Farewell Tour Stop #11

Craig and Bridget are moving to New Zealand.  And, if that wasn't cool enough, they are in the middle of a cross country road trip of epic proportions before they leave.  Stop #11:  Portland.

Now I know that NZ is going to sweet and all and they will love it and probably not want to come home, but I'm holding onto a little shred of hope that someday, they will come back.  When they do, B and I want to them to come back to Portland.  Permanently.  So, we decided to take advantage of their stop here to make a little plug for just how great Portland could be.  Here goes nothing.

First on the list, make sure they eat some really great food.  First stop, Pine State Biscuits.

Next, make sure they know how good the beer is.  Beer always tastes better when drank while sitting on the beach front patio of the Pelican Pub.

After that, show them how great the ocean can be.  This one is tricky because they are coming from the warm waters of Jacksonville, FL where one can frolic in the waves sans wet suit.  We decided overlook this tiny detail and took them to Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda where the cliffs, dunes and waves are spectacular. 

Now Craig is interested in the going to school to learn wine making/grape growing so on Monday, I toured them around some of the best Willamette Valley wineries.  And we can't forget Bridget, the budding chef, so we did some berry picking for her too.  

Tuesday was all about showing off downtown so we hit the shops with a couple of little rest breaks for beers and sushi.  Then, to culminate the whole trip, B cooked us up a feast.  Just wanted them to know what family get-togethers in P-town would be like:  in one word, delicious.

They still have about a month left on their road trip and haven't been to New York yet (where the super fun Scott and Brook await), but I'm hoping we made an impression.  (At least the weather cooperated-- I think they think it's sunny here!  Shhh, I won't tell if you won't.) 

So, farewell Craig and Bridget.  You have no idea the fun times ahead of you.  Can't wait to visit you down under, we love you!

When Omaha comes to town

The Omaha Royals came to town a couple of weeks ago to play the Portland Beavers, our Triple A minor league baseball team.  Kristina got her hands on some tickets her office had stashed away so I joined she and Douglas for an evening at the ball park.

The tickets were probably the best I've ever had at any sporting event ever.  Right behind the plate, all the free hot dogs and chips we could eat and we even had our own waiter guy.  Oh boy, do rich people have a good thing going at PGE Park.

We felt it was our duty, as probably the only Nebraskans in the park, to cheer for Omaha.  And cheer we did.  Very loudly.  From the front row.  See those two people to the right of Douglas? They were none too pleased with our antics.  

You can't handle my weekend.

Friday:

Work.

Head downtown for the Twilight Criterium.  Bike racing at its best.  A 1/2 mile course through the North Park blocks with a beer garden for the spectators in the middle.  Racers have 60 minutes to ride as many laps as possible.  In the following photos, they are flying by us at an average speed of 30 mph.  In the professional group, they were clocking 55 second laps. Awesome.

Follow the crit with sushi and ice cream with friends.

Saturday:

"Work."  Head out to Champoeg State Park to teach some folks the ins and outs of camping as part of the Let's Go Camping program.  Lead the freshman campers in through tent set-up, Leave No Trace and a guided hike.

Head back to Portland.

Scoot downtown to join B, Joseph and LeeAnna and watch the Portland Timbers win over the Charleston Battery, 3-1. 

Sunday:

Alarm goes off at 4:00am.

"Work."  Arrive downtown at 5:30am to man the bike tech tent for the Bridge Pedal.  18,000 Portlanders take to the streets to bike over the city's bridges.

Pump tires, sell helmets, spread REI cheer until 1pm.  Wish you were with your friends when they were photographed for the front page of the Oregonian.

Unload the U-Haul van back at the store.

Arrive home around 4:30pm.

Take a big, fat nap.  

Monday:  

Take a day off.  Thank goodness.

Nice Little Sunday

B and I hightailed it up the Angel's Rest trail in the gorge on Sunday night to get these amazing shots.  We came down in the dark, two little head lamps bobbing in the woods.  We sure do some ridiculous stuff in the name of photography.

Portland Warming, Part 2

So, here it is.  My last post wasn't exactly accurate.  Never trust the weather man.  

