Marsbarn Designs...

Kafka on the rocks

I feel a bit like this today:

The laundry is going. The dishes have been washed. The suitcases have been put away. But. But there is still stuff everywhere that needs my attention. Piles of books, piles of clothes to be put away, fabric that needs a home, and projects.. so many projects. I am not normally someone who feels overloaded by projects, but today I feel a little panic-y. I still have in-progress things I meant to finish months ago, and then there are so many things I haven't even started yet. Gah. Make a list, handle it one step at a time, take deep breaths... round and round go the mantras in my head, wiggle wiggle wiggle go my legs in the air as I try to right myself.

ridin' the rails, rolling with the punches, having us some fun

On Friday, Sweetheart G and I started our annual pilgrimage to Victoria BC. We take the train from Portland to Seattle, and then we take a passenger ferry from Seattle to Victoria. This trip has been a great annual, one on one, mother/ daughter adventure. So Friday found us at the train station bright and early, and we boarded armed with coffee, snacks, and great enthusiasm. These provisions proved essential when the train's engine broke a mile and half south of Vader, WA. (Never heard of Vader? Well, neither had we.) It took almost 4 hours for our Amtrak train to find a passing freight train willing to give us one of their engines. (Never knew trains could "borrow" engines? Neither did we.) The trip was educational, but long. Very long. And by the time the train limped into Seattle, our ferry was long gone. So, Sweet G and I rose to the challenge. By 6 o'clock we had secured: a place to sleep, a new ferry reservation for the next morning, Top Pot donuts (essential in case we were trapped on the ferry the next morning), and a lovely sushi dinner. That girl and I rough it very well. I did have a strong temptation to try and track down Chrysanthemum, but we were so tired that I am not sure we'd have been fit company. (Oh, and then there is that "company dropping out of the blue" thing that I didn't really want to tackle....)

I have to say we had a great time in Seattle. It was a gorgeous evening, and we had a great walk. Plus, there were donuts. 'Nuf said.

So Saturday morning, at 6:15 am, we left our hotel in a cab to catch the ferry. Gah! But, thanks to a wonderful young man at the ticketing counter the night before, we already had boarding passes, and were able to curb check our bags. So we had plenty of time to find Caffeine for me. Donuts, good coffee, kind people... it was a good start to another long day. By 11 am, we were checked into our B&B and ready for all Victoria had to offer.


With our time in Victoria cut a day short, we tromped all over the downtown area until our feet were sore, and then we rested and did it some more. We did the museum, an IMAX movie about ancient Egypt (which was very good!), bought lots of tea, ate, ate, and ate some more, visited Chinatown, wished BC a happy 150th birthday, met Emily Carr.... I was very proud to tell my Sweet Girl, that there was no one else I would have rather had this adventure with. She was a star through all of the ups and downs.

Sunday morning was spent eating breakfast and lounging until Nay-Nay and Grandma B came to get us. Then it was off to Mineral world! Someone did their marketing research on this place. The deal? You buy a little baggie, give it to a child, and then set them free to dig through mountains of pretty rocks to fill said bag. Brilliant, really. Then they have a little station with boxes and glue guns where you get to make things with your pretty rocks. What could possibly top this off? Ice Cream of course! After a dish of cold, creamy goodness at an ice cream parlor a block away, we headed to Grandma B's house for dinner and some quiet time.

And then, the next morning we headed home. Sweetheart G, Nay-Nay, and I were nestled into our comfy seats on the ferry, when the captain came on to say "Well, we're having to shut off our engines because a stick has become lodged in the starboard engine." I successfully fought down the panic. (Really, I didn't even whimper!) And about 15 minutes later a wet gentleman in captain's garb walked past us with a broken tree branch the size of a baseball bat. And after that, the trip home went like clockwork.
So, I'll end this sum-up of our weekend adventure (and my longest post ever) with a self portrait of me on the back of the ferry. I look shiny, huh?

Edited to add: I've added a link to Mineral World, just in case anyone wants to stop on by.

toast, toasted, toasty

I feel a bit like toast this morning.

Fresh toast that is.

Dry on the outside, crunchy about the edges, crisp on top, soft and fluffy on the inside.

