Pumpkin Patch Magic

In case you didn’t already know, I am obsessed with pumpkins. And I absolutely adore pumpkin patches. So the first weekend I was home my parents and I headed out to one of my favorite places – Lakeview Farms. I haven’t been home to go there for ages since I’ve been at school, so it was a wonderful reunion!

Here are some of the happy moments:

Isn’t it wonderful? (And isn’t the warty one extra cool?)

Lakeview Farms even offers the absolute best in pumpkin transportation – a boat that evades sharks and pirates, and a train that drives through a spooky haunted house.

Here’s what this year’s hoard looked like. Quite nice, if I do say so myself. I got to carve the biggest one today!

The trip was even educational!

We stopped at the roadhouse (McMenamins) on the way home, where I continued my quest to find the world’s best mac & cheese. Mmmmm…

It was highly successful day. Hope you all have a magical Halloween!

*song = Werewolf Bat Mitzvah, compliments of 30 Rock

Home for the Holidays!

It’s been wonderful being back home. I was only here for two weeks during the summer, and it really just wasn’t enough. And my bed here is so comfortable. Every day I’ve been sleeping in for ridiculous amounts of time. I keep thinking eventually I’ll be all caught up on sleep and start waking up at normal times, but there’s no sign of that happening yet.

This whole week the saturday market is doing the festival of the last minute, meaning it’s open every day until Christmas, so we went down to catch it today. Here are some pictures of the holiday downtown magic:

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Amber said she wanted me to start a photo company so she could have the official job title, “Amber the Poser.”

Santa was selling chestnuts at the market.

Oregon love.

We bought some Portland ornaments. Not the bald eagle one.

And there were even some carolers to bring the Christmas spirit.

More market stuff I’m too lazy to write captions for.

I just really liked this for some reason.

There were lots of other peoples holiday shopping.

We went into (the new, three story) H&M when it was light outside…

and came out when it was dark. Took the traditional umbrella man photo, naturally.

When dad got off work he joined us for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery next to his office, where I continued my mac & cheese quest.

Night night night.

Amber completed the trip with some Christmas window wishing at Tiffany’s.

Being home is nice.

Northwest Magic

A brief break from D.C. blogging.

After being in self-imposed lockdown in my room since I got home to try and finish my last two papers for the Washington Seminar program (yes, I still have homework even though I’m home. And yes, I am bitter and hate it more than anything in the world), I took a little break for a day trip to Seattle with my family. Finally I was able to bask in the glory of cities in the Northwest. It’s amazing how they feel completely different from D.C. and definitely Provo. I don’t really know how to describe it. Just know that it is wonderful here.

Here is an example of our day in pictures from my little camera:

First we got the “world’s best” mac & cheese for lunch at Beecher’s at Pike’s Market.

They make their cheese on-site from scratch.

For those of you who don’t know, I have a minor obsession with mac & cheese. Minor meaning it is one of my favorite things in life, right up there with lemonade and mini coopers. This mac & cheese was quite delicious and I loved it, but I’m not sure if it’s my favorite of favorites. Only time will tell. In the meantime, if you know of any fabulous mac & cheese places let me know!

On another note, I feel I can say with 100% confidence the markets on the east coast have nothing on Portland and Seattle. Sure, the ones in D.C. are a lot of fun, but the ones here are just full of all sorts of wonders. Example:

One of my sister and I’s absolute favorite things at the Pike’s are the $5 bouquets of flowers. See:

Also, there were cute sleeping dogs in front of stores. This is for you, Annie.

My goal is to stay up until The End of Time tonight and finish my research paper so I can finally be free. And after that…

Anyone at home up for hitting up the Portland farmers market, saturday market, 23rd, powells, record stores (decided to buy a record player! more on that later), my favorite muffin, old town pizza, waterfront, flicks on the bricks, moonstruck, mcmenamins….?