A Trip to Portland and Port Orchard

A few weeks ago, we were invited to a wedding reception in Port Orchard, WA. The groom is a member of our second family, The Lynams. We all wanted to go to the reception! Mom, Dad, and Allison also wanted to meet little Abby in Portland. So, in true Grant fashion, we decided to whirlwind trip it! We headed to Portland on Saturday.

When we arrived in Portland that evening, we had dinner at the Rheinlander German Restaurant. Then we visited with ECL at her house before checking in to the hotel. Later, Alli and I snuck out, picked up ECL and headed down to the food carts for a fried pie at Whiffies Pies.  It was delicious...and, yes, at some point there will be an Empanada of the Day post from the Whiffies experience.

Sunday was all about seeing the Kammer girls! We picked up some lunch and headed to the Milwaukie area.

Abby...what can I say? She is truly angelic in her beauty!

Grandma DeeDee loved meeting and holding little Abby.

Grandpa Phil helped Bella with some slippers.

Another shot of sweet baby Abby!

Proud Uncle Allison cradled little Abby.

A family portrait, 12 days in...

The wonderful Griggs family joined us for lunch.  This is Damian being 'seriously' funny!!

On our way to Port Orchard we stopped in Chehalis to see some relatives.  We had dinner with Dad's brothers Uncle Ron (above left, and Aunt Alison), Uncle Alfred (above center, and Aunt Jeannine), and sister Aunt Edla 'Sue'.  We had dessert at Uncle Ron and Aunt Alison's lovely home.  She made fresh strawberry pie with strawberries from their patch!!  Delicious!

We were pretty late getting out of Chehalis, so we decided a few more minutes of lateness wouldn't really affect much.  We stopped to see cousin Heidi (Uncle Alfred's daughter) and her family at their new home.  We had a good visit and even got to see Aunt Sharon, yay!

Monday found us in Port Orchard.  We had lunch with some friends from the Junior Women's Club, of which Mom was a member for so long.  Then, it was time for the wedding reception of Jarrid and Rachael.  

The tables were decorated with framed photos of the couple.

Cousins of the groom, Miranda and Daultan.  Daultan showed off his favorite pose.

Mom even got in on the 'thumbs up'!

Jarrid and Rachael arrive after the wedding.  They really match, don't they?

This is the beautiful (and, especially delicious) cake that Candy made for the party.  Mother-of-the-Groom, event planner, and cake baker....WOW!


A close-up of some of the wonderful flowers.  I suppose it doesn't hurt when the groom's Granny (Mrs. Lynam) owns a flower shop, Gazebo Florist and Gifts. The flowers were lovely!

Proud Mom!

Here I am with my Mumzie, Mrs. Lynam.  I told her we looked cute.

Jarrid is a sweet guy.  So nice, in fact, that he thought nothing of giving his keys to his Uncle Dana to park his truck so that he and his new bride could get into the reception more quickly.

That made it even easier for us to get the vehicle ready for the get-away.

Allison puts on some last touches.

We really loved the window markers!

Protection is important!

Daultan stares at his work--he was so excited to be a part of the decorating!


We took a moment to pose with our masterpiece.

Jarrid and Rachael were actually good sports about the whole thing. 

The Newlyweds drove off into the night!

After clean-up, I took the opportunity to get a picture of most of the Lynams.  Cindy was the only one missing.


Best Friends Forever--Mrs. Lynam, Mom, and Dad.

Where is the Moose?

We have been visiting Northern Idaho for the last 5 years.  In that time, we have looked for moose every time we drove on the road from Hope to Sandpoint.  There are some river and marsh areas where, allegedly, people have had moose sightings in the past.  We have NEVER seen a moose.  We have seen stumps, rocks, and shrubs that we thought for a moment was a moose, but never an actual moose.

I had just about given up.  Except for deer and some birds, my wildlife sightings have been pretty slim in Northern Idaho.   All that changed when Allison and I were on our way back from taking Dawn to the airport in Spokane.  We were driving along, minding our own business, when we came upon this...

What?? A giraffe.  It was sooo cool!  I hadn't seen one of those since Kenya!  Who knew?  No native wildlife, but animals brought in from Africa.  A few miles up the road we saw a peacock next to the road.  But, still no moose!!  Maybe next year...

Squeeze Inn--One of the Best Restaurants EVER!

We passed by the Squeeze Inn several years ago on our first trip to the timeshare. We ate there that year, and now look forward to it all year, every year!


Squeeze Inn is a little red house on the side of the road in Clark Fork, Idaho. Clark Fork is a few miles east of Hope.


It is a totally magical place.  It is not 'fancy' in a luxurious way.  But, it is charming in its touches of light, flowers, and whimsy.

The family poses at the dinner table.

The woman who owns the Squeeze Inn, Janet, is a 'Nona'  (Italian grandma) as she calls herself.  She is involved in every aspect of the restaurant.  She always makes us think of our dear friend and Mumzie, Mrs. Lynam.

