Sebastian's Quiver

If you remember, the first month or so, the three of us went on hike after hike – Columbia River Gorge, Sauvie Island, Columbia River Gorge again.  For whatever reason, the hikes went on hiatus for a while, but now they’re back!  We went to Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge last week.  Apparently it’s a very popular hike…in the summer time.  It’s a wonderful hike along Eagle Creek – gentle incline, fantastic views, serene solitude.  When we got to the end of our hike (though not the end of the trail) we found out why it was such a great summer hike: a fantastic wading/swimming area at the base of Punchbowl Falls.  We’ll need to head back there when the weather warms up next year.  A picnic and a bathing suit would be perfect.

As far as Sebastian goes, he’s slowly learning how to stand on his own.  He’s not free standing for more than a second, but he’s definitely experimenting with it.  He’s also cllimbing a lot more; he’s figured out how to hitch his knee and leg up on things and pull/push himself up on things.  Sebastian is also starting to sleep a little better.  We took him to the Sleep Clinic at OHSU because he’s been sleeping so incredibly poorly for so incredibly long.  We had a consultation with some of the doctors and when we got home we started working on their suggestions.  We moved his crib into his own room and we tweeked his bedtime routine a little bit.  The results?  Instant progress!  To get an idea of how poor a sleeper he was, the first night he was in his room he woke up 9 times during the night, and that was his best night sleep, well, pretty much ever.  The next night he slept for a 6 hour stretch – his longest ever!  That night, unfortunately, seems to be an aberration, but his sleep patterns have definitely improved to the point where he is now reliably (knock-on-wood) sleeping for 3 hour stretches.  He’s asleep by 7pm and he wakes up at 10pm, 1am and 4am, with minor variations every night.  Sebastian is also slowly learning to put himself to sleep by himself, which, according to the doctors, is a learned skill, so we’re trying to help encourage him in every possible way to do so.

Portland update! I discovered something here in Portland that I never found in 17+ years in Atlanta: zeppoles!  For those of you who don’t know, zeppoles are fried balls of dough covered in powdered sugar, not unlike bengiets.  When I was a kid on Long Island, we would go to the Italian Festivals (does anyone know what the festivals were for?) and they would have zeppole stands where you could get a bag of zeppoles smothered in powdered sugar.  I found an Italian bakery not far from us that sells zeppoles on the last Saturday of every month, so we swung by yesterday on the way home from the farmer’s market and I got 6 zeppoles for $2.  Delicious!  I almost went back for more, but I decided to wait until next month – it’s best not to overdo a good thing.  That’s about it for Portland, other than the fact that we had a really nice November – much less rain and much more sun than usual (or so Portlanders have been saying).

The photos today are courtesy of Eagle Creek Trail.  Please visit the photoblog for all the photos.

Eagle Creek, towards the beginning of the hike:

Punchbowl Falls, from the overlook point along the trail:

Sebastian roaming around the overlook:

He found a boulder to climb:

Very intense:

Dad making sure he doesn’t take a tumble:

More mushrooms!  By now, you should know I’ve been on a mushroom kick:

More of the creek:

This is at the bottom of the trail that leads to the base of Punchbowl Falls.  If you walk up the creek and around the bend, the falls is right there.  This is a fantastic place to go swimming/wading in the summer time:

More rushing creek:

One of the other falls a short way downriver from Punchbowl:

I know what you’re thinking: “Man, I can’t believe Shawn and Juliann haven’t gone on a hike in, like, forEVER!”  Well, rest assured that we went on a hike last weekend to the Columbia River Gorge.  We wanted someplace pretty close that was only 3 miles or so, so we chose the Latourell Falls, only 18 miles outside Portland, which means that it was about a 30 minute drive from house to parking lot.  It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Portland, so we expected a lot of people, but it really wasn’t too bad.  There were people milling about the parking area taking in the site of the lower falls, but there weren’t too many hikers on the trail that we saw (we actually only saw one couple with their dog, and that was because they were hiking the trail in reverse direction).  This was the first hike with the Ergo Carrier, and I started off with it for the uphill portion of the hike.  While adding 20 pounds or so to my hiking weight was a bit of a change at first, it really wasn’t that bad.  The weight was distributed well on my back along my hips, so it wasn’t much of a problem hiking with him.

So, without further ado, here are a few photos from our hike.  Check out the photoblog for more photos.

Weird tree at a weird angle:

The upper falls:

Sebastian and I at the upper falls:

Weird tree #2:

I know what you’re thinking.  “ANOTHER hike?!?!  All these people do is hike hike hike.”  Well, that’s pretty close to true.

Juliann, Sebastian and I took off to Multnomah Falls, the biggest, touristy falls in the Gorge by a huge margin.  The reason why we chose to do this hike was twofold:  1) The guide books said that the hike behind Multnomah Falls was one of the best waterfall hikes in the Gorge, and 2) it was cold and rainy and we knew few, if any, tourists would be clogging up Multnomah Falls.

