Going backward, I arrived after 11 in heavy rains, with local flooding blocking roads all over the area. Air VW the Gray had slipped here and there, and traffic was slow-moving. The rain had filled the highways with a quarter-inch of water in places, making a faster pace dangerous. It was a brutal drive from Kathleen’s home to my house on the edge of Beaverton and Hillsboro, once known as Reedville and Aloha.

Kathleen, Chris, and I joined Richard at his house to play one of Richard’s newest Kickstarter games: Trailblazer: The Arizona Trail. Once we were done, I drove Kathleen home across Portland. The EV Nav found a different way to connect to I-84, which surprised us. I did pull over to ensure we had the correct address for Kathleen’s home. We did not use Google Maps, but the built-in VW-supplied Nav. It worked, but it was a slow drive as traffic was slow and heavy, and visibility was low.

I had not seen Chris for a while, but it was nice to play with him again. He had played the game before and shot out like a rocket once it started. Chris did come in third, but he had the lead for most of the game. Trailblazer uses two scoring totals and subtracts them like other heavy resource and worker placement games, like Arc Nova. My only goal was to get a positive score, and my 22 points for my first play were good for me in this game style.

I enjoyed the game more than Arc Nova, and I could see the designer had learned from other games and tried to create a constraint-free, randomly generated board of cards to purchase that granted various rewards. There are also two tracks to move forward to unlock more options and accelerate your resource collection and gameplay. Instead of hand management or deck-building mechanisms, this game used piece placement to build a mural on your own board with various shapes and sizes purchased with resources gained elsewhere, and that awards moving up on a track with rewards–an excellent mix of two game mechanisms. This is a popular mechanism, and I found I liked it. We all completed our board, meaning the game is not a limited resource.

The game has many goals and intermediate means to get more points and resources (split between two scoring totals). Overall, I initially did not like the game (I all but rolled my eyes when I saw it’s set up as a yet-another-brain-burning resource and worker management game). Still, I began to like it once I understood the various mechanisms. Your turn is easy to understand, and you naturally climb multiple tracks. Items that score extra points are collected without making sacrifices that leave your play constrained. I did not find myself starving for resources (though short a few times) or fighting with game constraints. The game designers did an excellent job!

Going back in time, my drive to Richard’s house in Air VW the Gray took more than an hour of slow, wet driving. Traffic was heavy for a Saturday, but there was an event at Moda Center, and I am sure that added to the mess. The EV was at about 80% as I did not bother to charge it after my earlier trip.

Before leaving, I spent the afternoon doing laundry and dishes. For lunch, I had cold ham and a reheated leftover potato with butter and sour cream. I read and napped. I followed Deborah’s trip back to Michigan on TripIt and texted back and forth. We called and talked, too. It was so strange to be back to texting and calling Deborah after spending a week together here at the house and in Seattle. I skipped dinner, having just crackers at the house, some nuts at Richards (he has snacks for gamers), and toast with marmalade when I got home.

We rose at 6 to get ready to take Deborah to PDX. We had cereal for breakfast and more locally roasted and ground coffee. There were tears as we enjoyed our bubble of time and local travel that was now ending. In our happy bubble, we avoided news, work, and even laundry for a week. We loved being together for a week, enjoyed seeing the Pacific Northwest together, gaming in Portland and Beaverton, and drinking and eating. Deborah is a fan of coffee drinks, and Spanish Coffee is a newly learned passion of her’s now.

We reached PDX too soon. It was sad, but we were so happy to get our week bubble of time together. Deborah will be back! We next meet in California in mid-March at Long Beach for a biz conference for Deborah. I am her +1, and then we stay for a week after. I plan to drive the EV there. After that, I hope to spend a long weekend in Toronto with Deborah in April and see folks in Michigan.

Thanks for reading!

I’m sorry, but I did not get the blog written in the morning. I decided to catch up with Deborah on her way back to Michigan on Saturday. Thursday and Friday were slower, with less sightseeing and more game playing.

