Forest Park , Brew, and Dinner

1) Glenn's home early Monday morning - Sunny! 2) A pose in Forest Park 3) Glenn & Mindy Forest Park 4) Gourmet Pizza - Bridgeport Brew Pub - downtown Portland 5) Moet & Chandon toast 6) Rina, Glenn, Mindy, & Me Mindy was the first one out of bed this morning. It was 6:30am. I had a little headache so I took a couple of Advil and returned to bed for a few. She was happy to get up and not have to deal with kids vying for her attention. I could hear the happiness in her voice. While I laid in bed I could hear her talking with her mom back home. She was giving her all the details of our engagement. Gloria knew it was coming because not only had I asked her permission, but I had also asked her for Mindy’s ring size. I got up around 6:45am and dressed in my running clothes. When I went out into the living room, Mindy had coffee ready and was reading the book she had just started yesterday. She was all but done. I completed my normal exercise routine. Before leaving on a run, I unpacked my laptop and did a little journaling. At 8:00am PT sharp, I left for my run. I did my usual 5+ mile Vancouver run, down to the river bank, behind Joe’s Crab shack, along the river walk, to the shore side condos, and back. By the time I returned, 8:50am, Glenn was up. We had an aggressive action plan for the coming week that included, visiting the Museum of Art, skiing, and Seattle. After locking down the order in which we should attack our agenda, Glenn got on line to check out the Portland Museum of Art’s operating schedule – the first day’s main event. Uh-oh! Museum is closed on Monday’s. It was already 10am, too late to head to the mountain for skiing and probably too late to head towards Seattle. With all plans comes flexibility. We decided we’d go hiking in Forest Park, the same park where Glenn and I biked last TG week. We couldn’t really ski today anyhow. The snow pack on Mt Hood had diminished to a paltry 24” after a couple of rainy days in the mountains. That’s too bad because sky wise, today was an ideal ski day – clear blue skies. Unless we got appreciable snow over the next couple of days, and then some decent visibility, snow skiing was in danger of being nixed entirely from our agenda. Obviously that’s out of our control so we didn’t focus much time on it. Instead, we looked forward to our hike. We left the house around 1130am. We made a stop at the local Walgreen’s to get some bottled water and candy bars. We loaded up on the water. We bought a case. Each of us grabbed a couple candy (energy) bars, too. We drove across the river to Portland and then through downtown to Forest Park, the largest metropolitan park in the country. The park sits on the city’s western edge and winds up a very large hill that overlooks the city. It’s quite beautiful. The trail we took is about 12 miles long. We would not be doing the entire trail. We left for our hike under beautifully sunny skies. The trail has a slight upward slope pretty much the entire way. After attaining a pace, the slope was almost undetectable. The greenery was lush and beautiful. And like you might expect, we spent a great deal of our time chatting about this and that while we hiked. We hiked for a couple of hours. We did a total of four miles, turning around at the two mile marker. We left Forest Park near 2pm and headed into NW Portland for some lunch and some brew. We were going to visit the Blue Moon – somewhat of a tradition, but opted instead to try somewhere new. We ended up visiting the Bridgeport Brewpub in the trendy ‘new’ Portland area. The decision was a good one. The pub was ultra modern and the brew and food was A+ good. The décor was primarily stainless steel with lots of other metals mingled in. We ordered a pitcher of their stout along with a 12 inch gourmet pizza. We left the pub before 4pm and headed back towards Vancouver and to the grocery store where we would shop primarily for our TG fixins. We decided on the Safeway at Jantzen Beach. I was a little worried since we would be shopping without a list. That only increases the money we’d spend plus left us vulnerable to forgetting a few important ingredients. We headed home with our haul at 5:00PM. After carrying everything in, I played a little guitar while Glenn locked down our dinner reservations at the Hudson. Mindy and I would be meeting Rina for the first time ever. We had an hour or so to play before leaving to pick her up. I played guitar. Glenn checked email, and Mindy finished her book. We left for Rina’s place at 6:15pm PT. She lives a short drive from Glenn’s. Mindy and I waited in the car while fetched her. Rina looks a lot like her pictures but speaks much differently than I expected a bit rough. We chatted about numerous things including children and back grounds. She hails from Southern California and migrated here about 25 years ago. Like a lot of people, she moved for love. Four kids later she’s still here and now helping raise her grandchildren. We were seated promptly at the Hudson – at rustic looking lodge type place. The menu was a bit pricey, but according to Glenn, the food very good. As we perused the menu, Mindy and I decided to use this dinner out to celebrate our recent engagement and subsequently ordered a bottle of their best champagne – Moet & Chandon White Star. Of course we shared our bubbly with Glenn & Rina even though they had just ordered a bottle of wine. Mindy, Rina, and I ordered New York Steak. Glenn ordered cedar plank salmon. The food was very good. None of us wanted dessert. I picked up the bill. Glenn took care of the tip. We left the restaurant around 9pm. I was almost asleep at the table. After all, it was midnight back home. I slept all the way home, including the drop of Rina at her place. It was only 9:15pm PT when we arrived back a t Glenn’s. I went straight to bed. I was pooped!