Harvey does Oregon...(again): Portland, Seaside and the Coast

Not again! Harvey seemed to groan as we piled into the car for the four hour drive down to the Oregon coast. True, out of the couple of odd adventures that Harvey has experienced, it seemed odd to repeat one so shortly into the experience.

Well, it's not a repeat for me! Although I had visited Portland several times in the last few years, most recently a couple of months ago to see my pseudo-sister Cassi at the Pacific Northwest College of the Arts and to help her graduate; it had been years since I had gotten to see Seaside and quite a while since I had gotten a chance to take one of my-mom-and-my's signature ultra-relaxed vacations. Harvey had nothing to complain about, particularly since I had allowed him to wear one of his lady-slaying Hawaiian shirts.

And so we were off! Harvey buckled safely in the back, Mom behind the wheel, and "Wait...Wait...Don't Tell Me!" on the radio.

Unfortunately the trip got off to a rocky start, immediately beginning with tire trouble as we pulled into a local Les Schwab with a nail in the tire. Thankfully though the guys at the Bothell Les Schwab fix the tire in not time flat, no charge. Highly grateful, we set out, late.

Come 12:30 at night, and some severe traffic later Mom, Harvey and I pulled into the Vancouver La Quinta totally exhausted. Let me take a moment to say that everybody we ran into that day was so wonderfully helpful and nice. The guys at the Les Schwab who stayed after closing, fixed our tire for no charge; and the Vancouver La Quinta who charged us a fraction of other motel's prices, kept the doors open late, were extremely friendly, and gave us one of the nicest rooms I've possibly ever stayed in; a thousand thank yous! Should you ever, in some bizarre coincidence of the Internet kind, stumble across this blog and this post, let me say how much we appreciate you guys. If you ever need a tire fixed, or place to stay, I recommend them.

The next day Harvey, Mom and I set out into Portland! Home of the young, starving artist; the grungy hipster, and the utterly bizarre. Although I don't think I could ever part with my beloved Seattle, Portland sometimes seems like it might make a close second. It's a very pretty city, with smart planning, inter-urban parks every-other block, cheap parking and some pretty neat bridges. But first and foremost, it was time to fulfill my Mom's greatest image of Heaven...

Powell's City of Books! Three floors, two buildings, all books. The largest new and used bookstore in the world, and located in Portland's Pearl District; it's easily one of the coolest nerd-meccas anywhere. It's also a place where one can easily lose hours. Mom, an avid bird-watcher/bander/enthusiast zipped right to the ornithological section. I popped over to Sci-fi and graphic novels. Harvey was found ogling Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail in the classics section.

Harvey and I took a moment to take a picture in front of two of the most iconic Portland spots in one. Powell's City of Books, and Bike racks. Portland is one of the country's "Bike-ist" cities out there. Powell's contends with this by making bike-racks in the form of iconic books about bikes.

After a morning in the bookstore, time limited and schedule full, we headed over to Fuller's, one of the best breakfast joints in the city, and one conveniently left off the travel brochures so that mostly only locals know about it. Just a lunch-counter, with kitchen-side seating, open from 6:00-3:00; Fuller's makes absolutely the most delicious breakfasts in the entire world. Mom questioned my repeated insistence on dining there, but quickly proclaimed Fuller's as making the "Most Delicious Hash Browns Ever". It's also one of the oldest diners in Portland, has great communal dining, and homemade bread. Yum! Harvey particularly enjoyed the breakfast sausage. I thought rabbits were supposed to be herbivores, but what do I know?

My Mom is in school to be an architect, and both of us are nerds, so naturally we spent the rest of the day bustling about from Portland's most interesting buildings to their best museums. We headed off to Portland's Hat museum, which is listed in most of the tour guides. Unfortunately the Hat museum's location is apparently hidden until you make a reservation, and when you try and make a reservation a stuffy curator will inform you that you should have made a reservation three weeks ago. So the Hat Museum was a bust. Luckily we found ourselves near Portland's First Presbyterian Church. The building has been around since 1889, and it's got some of the coolest detailing and pipe-organs on the west coast.

Harvey looking down at the balcony, wishing he knew how to play a pipe-organ, and that he had half-a-face mask.

After taking a tour of the church (just walk in and ask to see the place, the front desk is very accommodating), we decided to take a stroll.

Harvey poses in front of one of Portland's signature bridges.



Harvey in front of Portlandia, the second largest pounded copper statue after the Statue of Liberty.  



Mom and I almost missed it. We circled the Portland building one whole time before looking up. 

It's kind of scary.

but you enjoyed Cowboys and Aliens before, Harvey!

 Finally we headed up to Portland's Alphabet district and did some window shopping before heading North towards the Peculiarium, a unique little kitschy shop/museum that's somewhat, well, peculiar. It's got zombie babies, alien abductions, and a whole variety of voodoo tchotchkes. It's odd, but I really enjoyed it, it's certainly worth a look if you're into the hodge-podge of bizarre. Harvey on the other hand seemed just a little bit uncomfortable there. 

Then it was off to Seaside. Another couple hour drive away and there we were! In the rain. I played on the beach, I swung on the swing for hours and hours, I went to Mostly Hats, and ate lots and lots of Seaside Saltwater Taffy. All-the-while it rained so hard, sideways, that I got swimmers ear from walking eastward. I kid you not, stepping outside could get you wet to the bone. Luckily, I'm a web-footed Seattleite and didn't mind in the least.

Harvey elected to stay in the motel, due to a skin condition. He didn't seem too upset. I'm not sure why...

I'm afraid Seaside wasn't too well documented because of the torrential downpour, but it was a great couple of days. You'll just have to take my word for it. On the way home, we stopped at Fort Clatsop, the winter quarters for Lewis and Clark's Core of Discovery when they landed on the West Coast.

