Well. It's Tuesday again (it does seem to come around every week, doesn't it? Strange.) and I have yet to update ye olde blogg, mainly because *gasp* there is a distinct dearth of pictures around these parts.
Yes, it's true. The Barkers have actually managed to go two weeks without taking hardly any pictures. I'll give you what I do have, 'kay? And then I promise to take more pictures- of my kid, of cyclocross, and of ski patrolling in the SNOW this coming weekend. Deal?
Two weekends ago, I suited up for the Apple Core 'Cross race, a little event that our own esteemed Kenji Sugahara put on. My brother and the cutest nephew ever, Eli, came out to cheer me on. It was pretty small, being the first year for this race and all, and there were only 3 women in the B category. It was also pancake flat. I decided to call it a cross criterium. Two of the women in my category beat me. I'll leave the math up to you.
Regardless, it was a really fun race in a really fun venue. As the slave to a toddler, I found it perfect for the under 4-feet set: a hay-bale house, awesome playground, close close-in parking and a food cart that sold sausages. It was win-win, my third placement excluded.
And, if we're being honest and I assume we are, being third didn't really bother me. I didn't have this race on my calendar to begin with and I just wanted to enjoy going fast on my bike. Mission accomplished.
The next day, Barkernews, Nathan, and I took two hours 20 minutes load up the truck for a 10-mile bike ride down Marine Drive with a baby and a toddler. I would rate it an A+ success, except for the part when Hazel's feet fell asleep (I didn't strap them down and they were dangling/kicking me the entire time) and she cried for 2+ miles. So, I will call it an A- success. Still pretty damn good.
Then, Barkernews and I worked three whole days. I know, I know, you don't have to tell me. It was Rough. Really, really rough. I was sad for myself. Honestly. Truly.
To start off our 4-day weekend, we took Haze out to Stub Stewart State Park, where we had rented one of their sweet one-room cabins for the night.
It then proceeded to rain. And rain and rain and rain and rain, dashing all hopes of a chill bike ride on the Banks-Vernonia State Trail or a campfire. What we ended up doing was a lot of reading, singing silly toddler songs, drinking a lot of wine and going to bed early. Life was not so bad.
The next morning, we woke to beautiful blue skies and headed north to Vernonia on the bikes, where we drank coffee, visited the playground, and threw pinecones in to the Nehalem River.
And then we went home.
Why did we go home if it was a 4-day weekend? Because, people, Barkernews and I were actually going away for a weekend together. Alone. No kid. No family. No friends. Just Us.Excuse me while I revel in that some more: Just Us.
Thanks to Aunt Ailey and Uncle Ritchie (and a surprise appearance by Teacher Rena), Barkernews and I turned the car towards Dufur and didn't look back.
A lot of people asked us why we chose Dufur over, say, Bend, or Hood River or the coast. The truth is this: we don't really like people that much.
Okay, okay, not totally true, but if you're going to spend some QT with your SO, don't you want to just focus on that person?
Plus, Dufur is cool. It sits dead center in prime road biking territory and is the terminus of Forest Road 44, where lots of cool things happen to be. Oh yeah, and it's sunny over there.
We ate lots and lots and lots of gourmet food, drank lots and lots of local wine, ran some trails, read some books, had some massages, slept on to-die-for feather beds (Balch Hotel), and rode our bikes. I didn't have to deal with one toddler tantrum or cook anything or talk any 13-year-olds off a ledge. I didn't have to be anywhere at any time. And I got to do it all with the love of my life.
It was perfect and I kinda didn't want to come home.
Luckily, I have a blonde-haired 2-year-old wearing a tutu over a monkey costume who greets me enthusiastically when I DO come home. Thank god, because otherwise? I might just hole myself up in the Balch Hotel forever and never come out.
