Mini Vacation Part Two

Now for the rest of the story: Amber and I got up early to eat breakfast in Portland at a place called:

We wondered how they came up with the name Slappy Cakes. I can understand the "Cake" part but "Slappy" I'm not getting. The place was pretty busy by the time we got there and we had a 30 min wait so we took a walk down the sidewalk looking at stores and the different businesses when we came upon a tiny store that was selling handmade hats, headbands and other accessories. It was called Flipside Hats and was a pretty cool place. By the time we were done browsing it was time to head back to Slappy Cakes where we waited only a few minutes longer. We were soon siting at a table that had a griddle in the middle of it. See you get to make your own pancakes any way you want them.
But first off we started off with a bubbly drink, a grapefruit mimosa.

 I think I like grapefruit even better than orange mimosa's. We just had to ask our waitress what kind of champagne they used. She brought the bottle out because she couldn't pronounce the name. It was called Jaurne Serra Cristalino Brut. Never heard or seen it before. All I know is it makes a great mimosa. Has anyone ever had this champagne?
The next step is to decide on your pancake batter. Amber went with buttermilk and I had...

 their seasonal batter which was zucchini. Different but not too crazy right?

 Next you pick out what you want to put on or in your pancakes. Amber picked strawberries, chocolate chips and shredded coconut while I had bananas, pecans and organic maple syrup. The batter comes in the squeeze bottles. I really need to get one of those bottles it was so easy and fun to make pancakes with them.

 Now the griddle is hot and its time to cook the pancakes. Amber put the chocolate chips right in the pancake batter so they were all soft and melty and...

...they looked like this and were very yummy.

 And this is how mine looked and they were yummy too! It is also very easy to share each other pancakes.

 Since we knew we both weren't going to be able to eat lunch we order a plate of bacon and eggs and an English muffin to split. Otherwise there were enough pancakes to fill us up. Needless to say we were stuffed and we each had at least enough batter left to make one more pancake each.

 Amber tried her hand at making a smiley face. We had watched the two girls sitting beside us make all kinds of pancake creations: hearts, basketballs and different shapes. I'm sure they had been here before.

 After we were done with breakfast we went to Leach Botanical Gardens.

 

The house was built by Mr and Mrs Leach back in the 1930's. It has lots of windows and each window has a gorgeous view. Mrs. Leach was an amateur botanist. She was very interested in the  native plants. I believe there is 14 acres that is developed and another 14 or so acres that is not developed.

 

This side of the house faces towards the river at the bottom. Where the big windows are that is the living room which has a great view of the river and opposite side of the high bank.

This is the opposite side of the house that faces the river. From this side of the house you get a great view of the rock garden which you can see some of it in the photo above and you can also see what they called a carriage house but was never used as one. It now houses the full time gardener.

I think weather vanes are kinda cool.

This is the back of the house and where they hold weddings and other outside events. I guess I forgot to take a photo of the front of the house.

A better photo of the rock garden. I think it would be better to visit in the spring or early summer as I think most of the plants had already bloomed but we did find some pretty blooms.

 Don't forget to click on each photo so you can see it better.

 Oregon Grapes

 

The red of the tiny wild strawberries stood out so pretty among the green foliage.

 Here is the creek that runs at the bottom of the house. The whole place is quiet and serene and very few people were there. Of course it probably helped that it was Tuesday and not a Saturday or Sunday.

 Amber and I loved the quaint little stone cottage which is what the Leach's lived in while their house was being built. I believe the roof is tiled with slate.

 Love the old wooden door.

 You may have noticed some of the stones looked lighter than others upon closer inspection they looked like wood.

 It was wood but it was petrified wood. How cool is that?

 Back side of the cottage.

 This part of the trail looked kinda cool with the sunlight gleaming between the trees.

 This is a small shed built close by the cottage.

 

There was also an outdoor fireplace which I think they may have used to cook on. There might not have been a kitchen in the cottage as it was pretty small and in the summer cooking inside would have made it very hot and a fire hazard as well.

 On the left side of the fireplace was a little door and if you open it there is a little space about the size of a loaf of bread. I wonder if it was used to keep something warm or to cook.

And that was the end of our little vacation together and I drove back to Washington after dropping Amber off at home so she could get ready for work. The bright spot is I know I will be seeing her soon.