Thursday, July 29, 2010

Misc. Videos of Ryan

Ryan walking in Reno at just under 12 months old.....


Ryan loves durian (the stinky fruit)....


Ryan on a rocker toy....


At around 9 months old, Ryan was able to climb 2 or 3 steps. At 12 months, he's climbing a whole flight of stairs....


Ryan dances like this every time he hears music....


Ryan playing with one of his new birthday toys (Plan Toys Baby Walker)....

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today Ryan turns 13 months old, but we still haven't posted about his 1-year birthday. Better late than never, right?

On the morning of Ryan's first birthday, he got his first fever. He ran a temperature of over 102 for two days, but recovered quickly. Brooke and I weren't so lucky. We were both sick soon after Ryan and it took us a week to get better. With so much sickness going around, Ryan's birthday didn't get as much fanfare as it otherwise would have.

My family did throw him a birthday party. (yes, I know the sign is missing an "R")....
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My cousins helping Ryan unwrap his presents....
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We were so disappointed that Ryan didn't immediately dive into the cake at the Birthing Class Birthday Party, we decided to give him another chance. We thought that without all the other babies around, Ryan would be more brave. Ryan is normally so aggressive with his toys and so messy with his food, we thought he'd certainly have fun making a mess with the cake. Wrong. Ryan was curious about the cake, but he would never touch it with more than one finger. After 10 minutes of watching him pace around the cake and poking at it, we decided to push his entire hand into the cake. And when that didn't get him more engaged, he finally gave him a spoon. Finally, he ate two bites and lost interest....


Birthday photos....

Thursday, July 15, 2010

West Coast Tour - part 5

We woke up early on Day 8 to start our self-guided wineries tour. We wanted to hit all three major Oregon AVAs along I-5 within 2 days: Rogue, Umpqua, and Willamette Valley. Our first planned stop was to the perfect trio of shops in the Rogue Valley. All next door to each other was a winery, cheese shop, and a chocolate shop. Our plan was spoiled when we arrived at the wine tasting room, Daisy Creek, at 11am and it wasn't open yet. I guess some Oregonians don't drink before noon. At the chocolate shop, Lille Belle Farms Chocolate, we purchased an assortment of chocolate truffles with our favorite being the Smokey Blue Cheese. We were a bit skeptical about the blue cheese and chocolate combination, but WOW! It was really good. We liked it so much we're already planning a return trip.
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I don't know why we ended up skipping the cheese shop, Rogue Creamery. I think it had something to do with the warm weather, the long road trip, and no refrigeration. Now that we have more time and can research a bit more, we're disappointed we skipped a place that gets such glowing reviews in so many food blogs. Plus, I think every Oregon winery we stopped at afterward said something like "if you haven't been, you need to go to Rogue Creamery". Our only consolation is that we were able to try their blue cheese in the Lille Belle truffles.

Driving further north, we stopped at two wineries: Del Rio winery, in the Rogue Valley AVA and Henry Estate winery in the Umpqua Valley AVA, before finding a hotel in the Willamette Valley (~20 miles south of Portland)....
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Day 9 was a Monday and it turns out that Mondays, as a winery host put it, are the "winemakers holiday". Fortunately, we found that not all the wineries were closed. The first winery we went to was Archery Summit. The tasting fee was a whopping $15 for only four pours (and no souvenir wine glass), but it was worth every penny. The wines are amazing. However, at around $100 per bottle, they were a bit pricey for our budget.

Views from Archery Summit....
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The next stop was Winderlea (also in the Willamette Valley). The wine was good, but the ultra-modern tasting room and views were even better. The place looked like a Mac store....
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We couldn't pass up visiting Argyle Winery. It's not everyday that you get to do a "champagne" tasting. There was a room at the winery filled with framed letters from the White House showing that the wines had been served to every president since the first Bush to Obama.
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There's been a lot of buzz lately about the Portland food cart scene. Check out this map to see how many there are. We were so excited to try some of the more popular ones only to find out that like the wineries, a lot of the food carts are closed on Mondays. We ended up getting some very good spicy green papaya salad with grilled chicken and a crêpe....
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Multnomah Falls (~30 miles east of Portland)....
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The Vista House in Crown Point State Park. It offered great views of the Columbia River Gorge, especially with the cool clouds. Oh, and on the other side of the river, that's Washington State!
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For dinner, we drove back to Portland for McMenamins Kennedy School. This place is an old elementary school converted into a hotel, restaurants, bars, movie theater, and live music venue. If you've been following the blog, you may remember my post titled "Table for One". What I didn't mention in that post was that I had driven to the Kennedy School two nights in a row, I walked inside, and both times I was too embarrassed to eat there alone. Instead, I drove back to the crappy hotel diner. Needless to say, I felt like I had some unfinished business. With Brooke and Ryan with me, I finally had my chance to eat at the Kennedy School....
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Crossing into Washington! After dinner, we made the 175 mile drive back to Seattle!
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Thursday, July 8, 2010

West Coast Tour - part 4

On Day 6, we drove with Brooke's grandparents from Reno to Virginia City. Once a mining boomtown, Virginia City is now a tourist town with an abnormally high concentration of souvenir and ice creams shops....
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We took a guided tour which took us 300 ft into a mine shaft....
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It took Ryan a while, but he finally warmed up to his great-grandparents....
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Day 7. Ryan woke up with some wild hair....
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Later on Day 7, we drove to Lake Tahoe...
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The water really lived up to its reputation for being crystal clear and blue. The only two things I didn't like about the Tahoe area is that:
(1) there were too few free public beaches. We finally found one at Kings Beach on the northern side of the lake.
(2) the photos don't show it, but the beaches are very rocky.
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After Tahoe, we made a beeline for Medford, Oregon. Why Medford? It's the start of Oregon wine country along Interstate 5.
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