Settling into PDX Life

(Bike shuttle for a little kayak adventure with Julie.)

(Julie geared up and ready to tackle the rapids.  I might have decided for us to put on a bit too high a water level:)  The rapids decided to tackle her!  Everyone was fine though, as this stretch of water has very few hazards.)

It has been crazy hectic since we've been back in PDX.  Between working at Next, having tons of product clinics at Next, working at Skagen, and trying to settle into the apartment things have been busy!!!  We have managed to have some little adventures along the way:  checking out ice caves in WA, kayaking the Farmlands section of the White Salmon, biking the historic Rt. 30 between Hood River & Mosier, having drinks with our new neighbors, checking out the monthly Alberta Street art festival, trail running Hamilton mountain, watching the new X-Men movie, playboating the Clackamas river, checking out the Pearl District monthly art festival, and trying to just relax in our new home.

Julie is now registered to attend the University of Portland, starting in June, to get a masters of arts teaching.  She is excited about school and the future, but has some big tests to make it through even before school starts.  She is studying hard everyday, and impresses me everyday with her dedication to learning the material.  She has also been out rock climbing at the local gym a few times as well as explored the local "cute" shops:)  PDX is know for their dragon boating on the Willamette river that flows through town.  Julie has joined one of the really competitive teams that train all year for international competitions.  Her first race is this coming weekend.

Julie and I are also trying to take getting in shape seriously.  I have decided to run 50 and 100 mile races this year and Julie has decided to run the Portland Marathon in October.  We are both going to start by running the Foot Traffic Flat 1/2, for Julie, and Marathon, for me, on July 4th here in Portland.  We are currently training hard for these events.  My 50 is July 25th and 100 Sept. 26th and both are on the Pacific Crest Trail.  We both have our work cut out for us!

(Julie and I both put in a strong effort to "run" the really steep trail to the top of this mountain on an amazingly beautiful day in the Gorge.)

(The view from the summit of Hamilton Mt. was amazing.  This shot is taken looking east towards Bonneville Dam.)

(Our apt. is still a work in progress, but it is slowly coming along.   This is the front door and living room area.)

(This shot is from the dining room looking towards the front of the house.  I have a little office corner and our living room has a sweet TV, thanks to my parents, that we watch Hulu and DVDs on from my laptop.)

(The dining room/art studio from the living room.)

(Our apt. was built in 1929, so the architecture is a bit crazy.  Julie found a home for her ships wheel and puppets in one of the nooks.)

(Our bedroom.  There isn't much closet space in this old apt., and Julie has a lot of clothes!)

(Our kitchen as seen from the back door.  Out of frame on the right is the sink and a wall of cabinets.)

(PS:  If anyone has an idea as to why these photos don't show up correctly in the blog please let me know, I've tried everything that I could think of.)

Coast to Coast in a Big Yellow Truck!

(It was kinda fun driving the big 26ft Diesel Penske Truck.  Air ride and /or an air seat would have been nice though:)  With no CD player Julie and I enjoyed many hours of NPR on this trip.  We know all about the Somali pirates!)

The stars finally aligned and I have finally officially moved to Portland, OR!!!!!  I've been thinking/working on this for many years and am very happy to be out here.  It is a long way from family, but that just gives me a good excuse for some travel back east:)  Julie is on this adventure with me and we are starting a fresh life together on the west coast.  We have a great little apartment, with a garage, and will be showing off all its goodness in a later post.  This post is about the big move.  Julie was back in MD for a few weeks between helping me find a place out in Portland and me flying back to drive our stuff out west.  I had a fun and busy few days back east catching up with family and friends.  I really miss all the time I used to spend with the people that mean so much in my life.  We are trying hard to settle into our new place and find time to spend together, as I am working a ton after talking a bunch of time off to make this big move.  We started our drive late on Monday night and didn't get into Portland until Sunday, but we took our time and had some adventures along the way.  We enjoyed real and fake roadside animals, ate many a good dinner, checked out the famous Corn Palace, drove through Badlands National Park, "saw" Mt. Rushmore, drove through the Black Hills, won some money in Deadwood, hiked the "M", surfed an indoor wave in Idaho, and attended a kayaking movie premier in Hood River.  Our route was 70, 80, 90, 395, 82, and finally 84.  It was a long, but really fun, journey.

(Dad helping me fit the last few things in the truck.  Somehow we managed to pretty much fill a 26 ft. box truck!!!)

(Julie looking cute next to our huge truck at the gas station, a frequent stop even though we had a 55 gal. fuel tank!)

(I might be wanted in a few states for taking out this big cowboy, or Julie made me pose with this big old fallen 'hero'.)