Thursday

We got going later, as we had an easy day. Breakfast was coffee from the local store in Hillsboro, Costco cereal, and milk. We finally got out around noon and headed in Air Volvo to Hillsboro.

It was a short trip that barely moved the battery number below 98%. We found a helpful parking spot and then walked through the old town. We had no temptation to stop at the axe-throwing bar. Somehow, I never associated axe usage with alcohol consumption. And while I heard that axe-throwing bars were on near the top list of romantic activities for the recently passed Valentine’s Day, we went with the more traditional dinner of prime rib with champagne.

Later, we would return to the local coffee and other food supplies store: Bennett Urban Farm Store. We got some coffee there, India Karnataka Peaberry, which they ground for us. That was our coffee for the following day. We also got some hazelnuts in a set of chocolate and salted. Deborah found packets of the same to take home. She also got a pound of some excellent Hawaii coffee to take home.

Before this, we walked to the courthouse, where the sequoia redwoods grow. The giant trees were planted in 1880 and now are the tallest thing in Hillsboro. Deborah was amazed, and I always enjoyed visiting them. There are some sequoia plants here and there, including one in Portland I know about. They need not sun but rain; they grow on the wet coastal hills and mountains.

We went to lunch at Amelia’s Rustic Mexican Restaurant. We had drinks and excellent food. With lunch in our stomachs, we headed back home.

We headed to The 649 with Abducktion (plus expansion included) to play. Crystal and Stephen, the bartenders for The 649, were happy to meet Deborah. We also met Joan S and talked for a while there. We caught up on her adventures on her remodel and refreshes at her house. Joan, who lives Northwest of Beaverton and Hillsboro, and I are tempted by the new homes, but the price tag of the new construction conveniences us to update what we have. Instead, we live with the surprises that older homes have and do a few updates every few years.

Joan headed out, and Deborah and I got some food and focused on our game playing. Abducktion is a card management and pattern-matching game with plenty of options to mess with your opponents. You have tiny plastic ducks that can be rearranged/replaced based on the cards you get. There are also cards for points that are formation you need to create to get the card and the points. Deborah slipped in after messing with my ducks and got one. It is a fun game, but it may be too cutthroat for two players. I managed to win by getting the last card by about ten points.

We were ready to head home after the game, drinks, and food. We soon were sleeping.

Friday

We woke knowing Friday was our last full day together. We spent the morning together, enjoying coffee and cereal for breakfast. Air VW the Gray was fully charged, and soon we were amazing Deborah with the driving style found on our Portland-headed roads. We parked in a regular space as the charge was still over 90% for the EV. It was already past lunchtime and a Friday, so there was no wait at Deschutes Brewhouse in the Pearl District. Deborah was interested in the elk burger, and the pastrami on rye with sauerkraut also looked good. We ordered one each and then split them when they arrived. The elk, while good, was dry and needed the melted cheese and grilled mushrooms it came with, and Deborah added mayo. It was good.

We had done Powell’s before, but it is just down the street, and I wanted to look through the recently moved SciFi and Mystery section. Deborah had a call and then met me on the second floor. I looked for a Middle Earth map book, but there was only a full-priced second edition (I was looking for the old one). I considered another Christopher Tolkien book, likely the last one, but I passed.

I headed to the computer section and looked at some Python books, but I did not find anything new that interested me. Corwin was texting me as he had installed Python and wanted to write a game. He later sent me updates he had pygame running and liked the results. It is an interesting gaming system, and I have coded a few things for it. I will see about returning to coding. We will see about that later.

Deborah and I headed to the rare book room, where we ogled the $25,000 Lewis and Clark book. Then we saw the note that the $300,000 book was not on display. Wow! I found a few books for about $100 that interested me, but I resisted (a first-edition Hornblower book and a magic book). Deborah bought a Powell’s t-shirt to wear on the plane back on Saturday.

