Happy Birthday to Me!!

Finally, the long-awaited birthday blog post.  I'm sorry it's taken forever, and thanks for being interested in what happened!!  I've been out of town for most of the last...um...2 and 1/2 weeks, and then I actually WROTE the whole post and accidently pushed something that made it all disappear (AHHHHH!  FRUSTRATION!), so that's why the delay.  But the GREAT news is, I'm writing this post from the comfort of my AMAZING new MacBook Laptop!!!!!  YAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!  :)  My parents are AWESOME and gave it to me for my birthday.  They know I'm poor (ugh...always.) and the computer I have been using is my sister's from college...and it's struggling.  So in my quest to go back to school and/or find a new job and/or figure out what I'm doing with my life, they decided I need the tools to do one or all of the above, so voila!  New laptop.  They're the best.  

And now, on with the story!

So, Hood River was AMAZING!!  :)  Erik and I both got up early in our respective cities and drove to the cute little church in Hood River to meet up.  We started out the day by going to church together (perfect!), then headed to brunch.  He took me to the Hood River Hotel for brunch, and it was DELICIOUS!!!  The Hood River Hotel is SUPER nice and sooooo cute--we had a blast.  :)  

My birthday Apple Pie ala Mode--complete with a candle!  Delicious!

For those of you who don't know, Hood River is kind of like Bozeman/Park City-ish--cute, small, and touristy.  :)  And we just happened to be there on the weekend of the Gorge Games!  The Gorge Games are a big extreme sports competition--kiteboarding, wind surfing, mountain biking, etc.  And so we decided to watch the North American Slalom Skateboard Championship--it was seriously incredible.  The oldest competitors were in the 45 and over category!!  Holy cow!  The men and women doing this were SUPER brave--they close down Main Street (which is a 14 percent grade), and they set up cones--they fly down the street at breakneck speeds on tiny little skateboards and weave in and out of the cones (ideally) without knocking any of them down.  Maybe it doesn't sound cool, but it was amazing.

This video sooooo doesn't do it justice...but maybe it give you an idea what I'm talking about.

Erik mysteriously said, "Well, we still have about 20 minutes, do you want to walk around for a bit?"  So we wandered from shop to shop and he got some vintage collared shirts to wear to work (he's so silly.  He loves the old-school stuff).  Then all the sudden we had to GO!!  "Where are we going?" I asked.  Silly me.  Pointless to ask.  He just shrugged out of the question and drug me down the street in my heels, suddenly in a giant hurry.

When we finally got to where we were going, I find myself in...a train station!!  We went for a ride on the Hood River Railroad (very similar to the Heber Creeper, for all you Utah folks)!  I should have been suspicious when I read my ticket and it said, "Western Train Robbery," but I tried to ignore it and just enjoy the complete beauty of a train ride along the river and up into the mountains of the Columbia Gorge.  We wandered, took lots of photos, and had a grand time.  We finally got to the little town of Odell, and were greeted by the Sheriff, in full Western garb, a full spread of delicious grub for sale, a lil' old-fashioned hoe-down music (guitar, fiddle, and all!), and a bunch of shady lookin' characters mingling with the train folk.

We decided to forego the chuckwagon in favor of an air-conditioned new-agey cafe and some delicious blended chai (hey, it was HOT! and humid).  

I wish you could read this menu.  Hilarious.

After about an hour, we heard the "All Aboard!" cry and heeded the directions.  We found ourselves in a standing car at the back of the train...right along with an interesting looking fella, complete in a duster.  We didn't get nervous until Erik said, "Wonder if anyone ever gets left behind," and our new duster-clad companion answered, "Not alive."  

Scary, huh?

Suddenly we found ourselves in the midst of a full-on shoot-out!!  That shady character next to us pulled a gun and done shot the sheriff!  And that poor guitar player.  (Don't worry.  They got back up.)  Next he turned the gun on us and the rest of our fellow passengers with a cry of "Git yer hands up!" 

We listened nervously (okay, it was kinda funny) as he demanded, "Give me all yer money."  (Luckily the railroad provided us with a little emergency cash as we boarded the train.  At Erik's dare, I had tucked mine into a very lady-like location...I figured no one would go after it there.  I was right.)  After unloading the cash from most of our fellow passengers, he tipped his hat and headed onto the next car.  We were visited by THREE train robbers over the course of our journey back to Hood River!  Luckily only one gave us a little trouble, hassling Erik over why on earth he hasn't married me (oh, dear Lord).  Oh well.  That same robber DID tell me I was "the purdiest girl I've taken a picture with all day!"  Aww.  

The Sheriff caught back up with us just before we got back into Hood River and he done apprehended them criminals!  So we enjoyed the last ten minutes of our ride back to the station.  Overall, it was awesome!  :)

Erik gave me some fun presents (including a CD I've wanted for like 8 years...seriously.  I just happened to mention that off-hand once, and he remembered and ordered it for me (you can't just get it at a store up here). He listens well!).  He also gave me an IOU for the third Twilight book, which I've received and read now (another post for another day).  Plus some other stuff, but I won't bore you with the details.  Suffice it to say it was very cute and I was excited.  :)

We finished out our day by sharing dinner, opening some presents, and heading back to our respective cities just in time to listen to Erik's band make their radio debut on a Spokane (pre-recorded) radio show!!  We listened online, and they were FANTASTIC!!  :)  It was a fun time.

So, it was really, really, fun.  My actual birthday was okay...I took the day off, read a lot, and just kinda chilled at home for awhile, then spent several hours cooking for a BBQ I hosted that evening.  Most of us have probably experienced it at one time or another, but not gonna lie, making your own birthday cake is kind of a bummer.  Oh well.  (To her credit, my roommate offered to stir it so I wouldn't have to say I made my own cake, but she was frantically studying for a nursing test, so I passed on her offer.)  It was a random group of people with friends from lots of different areas of my life, but it was pretty fun.  And I did get some good phone calls from people I love that day, so that was awesome, too!  :)

Friends at my birthday party!  Such good people.

Missing are my roommate, her boyfriend, and Erik's roommate, Dave (Puddy).  

So, that was my birthday.

And now I still have lots to post, including:

1.  Creation Fest

2.  Montana Trip and Cousin's Wedding

3.  Life as a Baseball Lover's Girlfriend

4.  Life Update

5.  My Foray into Jam-Making

Speaking of that last one, I'm going to wrap this post up and go pick blackberries at Erik's farm so I can get on with this Jam-Making adventure.  I'll let you know how it goes.  And hopefully sooner than this post has taken to put up!  (Although I still beat April!  Which was my goal this whole time...or at least my motivation, anyway!)  Talk to you soon.  :)  

And if you want to see the rest of the photos from my birthday, click HERE.  Happy Sunday!