One week in Boston!

Been out in Boston with the family for the last week, kicking it in good weather and enjoying some good times.  Went to a Red Sox game, grilled outdoors, put up the slackline and got the family walking the line, played wiffle ball and all in all, have been enjoying myself.  It's been a nice little breather between the crazy work schedule (averaged 50 hours the last year) and the big trip (averaging 24/7 fun in the world).  I'm pretty much all sorted for the trip, ready to go!  Here are a few pics from the last week:

Fenway Park win by the major league leading Red Sox

My dad loving it!

Diana and Bryan, two the of the best people in Boston.

Out and about in Arnold Arboretum with the family

7:36pm and I'm flying to Iceland tomorrow at 9:30pm.  Can it get any better?

Last days in Portland

 Me and Eric rocking our Blazers gear at the game from a little while ago

 Timbers game from April 14th where the crowd went crazy, we won and good times were had by all

Portland with the sun out finally.  That's the Hawthorne Bridge which I ride my bike across every day.  My building is directly to the right of it.  Makes for a cruisy 20 minute ride to work.

Washington Coast

So the weekend after spending over a week with the family in Mexico playing with Gray Whales, I headed off to the Washington Coast, to the the Long Beach Peninsula with a group of college friends.  Quite nice to get out and about in the NW and enjoy what it has to offer.

We stayed at a fun boutique hotel in Long Beach, which is a very small town.  Seems like we saw everything it had to offer, ate at all the restaurants, got to know some locals and even checked out some of the smaller towns nearby.  lots of oysters around, and we picked some up for appetizers.  We also grabbed some clams to toss into the batch of Paella we would whip up on the beach.

The Oregon/Washington coasts are long, flat beaches with cars driving on them, people wearing pants and fleeces pretty much year-round.  A far cry from the beaches in LA,but still a grand old time.

The Paella was one of the highlights, as well as biking around on beach cruisers, both on the beach, and on the path through the dunes.  We saw a Gray Whale skeleton, which made me feel right at home.

Enjoy the pictures!!  It's my last 6 weeks in Portland before taking off to travel the world again, a sort of bittersweet ending to my time in Portland.  Can't wait to go travel, and yet Portland's been a great city to live in, with great people, food and activities.

Happy Holidays!

Life is good out in Portland.  Just got back from a holiday get-together at an apartment building where 3 good friends from college live.  Third night in a row of wearing my Christmas sweater, enjoying the sweets that come in a cold holiday season and being festive.  We sang carols with a guitar and accordion and rocked the building.  Great times as always.  Pretty soon I'm headed out to Boston for a week with the family to enjoy Christmas and relax.  Looking forward to it.

Here's a few pictures from Peacock Lane in Portland:

Pumpking!

It's fall,  and that means pumpkin time out here in the NW!  Washington grows a ton of apples, and we have some here, but none super close by, so everyone heads out to Sauvie Island to pick their pumpkins, get lost in the corn maze, get muddy and drink some tasty apple cider.  Tis the season indeed!

Spend this afternoon with good friends, Shannon, Shannon and Eric living it up in the NW.  Pretty decent weather for a day when it was supposed to have thunderstorms.  Here are some pictures of the day's happenings.

Bout to enter the Maize!

That's right, I'm running the show with the pitchfork

Not a raindrop in site!

Little pumpkin motivation for me

Ain't it just a Corn-undrum?

Let's just say, we weren't the only ones with the pumpkin idea

My pumpkin awaiting my arrival

Mite orange out there

Eric and I capturing two 24 pound pumpkins

The crew with their pumpkins.  All crouching because I cut off our heads in the first picture

Chutney

Now that's a tasty tomato chutney!  Just like what I had back in NZ

1,2,3 large mason jars full!  Come over and feast with us!

Seattle wedding time

Last weekend I went up to Seattle for the wedding of my good friend and old Salzburg roommate, Price.  It was the perfect fall weekend up in Seattle weatherwise, super sunny in the day, high 70s and blue skies.  Although I'm a big Portland fan, and definitely choose that city over the northwestern city above us, Seattle definitely looked good.  People out and about enjoying themselves, sailing in the lakes, eating out and being happy. 

 Wedding party looking sharp

 Loads of sailboats out on Lake Union

 Pretty badass landmark which is easy to spot

Here are a few pictures.  The wedding was right on Lake Union, so that's where the photos are from, and of course, that's where the life preserver came from.  Don't just find those things lying around everywhere you know.  Got to give a little contrast to the suit.

Unfortunately at the wedding reception, I ate some salmon that would end up causing me a world of havoc and rip my stomach apart.  Yup, food poisoning.  Tasted great, and yet a few hours later, whoo-weee, had a rough couple of days.  But now back to being on top of the world and rocking it.  If the expression "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" is true, I'm continuing to build an iron stomach that will be fortified against future food issues.  So I say... bring on India!