2019.1.27. A Doll's House, part 2

1/27. The young play-wright Lucas Hnath wrote a sequel to Ibsen's A Doll's House. Luan Schooler directed the play at Artists Rep. I enjoyed the play, which is set 15 years after Nora left home. Nora in this part 2 comes off as a self-centered, unlikable person, who fights for her independence. The other three characters: the nanny, the husband, the daughter are all pleasant, ready to help, makes one wonder why she walked out of this home 15 years ago.

2019.1.27. Multnomah Wahkeena Loop

1/27, Sunday. After picking up my phone from Sarah, Mary and I met at Gateway ~noon to take Columbia Gorge Express, first winter with daily runs. The 12:05pm express is non-stop, Multnomah Falls only. Very convenient. If you want to hike a longer trail, need to take the 9am bus. In 30 minutes we got off at the big parking lot across the highway. The whole site was shrouded in clouds.

Today, we did the easy Multnomah-Wahkeena loop. ~5 miles, 1600'. As usual, quite a lot of people. We were going at an interpretive speed. There's no hurry, the return bus is at 4:47pm. It's good to refresh some plant names from Mary. Apart from burned/down trees, the trail is in decent condition. Some loose rocks, but not bad at all. A lot of minor's lettuce and moss. I sure picked some to eat.

Around 3pm, I realized that we were only half way. It's good to have my phone, otherwise, I wouldn't know where we were. The fog above Columbia River never dissipated. Quite pretty.

The connection trail from Wahkeena to Multnomah is rather narrow. Sometimes you have to wait to let the opposite traffic pass. Got back to the lodge 15 minutes ahead of the bus, so I could use the restroom, and clean my pole.

Back in Portland on the same bus with the same driver. Portland was still foggy.

2019.1.26. Climb Mt. St. Helens

1/26, Saturday. Ungodly meeting time at 4:30am! Thankfully the organizer picked me up from home. Total 15 people (2 with skis), 1 dog, 4 cars. Very foggy. We arrived at Cougar store before 6am, when the store opens. Need to purchase sno-park pass. It was clear now. The stars were quite nice. Sunrise was ~7:45am.

Marble Mount Sno-park was already half full. Many people were taking advantage of the good weather. Trailhead has climbing passes, but each one has to fill his/her own, unlike previous years, one form per group. Simple enough, just name and date. Tie the permit on your pack. Plenty pens. I forgot to note down the time when we started hiking, in headlamps. Not cold. No snow in the parking lot. Packed, well trodden snow starting from the trailhead.

The first couple of miles are flat. A few gravel patches, mostly covered with snow. Saw the sun rose behind trees, never had a good look at it. When we reached Chocolate Falls, the mountain had a warm glow in the early morning light. We regrouped, and I took a few group photos. The post here says climbing permit required above 4800'. I put on crampons. Not a good idea: made my legs heavier. This winter has not been cold. The snow was soft enough. Only the top few hundred feet, the surface was more chunky. With many footsteps made by previous hikers, it's feasible to walk all the way to the rim without any traction device.

Winter is still winter. Very pretty. The frozen snow looks like shiny coral reef. The temperature was warm, spring like, except for some wind when I was ~6-8000' (I had to put my hat in my pack so it doesn't get blown away). The rim was calm. We spent over an hour here waiting for everyone to catch up. I wanted to go to the true summit (would have taken ~30 minutes), but was told no. So, this is the only climb (out of 5) that I didn't go to the true summit. Eventually we hiked down. Met up with two who gave up: one had a dizzy spell, one had muscle cramp. Oddly, I got cramp on my inner thigh once. Not sure why. I thought I was re-hydrated consistently. Maybe my running nose was losing too much water.

Once we got down to soft-ish snow, I packed up my crampons, and started to glissade. Half walked and half slid. Didn't put back on crampons. Fun as always. However, unbeknownst to me (until much later), I lost my phone (credit card and driver's license in the phone case), my keys, and god knows what else. Once the fun was over, I looked for my phone so to listen to podcast. Oops... I started going back up, asking everyone I met on the way, until the last person in my group, when I had to come back down. One lady informed me that she heard a snowboarder (on her way up) found a phone.

Back at the trailhead, I left a note on the board where we fill permits. I put down my email address, and the phone number of the driver. Nothing, ..., until ~10pm, I received a meetup message from another hike leader (not in today's outing), said a woman named Sarah found my phone and ID, and her phone#. So, I called her using Google Voice. We arranged to meet the next day at a coffee house near her home. -- happy ending.

2019.1.20. Buyer and Cellar at PCS

1/20, Sunday. Rain. One man show Buyer and Cellar opened today at Portland Center Stage. 90 minutes, no intermission. Playwright Johnathan Tolins inspired by Barbra Streisand's 2004 coffee table book My Passion for Design. In this production, Nick Cearley plays Alex Moore, who worked as a shop keeper in Streisand's basement. He also played 3 other characters without putting on different costumes: the manager, the boyfriend, and Barbra herself. Stage is simple and well done: silhouettes of shop shelves, a couch, a desk. Very funny. Entertaining.

I got out of the theatre around 9:15pm. Unable to find the moon. Total lunar eclipse tonight (~8:30-9:40pm), and supermoon at 9:17pm. A few train stops later, I was able to see the last end of eclipse, sill in a veil of clouds. One full hour after the eclipse, the sky was more of less clear, and the moon was bright and large.

2019.1.13. Sense and Sensibility at Portland Center Stage

1/13, Sunday, 7:30pm. A modern and comic adaptation of Sense and Sensibility at PCS. I didn't care for the costume design (still 1800s, but much simpler) nor the stage design (very simple with a long table messy like a dressy room). Actors sit on the chairs and move them all the time, most of those times don't make much sense. All actors yelling at the audience at the beginning of the show makes no sense. Mrs. Jennings talking off trail sometimes is a bit too long to be funny. The rendering of Marianne feeling dizzy, riding of horses, sleeping on a vertical bed are very good. Overall, it was entertaining, and innovative.