Tag: Oregon

Categories
Beer Food Travel

Weekend at the coast

This weekend Kelly took me to the coast for a surprise weekend getaway. She’d rented a house near Manzanita, and we spent a couple days driving around, visiting nearby spots including spending some of Saturday at Cannon Beach, hiking through Oswald West State Park, and on Sunday checking out Hug Point (my new favorite stretch of Oregon beach).

Had a really tasty burger and a few pints of Guinness at the Sand Dune Pub on Friday night, and a delicious Shrimp Scampi dinner at the Terra Cotta Cafe on Saturday evening, right before racing down to see what little sunset there was left.

It was really great to get away for a couple nights, and we got back with a Monday holiday day off to spare (so I could chill out around the house before returning to work). Thanks so much Kelly, it was fantastic!

More photos here.

Categories
Beer Travel

Camping trip to Wahtum Lake

This past weekend I joined some friends on a camping trip (to celebrate my friend S’s upcoming 40th birthday) at Wahtum Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest, a drive of about two hours from Portland.

We arrived around 2pm Friday, set up camp, and set about sipping on beers and roasting hot dogs over the fire. Saturday morning we took a two mile hike up Chinidere Mountain for an incredible 360 view of the mountain range and snow-covered peaks including Hood, Rainier, St. Helens, Adams and Jefferson.

The hike about destroyed me however, and I hit the tent early Saturday night. Sunday morning we all got up early, made coffee and relaxed for a few hours before breaking down camp and headed home, stopping at Double Mountain brewpub in Hood River for some delicious pizza and beer. Great camping trip. However my calf muscles still hate me.

More photos here.

Categories
Beer Music Travel

Surprise Astoria weekend (with Decemberists show)

This weekend I surprised Kelly with a trip to Astoria. Before leaving all Kelly knew was that we were going out of town. Later I hinted that there would be “a show” but that was all I’d told her. Friday we left home (a bit past noon) and as I was driving she was guessing “we’re going to Seattle”, and when I didn’t drive north on I-5 she guessed “we’re going to Eugene?”. Once I drove over the Fremont bridge and started driving north on Highway 30 she correctly guessed that we were going to Astoria.

We arrived around 3pm, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around town for a bit (including having some nibbles at both Fort George and the Wet Dog).

That night, we went to the Liberty Theater and shortly after entering Kelly saw a poster (there was no obvious marquee) for the Decemberists benefit show for Jessica Schleif. This was a one-time show (the only scheduled Decemberists show for 2010 thus far) for a friend of the band who “recently suffered a tragedy that left her with unmanageable medical debt.” The show was a lot of fun. The opening act Michael Hurley was really really good, and the Decemberists were great as usual. It was a fun night.

Saturday, after checking out the Flavel House, we drove over the Astoria Megler bridge and went to Cape Disappointment (visiting an old lighthouse) and Fort Columbia. Today on the way home we stopped at a friends place for a fortuitously planned birthday gathering before heading home.

Loads of photos here.

Categories
Travel Work

August recap & we’re going to Hawaii

Yup, another month, and despite all my hopes to write more frequently, I keep using Twitter to spout my nonsense, rather than writing to my blog.

To keep it quick:

  • Early August Kelly and I joined our friends in Eagle Crest (photos)
  • Worked a ton (late nights and weekends)
  • The weather has gone from stupid hot to cold to hot again
  • Had the mother-in-law in town from Arizona
  • Continued yardwork action, trying to keep the place in order
  • Planned a trip to Hawaii

The last bullet is the important one. Kelly and I are going to Hawaii at the end of the month, and I’m really excited about it. We’re renting an oceanfront house south of Kona on the big island for 6 nights. Since 2001, all our travels have been to Europe, which I love, but that means a lot of cathedrals, museums, pubs, and big cities. I’m looking forward to spending a few days swimming in the ocean, and doing (hopefully) not too much in a tropical environment.

The house we’re renting has WiFi, so I expect to be blogging and posting photos while there. Doubt I’ll write too much more between now and then since we have have more family visiting next weekend, and I have even more work to do. So for the 2 of you who follow my blog (I assume it’s down to two, since my posts have been so infrequent), expect more at the end of the month.

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.