We next took Air VW the Gray from the parking garage to street parking by the Lucky Labrador in Hawthorn. There, we got drinks with Deborah, trying a currant cider and a bowl of peanuts. We played Panic: Star Trek with Deborah catching on after a couple missions. This is from a game from the Panic series, which includes visual damage to a fortress or spaceship, in our case, while cooperatively trying to complete missions. They are fun and very visual. We played four missions before quitting and finding some food.

(Deborah is playing Scotty and the Enterprise–TOS most shields are down, and almost every hull section is damaged).

We shared a Gobbler Sandwich (turkey, cheese, and other goodies) while I taught, and then we played Azure. Deborah caught on fast, and I taught the usual (not the Z and Michael preferred) scoring. Deborah soon pulled ahead and stayed there.

We returned home with the drinks gone (mostly), food inside us, and games done. Once home, I arranged the Date Night kit that Dondrea and Z gave me for Christmas. We had a fire pot, sticks, marshmallows, gram crackers, and chocolate to make smores. We lit it (did not quite wait twenty minutes) and soon had smores hot from the fire. I managed to burn mine twice. Deborah was able to toast hers.

We tried the sparkling wine, salmon, and cheese supplied. All was good. It was a good date night!

We watched two more episodes of Silo (only one left for season two). From what I read, Apple TV+ will complete the next two seasons and the story arc. It was hard to watch some of it. But the story was riveting.

We have to rise early to get Deborah on her way on Saturday, so we headed to bed.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

The morning started with some speed, as we planned to traverse the Coastal Mountain Range in the electric vehicle and wanted to get to the Pacific Ocean beaches with plenty of time to enjoy them (and the possible need to recharge). This was the most extended and boldest trip with Air VW the Gray I had tried. We got a 100% charge (93% once we hit the highways), which meant an over 200-mile range. The trip to Astoria was 83 miles one way, giving me more than enough range for there and back and some sightseeing.

We had breakfast before heading out. We had bagels with Nova Lox (smoked salmon) and cream cheese. We also brought trail mix-like snacks. I put my boots in the car, as it is always good to be ready when traveling the passes. I had newly purchased socks (traction devices) in the EV. Like the Volvo, the VW can do socks or snow tires, not chains. It being Wednesday, there was some traffic, but once we started into the forests and hills, the traffic was light. As always, it is a lovely drive, and the moss in the trees gets heavier closer to the coast. There was light snow at the highest elevation, about 1600 feet (487m), but nothing on the road, and the temperatures were never near freezing.

We arrive at Seaside, Oregon, in just over an hour. On my navigation, using the one that comes with the EV (not Maps), we can see some chargers on the map, but none are near beaches and are long walks from anything interesting. We find parking near the main tourist drag and walk to the beaches by way of a coffee place.

We walk on the beach and look for sand dollars, but mostly, we find 1/2 broken ones, which we call half-dollars. Over the years, I have found one whole sand dollar, which I have at home. We had one sneaker wave that we had to run away. It threw water fifty feet further than any other wave, and we managed to run before getting our shoes soaked. It was not large enough to knock us down, but it was a strong reminder to always keep one eye on the ocean on Oregon beaches, especially in the winter.

Once we had spent a long time and were quite cold, we walked down the street with a fine collection of shells and looked at a few stores. Salt-water taffy was acquired for Z. I always get Z a bag.

We next took the EV to Astoria and saw an excellent charger, but again, it was a walk, this time up and down the large hill in Astoria! Nope. We parked in the old town, walked, and enjoyed the area. Deborah commented on the upscale feel compared to the primary t-shirts, candy, and usual tourist junk for sale at Seaside. We went to the Supper Club for lunch and had excellent salads with meat, steak for Deborah, and crunchy chicken for me. The food was outstanding. I had a Diet Coke as I had to drive, and I was feeling off just a bit (too much coffee).

We stopped at Godfather Books (mostly new with some used bookstores), and I found Graham Kerr’s book there for $12. He was one of the first chefs on TV and was famous for all the wine he drank while cooking. His show was The Galloping Gourmet.

