After that, we visited Bruce and Brandon Lee. I hadn't been there in awhile. Peace to them.
Stopping for gas at a Mom&Pop filling station along the way.
As soon as we got into the city, we made a beeline for Papalote, which I've mentioned before, and is my favorite burrito place in the Mission. We stayed with B-Doll, who works at the Starlight Room at the top of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Union Square. We met up with her there and hung out amidst big-spenders and champagne-drinkers under velvet and chandeliers. Funny.
B-doll lives in Berkeley, so when C mentioned that he'd never had Ethiopian food, I knew we had to go. Especially since it's one of the things I make sure to eat every time I return to the States, and the East Bay has tons of it. So we just drove down Telegraph until we found a place, Ethiopia Restaurant. It didn't disappoint. We also ate yummy gelato at the place which used to be Mondo Gelato but is now called something else and is next to the Downtown Bart station on Shattuck. And we ate falafel on the grass at Cal. And pizza in Petaluma. And I'll stop now, but oh! The food! I miss it!
Holly and Cleavon's wedding was beautiful and also awesome. And Holly was gorgeous in her dress that she made herself. I can't wait until she finishes her MFA and I can pimp out her designs to everyone I know. They had a Latin-flavor drumline perform at the ceremony. No "Here Comes the Bride" poppycock. So neato.
These kids thought so too.
Tanya showed me a little scene that's developed recently, and wasn't there when I lived in Portland. It's the food carts on Hawthorne, at about 12th or 13th street. This spot was buzzing until late at night the three times we went; I'm not sure how late exactly, but were surely still going at midnight on the weekend. The Mexican cart has a whole bunch of vegan burritos, including a cactus one; and the cart next to it sells fried vegan pies. I was in deep-fried heaven, with a tofu pot pie and a coconut cream pie. Wow.
Oh yeah, and Rocco's now has vegan pizza. What.
(Displaying the kind of stamps that are no longer sold.)
And it still looks like this on the outskirts, where Tyler and Michelle had their wedding. We spent a lot of time as teenagers wandering around in the fields, filching corn and peaches.
Mac and me in our wedding gear.
I miss this place.
Eagle Creek is a creek, trail, and camping area in the Columbia Gorge, just a short drive from Portland. I first heard about it from Mac and Tyler, who went camping there last year.
Tyler took me swimming at Punchbowl Falls last summer, and it was gorgeous. So I proposed this place when PP and I started talking about hiking and camping. Punchbowl falls is about two miles in, and you can camp after about three miles. It's a steep, hot hike, especially in the 100º+ weather that we had when we went. But the falls and the swimmin' hole are freezing cold, and alleviate the heat quickly. 
After getting back on the trail, we soon got hot again, lugging our huge packs. We took a rest at a little clearing four miles in, and PP was starting to get a defeated look in his eye. I wandered a little deeper into the forest... and found a waterfall. The trail is dotted with them, but unlike Punchbowl, this one was tucked back away from the trail and deserted. No kids performing daredevil stunts. Just... rushing bliss, punctuated by the white noise of the falls crashing down. 
And looking up, nothing but conifers...
I went to Chinatown again with a friend who had found a veggie friendly Taiwanese restaurant that I had never heard of before. An accomplishment!
The sesame noodles were lip-smacking, and the owner was really funny, chatty, and nosy. He called my friend お兄さん (big brother, even though my friend was 15 or 20 years younger than him; it's a term of affection/familiarity for someone you don't know well) and told me that he knew I was the vegetarian one. He was playing old wartime American tunes (think Andrews Sisters); very incongruous to the setting but enjoyable nonetheless.
Between Higashi Kanagawa and Yokohama.
