a recent weekend

September 9th, 2009Tags: , , , , , ,
| camping, deeann, fun, hiking, mountains, pictures, road trip | chris | 0 comments


deeann and i were planning a trip with our beloved friends, nicki and kevin, to go to their old stomping grounds of bellingham, washington. unfortunately, it ended up not working out so deeann and i were stuck with an open weekend and not much to do. as tempting as it was to lay low and enjoy a weekend home, we decided against it and threw our camping gear in the car and started towards central oregon. surprisingly enough, in our two years of living in portland we have never visited central oregon … well, kinda. i did have a failed cross country skiing/backpacking attempt on the south sister (that’s a mountain for those wondering), but we won’t go into that.

anyways, we ended up at smith rock state park which happens to be a climber’s mecca, however we did not bring our climbing gear. i’m excited to go back there and get my hands on that rock. while there we went for some hikes, visited a few breweries, enjoyed the breathtaking scenery, and simply rested outside. we visited bend and later, on our way back to portland, we took the scenic route(every route is extremely scenic) and headed to eugene, stayed one night outside of eugene, then back home.

overall the trip was beautiful. it was hard to believe we were in the same part of the country let alone in the same state. the high desert is breathtaking with multiple peaks and butte’s that opened our eyes to how volcanically active this area once was and still may be. the spontaneous nature of this trip was quite refreshing.

charles meets barack

October 30th, 2008Tags: , ,
| good stuff, news | chris | 0 comments

charles is a volunteer from boulder, colorado. he won a raffle to meet barack at the rally in denver on october 26, just a few days ago.

thanks ren.

spring is here

March 23rd, 2008Tags: , ,
| beauty, good stuff | chris | 0 comments


the oregon coast

December 12th, 2007Tags: ,
| beauty, fun, good stuff, oregon coast | chris | 1 comment

way back when, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, deeann and i went out to the oregon coast. our plan was to just drive up and down highway 101 with the possibility of staying out there over night. so we packed up our hiking and camping gear and jumped in the car for the beautiful hour-long drive. once you get out of the portland area its mostly flat with farms and vinyards spreading across the countryside with the backdrop of mountains. then about half way between the city and the ocean you get into forests and mountains. ups and downs and dense conifers surround you. its gorgeous! as we went higher in elevation the weather would change from a mist to snow and back to a mist again on the way back down.

once we got to the coast we went down past cannon beach to manzanita, back up through to seaside and back down to cannon beach with all sorts of stops along the way. we were going to find a state park to stay in, but our stomachs were begging us to drive back for some delicious portland grub. so we stayed and watched the sun go down into the pacific and hopped back into the car for the drive back.

beautiful.

giving thanks

November 22nd, 2007Tags: , , , ,
| autumn, family, friends, good food, life, portland | chris | 0 comments

November Roses in the South Park Blocks
today was a good day. of course sleeping in always makes for a good morning, prepping a big thanksgiving meal is also a good start to the day.

we got up and went for a walk through the south park blocks. we stopped at the park avenue coffeehouse and chatted about our weekend plans, stopping and taking pictures of the brisk morning and the november roses.

when we got home we started in on our thanksgiving meal. on the menu: cornish game hens with cranberry-orange glaze, roasted garlic mashed potatoes(with a cranberry-orange reduction), a jelly fruit salad, and of course, pumpkin pie with real whipped cream. it was all so delicious.

its been a very relaxing day. its kind of strange to be so far from iowa and family and friends. mostly its weird to not be around those things that we would normally associate with thanksgiving. Fight with a game hen.  I won.obviously family and friends, but the first dusting of snow, seeing people we haven’t seen for awhile, those little things that in the back of your mind you may not see them, but when you don’t you wonder where they’ve gone.

despite being so far from the familiar, being here with deeann and preparing our own meal and talking about what we are thankful for, there is a certain joy in that. it’s good. being here is good. it’s different and sometime quite weird, but its good.

i hope you all have much to be thankful for. i know i do. happy holidays to you all and i hope to hear from you soon. :)