I am tired, a bit fried, happy to be home, contented to be done with roving, and having a slight case of the 'warm fuzzies' inside.

And look at these very nice words that were said about my little dice bags at Gnome Stew. Definite warm fuzzies there. Yep.

I see a post in my future

Most of the time I write my posts the day I post them, or at most one day ahead. But this summer with my infrequent computer access, I've been making mad, wild use of the "Publish On" function, so posts are stored for my computer blackout dates. Sure, some people handle this by writing on the go with a lap top and that nifty free WIFI I see everywhere.. I have been tempted to carry my iMac with me as I wander the vacationing scene, like a cellist in a marching band, but with the rice cooker I really don't have the room. (Life is a about choices, right?)
Instead I like to pull out my crystal ball and pretend my Abilities range into Forecasting. Sure, I've had a few moments of accidentally playing "Confuse a Friend", but all in all I think it has gone well. Still, I think today marks the end of my dabbling in the Timeline.. Tomorrow I will be home from my last summer trip, and my routine will reassert itself. No more will you have to wonder if this is the past, present or future me.

Let's do the time warp again!

So, you might wonder, what is next? Now that I've finished telling all about Road Trip 2008, Sweetheart G and I have fled the country for a wild mommy-daughter weekend abroad. Little e has runaway with Grand M to the beach for a week. And poor Big E is holding down the fort with a very sad Tank. (Really.)

After getting home from the Road Trip, we were all home for five days, I think. Really... I think we were. (I had to get out the calendar and check, we were.) Then Big E dropped us off at the beach with Grand M, before heading back home. Sweet G and I stayed for one night, but lucky Little e was able to hang out for 7 more days. (Need a flow chart next? I did when planning this...) Then the Sweetheart and I stayed home with Big E for 3 days before leaving on our own adventure. (I think just writing this all is making me tired.. it all seemed more leisurely when it happened... really.) SO. Right now, as you read this (unless you're reading this some other time than when I posted it.. in which case I should really have written "as I post this"...), Sweetheart G and I are wondering the halls of the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. If you're in the area, feel free to come and join us by the Mammoths. (I'll be the one with a happy, dazed expression and the color coded flow chart.)

The good, the bad, and getting home.

Ah the majestic beauty that is Crater Lake National Park. We had planned our trip back carefully so that we could spend half a day at Crater Lake. We had grand plans of lunch at the lodge, hikes, beautiful photos, site seeing, driving the entire scenic loop... but what grabbed our attention? What seduced our passion? (No, they didn't have a fabric store...) it was the snow. The icy, crusty, dirty leftover snow lying along side the scenic viewpoints. There were some snowball fights, but then we pulled out garbage bags from the car and began butt sledding. Oh, man... it was fun. We were happy campers with wet tushies in the car ride from Crater Lake to our beds for the night at O'Dell Lake. Another trip we will have to do the scenic thing...

O'Dell Lake seemed perfect on the phone, in the photos, and in person.. but the lodge we stayed in irked me. I don't think of myself as a hard to please traveler. I ask for three things: a non-smoking room, a bed with a mattress, and complimentary water, tea, or coffee. The room was smoke free, but the "mattress" felt like plywood, and the drip coffee was $2 a cup. No outside food was allowed; you were supposed to eat in their over priced restaurant while listening to the owner complain about all of her employees and guests. We ate our dinner quickly while thinking kind thoughts for our sweet waitress, and then retreated outside to enjoy the gorgeous setting until bedtime. The night was spent waiting for morning on our hard, hard beds. In the morning, I opted for driving 28 miles to the next town to scrounge for food rather than give that place anymore of my money.
And so it was that we found the Sportsman's Cafe in Oakridge... we made a wise, wise choice in waiting. What a hoot. It's a diner with vinyl covered booths and a stools along a bar. Our waitress was fabulous, and it made me nostalgic to hear her call back our orders to the woman doing short order in the back. When she asked me if I wanted "regular" coffee, I half expected it to come with cream and 2 sugars. The place was perfect. I wish it was closer to us. With breakfast in our bellies we were ready to get home, we drove straight back to Portland. (Okay we stopped once for Little e... and had a very nice State Trooper stop to check on us.)
And when we got home, Portland welcomed us with lovely cloudy skies and cool, cool days. It is very good to be home. (Until we head off for our next adventure that is...)

