PortlandBella

Hawaii

2009-07-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Optical illusion at Kehena Beach in Pahoa, Big Island

The Olson brothers, Marco and Raj, bushwacking in the Hawaiian jungle

Harvesting wild banana bunches

Obligatory Zissou shot of our own private swimming spot- hard to tell in the photo, but it was a perfectly rounded pool.

Akaka Falls near the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island

I swear this mossy bump on a tree looked like a little badger! Akaka Falls State Park

Stormy afternoon at Laupahoehoe Point on the Hamakua Coast, Big Island

Kilauea Caldera, active volcano, Big Island

Lava rock on Mauna Loa, Big Island

Wind on Mauna Loa

Marco taking in the view on the hike up Mauna Loa

Beautiful Koa trees near the top of Mauna Loa

More Koa

Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor near Waikiki in Honolulu, Oahu

Ala Wai

Sailing with Bob on his boat, the Nepenthe, around Honolulu, Oahu

You can see how tipped we are by looking at the water line!

Honolulu with Diamond Head to the east

The flower behind the ear was Marco's doing, but when in Rome...

Overlooking the Kaneohe/Kailua area on the east side of Oahu

Sunset near Princeville, Kauai

Hiking the Na Pali coast on the way to Hanakapiai Beach, Kauai

Hanakapiai Falls, Kauai- another couple mile hike past Hanakapiai beach

Kayaking in Hanalei Bay, Kauai

Marco pulling us through shallow water in the Hanalei River, Kauai

Waimea Canyon on the west side of Kauai

More Waimea Canyon

And more Waimea Canyon

South of Lihue, Kauai

Last stop on the way to the airport: looking south from Mauna Kea on the Big Island, approx 9,000' in elevation

LA, visitors, and Hood River County

2008-10-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I've added anything here, so this post is essentially 3 smaller ones combined. The first set of photos are from my 2 day jaunt down to L.A. for my Uncle's wedding celebrations. The second set is from my two sisters' and dad's visit here in September, and the last from a day trip to an Apple Festival in Hood River's Fruit Loop. I've been meaning to take my camera out for a day around the city, so hopefully I'll do that soon. Also don't forget you can always click on photos to view a larger version of the image.

L.A. rooftop scene

Old L.A. fashion district

----Detroit Dam on the way to Bend, Oregon----

Nadine, Sammie, and Rudi (sister, dog, and dad) observing the Detroit Dam

Silly/happy Judy

----Hood River County Apple Festival, Pumpkin picking, Corn Maze, etc----

Friends laughing

King Corn

Kansas City and Lawrence

2008-05-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

These are from my visit between May 18 and 25th, 2008.

Da Bronx and Genghis Khan at 39th and State Lane, just after filling up on some dumplings with Eva at Blue Koi.

Along I-70, on the way to Lawrence.

My favorite nursery of all time, Sunrise Garden Center. I bought many a plant here when I lived in Lawrence.

Not a great angle, but I couldn't pass it up.

Free State Brewery, home of all things delicious.

East end of the University of Kansas campus. This fountain was put in after I moved away, so this was my first time seeing it!

Tiny little coffee shop, The Hi Hat, near Nadine's house in KCK.

Downtown KCMO.

Downtown library parking!

Looking south toward the Crossroads District from the edge of downtown proper.

Crossroads District, YJ's Diner.

KC River Market! Delicious, and puts Portland's produce prices to shame.

Looking south towards downtown from the River Market. Who wants to buy me a loft there?!

Children International

2008-02-05T17:54:00.001-08:00

For a while now, I've been considering adopting a child through one of the myriad international child sponsorship agencies, but hadn't yet done enough research to find a non-religious group. Last week, while running an errand for work, I was stopped by one of the infamous solicitors in the Park Blocks of downtown Portland. Usually you get saving whales, political agendas, gay rights, etc, but this time around it was something I felt I could actually make a difference doing and had contemplated before. The guy was working for Children International, an agency out of Kansas City (always fun to find things are run out of your home town) that was not religiously affiliated.

