Outdoors in Oregon

Here are some pictures from the last few days nearby Portland. The first three are from the Columbia Gorge on a hike with two of my flatmates, Kyle and Drew. The other two are from the Coast on a trip with my friend Shannon. We actually had some good weather lately, so it's been fun to be out in nature enjoying it.

Timbers!!

In case you hadn't heard, Portland has the best soccer fans in the US. We support our boys, the Portland Timbers, and sell out every single game weeks in advance. It is a crazy, enthusiastic group of people there every game, cheering, jeering and loving the game.

I got to attend this years opening match on March 12th. It was pouring rain the whole time,and yet it didn't dampen the mood. Everyone in this city was so happy to have the team in action again. Over the offseason, they built 2,000 more seats to get more people into games, which are very hard to get tickets to.

Here's a clip of us in the Timbers Army singing the National Anthem before the game. Quite a sensational time singing it, just before we whooped Philadelphia 3-1. A great game, which wore out my throat, will last in my memory forever!

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2012/03/watch-timbers-army-sings-national-anthem-first-kick-march-12-2012

Snowshoeing!!

This past Sunday, I went with a couple friends up to the high ground nearby Mt Hood to go snowshoeing around a lake. It was a lovely 43 degrees to keep the body warm and even break a sweat. The snow was packed down pretty good, but looked to be at least 4 feet deep (as you can see from the picture of the pedestrian crossing sign. On the sides it was higher and I could get in some good tromping and fully use the snowshoes as they were made. Pretty sweet stuff, and pretty sweaty stuff. Not easy dragging extra things on your feet. The legs were a bit tired on the way back and the right foot got a nice ol' blister as a souvenir. A jolly time out, enjoying nature and winter, before back in to work.

I'm currently working my tail off with my two jobs. Still cooking part time (at least once during the week and both weekend nights) as well as working for Toyota in their parts distribution center, so needless to say, the days are busy as is. But the credit card debt will paid off on the next statement, which makes things that much brighter. Still rocking and rolling as always, and keeping Portland better off. That's what I do.

New Years on the Oregon Coast

So for this past New Years I headed out to the Oregon Coast with a group of friends to stay at a cabin, go crabbing, and ring in the new year. Quite relaxing out there, and surprisingly good weather. Kinda nice to come around the bend, watch the clouds disappear and see the ocean. We had a large house on top of the dunes, hot tub and large kitchen. Plus a Nintendo 64 with an NBA game from 1999 which was awesome,despite Kobe not in the starting lineup.

We cooked food for every meal, feasting with 8 of us out there. On the Saturday, we rented 2 boats and went crabbing. Pretty much you leave your traps in the water for 15-20 minutes and then come back to pull up quickly and see if you caught anything. Frozen chicken was the bait and apparently, wasn't so tasty. We didn't strike it rich and the crab dinner became crab appetizers. But it's been a bad season and there just wasn't much down there. Still, it was a blast to get out there on the water and cruise around the sandbanks, past seals and other crab boats.

Graham and Marcus checking out the trap with a crab in it

Graham and Marcus lovin the boat
Pulling up one of the 3 traps
The best way to get back into the boat after stopping on a sandbar to check out seals

Free ride!

Heap of seals





Man on the moon


Rocking the Oregon Coast

What the Oregon Coast is all about

Powell Butte hike pictures

Pictures from a sunny day in wintery Portland. Mt Hood rocking the background as always.

Cabo Pictures!!!!!

Surfin it up with the boys
Beach # 2 with Pat, Jeff and Tim
The groom being carried in to his bride
Me with buddies Scott and Tim
Lunch of smoked marlin burrito in Todos Santos
Will you marry me?
Our villa
Rockstar on top of the world
Perfected jump the first time
Scott performing the service as Bryan and Diana mix their sand glasses together

Mexico for a Wedding

So I just got back last night from 6 days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for an amazing wedding. Two of my good friends from college, Bryan and Diana had the best destination wedding out there and along with 12 other friends, we rented a huge $1,000/night villa across from the wedding villa to celebrate. 6 days of weather in the 90s, in a huge villa overlooking the ocean with an amazing pool spoiled us. Cooking up breakfast burritos for 13-16 people each morning, grilling pounds of chicken at a time and living like royalty. We had rental cars delivered to our villa and made road trips to go surfing, explore artisan markets or simply be a tourist downtown. It was amazing, as life can be when you live like the 1%.

