Tag: Beer

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Entertainment Movies Television

A long week & The Road

I’ve been very busy this past week with work. I’ve spent many late nights trying to clean up code and finish features (including a marathon on Monday, working until 4:30 AM; I was on a roll and couldn’t stop). I’ve managed to get a lot done, but there’s a lot more left to do. It’s probably going to be a long couple of weeks. C’est la vie! (Ou, c’est la travaille).

In my breaks between working, Kelly and I spent a couple hours at our old haunt Moon & Sixpence on Wednesday for a few pints, and then last night we caught The Road at Living Room Theaters. For anyone who hasn’t read (or seen) The Road, it’s a post-apocalyptic story of a man and his son struggling to survive in a lifeless wasteland. It’s depressing, somewhat scary, and very touching. Kelly hadn’t read the book, but since her reaction was very similar to mine after having read the book, it’s a good indication that the film did a good job adapting the story. Worth watching (or reading).

We’ve also continued to keep caught up with Lost, Heroes, Fringe, and Psych. That’s about it for now.

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Beer Food Travel

Lava, more snorkeling, and the end

The other day (Tuesday) Kelly and I drove to the 2.25 hours to Hilo on the other side of the island so we could take our helicopter tour we’d booked. We booked it there for two reasons, one, they didn’t offer just the volcano tour from the Kona side (so it would have been a longer more expensive trip) and two, we wanted to see Hilo. It rains a lot in Hilo, and it rained most of the time we were there, but we had a nice lunch, wandered through a farmers market, and explored some of the shops for a bit. Oh, and we also went to the tasting room of the brewery at Hilo (Mehana Brewing). Pretty tasty stuff.

Then it was time for our helicopter tour. I’d never been in a helicopter before, and it was both fun and a bit scary. The tour south over the volcano flows was really cool though, and I was able to snap some shots of flowing lava. The tour was 50 minutes, and while they claimed it was both a waterfalls AND volcano tour, we were shown all of one waterfall, at a distance. It would be my only complaint about the tour. Say it’s a volcano tour and be done with it, don’t lead people to think they’ll see majestic waterfalls (plural) as well.

Afterward came time for the drive home. It was 5:30 PM as we drove away from the Hilo airport, and we decided to drive across the island instead of over the north of it (which is how we drove to Hilo earlier in the day). That meant going over Saddle Road, which we’d heard can be pretty treatcherous, but it’d save us time. Oh, it’s important to note sunset is at 6:20 PM or so, so we didn’t have much time to get over Saddle Road before dark. Long story short, it was a winding, hilly mess most of the way, with blind turns and single-lane bridges, and then we ran into rain, and then fog, and the sun had set. My knuckles were white, and my face went pale during a few sections. There was a section in the middle where it went wider and more straight, but it was very very foggy. Fortunately we made it back to the house safely, but only ended up saving 15 minutes. Oh well.

Yesterday morning we went snorkeling again at this spot about a mile south of the house, and again saw a sea turtle, and of course many brilliantly colored fish. Kelly and I also spent about 2 hours swimming in the pool beside the house, and generally relaxing our last day away. For dinner I had this mammoth burger at a place called Splasher’s Grill, and was full the rest of the night. I had a couple of beers and then I was so full and exhausted that it was time for sleep.

Today we fly home. Yesterday we cleaned the house up a bit (I want my deposit back dammit!) and started a bit of packing. I was up before dawn (which is about 8:30am PST) and made coffee. Here pretty soon I might jump in the pool one last time before getting packed and starting the long day of airports and airplanes on the way home.

And again, photos are in the gallery. Aloha!

Categories
Beer Travel

Day two on the Big Island

Yesterday Kelly and I drove south to Kealakekua Bay to go snorkeling (after an early morning swim in the pool at the house). The drive took about an hour, and the first spot we went to some locals told us that the visibility was poor and to head a bit further south. When we got there the snorkeling was pretty good, and while the visibility still wasn’t super clear, we managed to snap some photos of some fish and I managed to get a bit of a sunburn. Joy.