Here are last week's weather stats:

All-time record high temp set:  107 degrees on Wed. July 29th.  

Record high temps set:  3.  106 on Tues.  107 on Wed.  103 on Thurs.

Days in a row above 100 degrees:  4.  By the way, another record.

Days in a row above 90 degrees:  11.  Another record.

Days in July above 90 degrees:  14.  Another record.  Are you seeing a pattern here?

For those of you who live in places like, I don't know, Phoenix or Houston or Nebraska even, this doesn't seem to out of the ordinary.  In fact, this might seem downright balmy in the middle of the summer.  But for P-town, this is weird.  And extremely unbearable.  Unless you have a fairly new home, people in these parts don't have air-conditioning.  The best most folks do is a window unit, but even those can't keep up with 107.  I even went to work early on Tuesday so I could spend some more time in air conditioned 72 degrees of REI Tualatin.  

The heat wave seems to be over for now, thank goodness.  But, I do have to admit, it felt just like summer.  Actual, real, like-I-remember-as-a-kid summer.  And gosh, did that feel good.

Portland Warming

10-Day Forecast High / Low (°F) Precip. % Today Jul 28 Sunny 103°/72° 0 % Wed  Jul 29 Sunny 101°/69° 0 % Thu  Jul 30 Sunny 98°/65° 0 % Fri  Jul 31 Sunny 91°/65° 0 % Sat  Aug 01 Mostly Sunny 90°/66° 10 % Sun  Aug 02 Partly Cloudy 88°/64° 10 % Mon  Aug 03 Partly Cloudy 86°/63° 0 % Tue  Aug 04 Sunny 85°/63° 0 % Wed  Aug 05 Sunny 84°/62° 0 % Thu  Aug 06 Sunny 84°/60° 0 % Last Updated Jul 28 10:07 a.m. PT

Little Brother, Big Day

Today is a big day.  Little brother Craig checks out of the Navy today.  He is now free to head out and do whatever he wants.  And that is exactly what he is doing.

www.nextstopsomewhereelse.blogspot.com

Visit his new blog to read Craig's farewell to the Canoe Club in his own words and to find out what he is doing in the next chapter in his life.  

I'm so proud of him.

Le Tour de Volcano

Since moving to Oregon, there have been two places on my "must-see" list:  Crater Lake and the Redwoods in California.  We decided to check one off this week and trek down to Crater Lake for some sight-seeing.  But, we didn't want to drive 6 hours just to look at a lake, so we also decided to bring our friends, the Bigler's, along for the ride.  And by ride, I mean bike ride.  Around the lake.  What better way to send them off to the east coast (they are moving to Albany, NY at the beginning of August) than a really strenuous bike ride around a volcano followed by camping amidst swarms of mosquitos?  I'd say it's just about perfect.I'm not sure what I was expecting, but Crater Lake is huge.  When I was reading the ride stats, I guess I didn't really put together that 33 miles AROUND something means that something is pretty big.  Also, photos of the lake just don't do it justice-- it is the bluest blue you will ever see.  Ever.

The ride itself is a butt-kicker.  Now just last weekend, I pedaled myself 50 miles up and down the Hood River valley, but that was nothing in comparison to the Lake.  It was either up, or down, nothing in between.  6 mph or 30 mph.  Plus add in the 7,000 foot elevation and it's enough to wear a girl right out. 

 It is, however, for Oregon, epic.  Incredibly gorgeous, with views of the lake on one side, northern California on the other.  A definite "must see."In the home stretch on the southeast side of the crater.  Look at those buttery smooth slopes!  Yes, Crater Lake, we will see you again this winter for a ski tour.

B and I drug ourselves out of the tent at 5am on Wednesday morning and hiked up to the rim for the sunrise.  Gor. Geous.

Dave and Cilicia, you were great riding partners.  We will miss you tremendously.  Looking forward to seeing you sometime in your new neck of the woods.

Garden Update

After the dramatic massacre a couple of weeks ago, I thought maybe I should share an update on the garden to prove that some plants are still alive and doing really well.  We've been eating green beans, green peppers, jalapenos and cucumbers and the okra is about to explode any minute.  Go veggies!

