We had such a great time this weekend at Stub Stewart State Park with Tiffany and Deke, Leigh and Brian, and The Mehallicks (Lisa, George, Lily, and Maya).
The weather was really lovely when we first got here on Wednesday. We hiked and biked and it was beautiful.
As soon as everyone arrived for the weekend it was off-and-on rainy and cold, with occasional sun breaks.
On Saturday mid-day, Deke and Tiffani opened their Bloody Mary bar. They had tons of accessories: veggies and pickles and salami and cheese for everyone to make their own veggie skewers to go in the drinks, along with some little quiches. Super yum and fun!
Later in the afternoon, some of us went into Forest Grove for a little wine tasting at the Tualatin Estate Vineyard, and then to David Hill. It was rainy most of the day, but as soon as we got to Tualatin Valley Vineyard it was sunny and beautiful and we opted to sit outside. As soon as our last wine was finished, it started to sprinkle. Perfect timing.
Next we stopped at David Hill and did a pretty quick tasting since it was 4:30 and they closed at 5. They seemed a bit rushed. Wine was good, but fast. Another great view.
After wine tasting we returned to camp and started preparations for our taco bar. We had fresh snapper sauteed with shallots, garlic, butter, cumin, and cilantro, ground beef with chile verde, grilled veggies and black beans, sauteed tilapia, chile steak, chipotle sour cream, salsa, guacamole…and tons of other add-ons. It worked perfectly and I love how chill we all are about the meal thing. It just worked. In the middle of all of our prep a park ranger walked up and told us about how they were having a “birds of prey” program down at the amphitheatre, so the guys all headed down there while we finished up a few things. As soon as we got an iPhone photo of the HUGE owl, we turned off the burners and the grill and went down for the rest of the show. Totally worth it. Saw a huge owl, a huge raven, a kind of regular-sized peregrine falcon, and a huge turkey vulture.
The weather was great yesterday and didn’t rain at all…all the way through dinner and campfire afterward.
Deke taught Lily and Maya how to build a fire by demonstrating on a very small scale. The perfect scale, in fact, for naked Barbie and her much shorter and hairier boyfriend, Sasquatch:
This morning after hikes and breakfast, we set up the Airstream photo studio and did portraits of everyone. Love how easy this setup works. We’ve got a monopod with a speedlight and an umbrella adapter for the light (not shown) that is super efficient and folds up very small (same with the 5×7 folding backdrop)
Everyone but us left today, and we’ll head home in the morning. 🙁
‘Til next time everyone! Great weekend!
xo