Drag queens, cake, presidential candidates & wine!

Twas a busy weekend around these parts as I’ve alluded to in a couple of posts and twits, twats or tweets (whatever we’re calling them these days). Friday evening Bryan and I had dinner at a restaurant down by Pike Place Market (restaurant review to follow soon). Probably wouldn’t have ever walked in there on our own, but we got a gift card in the mail so we decided to give it a try. Then he ran me out to the airport so I could pickup my rental car for the weekend. Once I got back to the house I was tired and all I wanted to do was get some laundry done and pack my bag for my trip.

Saturday morning I got up early and headed out for Keizer, OR to visit my brother’s family for my nephew’s first birthday party. Traffic was light and I was in Keizer by about 11:30am just in time to enjoy the Iris festival parade. Well actually enjoy is much too strong a word tolerated is much more realistic, but my oldest nephew, Jake, liked it - probably had something to do with all the candy he got thrown at him. No offense to the residents of Keizer, but once you’ve been to a gay pride parade everything else pales in comparison. Really, where were the drag queens, the leather daddies, the music blaring from huge speakers, the glitter and the half naked boys? I wasn’t there for the very beginning of the parade but I’m going to assume that it was not led by the Dykes on Bikes which I thought was a requirement for all parades. My parents had made the trip over from Eastern Oregon for the big event and were staying in their 5th wheel trailer at the Keizer Elk’s Lodge. Once we were done watching the parade we wandered back to the trailer to relax in the air conditioning, the temp hit almost 100 degrees Saturday so we were happy to cool off.  Iced coffees and a little shopping rounded out a mostly unremarkable afternoon. 

Soon, however, the excitement began. My sister-in-law got a text message that Barack Obama was going to be at the hotel down the street in the very near future. We grabbed our cameras and piled into cars and headed to the rumored location. We managed to get on the sidewalk right near where his tour bus was parked and we waited for him to come out. When he did come out it was pandemonium. He was shaking hands and speaking to almost everyone waiting to see him. My mom, dad, sister-in-law and her mother all shook his hand. It’s hard to believe that I stood less than six feet away from the next President of the United States. There wasn’t a huge crowd at this stop, nothing like the 75,000 in Portland on Sunday, but this was an “unplanned” stop and it was pretty much word of mouth that got people out to see him. It was exciting! (this great picture courtesy of my sister-in-law, unfortunately none of mine were this good)

After that we headed back to my brother’s place to have Tyler’s birthday party. Of course being 1 he didn’t really know what was going on and had to have his older brother help him open his presents.  Paper was torn off packages and like a typical one year old, Tyler was much more interested in the boxes than he was in the contents of the boxes.  He was also really into eating the wrapping paper, but once we convinced him to try the cake he really enjoyed that.  He kept saying yum-yum and shoving cake in his mouth.  My brother made orange mojitos (mojitos are good, orange mojitos are amazing!), we had some pizza and the adults had a bit of a party as well.  We finished out the night with a big slice of the delicious chocolate cake that my sister-in-law made.

Sunday morning we went out to the Eola Hills Winery for their Sunday brunch. It’s always a good time, great wine and good food. The brunch is catered buffet style and you just go from table to table picking and choosing what to eat and redeeming tickets for glasses of wine.  I tried the pan fried oysters, eggs benedict, prime rib, lamb stew, mini-waffles and crepes suzette.  After eating way, way too much food, it was unfortunately time for me to hit the road and head back to Seattle. I got home late afternoon and got to enjoy a very special treat that evening - Bryan cooked dinner!

Hope your weekend was as good as mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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