Who Dialed In The Fog, Mist And That Wet Stuff People Call Rain?

Three-day weekends are almost as good as those buy two, get one free sales. Well, maybe a little better since you don't have to actually buy two first to get your free one. With that said, the monkey thought it might be a good idea to report on some of this weekends activities - while in progress. Yes, almost as good as real time.

The Teachers dad drove over to spend part of the weekend with us. Would he be up for some of my planned weekend adventures? You bet!

We started Saturday by getting our feet off the ground:

First up, was a nice Summer chair lift ride up to the Pine Martin Lodge at Mt. Bachelor.

From mid-mountain, take in the majestic sights of the Three Sisters, Broken Top and the High Cascade Lakes.

Yep, we were all ready, but as we reached the top, Mother Nature had something else in mind.

Normally The Who's - I Can See For Miles would be a fitting soundtrack, but not on this day. More like I can see my feet good enough to avoid tripping on the stairs.

No reason to linger at the top, so we got out of there while the getting was a good as it got.

Sort of a mid-mountain bust. Oh well, I guess that's what you can expect in September - the unexpected. I decided to extend the tour a little further down the road to Elk Lake.

Since visibility was not much better around here, it seemed somewhat pointless to explore the area much more than the marina store in order to score some shortbread cookies. Yes, when things don't go your way, you can always reward yourself with cookies.

With the above ground weather not so dandy, we decided to head in the opposite direction.

Come on baby lets go underground, lets go, lets go, lets go underground

I think that's how the song goes. Anyway, at least the constant 43 degrees didn't include wind and rain. Of course it didn't include light either, but that didn't stop us.

After our underground awesomeness, we needed nourishment, and nothing like a beastly burger from Pilot Butte Drive In to fit that requirement. I have always been on the search for a tasty burger and, indeed, PBDI serves up tasty burgers. The bacon cheeseburger is my poison, but I decided to up the ante this time. When it comes to fine cheeses, the blue ones seem to taste pretty darn good in my opinion. So, I decided to take the gourmet Blue Cheeseburger and ADD bacon! Of course adding bacon makes almost anything better, so the Blue Cheeseburger was taken to an entirely different level of perfection.

The Teachers dad agreed, about PBDI having a tasty burger too. He mentioned putting it on his list of things to do again on future visits.

So after eating the burger, you might as well experience The Butte. The Teachers dad had not been to the top (to our knowledge), so we drove up to show him the view. Yep, in recent times I have not driven up the butte very much at all. That's for sissies and tourists. Well, we had a tourist (so to speak), so we drove up.

At least the weather was much finer at the top here, and fine views lead to fun and games and those sort of things.

We finished the evening with a viewing of The Hurt Locker, which was both entertaining and informative, in a sense. Edutainment people, that's what it was.

Sunday
A new day, and time for some more good food. On The Teachers dads last visit, they visited Jakes Diner for a yummy breakfast. So, for his second trip here he put in a request to hit up Jakes for another fine feast. The Teacher kept it sensible and ordered a small plate of biscuits and gravy. However, the men wanted big manly meals, so we both went for The Long Hauler. Yes, this feast features sausage or bacon, hash browns, four eggs, and pancakes, a waffle, or french toast. You don't eat this and leave hungry, trust me.

The only difference in the manly men's plates, was he went with a waffle and I did french toast. We both had two plates full of goodies, and we dug in. Lyle came around and chatted for a bit. He hadn't officially met The Teacher, so it was nice to make the formal introductions over syrup and sausage. And for the record, both of us manly men, cleaned our plates and received a wide-eyed "nice work guys" from Casey (Lyle's son). I finished first, just barely too.

After the feast, The Teachers dad began his long haul home, while we decided if we could squeeze another adventure into our day. Sure, why not?

With the weather still somewhat iffy, we headed up the Scenic McKenzie Pass, for some scenic scenery (what else would you expect?). Of course as we got higher in elevation, the misty fog and rain returned. Blah. We reached the Dee Wright Observatory, and it was downright cold, windy and wet.

Another of many things we decided needed a repeat visit next Summer, when it actually felt like Summer.

So, we haven't yet even reached our bonus day yet. Are you ready for more? We might be!

For now...Toodles.

Lyle said:
monkeyinabox said: