What Happens at Ladies’ Weekend…

by Dez · Published August 1, 2021 · Updated August 18, 2021

…gets posted on my blog! Just kidding, no secrets being spilled here. 😉

One thing I miss a lot since moving to Detroit five years ago is time with many of my girlfriends. We used to try and have ladies’ nights and weekends whenever we could, and I’ve missed that time. So, we had to make one happen during this extended visit for sure.

Mike and I parted ways after packing up our Pacific City campsite. I took the car to head off for my Ladies’ Weekend, and he took the motorhome to check into a campsite for a Boys’ Camping Weekend with our boys. Patsy was not happy to have to attend boys’ weekend, but we could not have a cats at the house, so Mike and kitties took off on their own. He’s written his own blog post about the great weekend he and the boys had, so check that out too.

The house we rented for us ladies was in Rhododendron, a small town on Mount Hood.

Side Note: If you’re not from the area and don’t know yet, Mount Hood is a huge mountain (over 11,000 ft.) just east of Portland. It’s beautiful and you can see it from many places in the Portland Metro area if you’re facing east and have no tall buildings or trees close by. I used to get to see views of Mount Hood almost all the way to work every morning and the flat terrain of Detroit has definitely been a change.

Anyway, we met up at the house and were happy to find a spacious place with THREE BATHROOMS (very exciting for five ladies) and a great deck. The ladies who were there with me are all close friends of mine that I’ve known between 26 and 14 years. Wow, I’m getting old!

I can’t forget to mention this sweet lady who joined us. This is Kiwi, my friend Jessie’s doggie. She’s a sweetie and she’s very spoiled. She was carried around and adored all weekend, as she should be.

Thursday night we went to dinner in Zig Zag at a fun place called Skyway. While there, about to pay the bill, the power went out. Luckily we all had enough cash to pay that way and head back to the house with fingers crossed that the power wasn’t out in the entire area. As we drove back, seeing no lights on anywhere, we realized we had no power at the house either. Ugh.

So, we quickly searched for candles and flashlights (there weren’t any). THANK GOODNESS for our friend Hillari who is a mood lighting expert (really, she is all about this… she walks into my house and quickly turns lights on and off until it’s just right!) and always brings some candles to our Ladies’ Weekends… we had several tea lights and a few larger ones to give us enough light to play a couple games.

The power had gone out right around 9:00 and was back on right before 11:00. So, we were pretty lucky.

Friday we got up, ate a delicious blueberry pancake breakfast by Amy, and headed out for a hike up at Mirror Lake. It was a 4 mile hike and I’m out of shape. No one told me about the elevation gain (yes, I know we’re on a mountain, but…). So, some people were in trouble with me, but it was of course fun and beautiful and I’m glad we did it!

Back at the house we had to crack open this amazing charcuterie box for lunch. Yum! Sadly, Amy could only stay the first night and had to head out Friday afternoon. But I’m so glad we got some quality catch up time.

Friday night Jessie became our personal chef and made an amazing meal for us. Here are the pix and descriptions, in case you enjoy looking at people’s food (you should!):

Grilled asparagus, tomato, and halloumi (a Greek cheese) salad

She plated it all beautifully (as you can see) and served us and we felt pretty fancy.

It was a fun night of laughs, music, games, and visting.

Saturday we started the day slowly and relaxed quite a bit. Kelley made us quiche for breakfast and we played some games. We built up energy for an afternoon of paddle boarding!

Trillium Lake was our destination this time and Kelley was kind enough to bring some of her paddle boards and give a lesson to all of us ladies who had never used one before. Everyone except for me stood up like a pro. I chose to stay seated and paddle around that way… I was certain I would fall in and that water was COLD! So, I was a wimp. But it did not take away from the fun and the temptation to get me and Mike some inflatable paddle boards of our own (why do I want to buy everything? It’s a sickness).