The other thing that stuck out to me about this group was that they actually encourage you to pick a country you would want to visit, because unlike most other agencies, they WANT you to visit your sponsored child. So I thought that was pretty cool. Apparently one of the least picked countries is the Philippines, so that's what I went for. Yesterday I got a letter in the mail with information about Ryan Christian Herrera, a seven year old living in Quezon City, which is on the outskirts of Manila. Keep in mind that the Philippines was ruled by the Spaniards for quite some time, so names and religious practices are not what you would expect of a Southeast-Asian country. Some of the other information includes that his mother, Angelita and father, Richard, are both 32. She is a homemaker and he is a daily worker. Ryan has an older sister Rosalie (11) and brother Paul John (13) with which he shares a two room house. Their home is made of concrete block walls, corrugated metal for roofing, a concrete floor, and no beds (although they do have mats). They also have a kerosine stove, running water in the home, and a toilet. Listed under Ryan's "chores at home" is running errands and "talents or hobbies" is singing. Anyway, I'm pretty excited to get some more information and start writing some letters! If you're interested in sponsoring, check out their website at children.org.

Mirror Lake to Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain

2007-09-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sammie and I went out to the Mirror Lake trail and continued on to Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain. The trailhead is just south of the entrance to SkiBowl resort in the Mt Hood Recreational area.

Can't resist a swim, even in 45 degree weather.

View to the north from the trail halfway between Mirror Lake and the peak.

Mt. Hood peaking out through the morning clouds.

What I like to call "the throne"...thanks to the clever person that found these rocks, it's the perfect spot on the peak to sit down, lean back, enjoy the views, and (as was the case yesterday) drink a little bit of wine.

Sammie enjoying the peak of Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain with Mt Hood in the background.

The trail just off the peak is a beautiful pine forest vastly different from the thick rainforest below.

Morning dew!

It was still quite foggy even on our descent later in the day.

Björk and Banff

2007-06-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of brooklynvegan.com

Two weeks ago we drove up to the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. It was quite a beautiful setting with some great shows, but a rather poorly executed music festival. Nonetheless, for $50 I saw an amazing show by one of my favorite artists, Björk, an almost equally incredible show (considering their youth in the music industry) by one of my new favorite bands, The Arcade Fire, and an excellent show by the legendary Manu Chao. I also saw half a set of an exclusive instrumental set by the Beastie Boys, which I certainly prefer to the rest of their music. You can find more videos of Björk on my YouTube account, although the video quality is not that great and my camera doesn't pick up much bass, so some songs sound weak. For those of you that are familiar with Björk's new album Volta, she played Earth Intruders, Dull Flame of Desire, I See Who You Are, Innocence, Wanderlust, and Declare Independence. Unfortunately, she didn't have Antony Hegarty with her to sing vocals on Dull Flame of Desire, but it was still an amazing, tear-jerking song. The setlist of the show can be found here.
You can also listen to one of her NYC shows in its entirety here.
[[If this message is still here, I haven't yet been able to upload the videos, but you're in luck...plenty of other people have done so here]]

Photo courtesy of brooklynvegan.com. This shot shows only the lower, flat portion of the main stage venue. The hill above had probably 3 to 4 times as many people.

View of the main stage during the day. I believe Neko Case was playing at this moment in time.

A view of the campground on the way out- I took this photo because of the hill in the back that's covered with wind turbines (click on the photo to enlarge it).

The town of Banff, under construction.

We came across wildlife more frequently in Banff than we have in any other National Park.

This picture is deceiving- although it may appear that these guys are nibbling on grass, they were in fact nibbling on the rocks. I'm not quite sure what it was they were eating or trying to get to. Anybody know?

A considerable amount of the hike along Johnston Canyon is on a catwalk suspended above the canyon and along the wall.

One of the several major waterfalls in Johnston Canyon.

Castle Mountain.

Lake Minnewanka.

Two Jack Lake.

My trip to Deutschland

2007-03-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Although my grandma's bakery is no longer around, some distant relatives of ours have continued the tradition in the same little town, Mülheim-Kärlich.

A typical street in town.

View of the church ceiling in Mülheim. Note that this is an average church.

Walking around town. Shortly before this, we'd walked through what is endearingly termed as the "shit path"...apparently dog walkers frequent it.

The original Anheier bakery. My dad and family lived in the upper portion of the house- I believe he said his room was the top right window.

Festung Ehrenbreitstein- one of the many many forts in the area.

Ehrenbreitstein door.

View of the Deutsches Eck (where the Mosel and Rhein meet) from Ehrenbreitstein.

In downtown Koblenz.

Closeup of the Kaiser Wilhelm statue at the Deutsches Eck...it's huge. For scale, look at the people in the bottom of the photo.

My grandma, me, and dad at the Deutsches Eck.

A church near the Rhein in Koblenz.

View of my grandma's house from where we were staying. It's the one with the red balcony.

Another view from the house.