The trip home was by Nav, which sent us to Highway 202, Nehalem Highway, which was twisty and full of sunken grades. It was not a fast-driving route but more direct and fun. Air VW the Gray handled very well. When we were close to Jewel (sort of a town in the Coastal Mountains), there were elk herd preserves. We stopped to take photos of a large herd, like all good tourists, but there were places to do this; thus, we did not block the roads or do a dangerous pull-off.

On the Nehalem Highway, there were guardrails here and there, as well as babbling brooks, creeks, and even rivers next to the road along the passes. The snow was a few inches deep in the forest as we crested some pass on 202. The speed signs for the turns were not suggestions but often the highest survival speed. And sometimes there were no signs like they just got tired of repeating themselves. The sign could have been, “Again.” Or if you are still with us, you will likely make it and don’t need signs.

Once 202 became 103 and then 26 (also known as the Sunset Highway), we were back on the familiar roads. We reached the house with a thirty-five percent charge. Plenty! It was just dark. We reheated the prime rib from a few nights ago. I also made some asparagus in the new veggie steamer (my old one broke), and I microwaved some potatoes and fried some ham while the beef heated in the oven (Best to bake to get it back to normal, if you have the time; microwave would be less effective).  We watched a few episodes of Silo together while we enjoyed our leftovers and my extras.

With the walking, travel, and food, we soon were sleepy. A good day!

Thanks for reading.

 

After the late-night return on Monday via Amtrak, we slept in and went slow in the morning. I cooked a late breakfast of bacon and a cheese omelet. I still had trouble judging salt; the omelet needed salt, but otherwise, it was good. I did not find time to write the last two days of blogs in the morning.

I discovered that the EV had only charged 84% in the garage. On a level two charger, the usual setting is 80% as physics demands that the power to charge to 80% is needed to get the last 80%. Completing the charge takes a lengthy time because a level two charger cannot increase its output. I thought my settings were set to 100% on Air VW the Gray, but no. I want 100% for longer trips, of course. I have made this mistake before and wonder if the rate is resetting. Hmmm.

Deborah and I boarded the EV and headed to the Columbia Gorge. With a later start, I refocused the trip to the closer items; Hood River will have to wait for another trip. We reached the Gorge without issues, though traffic was often below the speed limit until we reached I-84 and the higher speeds in the Gorge (60 mph). We took exit 22, Air VW the Gray climbed five hundred feet on windy roads without issue, and reached the Women’s Forum Overlook. This view is of the start of the walled sections of the Columbia Gorge and is a lovely, if not stunning, view. You can see Vista House, another overlook, from there. We soon took the crazy pasted-on-the-side of the cliffs road to park next to Vista House, which was closed. The view was just good.

We returned the way we came, with twisty roads and sometimes missing or broken railings. Back on I-84, Multnomah Falls was only a few more minutes away. We parked the EV next to no car, with three spots on each side and 3/4 up the parking lot where no cars were. Later, someone parked next to the brand-new vehicle!

We visited the base of the falls, and it was cold and breezy. However, the view is always impressive, as it is a 500+ foot drop. Next, we took the not-that-easy trail to the Benson Bridge, and Deborah marveled at the moss and plants; the area had recovered from the fires. The cold was intense as we got near the falls. This is snow and glacier-melt waters, and they were cold. The noise is unexpected, and the mist covers the area. We climbed the much more rough and angled trail to the view of the Gorge and I-84. The mix of rough trails, small fallen rocks, and the sudden drop off at the edge can be intense for those not used to trails; that would describe us both.

We found the descent harder than marching up the trail. Nevertheless, we reached the bridge without incident and felt some relief. We took the trail slowly and were passed by many; we did not care. We again marveled at the plants and trees and enjoyed the area. We reached the trail’s end, and Julie was just walking up.

Julie (also from Laingsburg, Michigan, but lives in the Pacific Northwest) agreed to meet us for dinner at the Multnomah Falls Lodge. We got a table with a view of the falls, talked, and ate. Julie and Deborah have kept up and met here and there over the years. We talked about our lives and plans for retirement.