If we spent more money on gas than fabric.... am I doing alright?

It was a glorious morning replete with fresh cinnamon rolls and a husband who found a fabric shop within walking distance of the hotel. After a leisurely morning shooting in the hotel room, we headed toward the shop. (In a fit of "let's do something our parents never would", we bought each of the girls a repeating rubberband gun. The the 7 shot sidearms are handmade, wood, and really well designed, and we haven't been sorry so far. We bought the deluxe edition that came with a target!)



We casually entered the fabric store moments after its doors opened to be greeted with the ominous words, "Oh, your here on the first day of our sale..." I looked around, and it was all down hill from there. This shop... it had fabrics I had never seen before, and if I had seen the fabric before they had it in 7 color palates I had never seen. Bolts started to fly off the shelves, piles were made, the saleslady said "Oh my..." and then the cutting started. At one point Sweetheart G said, "Mom I count twelve bolts on the counter" and I said without thought, "Yes honey, the rest are over there..." I think I lost my mind... I certainly blew my budget! Kate's Quilted Rooster the shop that broke the bank... and oh my... they have an online store...

Oh.. what? You wanted to hear more about the trip back to Portland.. um.. I have to go fondle my new fabric.. I'll be back.. Oh and if you hover your mouse over the photos you can see how my fabric mania built over the trip. (Keep in mind that a third of the fabric I bought in Chester was fat quarters.)

In search of clouds, we head home

On Saturday morning (day 11), we packed up our little cabin in the woods and marveled at the week that was. See this square of blue? That is a photo of the sky. Notice the lack of clouds? I missed clouds. This is not the world I am meant to live in. Really. Nice to visit, but I was ready to get back to Portland and have some weather.
We all had mosquito bites, everywhere. I had a huge bite on the bottom of my foot which felt like a marble in my shoe throughout Big E's Hike of Doom. As beautiful and wonderful as Plumas wilderness had been, it was time to head North.

After saying our Goodbyes and Thank You's we headed North to Klamath Falls. Now, I am normally the navigator. This is my Role (in addition to snack keeper, car packer, and vomit catcher). Big E got a tip from someone that there was a great museum in Taylorsville, a 15 mile detour, but we were game! We found the sleepy small town easily, but had to ask directions from the gal at the post office. We also asked if the road on our map that lead north toward Susanville was a good one. I was informed that it was paved, and as it was Saturday there shouldn't be any logging trucks. The museum was closed, so we headed out of town toward Susanville on the country road. Except it wasn't. After about 10 miles, I said, "That's funny.." as we
passed through an area called Genesee and I realized we were heading east, not north. It was then that I realized we had entered the Twilight Zone of California where there are no road signs, and almost all of the roads aren't on the map. We had three maps, and none of them gave details on this area. So we backtracked (the museum was still closed), found our wrong turn and headed North.. ish... After about 15 miles we started heading west, and then we found ourselves in Greenville (click on the link, you can see the road we ended up on.. notice our road to Susanville doesn't even exist on this map....) So we set off again on the conventional route to Susanville without incident. (Hey and we found that Paul Bunyon in Westwood!)

Given this experience we avoided a shortcut that had been recommended to Big E by native, and stayed on the highway for the rest of our trip to Klamath Falls.

Knowing that this first leg back home would be a long 5 hour drive, I splurged on our hotel. I paid almost twice what I had in Susanville for the place with the pool, hot tub, complimentary soup at 4pm, hot cookies at 8pm, and a big breakfast buffet with cinnamon rolls hot out of the oven. And the ever-so helpful young man at the counter pointed us toward a fabulous Thai restaurant within easy walking distance. Ah, money well spent!