This is a photo of a photo hanging in my grandma's house of my dad's dad (the little kid), his dad, and two apprentice bakers in the old Anheier bakery.

Our only source of heat where we were staying were these ovens in the bedrooms...it smelled great, but they were tricky little machines.

A logical solution...this was somewhere west of Koblenz along the Mosel.

Burg Eltz!

Cool dragon rainspout, huh?

Burg Pyrmont!

Another view of Burg Pyrmont.

Sauer brunnen on the edge of Koblenz...lots of iron is in this natural spring water. It's certainly sour, and not far from tasting like you're drinking blood.

Diagram of the area west of Koblenz. It's a historically volcanic area and has now become a tourist attraction.

Old church on Karmelenberg. Hermits used to be "employed" by the church to take care of the building and grounds.

Inside view of the old church.

Driving along the Rhein east of Koblenz.

Exterior of the Königsbacher brewery.

Driving in the beautiful countryside.

Active monastery at the Maria Laach, an old crater lake.

Rhein country means endless hills of wine grapes!

The famous Loreley rock, named after the mermaid/siren Loreley. She was known for causing countless shipwrecks near the treacherous Loreley rock because her beauty and song distracted all the men. Her depiction and a poem (painted on the side of a restaurant overlooking the Loreley) is below.

Another view while driving along the Rhein. More or less, every turn you make, there is a new castle that comes into view.

In the historic and touristy town of Bacharach.

"Altes haus"- old house, in Bacharach. It is leaning in all sorts of crazy directions.

Part of Marksburg, the last castle we stopped at along the Rhein.

Tree

2007-03-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm heading off early in the morning to go visit my family in Germany, so expect to see several large posts when I get back late next week. For now, I'll leave you with my driveway tree...isn't it pretty? It also smells lovely and showers you with white petals when the wind blows hard enough.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Indian Beach at Ecola State Park

2007-03-08T20:32:00.000-08:00

I had a great time this weekend with Sammie at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park. It was beautiful weather and hardly anyone was there. I also went skiing at Mount Hood Meadows for the first time, but forgot my camera. Of course, there were some amazing views and clouds forming that I would have loved to snap a few pictures of...hopefully next time. Until then, enjoy these.

If you look closely enough, you can see the water squirting out from where his back left foot was. Here he's on his way to check out some seagulls.

BUT, he's way too slow to actually catch up...

Guess who made this while shaking off after swimming? I thought it was cool...

We did some rock "climbing", and in this case, 2 feet with boots was much more successful than four paws. I can't even tell you how many times his feet fell into little crevices, and there were even a few times that I had to show him which way to go.

Somebody's fun for the day. There were probably about 20 in a small area at the edge of the rocks. Reminds me of this awesome nature artist/photographer Andy Goldsworthy.

The house, now and then

2007-03-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember seeing pictures that Jason took back in July when the previous tenant was still living in this house. Since August, I've painted every room but the living room and think it is safe to say that it's been a vast improvement. Digging up these old pictures was interesting...thank god we don't have that much crap!

1. The kitchen- all walls are now white, except the back.

2. Living room- this is a different angle on the room, but you get the idea. Also, this is the only room I have not yet painted, as it was the most bearable of all the colors.

3. Our bedroom (still trying to find a nice king size platform bed...any suggestions?).

4. Guest bedroom slash computer room.

4. The bathroom- much better!

Sammie in the window

2007-02-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge

2007-02-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

Today Sammie and I walked through the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, a protected wetland area about half a mile from my house. You can look down onto the refuge from 13th street (I've posted pictures of this before), but this was my first time actually walking through the area. We heard lots of frog and heron calls, which the area is known for.

Some lower trees and bushes have started budding and blooming already. I've been told that spring starts at the end of February here...that would be nice.

Some of the waterlogged areas.

Pussywillows! I don't think I've seen them growing wild since moving away from the home I grew up in.

Looking out onto the basin.

Snow, skis, and Kansas skies

2007-02-12T18:14:00.000-08:00

Last month we had a crazy 3 inches of snow come unexpectedly one morning. And YES, 3 inches is crazy for Portland. The whole city virtually shut down for 2 days and people were sliding off the road everywhere. It was pretty comical...just watch this video from a local news station.

I bought myself a new set of skis recently. Aren't they lovely?

These were taken in my sister's backyard the second day I was back in KC. Beautiful!

Hug Point and Oswald West Beaches

2006-12-24T12:43:00.001-08:00

We took another trip to the beach yesterday. The tides were really high and unfortunately we couldn't walk around as much as we'd hoped, but we still had plenty of fun.