Cabo is pretty tourist and dry, not exactly my cup of tea. But when you're out there with some of the best people in the world, it can be a blast. We stayed up in the villa for most of the time as it was amazing, and we were all together. Couldn't have asked for a better group of people. The rehearsal dinner was a boat cruise at sunset around the cape, by the natural arches on an island and out to the coast right in front of the wedding villa. Very snazzy.

More pics to come soon

OUR VILLA

Nicaraguan Farm Pictures

Here are some pictures from my week working on the farm in northern Nicaragua in early August of this year:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.602696933644.2085889.29301533&l=aad3246978&type=1



By the way, I'm moving into a new house in Portland today. Great location, nearby the restaurant I cook at, near lots of friends and with lots of cafes/bars nearby. Got a huge porch, 3 cool housemates, a legit booth in the kitchen to eat breakfast at and a corner room with 2 windows, so things are looking golden!

Los Angeles after 3 weeks

So I've been bouncing around the Los Angeles area for over 3 weeks now. The time just flies by as always, and it's been a blast catching up with old friends and reconnecting with old high school mates. I've been all over the region, from Malibu out to Norwalk to Huntington Beach. Been fun testing out the efficient public transportation system, which just takes a long time.

Being back in LA, I had to go to a Dodgers game. Went with my dad to watch them score 8 runs in the 2nd inning, including a home run as they whooped up on the Padres. Not sure if it's me being in town, but the Dodgers have now won almost all of their games since I've been here and have jumped up the rankings. That's how it's done, and I"m looking forward to the next season where they can carry on with the winning.

I'm flying back to Portland this afternoon, to rock the Northwest again. Time to get back to making some money instead of spending spending spending. But after over 2 months of travel, from Central America to Los Angeles, I've still got money and am still living the good life. Thanks to everyone who has hosted me over this trip, and allowed me to keep on traveling and having fun everywhere!

Farming pictures

Hope you enjoy some pictures from my stint on a Nicaraguan farm. I spent a good two days picking the bean plants, sweating in the fields. The lower back was killing me after being bending over to pull the plants out. After a couple days of drying in the sun, we laid the bean plants out on a huge plastic tarp, and gave them a good beating with sticks, which shook the beans out of their dried out pods. Gravity sent them to the bottom of the tarp, so we were able to collect them fairly easily. We ended up with over 50 pounds of beans, ready to be cooked for dinner.

I worked with Ranae, an awesome farmer down there. Although she has no cows, she asked if I could milk a neighbors and low and behold, there I was, struggling to get milk out.

Pretty much every day we would go out and pick baby corn. Stalks sometimes grow two ears of corn. Normally one is the runt and one is the big ear. By picking through and taking out the small ears, the stalk can focus on growing just the one big ear of corn. So we help the stalk grow better ears of corn, and get some tasty baby corn to eat, raw or cooked.

Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

Farm to island

Finished up working on the Nicaraguan farm on Tuesday morning and spent the next 26 hours traveling via 3 buses and 2 boats out to the amazing island paradise of the Corn Islands. Pretty rough travel at times, but made it through with a few new friends and am set to live the good life on a beautiful pair of islands.

Colourful Leon doorway
Leon church complete with VW transportation
Leon Cathedral
Granada city scene
Granada cathedral just down the street from the hostel

Here{s a video of the double volcano island of Ometepe, Nicaragua. Loved the time relaxing out on the island, hiking and kicking it.

Im in Leon now, the 2nd of 2 colonial cities before I head to the coffee farm. Leon is better than Granada in my opinion, easier to walk and dosent feel so cramped. Again, churches, colourful buildings and not much more. I{m looking forward to getting away from the cities and into the wild again.

Today is day one of travel to the coffee farm where Ill work for a week. The place Im going is pretty remote and the bus schedules dont match up for one day of travel sadly unless I left this morning at 5:20am. So Ill be stopping off in the mural crazy town of Esteli for a night and to relax. Check out the murals: http://www.linesofflight.net/isittravel/2005/01/estel-nicaragua-street-murals-and.html

Then farming time! Dont know much about what Ill be doing, but thats half the fun of it. Just going to show up and rock the farm for the next week or so.