Westmoreland Asays

Somehow Meg found a way to offload our children--on a holiday weekend even--to two different families for about 30 hours so the two of us could get away for some alone time before the stressful start of school. Although Meg had secured a room at The Resort at the Mountain with the idea that our family of five would stay there, it worked out plenty fine for just the two of us. After dropping the children off at their friends' houses, we drove the scenic route (read: through the more repressed areas of the city before making it out to the country) to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. I had visited the lodge a couple of times--and I think watching The Shining a few times counts for something, too--but a visit was on Meg's virtual bucket list, and she had a gift certificate for the lodge, so she wanted to have lunch there with our friends, Susan and Chris. We drove through some rain, though not the downpours we experienced the day before, but it was dry-and-foggy-and-windy at the l...

Continuing a tradition I started in 1999--the grandest of all years to date--I went on a hike. And for the first time in a while, we went as a family. We headed out early Wednesday morning before the sun and the crowds could beat us to Multnomah Falls. We hiked to the bridge, called it good, ran back for the car (but not before Meg got sidetracked and bought some fudge), and drove a few miles east to our true destination: Horetail/Oneonta Falls. The parking lot was already full when we arrived, but luckily there was still space available on the side of the road. Our goal was a three-mile hike that looped through the Oneonta Gorge, passing three different falls, one of which we could actually walk behind. Three-year old Ian showed his toughness by hiking the whole distance. I did have to coax him with lifesavers and oodles of fudge to keep his legs moving, but he did so all on his own, making this the first hike in memory where I didn't have to carry him some distance. I don...