(Julie was fascinated with roadside fake animals, and real ones to boot.  She also might have been going a little stir crazy from being in the big truck with me for so many hours.)

(Buffalo Phil's was a fine dining experience found in the Wisconsin Dells.  How can you go wrong with margaritas and pizza!  Julie loved the huge decorations made of antlers.)

(Julie and the Jolly Green Giant in the middle of nowhere America.)

(I actually found this interesting, maybe I was going a bit nuts from the long hours in the truck as well.)

(The Corn Palace!  One of the many wondrous roadside attractions across this great country.)

(Julie and I enjoying the sunset in Badlands National Park, South Dakota.)

(Julie really enjoying the Badlands.)

(Julie making me be silly in the Badlands.  I might have enjoyed it a bunch.)

(Julie in Saloon 10 in Deadwood, SD where Wild Bill Hickcock was killed.  This was actually a really cool little bar and casino.  They are known for their little poker room, complete with wooden floors with sawdust.)

(I love Ferraris.  This is the official Magnum P.I. car.)

(This is the great view of Mt. Rushmore!!!  We drove late into the night and rolled into a little town in the Black Hills to get a hotel, but found the town completely vacant and dark.  The storm that we drove through knocked the power out.  We managed to find a hotel that let us have a room, in the dark.  Parking the huge truck in the pitch dark and rain in this little town was not fun!  We got up early and drove up to the National Park to find the entire mountain completely fogged in.)

(We hiked up the switchback trails up this mountain to the "M" in Missoula, MT.)

(The view from the top of the hill.  We both really liked this little town.  You could see the ski resort from town and their was a whitewater play feature dead downtown.)

(Julie enjoying some time out of the truck and in the sun in Missoula.)

(I love the Flowrider!  This amazing artificial and indoor wave was in the little ski town of Silver Mountain in Idaho.  You apparently need to be a guest of the resort to use the waterpark, but the really nice lady at the check in gave Julie and I passes to use for the last two hours they were open, for FREE!  We had a blast!!!)

(Julie rockin' the boogie board on the Flowrider.)

(Julie crashing hard, as is common on this wave.  I had some pretty spectacular crashes as well.)

(Julie at the end of the Oregon Trail, or her live version of the video game we all played as kids.  No fording rivers or getting typhoid fever on this trip west.)

(The initial move into our dining and living rooms.)

(Julie unpacking her plethora of clothes in our bedroom.  Most of my clothes are still in suitcases, as I have nowhere else to put them!!!)

My Next Adventure

Life is crazy sometimes.  Rite now I'm in the middle of working 12+ hr days; working some big events at Next Adventure, merchandising for Skagen, and moving into a new apartment.

Julie was in town last week for a few days looking at apartment with me.  We ended up with a 750 sq. ft. apt. in a four-plex built in 1929 very close in to the city.  The exterior is all new and looks nice, but the interior is showing its age.  The hardwood floors are nice and the layout isn't bad.  I'll let Julie complain about the kitchen later:)  There is a large storage unit in the basement and we have a garage!!!  I'm very excited to have a place to put all my toys, otherwise we would have to live with 7+ kayaks in our living room:)

So obviously the big move is the big news.  Julie is still working on her plans in Portland, but she knows she has some time to find something that she will enjoy and my full support to do so.  I'm taking the red eye on the 8th back to Baltimore in order to spend a few days with the family and friends before driving cross country with our things on the 13th.  Big adventures lie ahead.  Please stay in touch.

Big Travel Weekends

(My empty car basking in the sun along the North shoreline of Lake Tahoe.)

(The shaka even works with gloves on!)

The past two weekends have been nuts.  I've been putting in lots of hours at Next Adventure during the week and "working" hard on the weekends as well.  I drove overnight on Thur. the 5th after work to get down to Alpine Meadows for a half day of snowboarding in the deep powder.  They got something like 74 inches of snow over that week!  On Saturday I met up with Stephen Wright and a big crew of boaters from Reno to paddle the S. Fork of the Yuba, 49 to Bridgeport section.  It turned out to be an amazing 57 degree sunny day in Cali.  It was a great group, over 11 guys, and about 7.5 miles of quality class 4-5 whitewater.  After paddling I attended to the purpose of my big Cali drive and picked up 11 Fluid kayaks from a shop that had not paid for the boats in almost 2yrs.  It was a long trip home with the car loaded down!

(Ready to drop into some steep stuff on the fringes of the resorts boundaries.)

(Who knew that a Volvo wagon could hold 11 WW kayaks!  The cars computer did not like all that extra weight and air resistance.  I had the car set on cruise control at 55 all the way home, some 500+ miles!!!)

