Category: Travel

Categories
Travel Work

Edgefield & Manzanita

Way behind on my blogging duties again, so here goes…

April 20, 2009 – Last week my company sent the engineering team out to McMenamins Edgefield for the day as our reward for all our hard work on the latest successful software release. We met out there on a beautiful sunny Monday morning, were given food, beer and (for those who wanted) golfing, cigars, and then more food. One of the highlights for me was the rental of five Segways for us to scoot around the property with. Despite how dorky of a toy they are, they were quite a lot of fun to ride around on. Especially once we figured out how to disable the speed governor. I got a bit of a sunburn that day.

April 25-26 – This last Saturday Kelly and I drove to the coast to stay with friends at a rental house in Manzanita. I’d never been there before, and it’s a pretty nice spot and the beach is great (a 4+ mile stretch of a long sandy beach, the southern half of which edges along Nehalem Bay State Park). Had a great time, even though we were only there for one night. On Sunday Kelly and I took a long walk down the beach (my goal was to reach the end of the cape). We got 3 miles down, realized we had another mile or so to go, and decided to turn back. Great beach, and a great time. More photos in my gallery.

Other than the above bits of goodness, been continuing my yardwork (the lawn is finally growing in, though still not as full as I’d hoped) and keeping hard at work (up till 1:30am last night trying to get some designs wrapped up). That’s all for now.

Categories
Travel

Wahclella Falls

Today, Kelly and I went for a little trip along the Columbia River Gorge to Wahclella Falls, which is about a 40 minute drive east from Portland. I’d first learned of the falls from a local news article last week, and since the weather was so nice today (finally) I thought it’d be a perfect day for a visit.

After paying the $5 fee (in a refreshingly ‘honor system’ style; place your money into an envelope and stick it in a box, nobody standing guard) we started our hike to the falls.

The walk itself was a bit muddy and fairly steep at times, with many smaller falls along the way, but at the end of the mile-long trek was a beautiful two-tiered fall into a large blue-green pool, and a deep thundering sound which echoed through the 350 ft tall canyon.

Unlike the larger and more well-known Multnomah Falls (which was packed today as we drove past), we encountered fewer than 20 people along the trail during the two hours we were there. And like the ‘honor system’ payment method, the trail itself was a welcome change; well tended but not overdone (no fences, hand rails, or stairs unless absolutely necessary) making the hike feel a bit more natural and dangerous, with some fairly precipitous and slippery spots which if you fell, you’d almost certainly break bones (if not fall to your death). It’s definitely had that ‘off the beaten path’ feel.

That said, if you want yourself some beautiful nature, it’s well worth a visit.

More photos in my gallery. Enjoy.

Categories
Beer Travel

Quick trip to the coast

Today Kelly and I took a quick trip (for Valentines day) to the coast. We hadn’t been in way too long (over a year and a half), the weather was supposed to be decent, and we’ve had an urge to see the sea for several weeks now.

Kelly and I got up around 9am, she made some delicious pancakes, and then at about 11:30am we finally hit the road. We decided to take I-5 south to 99w, through McMinville to Highway 18 (which heads towards Lincoln City where we went a couple years back). This time however we wanted to head north.

The trip took forever, two and a half hours because of some terrible traffic, but once we hit 101 north it was smooth sailing. The destination was Pacific City, and it’s local brewpub Pelican Brewery for lunch.

It was beautiful there. Cold and windy, but beautiful. The brewpub is also very nice, sitting right on the beach with the view seen in the photo above. The place was packed and we put our names down, grabbed a beer, and stood outside and took in the view.

I got a pint of Tsunami Stout, which was a very dark smoky and strong stout. Very good. Kelly got a pint of the Kiwanda Cream Ale, which was clear and golden and was really, really tasty (I kind of wish I had gotten one, however there was quite the drive back so one was plenty for me).

While waiting (we waited nearly an hour, the restaurant was so busy) an ambulance and some fire & rescue vehicles pulled into the parking lot to the main beach area. One of the vehicles unloaded a couple jetski’s that buzzed out around the peninsula. A bit later, a coast guard helicopter flew in and started making slow circles around the end of the peninsula, obviously looking for someone. We never did find out what happened (and I can’t find any news about it at the moment) but I hope whoever they were looking for was found and all is well.

We were finally seated and had a delicious meal, albeit in a bit of a hurry since it was now nearing 4pm and we wanted to hit the highway and get over the coast range before dark.

Went north to Tillamook and took Highway 6 home. We got into town just about 6pm, and it was just getting dark. We decided to stop into a new-ish restaurant/bar, the Radio Room, for a beer before getting home. The place was pretty nice (though it somehow seems a bit too nice for the area, meaning, it doesn’t really fit in). They do have a nice patio with a gas fire pit, so we stood outside (avoiding some oddball and very goofy-sounding amateur theater being performed inside for the dinner guests). It’s a pretty nice place, and the patio will be really nice in warmer weather, though I’d like the place to have a better beer selection.

Anyway, it was a great day. Next time, we’ll have to make sure and get out of the house and on the highway much earlier so we can spend more time at the coast.

Categories
Travel Work

A short trip to Aspen

I was sent to Aspen for a couple days for an Enterprise UI Summit that SuperSweetCo held. I flew in on Wednesday afternoon, got into the swanky hotel, and went out to dinner with my coworkers and all of the attendees, which included folks from Adobe, Google, SAP, and RIM, among others. It was a pretty crazy thing, but fun.

Thursday was the first full day of the event, and was very interesting. I learned a lot about what the various companies are doing and how they’re integrating social software inside their various businesses. That night the group went out again for dinner and drinks at a tapas restaurant (you know, a bunch of little plates and little food pellets). I stayed up a bit later than I’d hoped that night, drinking beer and chatting with the attendees, so I only got about 4 hours of sleep before the second day of the event (which was focused on critiquing the application I work on) I was feeling a bit out of it yesterday. 🙂

After the wrap of the event at noon, a group of us took a gondola ride up the mountain, which was amazing. The view was incredible. Got back down the mountain just in time to catch our car to the airport, and then spent the next several hours traveling back home. Got home last night around 8:30pm. Quite the whirlwind trip!

Took a bunch of photos, check ’em out.

Categories
Beer Food Travel

Camping (Bernie Man)

This weekend Kelly and I went camping at a friend’s property a little way south-east of Salem. The host (Bernard, aka Bernie) has a house and several acres along a clean, mountain-fed river, and invited a group to join him camping, swimming, and drinking beer. Both Kelly and I had a really good time catching up with friends, walking through the woods, swimming, and absorbing that campfire smell.

Our first night sleeping in the tent, a deer or elk almost killed Kelly and I! I (unsurprisingly) slept through the event, but around 3am a fellow camper heard some crashing and saw a large shape run off. When I woke up I found a hole in our tent, and one of the polls out of it’s peg and the whole corner of the tent was smooshed in. Dunno, could have been sasquatch. All I know is we almost could have died. *gasp*

Other highlights: people brought art (Bernie is an artist himself and has some space he set up as a gallery), the food people made and shared was excellent, and while cold, the swimming was fantastic. Had a great time, and hope to go again someday. More photos in the gallery.