinations north or south: never quite enough time or reason to simply stop and be there.

This trip, though, the pin on the map at the end of our route was just a west turn off Hwy 101 and two blocks from the sand: a cheery little beach house in Lincoln City, proper. Continue Reading…

Oregon, Short and Sweet and Scattershot

On the Trail to Lincoln City

March 27, 2015

Last Friday, Lucie and I joined our friends Heather and Micah and their girls Penny and Ramona for a spring break getaway to Lincoln City, Oregon and a calm weekend of tidepools and sunbreaks, games and seafood dinners.

Heather and I set aside trip dates on the calendar back in February, then I blinked and it was the night before departure. We called each other on the phone, “Did you?” “Nope. Not me.” “Not at all.” “I didn’t plan a single meal, I haven’t sorted clothes or groceries…” “I’m packing blind and winging it once we get there.” I paraphrase slightly, but you get the idea. We’re both moms with many irons in the fire, and sometimes getting out of dodge is an exercise in lunacy tempered with reckless optimism. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Hawaii, Maui

Sunrise on the Sea: Sailing from Maui to Lana’i

January 26, 2015

For these two parents used to waking up to care for a little one in the middle of the night, it felt like a pretty slick maneuver, hopping out of bed at 5:15am and making a dash for the beach. There we were: driving down from Ka’anapali to the Lahaina Harbor for a 6am check-in at the boat while Lucie stayed back at the condo with her grandparents. (Queue: “Freedom!!!”) Continue Reading…

Hawaii, Maui

Flying to Hawaii with A Baby…and other Marvelous Adventures of Once-Backpackers-Now-Parents

January 21, 2015

Two years ago, Ted and I landed at PDX International Airport in a little prop plane on December 25th, home at last from roaming the globe for 350-some days with a couple tattered backpacks and way too many electronics.

We crossed the tarmac in familiar rain, gave hugs and took reunion pictures with parents and siblings, and returned to rural Oregon where we dropped our bags, ate home cooked meals, and eventually announced our plans to spend nine months preparing to welcome little babyOregonian.

A little later that spring, rumors of an extended family trip to Hawaii circulated, and the notion sounded so lovely…and so far off. The end of 2014? Twenty months away! Enough to keep a wanderlust heart fed with hope, but laughably beyond the realities of life on the ground. Continue Reading…

Food, Oregon

My Feast Portland 2014: Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting

October 1, 2014

After an evening of Feasting on sandwiches in Director Park at the Feast Portland 2014 Sandwich Invitational, I returned downtown for more adventures at the Oregon Grand Bounty Tasting in Portland’s living room: Pioneer Courthouse Square. There, under sunny skies (and shaded cover of tents), every food and drink you could wish for from Oregon producers: wine and cheese, berries and beer, coffee and cakes and cookies and crackers, wild game and wild combinations.

(Shhh…don’t tell anyone, but I felt a little bit like Templeton in Charlotte’s Web.)

Continue Reading…