The first time we went there, her daughter was there working as a server.  The daughter was an aspiring artist.  She worked in many media.  She was ill for a time and stopped creating art for a time.  We were all excited to hear that she got married this year and is starting to paint again.  Yay!  Janet has many of her daughter's art pieces on display at the restaurant.  And, last year, we purchased some of the art.

This is a fabric art piece.  It is a family tree of sorts.  There are small bits of fabric representing the family members.  I really like this piece.  It has amazing texture!

This is my favorite painting by Janet's daughter.

This is a glass sculpture that is set in a tree stump.  It was also created by Janet's daughter.

There are also a few murals on the hallway walls completed by her daughter.

Though the art, atmosphere, and music (she has a continuous mix of blues, classical, and folk that always takes me to different places in my memory) are endearing, we do actually go there for the food, too!  There is a full menu that is quite extensive, but we like the other part of the menu.  Each night of the week from Tuesday through Saturday, there is an all-you-can-eat, family style, prix fixe menu including soup, salad, entree, vegetables, bread, wine, and dessert (ice cream).   The prices range from $13.95 (Asian night) to $19.95 (Basque night).  Some of the other nights (Mexican, Italian) are $14.95.  All-in-all, a pretty great deal!

The extra dessert that Allison and Dana tried this year was particularly fun.  It was coffee ice cream with a praline cookie dipped in chocolate. The reason the sunglasses are pictured is because when we first arrived this year, Janet said, "oh hey guys!  I think I have your sunglasses from last year."  She went into another area and came back with two pairs of glasses, Allison's and Dana's!  We could not believe that she saved the sunglasses and then was able to go find them so quickly. 

A close-up of the sweet treat!

Our whole group near the end of dinner.  It was a lovely Basque feast!
  

From the first time we met Janet, Dana and I have always said she reminded us of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Books were childhood favorites of mine. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, like Janet, is a whimsical character full of magic and fun.

This is an illustration of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (courtesy of theaterinchicago.com)!

This is a photo of Janet looking through the specially painted kitchen door!  Obviously, she doesn't take herself too seriously.  We learn new things about Janet every year.  For instance, we had heard that she traveled south (California, where she lived until Clark Fork) every winter, but this year we found out that she goes to South America every other year.  Now, she and her husband have been to every country in South America and Europe.  So, in two years (this year they are going to South America again), they will begin Asia with India.  It all sounds wonderful to me!

Adventures with Donuts!

Allison purchased a Popeil's Donut Maker at the Funky Junk Antique Show. Does the Popeil name look familiar?? This is one gadget from the 1950s made by the Popeil Brothers. One of those brothers was R.J., father of Ron Popeil (think Ronco Veg-O-Matic, Slice-O-Matic, etc).  The Popeil family really likes gadgets, so does the Grant family!  The difference is that the Popeils invent gadgets and make billions selling them, the Grants buy gadgets that they often only use once and then put in storage for 30-50 years...

Donut maker in the original box!

Allison was so excited to try out the donut maker. He chose to use a chocolate cake mix and adapt a recipe. Then he put the oil on to heat. We did not have a thermometer, so it was just guess and check...well, apparently the oil heated up faster than we expected. It was suddenly super hot!!!

Looks can be deceiving...the 'donuts' look pretty good in the fryer.

These are the little donut bits...not super appetizing...

Allison tries a morsel!

Garnish it! This just goes to show that one can make anything look good with a little garnish! It almost looks like a decadent dessert, doesn't it?

A couple days later, after purchasing a thermometer and using a formal recipe, Allison mixed up the donuts again. The results were dramatically different!

Wow! The donuts were beautiful!

The donuts had a great flavor and texture. They were not too dense, but dense enough. And the flavor was just barely sweet, the way a cake donut should be!

Even if Allison never uses this gadget again, he did have success at least once!  And, he could sell it on EBAY if he decides not to store it!

Let's Get Funky!

Last year we went to a neat antique sale at a Grange hall between Hope and Sandpoint.  This year we received the cute postcard above inviting us to the sale.

Oden Grange Hall number 143.

Mom, Dana, and Allison doing a little American Gothic at the Funky Junk Antique Show.  

This year there were many more vendors outside at the sale.

Inside the hall...the vendors do a really nice job of displaying their wares.   There were many beautiful antiques at very good prices.  I was not buying anything, but it was fun to look and dream.

There is a stage in the hall that is also occupied by vendors.

I keep being surprised by this area. Apparently, it is not just racist, white supremacists anymore (I know it was never only that). There is some ethnic diversity that I saw (not a lot, but some) and definitely a liberal feeling about the gays, at least at the Funky Junk sale. The pie man recognized us as being there before (last year). I 'recognized' him since he was wearing the same pink t-shirt stating that he was a 'country boy.' Thank God, I'm a country boy!!!

P.S.  I'm not trying to 'out' anyone.  I think there are just a lot of allies, including pink shirt country boy, around the Funky Junk sale...