ramona and i are off to portland and roseburg, oregon this weekend! we’re going to visit my father’s side of the family who hasn’t had a chance to meet minka yet. no grand plans except for quality driver family time, mostly in roseburg. i’m hoping to stop by coava coffee, voodoo doughnuts, and the pendleton woolen mills store during my short time in portland. we might even drive through ramona’sneighborhoods!
what would you recommend i do while in portland? (i’ll be there monday so there’s time to take suggestions.)
it’s the first monday of the month, which means it’s giveaway time!
i’m from minnesota and am very proud of this fact. i’m always excited when minnesota people/companies are doing excellent, thoughtful, creative, and/or well-crafted things. my mom introduced me to dogwood coffee co (she’s always on top of the new happenings around the mini apple). she sent jp and i an article about their then-new coffee bar in uptown. we visited. fell in love. brought it back to crema. crema contacted dogwood. dogwood started sending them orders of beans. and crema started slinging their beans. oh man. now i didn’t have to wait every other month (the frequency with which i am blessed to be able to go visit my family) to sip on that amazing coffee. i could have it every day at crema. good choice, jp and noah. good choice.
their coffee bar in uptown is sexy. and, as much as i love crema, there’s nothing like sipping a dogwood at dogwood. i haven’t missed a visit there when i’m in MN since the first time my mother took us.
image via heavytable.com
in honor of my upcoming visit to minneapolis (ramona and i are probably on the plane right now as you read this), i’m giving away a 12 oz bag of dogwood coffee. just leave a comment below answering one of the two questions: what do you put in your coffee? or how do you prepare your morning joe? i’ll pick a winner thursday evening at 8:00 central time and post it here friday morning. good luck!
also, in case you’re not convinced, here are 50 reasons why minnesota is the best state in america
fields of clover, lake time, barnyard, beach bums.
stomach flu on saturday. wasted recovery day on sunday. grandfather dies on monday. painful IUD put in, not once, but twice (“oops! i accidentally pulled the string!” says the nurse midwife) on tuesday. horrible cramping ensues. baby gets immunizations and cries much of the 3.5 hour flight to florida on friday. but wait, that’s after this text/phone exchange went down upon my arrival to the airport:
michelle (text): thanks so much again by the way :)… p.s. are your chickens supposed to be alive?
me (text): what?! are they dead?!
michelle (text): uh. oh. i don’t know. they are not moving.
me (phone call): are they out of the coop?
michelle: yeah, they’re just laying there. i’ll go outside and get closer.
[michelle walks in the backyard and goes toward the coop clucking and clapping at them]
michelle: they’re not moving.
emily: are there feathers everywhere?
michelle: sort of. [gets closer]. yes. [even closer] oh my gosh. they have no heads!
emily: how many are there? are there five?
michelle: one. two. three. four. five. five without heads.
emily: holy shit.
turns out a fox had gotten them. when it rains it pours.
florida was a nice change of pace from the craziness of my half week leading up to it. true, i was there for a funeral. but, after some time there, i realized that wasn’t the worst part of my week. my grandfather had lived a good life. he had been in pain near the end and had lost much of his ability to live life the way he enjoyed it. yet still–with the help of a few key people–he did manage to live independently in the comfort of his home. he died at home, monday afternoon, with one of his daughters and a faithful helper by his side. it makes sense that people fear death, as the unknown is a bit scary. and death is a strange, mysterious thing. but in staving off the unknown, end-of-life quality and care get forgotten. i’m thankful the doctors recommended to my grandfather that he forgo anymore testing and procedures in his old age and advanced cancer and, instead, encouraged him to go home and enjoy his remaining days with his family, his animals, and his home.
his death, ultimately, was sudden. and that week family came, planned, discussed, reminisced, memorialized, packed up, and left. the visit was quick and bittersweet. but more sweet than bitter, as my grandpa’s children and grandchildren got to get together from multiple locations and celebrate him and each other. we aren’t often all in the same place at the same time. and i have a really terrific extended family. my grandpa and grandma, both gone now, would have been so proud to see what their family has become.
and travelling is always a special time for jp and i. he is my most favorite travel partner but we don’t get to go on adventures as often as we’d like. so we extended our stay a day to go to our family’s beach house and introduce beanie to the beach. jp cooked, i made sure we were all sunscreen-ed up, and we just were for about 36 hours. that certainly doesn’t happen much at the powerdriver farm, unfortunately. oh, i relished this time w my little family. we toasted to my grandfather and to my grandmother and breathed in the fresh salty air and buried ramona in the sand and looked for seashells and tried to go swimming but i and ramona would not stand the frigid waters. it was glorious. thank you, grandma and grandpa, for sharing this space with your family.
welcome