This past weekend I went on a work trip to Canoecopia in Madison, WI.  It is a "tradesumer" show that sets a good barometer for the year ahead in the paddlesports industry.  It was good to get to know my coworkers outside of the shop and Madison had some great food and beer!

Julie turned the big 29 on Monday the 9th.  She got to spent that weekend in Colorado skiing with some of her old HI friends.  The snow was good, but she ended up fighting a cold for the whole trip.  She is wrapping up work and HI fun and scheduled to be in PDX for a few days next week, and then a few weeks back in MD.  I also just bought my ticket to get back to MD on the 10th so that we can drive our stuff out to Oregon starting Monday April 13th.  I'm looking forward to time with Julie and the opportunity to build a life together in Oregon.  I'm also looking forward to catching up with Family and friends for a few days in MD around Easter.  

Gotta run, still working hard to find a place for Julie and I to live, as I need to move out of my current place by April 1st.

-A big thanks to Erin Higgins for the great snow photos.-

More Next

I've been settling into work for the past few weeks and trying to shake this lingering cold.  I haven't run at all and haven't been out kayaking.  I did get two days in the snow, and this last Wednesday I got to ride my powder board in over 34" of fresh snow.  It was wet and heavy, but it was still fresh snow:)  I've done a little side work for Skagen and will not be working for Google any more.  I'm working hard to figure out the logistics for Julie and my move to Portland.  The priority right now is finding us a place to live out here, as I have to be out of my apartment by the end of the month.  I've got a full schedule of weekend work events and work until Easter time when I head back east to catch up with family, pack my things, and drive Julie and I back out to Portland.  Please stay well and stay in touch.  Peace.....

The "Next Adventure"

Sorry about no pics and the late posting.  I've been feeling sick for over a week now and I managed to mess up my lower back, probably a pinched nerve, last weekend while kayaking.  Besides my body falling apart a lot has happened over the past two weeks.  I haven't been running much, because of the health issues, but I did mange to get out snowboarding twice and kayaking once.  I'm really enjoying playing in the snow again!  I also managed to secure a job at Next Adventure, the alternative sports store here in Portland, and started work yesterday.  The shop has products for almost all the outdoor sports that I enjoy and they are known for their crazy closeout deals.  I'm working in the paddlesports department and trying to apply my knowledge of the industry to the retail level.  Everyone at the shop are friendly and really passionate about enjoying the outdoors.  I'm trying to adapt to working a regular scheduled job again at the retail level.  This is a big change from my crazy adventures over the past 7 months or so.  The other big news is that plans are now in place for Julie and I to be living together in April.  Julie is planning to go to grad school in Portland to become a high school english teacher.  We are both working on plans to be back in MD around Easter and move our belongings out to Oregon.  I'm looking forward to a more structured life and one in which Julie is a major part of everyday life.  Many things are still in the planning stages, but the next few months will see lots of changes that are all meant to provide Julie and I a quality life together.  Stay tuned:)  Peace.....

Oregon Life Returns

(Big chaotic waves rolling into Indian Beach the day Joe and I went for a surf kayak.)

There is not too much new to report.  I've settled back into life in Oregon with the normal job search, running, and online Google work.  The only big news is that I finally got back on the ski slopes for a night of snowboarding, after almost 2yrs of not playing in the snow!  Joe and I met up for some night skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows last Sunday.  The conditions were fair at best, but I had a blast in the 12 degree and flurries.  I've been out surf kayaking twice.  Once with Joe on a big day that had us both completely worn out in under 2 hrs.  The second time was with Mike and it was a beautiful day out on the water, but the waves were quite poor.  Mike did manage to have THE one HUGE (like 9+ ft. face) wave of the day land directly on his head.  I've also been out running a bunch and keeping track of the data with my new Garmin 305.  I got out trail running this past Sunday morning with a local trail running group, Trail Factor, and put in 14+ miles on the trails in Forest Park.  I will be joining this group for some more runs in the future for sure.  Sunday afternoon I attended a Super Bowl party at Mike's house and had a great time.  The game and commercials were both entertaining this year and the food was good, especially the fried turkey!  I also managed to win the betting pool for the evening, netting a whopping $14:)  Sunday was a good full day.

I'm hoping to get a job locally in the next few weeks, hopefully in the outdoor industry, and start searching for an apartment for Julie and I to move into in the next few months.  Julie sent in her grad school application today to Portland University and is looking into becoming an English teacher for grades 6-12.  Things are very much up in the air at the moment, but if Julie and I can get jobs in PDX and she can get into grad school here things will fall into place.  I do realize that there are a lot of conditions there, but I'm trying to be optimistic:)