up hill, both ways, and there wasn't even snow

It is Friday, the 10th day of our Road Trip, and our last full day at Elwell Lodge. Big E wants to hike to a new (for us) lake. All three girls want to hike back to Cub Lake for more rafting adventures. A compromise is made. I will hike with Big E to Long Lake which is a mile up a steep trail, and the girls will repeat our trip from Sunday with Grandpa D and Grandma K. I pack separate packs for the girls and us, and Big E and I set out. The first part of the hike is fine. We arrive at Long Lake and marvel at its beauty. It is a startlingly deep blue. We sit and eat our lunch while watching damselflies and dragon flies. We talk without interruptions. A cool breeze blows from the water. It is lovely, perfect. And then we begin to hike around the lake toward a dam that runs along one side of it. Away from the water's edge, among the rock surrounding the lake it is hot. Soon our trail takes us into boulder fields without shade or breeze and I get hot. For the next half mile, the hiking is not fun. It seems to all be up hill and so bright it hurts my eyes even with my hat. Once we get to the dam, the trail begins to wind back down toward the falls we visited on Monday, except we have no vehicle waiting for us down below.. instead we are hiking up the fall trails. By the time we make it back to our cabin we are parched, sweat soaked, and tired.
Big E says to me "Don't you love to feel like this? To be drenched in sweat and to feel your muscles so tired?"
I realize I married a mad man ten years ago. "No. I hate feeling like this. I stink, my hair is soaked in sweat, my skin feels tight, dry, and burned. My thighs ache, and I want to hit you."

Realizing he would need some serious bribery to get to me to do anymore hiking that day, Big E drove us into Graeagle where we raided the local candy store. Refueled with gummy frogs and the best gummy orange slices EVER, we went to Fraizer Falls. The four mile drive on the old one lane highway was beautiful, and the mile walk to the falls was a marvel in flatness. We returned to camp in time to help with dinner. Next time I want my gummy treats before the hike of death that runs uphill both ways.

A tale of two museums

On Thursday, our 9th day, we separated for some small group action. While my dad and his crew went and explored the Yuba River, Big E and I took Sweet G and little e on a tour of nearby sights. First stop was a visit to the local ranger station and area museum. At the Plumas-Eureka State Park we were lucky enough to be just in time for a hand quilting class taught by a local volunteer. She was kind enough to bend the rules and let little e join in, if I sat and helped her. My two girls worked for an hour on their little squares. They did wonderfully. In addition to the small museum, there is a period home, an ore mill, and an operating blacksmith's shop. We could have spent the whole day here, but lunch time was approaching and Big E had other stops in mind. Another time, I would love to go back and see the rest of the park.

We drove to Portola for lunch. We chose a small but excellent Mexican restaurant which turned out to serve the largest burritos I have ever seen. Big E and I worked on ours for two days before admitting defeat (no exaggeration, honest! Those puppies were the size of my thigh!). After being fortified, we ventured into a small fabric shop I had spotted with my Quilter Vision (my newest super power, after Vomit Catcher.) Next we perused a wonderful independent book shop. It was a hard and grueling day.. sewing, food, fabric, books... But Big E had one more stop in mind.... The Train Museum.


The Feather River Rail Society manages the Western Pacific Railroad Museum and Collection. Now when I imagine a train museum I think models. I think air conditioned, controlled atmospheric conditions.. I think look, don't touch. Boy, was I on the wrong track. So we enter and make our donation, we look through the hanger. We look in some dusty cases and buy a lapel pin from the gift shop, and Big E asks the woman behind the counter "How much of the yard can we go into?"
"Oh all of it, honey" she answers. "Just watch out for the moving trains." she adds as an afterthought.
"All?" I ask sure we are missing something.
"Sure. And you can go into any of the trains you can open." she smiles and goes back to her computer solitaire game.

We wander out into the blinding sun and look about the dusty, hot yard. There are hundreds of tracks, thousands of train cars all in various stages of decay or renovation. We are instantly overwhelmed by our choices. I quickly realize I am the wrong person to be here. I don't have any idea what to appreciate. I know how marvelous this is, but I just don't have the knowledge for true understanding. And it is hot.. all that metal, all that dust. We crawl up and into trains. We walk through cars. We marvel at the beauty and the immense size. And.. oh my... if we had been more prepared, if we had known about this wonderland... you can rent a train and be your own engineer. We watch an engine puff up and down a short track with a family at the controls and know we are not worthy. Reading the fine print, there is an age limit. You must be five. Little e could have driven a train, if only we'd known ahead of time. Flushed with sun, we walk back to the car and head back to our cabin thinking of all of the people who would have loved to see what we have just seen.