Ode to Julia.

Julia wanted to ride along with us in the gorge, but instead, attended her 10 year high school reunion.  So, we made a small video tribute.  

We missed you Julia!

Oh, I should explain:  Kendra is running because she went back to get photos of Kara and Katie coming up the last hill.  Although, for the record, she is pretty hard core and probably would have run the whole thing anyway.

Comin' Round the Mountain

I never realized before just how easily I can get talked into doing things, specifically when an adventure is involved.  I'm such a sucker.

My friend Katie invited me to ride in a 50-mile benefit tour of the Columbia gorge with her this weekend.  Now before saying "yes!", I really should have thought about what that sentence implies.  First of all, 50 miles.  Yikes.  I haven't ridden farther than 30 miles in a looooong time.  And secondly, the gorge.  It's always scorching hot and ridiculously windy in the gorge-- two things that aren't particularly pleasant to cyclists.  But, I said yes and off to Hood River we went.At rest stop #1 in Parkdale with Mt. Hood as our backdrop.

Katie climbing up out of the Hood River Valley with Mt. Hood in the distance.  Half way done!

It was great!  Absolutely great!  The ride was beautiful-- we took off south out of Hood River toward Mt. Hood and then turned around in Parkdale and then headed back through the valley toward Mt. Adams.  The rest stops were stocked with delicious treats and happy folks and the finish line food was delish as were the four sips of beer I managed to gulp down. 

 Katie and I pause for a photo break as we head downhill to the Columbia River and Mt. Adams.

Katie, Kendra, me, Kara.  Hard core for sure.

The finish!  50 miles.  

The ride was a benefit for the Northwest Sarcoma Foundation, organized by the family of Jackson, a little boy who lost his battle with sarcoma.  My friend Katie works at the hospital he was staying in and our other nurse friends, Kendra and Jodi, were his nurses.  It was really touching to personally meet the family-- Jackson's uncle even offered to bake the nurses cinnamon rolls the next day.  AND, since I'm not a nurse, he was going to drop some off at REI.  So, so sweet.

Look out for the Huskers!

It's that time of year again.  Time for the old Husker roommates to reunite for a long weekend of girls, babies, husbands, beers and fireworks.We all met in Belle Plaine, Minnesota this year, at Gwen and Matt's house.  Tom and Liz flew in from Albuquerque, Tony and Karen drove up from Norfolk and I flew out from P-town.  (Travis and Jody couldn't make it and B was scheduled for a photo shoot over the weekend.)  The original babies, Gavin, Aubrie and Jonah, are two years old now and this spring, we added two more girls to the bunch, Abigail and Natalie.  

With four kids under the age of 2 and 1/2, you can probably guess that the weekend was pretty chill.  Thursday consisted of some rousing rounds of Blongoball in the front yard which was followed by shooing the husbands off to play golf and the ladies enjoying a quiet evening at home with some bottles of wine.  Friday's activity was a trip to the Como Zoo, which I have to say, was the best darn free zoo I've ever been to.  A baby giraffe!  It just doesn't get better than that.  

When we finally got back from the zoo, everyone was ready for naps (not just the babies) so I stole the car and headed to Shakopee to visit my aunt and cousins.  They are growing up so fast!  We chatted and then the games began-- kickball followed by dodgeball followed by soccer.  When the bottle rockets started flying from the house across the backyard, I took my leave.  It was soooo great to see them.

Saturday was another chillaxin' day at the house-- we played board games, played with babies, tossed washers in the backyard, took some photos, laughed, grilled and then headed over to New Prague for the fireworks show in the soccer field.  A perfect ending to a great trip with even better friends.

For more photos of Minnesota '09 and also Albuquerque '08, Norfolk '07 and Portland '06, click here:  huskersummers.shutterfly.com.

Massacre at the garden

Something ate ALL of the leaves from ALL of the strawberry plants.

Something else ate ALL of the tomato blossoms.

That same something also feasted on the English peas.

Something's knee needs to have a date with my foot.