Congratulations to both of you! What a great wedding!
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Rachel
Cannon Beach and Sand Castles
Since we had the whole day to ourselves on Friday we headed to the coast. We weren’t the only ones in the group with the same idea so we traveled out there with Roger, Tess, Heather, Liam and Jill.
There’s another observation we made almost immediately upon arriving in Portland which we’ve failed to mention thus far. There are beautiful wild flowers absolutely everywhere. They grow in fields, by the road and between the sidewalk cracks, literally everywhere! On the way to the coast we found this really neat little fruit and flower stand where you could pick your own flower bouqette (as many as you could fit between your pointer finger and your thumb) for $5. Rachel says this is a fantastic deal and I tend to agree (since I know what it costs to buy her a dozen roses…). They had some good deals on Raspberries and Blackberries also so we picked up a quart of each for $3 a piece. Rachel says there were shasta daisies, spray roses , hydrangeas, lavender, fox glove and many more, although I only know them as the purple, red and yellow ones.
From there it was on to the coast. We arrived at Cannon Beach starving so we stopped at the Ecola Seafood Restaurant & Market and had our first Seafood of the trip. It was delicious!
We had Liam with us and this was his first trip to the Pacific Ocean (I think it was his first trip to any ocean but I’m not sure). His goal? to build the greatest Sand Castle the world had ever known. We didn’t exactly fly to Portland with sand castle construction on the mind so we didnt’ have any tools with us and neither did he. Fortunately, Roger came up with the idea of using the ice bucket & cups from the hotel so we snuck them along. When Liam found out what we had, he was ecstatic.
We ended up spending so much time at Cannon Beach building sand castles and exploring Haystack Rock we didn’t make it any further. We had to head back for George & Stacie’s BBQ. Since it wasn’t really that far out of the way, we headed south along the coast to Tillamook and then took route 6 back into Portland. This is a beautiful drive so if you get the chance be sure to take it. Some of the best Scenery we’d seen so far.
That night George and Stacie hosted a great BBQ with friends and family where everyone got to relax, have some good food, good drinks, enjoy great company and play some beanbags and wiffle ball. An enjoyable and relaxing way to prepare for the wedding on Saturday.
George & Stacies Bachelor(ette) Parties
A while back while the best man was throwing together ideas for the Bachelor party I read an article from the New York Times about this sweet little par 3 golf course with several bars on site which seemed ideal for the type of shenanigans we’d be up to. I forwarded the information about McMenamins Edgefield that I had, and to my surprise George (the Bachelor) had not only already heard of it, but really wanted to go.
This was my first experience golfing (probably Rob’s too as can be seen in the video above), and holy crap did I suck to start out with. My skill level essentially fit perfectly to a bell curve over time. I got steadily better (thanks to Newman and Andy’s coaching!) and then I sucked hard core (thanks to the alcohol).
From there it was on to some bars with a quick stop to take care of the Portland UprITe Battle of 2009.
The girls spent the majority of their time at Dukes which, if the pictures and videos are any indication, is a lot of fun. It seems that almost everybody rode the bull with the exception of my wife who is the only one who foresaw the bull riding plot and wore a skirt to stop it in it’s tracks.
A great night for all involved!
Rehearsal and Dinner at Portland City Grill
The rehearsal went off without a hitch at the beautiful Aerie at Eagle Landing. Because Smitty wasn’t flying in until Saturday morning, I acted as a stand-in groomsmen, which was a first but fun.
After the rehearsal always comes the good part… the dinner. For this particular event we ate at the Portland City Grill on the 30th floor of the US Bancorp building. The view was incredible, and we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset way up over the west hills. Pictures can’t do it justice, and since I only brought my 50mm portrait lens (without a polarized filter through glass at night) my pictures of the city and the skyline were all but useless. Since it was also Michael’s birthday George and Stacie had a cake for him which was absolutely delicious!
You’ll just have to trust me, the view from the Portland City Grill is well worth the cost of a meal, it truly is spectacular.
Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge
One of the things on the must-see list in the Portland area is the Columbia River Gorge. A large group decided at dinner last night to meet up and head out for that at about 10am. Because we’re relatively early risers we thought we’d get a head start, do the Mt Hood loop and meet them out. It’s a good thing we did!
If you get a chance to take the Mt Hood Scenic byway DO IT! That being said, we did. We saw the Oregon trail at laurel hill, the Salmon River, the White River and some fantastic views of Mt Hood. We also got some sweet cherries for a cool $1.50/lb at a local fruit stand. They cost more than $4/lb at home!
From there we met the group at Multnomah Falls along the Historic Columbia River Highway where a few of us hiked to the top. Getting to the top is quite a workout, 15 switchbacks and a mile later. The group headed back from there but since we hadn’t gotten a chance to see the Vista House, we stopped there for a vista and what a one it was.
The whole loop : Highly suggested.
An awesome first day.
The Ride In
On our way to Portland we flew through Newark (New Jersey) and for once we didn’t miss our flights because of it… Of course, once we got on the plane to Portland we did sit on the runway for an hour …sigh…
Ahh well, once we were finally in the air Rachel and I watched Kingdom of Heaven on my iPhone and we were then graced with some magnificent views of the Mountainous west coast.
