Friday, June 29th through Saturday, June 30th
Friday Night
Earlier this week was Sarah’s birthday! She’s a whole year older – and since it’s a pretty major birthday, we figured that it was worth going all out to celebrate.
Where better than the slopes of Mt. Hood, at the Timberline lodge?
I mean, not that Sarah knew that’s where we were going, of course. I had told her that we were going North, to Seattle, where I’d bought VIP overnight tickets to see a previously unreleased musical remake of the famous Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder. I mean, part of a birthday surprise is the misdirection, right? And how else would I have convinced her to pack an overnight bag?
So we drove. When we turned East, instead of North, Sarah called me out and guessed where we were going. I mean, I’ll admit that the misdirection wasn’t the strongest, since she hates musicals and knows that neither of us really like Tropic Thunder… but I was still hoping that she wouldn’t have guessed our destination on her first try.
But hey. It’s her birthday, so Sarah deserved a quick win to start out the trip.
Once we had arrived and gotten checked in, we were able to fully appreciate just exactly where we were staying – This is the famous Timberline Lodge. Huge vaulted ceilings, thick wooden beams surrounding a massive wrought iron fireplace, all topped by the soaring mountain peak above us, still capped with glacial snow. Our room was a king, with an in-room fireplace stocked with seasoned wood, with views of Mt. Jefferson and the slopes below. Sarah was ecstatic, and I was slightly ridiculously proud that I’d been able to book us such an awesome room.
Ollie was pretty excited too, I must add. Yes, Ollie. The dog. Didn’t I mention? Timberline Lodge just opened its doors to canine guests – and our room was one of the special dog friendly rooms set aside. The best way I can describe Ollie is “a small child, in a candy shop, in Disney World, with a credit card”. She was seriously tweaking out, running and sniffing and just being the most excited dog to ever exist.
So we left her to relax and decompress for a bit, and had a glorious dinner at the Ram’s Head grill. Spare ribs and Venison, with paired beers and cheesecake for dessert. Words cannot describe.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and enjoying the room and the views. The fireplace was used, though I’ll admit that the amount of kindling they provided was pretty weak. Sarah and I had a nice bonding moment where we used my pocket knife and a log to split one of the other logs into kindling… yeah, we’re pretty inventive and handy. It was fun though, and honestly a really pleasant evening as we enjoyed the fire and we drifted off to sleep at 6,000 ft with the moonlight illuminating the Southern Cascades.
Saturday
Ollie was excited to be at Mt. Hood. She loves going for hikes on the slopes, and was acting like a toddler on crack.
We woke up at 5:00.
We woke up not because we wanted to, but because Ollie wanted to go for walks. She’s a monster, sometimes. But hey – it meant that we could see the sunrise, so… that’s a good thing, right?
It also meant that we were first up for the buffet downstairs, and first up to start into our adventures of the day; which ended up including meeting an old friend from Northeastern! Gene and his family were here in Oregon to summit Mt. Hood, as part of his 50 highpoints circuit. Unexpected, but really awesome to be able to see them and catch up for a while. The breakfast was pretty good too – though I’ll freely admit that Sarah made the better choice: she got the simple buffet, instead of the full buffet that I ordered… while Bacon is always good, the fresh fruits and yogurt that Sarah had was easily as good.
From there, Ollie and I went out on a hike, in order to give Sarah a bit of time to herself to relax, enjoy the mountain, and paint. We made sure she was impressively nested up outside the lodge, of course, ensuring she had deep supplies of both water, sunscreen, and coffee to keep her energetic. Our target was ZigZag Canyon, and we made it without too much trouble or fuss – all while keeping in touch with Sarah, thanks to the walkie talkies that we’d thought to bring along. It was fun! Nothing too intense, and nothing that would keep us away from the birthday girl for too long, but I think everyone enjoyed the relaxing morning before our drive back into the city.