Afterwards we drove to the southern-most point of the island (and the southern most point of the United States) in an attempt to get to Green Sands beach. As a result of both time of day, and weather (started to rain) we had to abandon a 2.5 mile hike to the beach itself so we could get back to the house before dark.

Last night we went to the Kona Brewing Company a few miles up the road from our house for dinner. The food was really good, and I had a delicious stout that they pour onsite (had a slight hint of coffee flavor to it). Sadly don’t bottle the stout, but we’ve had plenty of their golden and lager while at the house. Mmmm. Beer.

This morning (like yesterday) we got up early and made coffee. We walked down to a couple beaches just south of the house and swam for a bit, and later we’re thinking of driving north to the valleys and seeing some waterfalls and such.

More photos are in the gallery.

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Beer Food Science Work

The past month (a slacker’s recap)

I have once again managed to ignore my blog, this time for a whole month. Oops. I was going to post-date a bunch of individual posts, but I’m too lazy to do that, so in true slacker form here’s a recap of the events from the past month.

July 17, 2009 – Portland International Brewfest

Like the past 3 years, several coworkers and I kicked out of the office around 3:30 PM to walk over to the Portland International Brewfest to sample some of the finest beers from around the world. It was very hot that day, so we tried to stick to the shade whilst sipping our beers. I had a couple delicious Belgian ales, German lagers, and an English ale called Combined Harvest which was light and tasted really good for the hot day that it was.

July 24-25, 2009 – Seaside, Warrenton, Fort Stevens

Kelly and I joined our good friends A & R and their two kids for a night in Seaside. They have a timeshare deal, and we got to stay in the new-ish Worldmark resort hotel right at the end of Broadway. I hadn’t been to Seaside in about 10 years, not since the hotel had been built, and it was a very nice place to stay. We went to dinner at the Goose Hollow in Seaside (which is also new since I’d last been to Seaside), and had a delicious reuben sandwich. Later, we all went swimming and hot tubbing at the hotel, and spent the night out on the balcony of our room, sipping drinks and chatting. Spent saturday doing the things you do in Seaside, like eating elephant ears, playing some skee ball and other video games at the arcade, walking down the beach, and driving bumper cars.

We left Seaside and drove to Warrenton to visit my Mom who was out at the coast the same weekend. Kelly, Mom and I spent a few hours wandering around historic Fort Stevens. I hadn’t been there in well over 10 years, and had a really fun time at the museum, exploring the forts and batteries. Loads of info here, if you’re curious.  Had dinner at a local restaurant called Bouy 9 (delicious fish & chips, btw) before driving home and back to the heat. The short vacation was a welcome break from both work and the heat.

You can see all my photos here.

July 29, 2009 – Holy fuck it’s hot!

Heatwave strikes Portland, and holy crap is it hot! I don’t like it one bit. It doesn’t get this hot in Portland very often, but the last couple weeks of July were pretty much unbearable. Fortunately my friend Snooks lent me a window-mounted AC unit, which allowed for the upstairs to be tolerable for sleeping. Glad that shit’s over. At least, I hope we don’t get much more of that nonsense.

Today

Spent my day doing yard work, washing the car, running over to Belmont Station for an assortment of English, Belgian and German beers, and finally blogging. Having a nice relaxing day around the house. As I water the lawn and grill chicken burgers, Kelly is preparing a delicious potato salad that contains loads of onions and peppers. Going to eat well tonight. Hooray!

Misc bits

Got to witness the International Space Station zip across the sky on July 24th, pretty cool, and amazing how fast that sucker moves.

My friend and coworker Icontra found this jem, (and yes, the voice work is none other than Patrick Warburton). All I can think about are delicious hamburgers now.

Categories
Beer

Kennedy School with an old friend

Tonight Kelly and I met some friends at Kennedy School for dinner with our friend Martin (and his wife E), who is back in town visiting Portland from his current hometown of Champaign, IL. Had a fun time sipping beers and catching up. After leaving Kennedy School, Martin and his lovely wife spent a few hours in our back yard, continuing the beer sipping and chatting for a few hours before they caught a cab back to their hotel. Good times. And thanks to Martin and E for coming by and hanging out.