::Dramatic Television Voice:: Four cameras. Eleven days. Two states. Over 2000 pictures. Out of this, brillig will attempt to craft a cogent, interesting diary three cogent interesting diaries in the time provided. Remember, she was not allowed to ignore the daily strains and stresses of life after her return from Vacation. And, as an extra challenge, we ::whispers:: threw curveballs left, right and sideways into her free time. Stay tuned for The Vacation Diaries, here on Daily Kos Top Comments, below the dingledoodle squigglie dKosagnocchi dividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor...
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We arrived back in Portland after driving a slightly more scenic route than we intended. There was an accident on the highway we were taking, and with the help of SeattleTammy in my facebook chat navigated to smaller roads to get around it. We stopped partway down to pick up snacks and drinks and discovered the town was famous, in a way:
Our Portland destination that first night was probably the most unique hotel I've ever stayed in: The Kennedy School, another McMenamin's locale. It's a former elementary school that had closed and been condemned. The chain remodeled it, keeping the 'school' feel but making it a fully functional hotel.
The rooms were all named after school features (we were in the Girls' Ball Court) and had chalkboards:
There was a lovely "soaking pool" of hot tub-like salt water, which went adult after 8pm:
The walls were lined with all sorts of school memorabilia and artwork, such as this piece, one of a set covering the entire alphabet:
The food was delicious at both dinner and breakfast, and the dining room had the most beautiful lighting:
After we sent the kids back to the room to relax, Mr. Brillig and I went off to find a drink in one of the four bars on premise. The first we looked into was aptly named Detention:
We decided we were not in need of Detention, however, as it was the only place where cigar smoking was allowed. The Honors bar was crowded, and the Boiler room had the remnants of a large wedding party carousing, so we ended up in the Cypress Room (where I had such a wonderful time I forgot to get a picture!). The Kennedy School was somewhere we gladly would have spent the remainder of our vacation, but sadly they only had the one night available. If you're ever in the Portland area, I highly recommend it.
The next day had us headed to Arenosa's house for an ice-cream social with their friends and to see (and get a ride in!) her husband's hot rod! It was a wonderful day save for the fact Arenosa's steps conspired to trip her, leading to a swollen bruised foot that was several days later declared broken. Thankfully ice cream is a seated affair :).
HRM (short for HotRodMan)'s automobile, a true labor of love, is in fact spectacular. I took a lot of pictures, but as I don't want to broadcast either closeups of my kids' faces, OR her street address/license plate number, I've got these two to share:
The place we spent the remainder of our time in Portland was a fun house rental through the AirBnB website. The house is part of a "permaculture" group and as such there were chickens in the communal yard, trees brimming with ripe plums, and an owner packing with her friends to head to Burning Man :). Here's the backyard:
Our last big venture was to go see Mount St. Helens. As I may have mentioned before, back home in the Northeast we simply do NOT have volcanoes. So off we went on the hour's drive to the Visitor Center:
Umm, that's as close as we can get?! We learned that if we drove another hour, we could get as close as is currently possible. The kids looked nonplussed at more driving. That's when the ranger looked at them and said "You have clear visibility to the mountain maybe 100 days out of the year. THIS IS ONE OF THEM. You can see steam coming out of it. Get in the car and go." So we did :). Even at one of the early pulloffs, it was clear we were in for a real treat:
After a bit more driving and a cougar-sighting too fleeting and distant to capture on camera, we arrived and spent several hours at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, in the heart of the blast zone:
There's something about looking at a mountain and mentally "adding" where the rest of it should be:
Everywhere we were had been affected by the eruption. Trees had been felled then covered by debris formerly known as "mountaintop":
The kids both thanked us for 'making' them go all the way to the Observatory, and spent time exploring and learning:
Our last days there, we did a variety of things. We visited the Portland Zoo:
We played mini-golf, with different rules for each hole and a whole lot of laughter:
And after a tasting at Hip Chicks Do Wine, we had lunch at Burgerville, with the largest freekin onion rings I've ever seen. I should have known that when you order them as "3, 5 or 10 rings" they'd be impressive. FYI, the thing next to the onion rings is a full-sized burger:
Our flight home was uneventful, and as much as we had a fantastic time and really miss being out there, we also missed home. I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have putting it together. Thank you for sharing it with me.
::Dramatic Television Voice:: We now return you to your regularly scheduled Tuesday night fare.::Dramatic Finale Music, Dramatic Television Voice Fadeout::
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Laughing Planet:
This quip by alteran in response to yet another spam/troll in Rimjob's weekly Breaking Bad recap cracked me up.
From blueoregon:
I'd like to nominate blue aardvark's comment in Laura Clawson's diary because the President should play hardball when it comes to SNAP. It just might get results.
From JayRaye:
This comment by MichiganChet and the reply by Johnny Q. Short and to the point about how the ruling class pisses on us and tells us it's a nice spring rain trickling down upon us humble peons from our betters.
Flagged by WeeMama, this comment by RoIn.
JayFromPA flagged this comment by Zygoat.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Frankly, I'd like to nominate David Waldman's entire GunFAIL diary. Alas. However, peterfallow's clarification is worthy AND a comment :).
Eclectablog's In which I debunk GOP lies re: health ins. rates skyrocketing under Obama with actual facts and math gave this anecdote by LI Mike in the comments. This is how we do it.
Top Mojo for yesterday, September 16th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) I Guess This Is What Happens by bink — 139
2) Yeah, 'cause burglars always knock. by Tracker — 107
3) But Wall Street owns votes also. by TomP — 104
4) That's not how it's done in Baltimore by jaguarpete — 98
5) It will come down to Boehner by blue aardvark — 88
6) The GOP and the Tea Party have empowered.... by LiberalCanuck — 80
7) Tea Party has its heart set on another downgrade by Lefty Coaster — 78
8) We can't bust heads like we used to... by Trix — 77
9) The place where the power needs to be cut by ChemBob — 77
10) Damn right, David. by Ian Reifowitz — 74
11) They're Just a Little Premature. by Gooserock — 74
12) Iran also by whizdom — 71
13) Unitary Moonbat by Land of Enchantment — 63
14) I blame the NRA for this by Puddytat — 62
15) Mourning for the victims & their families. by earicicle — 61
16) It Also Can't Improve Ocean Acidification, Even if by Gooserock — 61
17) And you used by Purple Priestess — 58
18) The U.S. needs to play ball with him. by joe from Lowell — 55
19) We have spent trillions to defend this country by Superskepticalman — 55
20) Fellow Kossacks by Will Smith — 55
21) This is the key point: by Brainwrap — 54
22) The government has been outsourced..... by Bensdad — 54
23) NSA is stonewalling on FOIA by FishOutofWater — 54
24) Seattle Times has an excellent series by FishOutofWater — 54
25) Happy Moonday, T-Dub! by NormAl1792 — 53
26) When the Democrats hold a majority in by blue aardvark — 52
27) Under serfdom there were 1-3% shopkeepers by Horace Boothroyd III — 52
28) I think the answer is obvious.... by Roddy McCorley — 51
29) It was for our own good. by psnyder — 50
30) I'd say , I hope they sue her for all she's worth by indycam — 50
Top
Pictures Cats for yesterday, September 16th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!