We were right.  Few people were there.  Halfway up the very steep, mile long ascent to the top of Multnomah Falls (where the real hike begins) it really began to rain pretty hard.  Luckily, it let up and we got the top, though it was a tough uphill (1 mile with 800+ feet of ascent – that’s a lot).  Up behind the Falls it turned from a plain old uphill slog to a beautiful, verdant wonderland of cascading falls, rocky overhangs, and tall, old trees.  Juliann carried Sebastian most of the way in the sling, though I took him for about a mile in the middle and the last half mile out of the total 6+ miles.  We desperately need an Ergocarrier.

I’d like to point out how wonderful Sebastian was on the hike.  There was a short time when he was getting a little cranky, but that didn’t last long at all.  He slept for the beginning of the hike, but he was awake for most of it.  He was looking around at all the trees and water and falls.  When he was awake he never stopped gazing at everything around him.  We (i.e., Juliann) did a great job of keeping him dry when it was raining, but when he did get drizzled on, he didn’t mind it at all.  The only thing that he didn’t like was when his view of the scenery was blocked by the raincoat.

I’m not sure what else I can say about how beautiful this hike was.  I think it was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on.  Oh yeah, did I mention that this was about a 30 minute drive from our house?

I posted about 45 photos on the photoblog with additional comments for most of the photos, but here is a taste of some of the better shots:

Multnomah Falls – this is what everyone comes to see.

Faerie Falls – this is one of the falls that is way back on the hike.

I know this looks tilted, but it’s really not.

The end of the hike!  We made it!

Sunday was Juliann’s first Mother’s Day!  Such a rare event deserved very special consideration, so I mulled over many different ideas of what I could do to make the day even more special.  I decided on taking Juliann (and, of course, Sebastian) to her very favorite place in the whole world:  the Oregon Coast.  Of course, I also treated her to breakfast in bed, a box of special gourmet chocolates from Cork, and a gift certificate for a 90 minute massage at one of the nicer spas in Portland.

(An aside:  This past Friday (May 9) was the five year anniversary of the day we first met.  We had a special dinner with a great local bottle of wine and an excellent bottle of dessert wine from Badia a Coltibuno in honor of where we got engaged exactly four years previous.)

Back to Mother’s Day.  Juliann picked up some yummy foods from New Seasons, we packed up the car with changes of clothes and food and extra shoes and socks and rain gear and camera equipment.  Sebastian slept for the entire 90 minute drive to the coast and we ended up at Ecola State Park.  To give you an idea of where we were, here are two photos taken seconds apart (I know the sky is very different in the two photos, but that’s Oregon weather for you).  For a sense of scale, in the first photo, you can see some people down in the lower left corner of the photo.

Sebastian was great, as usual, on our trek outdoors.  He was awake for the beach hike and he was mostly asleep for the forest hike.  Here he is all bundled up on the beach (click to enlarge, like all the other photos):

Juliann is pretty much Sebastian’s full time chauffer.  I find it pretty amazing that she does all the hiking that I do, but with a 16+ pound wait hanging off her frontside.  She is often way out ahead of me, and not just because I stop to take photos.

Here are a couple more photos from the beach.  As always, please go to the photoblog for more photos and captions.

After we finished on the beach, we went back to the car and had lunch.  From there, we went on the forest hike.  The hike was a loop and the first half of the hike was 100% uphill – no small, level stretches, no slight downhills – it was very steep and all uphill, about 1.25 miles and a gain of 800+ ft in elevation.  The forest was beautiful, though.  Huge trees and lush greenery surrounded us.  The second half of the loop took us closer to the coast and we had some wonderful views of the water and beach and lighthouse.  Here are several photos from the hike:

The lighthouse.  For a closeup, go to the photoblog:

So many trees:

One final look back at the beach:

And there you have it!  Our very first Mother’s Day.

Another week, another hike.  This time, we took to the hills, or, more accurately, the Columbia River Gorge.  There are a ton of hikes and beautiful places in the Gorge to go hiking, but we chose to hike to Elowah Falls and the Upper McCord Creek Falls, both located in John B. Yeon State Park, about a half an hour drive east of our house along I-84 (no relation to I-85, for you curious Atlantans out there).

The hike was wonderful, if a bit close to the highway.  The highway noise disappeared as we hiked in a bit closer to the waterfalls.  Unlike last week’s hike to Sauvie Island, Sebastian was awake for the entire hike (he slept most of the Sauvie Island hike).  He really enjoyed looking around at all the wonderful scenery, and especially the waterfalls.

One thing that I noticed him doing today: his manual dexterity seems to have taken a leap.  He can now sort of maneuver things around with more accuracy.  As I type this, he has managed to get his bunny’s ears into his mouth a couple of times.  He loves Bunny-foo-foo’s ears almost as much as he loves Abima’s head nipples.

Below are some photos of Sebastian a day before the hike, and some I took during the hike.  As usual, please visit the photoblog for even more photos

Sleepy baby:

Classic Sebastian look:

And now for some more Oregon beauty.  Read it and weep, east coast chumps!

Idyllic setting in the woods:

Ooo, a babbling brook:

Elowah Falls:

Great view across the Columbia into Washington:

Upper McCord Falls:

A slightly blurry photo of us (notice how nicely dressed they are in Nau gear):