Deborah let the cooks rework a sandwich so that she would have salmon instead of turkey breast (the waiter suggested). My food was OK. Julie tired the club. We talked for over an hour until the places started to close (it closes at 6; there are no lights on the falls, and the trails are not usable at night). We promised to keep in touch (we follow each other on Facebook).

Air VW the Gray got us home without issue. Deborah read and was on her phone while I wrote two days of blogs. I was tired and had nodded off once while resting for a few minutes. When I got to bed with everything published, I soon fell asleep.

Thanks for reading.

 

The day started with us rising early. We soon connected with Dondrea and agreed to watch Pike Place Market open on this holiday Monday, President’s Day. We met in the lobby, walked a few blocks to the Market, and entered The Crumpet Shop. I had a ricotta and lemon curd-covered crumpet, while everyone else selected savory crumpets. We all had tea, and I had an excellent Irish Breakfast blend.

We then walked through the Market. Deborah missed the one chance to see the fish being thrown —she just missed it—but she did hear their call; they only throw fish they sell. The holiday Monday was getting only a limited bunch of well-heeled tourists. There was limited fishthrowing today.

We wandered down to the magic shop—one of my favorites, The Market Magic Shop—and Z got to be their first audience for a few tricks. They also pointed out she could acquire one of their fake tongues, record it licking the gum wall, and have some horror reactions. This could be edited into a video and shared for fun and profit. Z demurred.

We did visit the disgusting gum wall.

Dondrea and I bought a bottle of mead from a local seller at the market, and Deborah and I bought spices at the Souk. We looked through many shops and enjoyed it as the market started at about 10 and late opening shops at 11. One of the late opening places is Athena, and soon, we had a lovely table looking over the bay there. Deborah had fish and chips with salmon, and Dondrea and Z had cod. I had the Market Price Crab Louie Salad. It was fantastic. I like our local crab, Dungeness, cold and plain, and Maryland blue crab hot and drowning in spices. Softshell in a sandwich.

Everyone loved their dinner, and Z discovered Malt Vinger on her fries. We soon headed out of the Market and put our purchases with checked bags at the hotel. We had all checked out of the hotel, and they held our bags. The desk clerk directed us to the old Monorail, and after a few blocks, we boarded and took it to the Space Needle. I had not been on the Monorail in years and it was fun.

Dondrea got us discounted tickets for the Museum of Pop Culture, and soon, we were in the SciFi Hall of Fame and looking at some interesting relics from SciFi, Rock, and even horror. Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, Dracula, Dungeons and Dragons, and many others (and their respective writers) are honored with impressive displays. I did not get many good pictures, including Captain Kirk’s chair (from the original TV show), that I did not know still existed. Next time!

(Me scared too death in Horror)

(Captain Picard’s uniform)

(Lost in Space)

I can recommend the museum.

We soon returned to the hotel with more purchases. We also tried the hotel restaurant Ben Paris for Happy Hour appetizers and drinks. We had credit for our stay. We ordered fried Brussels sprouts, and they shaved a fish over them that seemed to wave and move. It was good but disconcerting at first (see previous museum).

We toured the closing Pike Place Market but just missed the deli for sandwiches to return with us.

We took a real Uber after resting in the Hotel Lobby (after they opened the doors for us again now that we were checked out). The driver parked in the street (not the curb), and we had to avoid the car in the street to board. I gave him a large tip, which I thought did not go through (it was a short trip for four people). I ended up paying the tip twice. Now I wait until after the trip to tip!

We were soon at the Amtrak station. Amtrak accepted my offer of $16 each for the business class seats—you can bid on seats—and we learned that there was no steward for us. We were comfortable and alone for most of the trip. Dondrea and Z got hot dogs. I had a grilled cheese and Deborah some oatmeal. We were all happy. After the three-to-four-hour trip, we arrived at 11:35 in Portland.

Our Uber drove by us, and I watched as it circled and returned; we were early. The guy told us he had another fare before us when he returned. We were a bit surprised to wait for the same Uber.

We arrived at Dondrea’s house without issue, and Air VW the Gray got us home at about 1AM.

Thanks for reading.