Harvey redubs Fort Clatsop, Fort Harvey.

"This place needs pillows!"

Then we stopped at North Head, which sits between Cape Disappointment and the Dismal Niche. (Gotta love grumpy explorer names). It's not only very pretty but also on of the foggiest spots on the west coast and home to a whole host of ship-wrecks. I was busy snapping pictures of the cool coastline and mom was engaged in watching the squadrons of Pelicans that were flying past.

I don't know about anyone else, but Harvey kept humming the theme to Jurassic Park and making me nervous.

At the end of the bluff is the North Head lighthouse, an extremely old and still functioning lighthouse. Harvey took a moment to enjoy the fog. Luckily the lighthouse is still functioning, so Harvey was confident he wouldn't get lost at sea.

After one final look at the sea, we all piled back in the car and headed inland again. Even though it rained for most of the vacation, Harvey still had a great time, although I suspect that might be somehow related to fact that he's smelled like Taffy, ever since he got home, but I'm not really sure.

Harvey Adventures Mini: The Dead End

Near where Tobi and I live is "The Dead End". It's an area of overgrown park/woodlands at the end of Third Avenue and continues down and east to the North Creek Park Boardwalk. It's a beautiful area, and is a nice little scenic route between our two houses.

Our area of the world is full of marshes, which can have everything from Beavers to Snakes to Blue herons. Our Boardwalk has been around since we were about eight and is a wonderful area for getting in touch with nature. Of course, it's not exactly for the faint of heart. Slightly dilapidated, there are patches where, in the rainy months (or, essentially, all year), the water will periodically and startlingly cascade over the edge of the boardwalk, sending walkers fleeing to the raised edges, and the occasional snake will poke his head through the slates like a tiny green periscope.

Tobi and Harvey venture into the woods.

Don't go into the light!



The woods themselves are a wonderful, storybook-like tangle off uneven, overgrown paths and greenery. It all completes back at 3rd Ave., where a broken, old, disused street, slowly being overgrown with blackberry bushes and ferns, connects back to the main road. It's one of the best walks in the world and I hope it never gets developed. 



Tobi walks into a lit fairy-ring.





Harvey at the Movies: Cowboys V.S. Aliens

When I was a kid, my family wasn't the most affluent, nor was it very good at dealing with outings, as us kids outweighed the parents two-to-three, and we knew it. Moreover, my father, never a big fan of movies often left that ratio down to a perilous three-to-one at the theater. So it makes sense that throughout my entire childhood my family only went to the movies once a year. Even when my mom's weird taste in films forced us to waste that one movie on bizarre epics about old men going cross-country on riding lawn-mowers, or what-ever-the-hell "Mars Attack" was about; going to the movies was always an adventure, no matter what we were seeing. So we thought it appropriate that Harvey get to experience one of our most exciting childhood adventures; the movies.

Ok, ok, so the movies may not really sound all that exciting. But we're talking Cowboys and Aliens, the twin dreams of a pair of nerd-geek buddies like Tobi and I.

Now, as explained in the opening post, Tobi and I are pretty nerdly, and moreover, we love costuming, so what better way to truly experience an event like "Cowboys and Aliens" then with a set of nifty costumes. From the moment we saw the first preview, and set about giggling over the prospect of a "Cowboys and Aliens" film, featuring a cantankerous Harrison Ford as even more cantankerous Colonel Dolarhyde. So, costumes were quickly put into the works. Firstly though, it seemed like it was time we got Harvey a real carrying pack.

Harvey wasn't sure if he liked carrying pack but we assured him he was manly enough to work polka-dot lederhosen. (more about this on my sewing blog)

 Then it was our turn to get costumed!

Tobi was an alien and I was a cowboy. As a last minute addendum we reverted back to elementary school and made ourselves a pair of Gauntlet Weapons out of tin cans and random knick-knacks from around my sewing shop. Granted, they looked nothing like the Gauntlet Weapons in the movie, but they were still totally awesome.

Chase and Kylara joined in for all the excitement.

They had to scramble for costumes, forgive them for not being as epic as us, they're still young.

Even Harvey got all dressed up in a little Sheriff vest over his spiffy new polka-dot lederhosen.

Then at 11:30 it was off to Regal Cinemas Alderwood Movie Theater! Excitement! Adventure! Midnight showings!

Now, perhaps the best moment of the night. Chase, Kylara and I hopped out of the car while Tobi went to go park. Behind us were a group of several teenage guys (the usually annoying breed), and they got in line behind us. I payed for tickets to a pretty unimpressed ticket-taker, and then stood off to the side to await the appearance of my Alien friend. One of the guys stopped in line and stared at me for a moment. I awaited the usually boring, crude or crass comment that usually pops out of teen boy's mouths.

"Wow." he nodded. "Those are the best costumes for "Bridesmaids" ever."
I awarded him 54 win points.

Then we got into the theater and managed to be one of the first people in, snagging up the good seats, right in front of the aisle, where you can put your feet up on the railing. I also secured a large bag of popcorn for my consuming purposes. Tobi and I also engaged in "Pew-pewing" all the passersby. Alas, only one, rather cute guy, played dead.

Pew Pew!

 The Movie was great. Pure nerdy entertainment. Was it the most brilliant and movie film of the summer? No. But it was just a lot of fun, and not just because we were on an epic Harvey Adventure. You really can't do wrong with Harrison Ford in a Fedora fighting off aliens



Wait a gosh-darn minute here...something seems wrong about that sentence....

Not only was the movie just purely fun, but it also featured some pretty good eye candy. Between grumpy old Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in slightly tight pants there's not much you can do to screw up.

Harvey gets himself some big guns.

Throw down in the movie theater!

Leaving the theater. I think the Theater should've contracted us for advertisement purposes.