After being in Portland for all of 30 minutes we had a few observations:
- It’s very green. There’s huge Ponderosa Pine Trees absolutely everywhere and they’re gorgeous.
- It’s very green-conscious. We probably saw 147 bikes between the airport and our Hotel. There are bike lanes on literally every street, and bike paths next to every highway. There are “Please Conserve Water” signs everywhere.
- The flowers are amazing and they’re everywhere
- It’s Claim Jumpers not Clam Jumpers
- Shopping is great here. Lots of outlet stores and no sales tax! This doesn’t mean we’ll be doing any this trip, but it certainly is a good place to go if you’d like to. The pearl district seems to be where all the higher class shops are.
- Unemployment is bad here, we saw beggars on pretty much every major intersection between the airport and the hotel.
We had a great trip in and a nice relaxing first day.
Taughannock Falls
Taughannock Falls is one of those local places that is amazing and many people aren’t even aware of. Rachel wasn’t until I took her for the first time years ago but now it’s one of our favorite spots. That’s why we spent the day there by ourselves for our 2nd anniversary.
Felix the Rabbit
Our yard seems to be a breeding ground this spring. We’ve had everything from baby robins to baby rabbits. The baby robins showed up last weekend (completely expected, their nest has been in our garage for a few weeks/months now). Had I noticed the nest getting built It wouldn’t have lasted long (birds cause a mess) but I didn’t so we were graced with the presence of at least 2 baby robins. Rachel and I saw them both make it out and into the wild. Our garage is now safe from the birds, thank god!
Thursday while trimming the grass around the various bushes Rachel found a nest of rabbits. They were all huddled in a hole in the grass around a young lilac bush she planted last year. All of the rabbits hopped away and hid under the bushes next to the house.
When I got home that night Rachel wanted to show me, so we went outside and found Felix. Rachel has a tendency to name random animals we see, like charlie the squirrel in the Grand Canyon and now Felix the baby rabbit. There have been countless others, but their names escape me.
All the rabbits were gone (read: hiding) except for Felix. In fact, he seemed quite friendly, and even allowed us to pick him up and hold him for a bit. I’ve had pet rabbits before and usually they fall into one of two categories:
- schizophrenic – running and hopping everywhere and generally trying to get away.
- terrified – huddled down and not moving, basically pretending to be a stone.
At first Felix seemed to fit into the second category. However; the longer we held him he seemed to become comfortable and even curious, sniffing and moving around a bit.
While it was fun to play with him a bit, we thought it best to get him back to his mother, so we put him under the bush next to the house (where we knew the rest of them including the mother had gone) and he hopped inside and disappeared.
We’ve seen baby rabbits every day since then, but we don’t think we’ve seen Felix again yet, all the markings have been different and the ones we’ve seen have run away as fast as you can see them.
Normally I wouldn’t like rabbits, but we only have a small flower garden to worry about so it’ll be fine. Also the bush that they’re calling home for now is scheduled for removal very shortly. I assume once it’s gone they’ll vacate the premises. Until then we’re happy to share our home with Felix the rabbit.
Dog excercise – A New Method
We found a new method of keeping the dogs worn out. I’d been eying our bikes for a while but the proposition was a bit scary. For whatever reason, I got it into my head to give it a go today and I’m glad we did. What fun! The dogs love it ALMOST as much as we do.
They got into it so much, they started pulling to make us go faster. The only tricky parts are turning, but they’re picking up on ‘right’ and ‘left’ commands pretty quickly.
This method seems to be far more effective at wearing them out than anything we’ve done until this point. A 15min bike ride has had them sleeping for 4 hours now. Not bad!
Algonquin and Wright Peak
We’re on a roll. With the long weekend last week we headed up to camp and hit another of the 46 High Peaks. This time around our goal was Algonquin Peak, but like many of the High Peaks, hiking Algonquin gets you close to several others. We made our attempt at those as well.
Starting out up Algonquin we were once again in the rain, but we knew it was going to break before noon and that we’d have great weather at the summit(s) and after. Sure enough about halfway up the weather turned and we got our first glimpse of blue sky. Unfortunately this was just before we made it into the clouds. That’s right, we were above the cloud cover. Although the hike was exhilarating and we experienced some fine views on the way up, we ate lunch at the top in the clouds and without a view.
After a short stay on the top we started our descent so we could begin our climb up Wright Peak. About halfway down to the Y in the trail the cloud coverage broke and the sky opened up. It was beautiful. One of the best views from any mountain we’ve climbed. Since we didn’t know how long the view would last, we just sat and enjoyed it for a while. Then as it seemed like it would last we continued the hike.
After summiting Wright Peak, the view and the weather only got better. We had 360 degree beautiful clear sky the rest of the day. Wright peak is a hard rock summit with views in all directions. You can see many of the other 46 from the top and we were able to pick out our next goal, Mount Colden.
We did miss Iriquois Peak, a 3rd peak just a short hike (through a valley) past Algonquin, but we were already tired and concerned we might not be able to complete Wright so we left it off this time around.
The hike down was equally pleasant. What an amazing day/hike!
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Randy Aldrich 