Iceland Photos!

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Hiking to the hot springs, and then soaking it up!

Icelandic Horses on video

Hot Springs River:Allen day 2

Allen, myself and 6 other couch surfers piled into two small cars and headed south of the city to Hverageroi which is pronounced, "kerigeri".  Yeah, Icelandic is a different language.  No clue what is going on half the time, with new letters and old letters that don't sound the same.

Here are some pics from the 1.5 hour hike in.  Temperatures around 3 degrees Celsius, with some snow flurries here and there, plus some mud bubbling geysers along the way.

We hiked right up the middle here to the hot springs in the river

Allen and the geysers sign at the start

This is Iceland!

I'm a huge fan of panoramas, and this country needs them to be taken

Iceland!

Hot river full of our crew

Hanging out with snow flurries in water over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Loving Iceland!

Iceland day 1

After arriving at 6:30am, it was the easiest customs/immigration ever, a sign that this was to be one of the friendliest countries I've been in.  Getting into town was easy, with just one bus taking all the passengers in.  Free wifi on the bus, very bland landscape outside with mountains in the distance.

We arrived at the bus stop and then walked a half hour to our couch surfing hosts place to get settled in.  Our host, Katrin, told us that today was "window weather", which meant that sitting by the window and looking out at the blue skies and not venturing out into the 33 degree weather.  Pretty cold out there, with some small snow flurries here and there.  But for cruising around town and exploring, it was perfect.

We met a bunch of friendly locals throughout the day, learning about the culture, and checking out the main sights.  Great day with lots of walking, zig zagging all over learning the city.  Blue skies meant I went to the top of the tower of the church for the best view in town, from the mountains in the distance, to the city itself to the ocean. Amazing!

We hung out with a group of other couch surfers for several hours in the evening (not night time because the sun is always out).  Walking back at 9:30pm, we  could still see the sun, which sets around 10:30 and is still light out afterwards.  And the sun comes back up around 2-3am. So constant light the whole day, making it a bright, happy place.

More adventures to come! Pictures not working now, but soon!

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