Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Nostaligic Candy

October 7, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

Captain Cavedweller and I recently had the opportunity to wander through several shops that offered vintage candy and pop.

I was in seventh heaven.

He had a bottle of orange Ne-Hi soda while I had a Sioux City Sasparilla. I planned to go back for a Frostie Root Beer and get CC a bottle of Kickapoo Joy Juice, which he had never experienced. But as luck would have it, I got sidetracked shopping at an outlet mall and forgot the pop.

What I did manage to get home with was some fun vintage candy.

As we were strolling through the stores, we were remembering all the fun treats we had as a kid.

These were four things we just couldn’t come home without.

Owyhee Cherry Cocktail – like a chocolate covered cherry on steroids surrounded by a peanut and chocolate coating.

Bubble Gum Cigar – yes I know how awful that is, but they were so awesome when we were kids. CC especially wanted to get the cigar.

Pop Rocks – although you can find these at a variety of stores, I can’t always find strawberry and I remember how much I loved these as a kid.

Candy Cigarettes – I know, I know… but humor me. When I was little we had a little grocery store in our community where my Dad would take me and load me up on candy several times a week. I could usually choose one or two things and I often got a box of candy cigarettes because it lasted until the next candy run. As CC and I each tried one, they didn’t taste quite like we remembered as a kid. Because back then I’m sure they were the next best thing to chocolate especially if you weren’t allowed to eat chocolate!

It was a fun stroll down memory lane and really put me in a nostalgic frame of mind.

Captain Cavedweller fixed that problem by taking me out to dinner.

Need I say more.

She Who Misses the Good Old Days

Posted in Captain Cavedweller | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

The Yurt

October 6, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

When Captain Cavedweller and I started talking about where we wanted to go on vacation, we threw around a lot of ideas, finally settling on the northern Oregon coast.

My friend Michele told me about a website, Vacation Rentals by Owner, that offered homes for rent. Since we were going to be there for a week, it seemed like a better choice than staying in a hotel. So I started browsing through the options and came to a complete and abrupt halt when I saw a listing for a yurt.

Not just any yurt… but a beautifully finished yurt in a private wooded setting complete with a pond.

From the online photos it looked quite wonderful. So I contacted the owner, made our reservation and paid a deposit.

Then CC and I began to wonder if we’d taken one to many steps off the deep end.

When we told people we were going to spend a week in a yurt, they looked at us kind of funny. Some even laughed at us.

Having never stayed in a yurt before, we didn’t know what to expect. From what I’ve heard, some yurts are nothing more than an octagonal shaped tent on stilts.

Lucky for us, the one we rented was way more than that.

There was the lovely pond.

And the creek that would have been perfect for wading in on a hot summer day.

There was a fire ring for campfires – and even sticks for roasting wieners or marshmallows.

And an amazing deck complete with picnic tables, coolers, plenty of chairs and prep space.

Not to mention a very nice barbecue.

And then we went inside…

Where we were greeted by this fun sign that I loved. Everyone needs to run amuck on occasion. (Although there was no bear wrestling or skinny dipping or snipe hunting on this trip.)

Comfortable leather couches and a big flat-screen TV for Captain Cavedweller’s viewing pleasure.

A beautiful kitchen in which I took much pleasure. (If you look up to the top of the photo you can see zig zag lines of light. The owner had fun little lights strung across the top of the yurt and rope lights encircling the inside as well as the outside. It was awesome!).

Even the bathroom was very nicely appointed and carried through the lodge theme.


And someone may have enjoyed the deep garden tub and bubble bath way more than they should have. Maybe.

We were completely surprised and impressed by how lovely, nice, comfortable and completely wonderful our yurt turned out to be. We’d definitely stay there again if we make another trip to Seaside.

As Captain Cavedweller put it, it was one luxurious week of roughing it.

Posted in Travels | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Barlow Road

October 4, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

When Captain Cavedweller and I headed out on vacation last week, I wanted to drive through a particular area because my next series of books is set there. For visual purposes, I wanted to get up close and personal with the region.

Exploring the town, we decided to take a “short cut” on to the rest of our trip.

That short cut ended up taking a good hour if not two longer than if we’d backtracked and gotten back on the freeway.

 

But then we would have missed out on some hairpin turns, cliffs with no guard rail… and some really beautiful country.

We drove from Grass Valley to Tygh Valley, Oregon, on an old curvy road that was about to make yours truly car sick. But the views were spectacular.

 

We came down a winding hill and around a curve to see several people fishing the Deschutes River. Driving a few hundred feet up the road, the river was roiling and absolutely breathtaking to see. You could even feel the spray on your face.

We discovered part of our travels took us over the old Barlow Road. For those of you who aren’t history buffs, the Barlow Road  is a historic road  built in 1846 by Sam Barlow and Philip Foster, with authorization of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon, and served as the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail. Its construction allowed covered wagons to cross the Cascade Range and reach the Willamette Valley, which had previously been nearly impossible. Reports say it was by far the most harrowing 100 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile Oregon Trail journey. I could easily believe that to be true.

Before the opening of the Barlow Road, pioneers traveling by land from the east followed the Oregon Trail to  The Dalles and floated down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver, which was both dangerous and expensive.

The Barlow Road begins at The Dalles and heads south to Tygh Valley, then turns west and roughly parallels the White River on the north and then west. It  crosses the south shoulder of Mount Hood at Barlow Pass, follows Camp Creek and the Sandy River for some way, ending in Oregon City. When the Mount Hood Highway was constructed, the Barlow Road was mostly abandoned.  It still exists as a dirt road in some places, while most other parts have been paved over by modern streets and highways.

If you are ever in that part of Oregon and don’t mind windy, curvy roads, take a side trip for some scenery you’ll never forget.

She Who Sometimes Enjoys Getting off the Beaten Path

Posted in Travels | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

On Vacation

October 3, 2011 by Shanna Hatfield

Last week, Captain Cavedweller and I went on vacation.

It was awesome and wonderful and extremely fun.

I’ll be posting more details this week, but just for today I thought I’d share this photo he took after climbing what looked like a million steps. The view was gorgeous (not gorgeous enough I was climbing the steps).

Happy Monday and Happy October!

She Who Loves October

Posted in Captain Cavedweller | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »