Almost two weeks ago I went back to White Salmon/Hood River for the weekend. My friend Beth was moving back from Boise (and into my parents' house) and it was her birthday weekend so some celebrations were in order.
I drove back to the Gorge on Thursday after work. When I got to town I met Sarah, Gaby and Launa for a drink at Brian's Pourhouse. After it was time for Sarah and Launa to go to bed, Gaby and I headed to Double Mountain to say hi to Josh and ended up hanging out with him for a while when he got off work, before calling it a night.
Friday I worked from home at my parents' house. I took advantage of my lunch break and spent it cleaning out my childhood room for Beth. I found so many Beanie Babies and ridiculous clothes and funny pictures when I was cleaning out my room. Oh memories! Needless to say I had a big load of things to go to Goodwill.
And of course Fluffy was there to keep me company during my cleaning.
Friday night Sarah joined me at Everybody's Brewing for some "networking," then Sarah, Josh and I talked about life and our futures over dinner at Solstice. Some commune dreaming happened for sure!
Saturday I got a haircut and then met Beth and her boss, Michael at Chip's for a beer as soon as she got into town. Nothing says "welcome to town" like a beer at a dive bar, amiright?
After we drank our beer and Beth settled into my parents' house and opened her birthday presents we headed down to Henni's for a welcome back birthday dinner with the crew.
After dinner we all headed across the river and met back up at Double Mountain to watch some friends play some music (Smoke on the Water) before heading to River City then eventually Jack's. Needless to say, Beth and I ended up having a sleepover at Josh and Sarah's.
^^alcohol induced inside jokes with some of my girlfriends^^
The next morning we woke up to a crazy and surprising amount of snow. We decided to walk to breakfast at River Daze while we waited for the roads to be plowed and our hangovers to subside.
^^Photo cred: Sarah (and her new awesome camera)^^
After breakfast Beth and I braved the roads to my parents' house. We stopped at Thriftway to get snacks along the way because we didn't anticipate being able to leave again once we got home. The drive up Snowden Rd. was super sketchy but eventually we made it and decided we were going to stay in for the rest of the day. There was no way I was driving back that night - the freeway from Hood River to Portland was under an ice advisory (oh yeah, after all the snow the freezing rain started immediately) and traction devices were required. Snowed in. I can't say I was too sad about having to work from home Monday (only a little).
^^My parents' road^^
We spent the evening watching the Oscars with my dad, hunting for ciders in the snow (funny story, we bought a 6-pack of ciders at the store and put them in the snow outside to keep them cold. My parents' have a German Shepard "puppy" who likes to hop over his fenced in area and come up to the house. He jumped over the fence, came up, stole the ciders and hid them in the snow in random places... After it happened we couldn't for the life of us figure out where they went. Such a trouble maker!), and being total fat kids.
I spent Monday working from home, eating breakfast with Dylan and Beth, and taking a break for a lunchtime beer with friends at Double Mountain #dontjudgeme the view was so pretty. That night, after work, I finally headed back to Seattle. It was so nice to be able to be "home" for an extended period of time, even if it wasn't totally planned and I ran out of clean clothes. Ha! I'm planning on heading back this weekend for the Double Mountain anniversary party (and because Dustin wants to go to Portland and we can split gas/driving) and I can't wait.