Jason is explaining the giant seagull that followed him around the parking lot at work.

Sammie trying to figure out how to climb the rock to join us, which he did with relative ease. On his way down, however, he jumped the last 4 or 5 feet...we were surprised he didn't injure his legs.

This picture was taken by Jason. My favorite part is the tips of the waves in the bottom center of the photo.

Also taken by Jason.

I have no idea what he's doing here, but it would seem that he's playing an invisible instrument.

As I always say, you can't go anywhere without some tree shots.

This was done on my camera, so excuse the poor quality and shakiness. The sound on this video is the most important part, however, it didn't turn out well and really doesn't do it justice. The waves were so high and strong yesterday (notice how foamy the water is) that when the water receded, there was a really cool crackling noise as it was being sucked out from in between the rocks. You can hear it best at 1:22 and 1:33.

Eagle Creek to High Bridge

2006-12-13T18:33:00.000-08:00

Today I went a bit farther down the Eagle Creek trail and made it to High Bridge and back, about 6.5 miles total- see the map below.

Jason, Sammie, and their toys

2006-12-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

Jason bought a snowboard last week, so we went up to Mount Hood yesterday to try it out. Being the first snowboarding experience for both of us, it actually went pretty well, but today has been rough because we're both so sore. I'm excited to get back on a board and make some more progress. We went to the night skiing at Ski Bowl, and it was awesome. It's supposedly the largest night skiing in the US.

Look at that grip!

Mount Hood and Timberline Lodge

2006-11-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

On Monday we drove out to Mount Hood to check out Timberline Lodge and the crazy amount of snow they've been getting there. The resorts only opened a couple weeks ago, and Mount Hood has already gotten double what it normally does. If you've seen The Shining, you'll recognize Timberline Lodge as the lodge in the movie. It's only the exterior though- apparently the inside was a set. Still cool to see though, espeically buried under so much snow.

In this shot you can see the tunnel that is used as the entrance for the winter. Normally it's just open steps leading to the front door, but because of the amount of snowfall, they have to use this tunnel in the winter. There's more info and summertime shots here. It was hard to take photos of the lodge because the snow was blowing into my eyes and i could hardly see anything for more than a second.

You can see some skiers and snowboarders off in the distance.

Inside the middle area of the lodge where there are dining and living room areas.

Most of the windows we passed on the first and even second floors were snowed in.

Lots of cool old beamwork. Timberline is made of mostly wood and stone and has lots of old detailing.

These last two are on the drive home, which was much clearer than on the way up. We couldn't see 30 feet ahead at some points, and weren't able to see any trees other than those immediately lining the road. The tree limbs were piled up with snow and some of the exposed tree trunks had a couple inches stuck to them.

Our neighborhood, Sellwood-Moreland

2006-11-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today was so warm and sunny that I decided to take Sammie out on a walk to take some photos of our neighborhood. We live in Sellwood, which is part of southeastern Portland and about 3 miles south of downtown. It originated as its own city and was actually a rival of Portland, only later to become annexed in 1893. The population is approximately 10,500 with half as many households. Westmoreland is another small neighborhood that is adjacent to ours, and often they're referred together as Sellwood-Moreland because today they're virtually the same. The pictures below are from both Sellwood and Westmoreland (there's also an Eastmoreland on the other side of McLoughlin Boulevard). If you're interested at looking at a map, I walked east from our house at 9th and Tacoma, went north on 13th, curved around onto Bybee, and then circled back home.

This shows the intersection of SE 13th and SE Tacoma, just down the block from us. There's a New Seasons grocery store, several coffee shops, Hollywood Video, and tons of restaurants and various shops within a few blocks of where this photo was taken.

Just around the corner on SE 13th.

SE 13th is also known as "Antique Row", because there's probably a dozen antique shops on this street alone. I'm not one for antiques, but I did check out a couple stores and they seemed incredibly overpriced. My guess is that it's something the store owners can get away with here because this area is known for antiques and people will come out here to spend money on it.

Grand Central Bakery is delicious (can you see the fresh bread in the window?!?!?!). REALLY delicious. There are a handful around Portland, and we're lucky to have one about 4 blocks from us.

Thai Lahnna is another block down from Grand Central, and is our favorite Thai in Portland to date. It's in a historic house and the owners and staff are very friendly.

Our local library, the Sellwood-Moreland library is another block up and is part of the Multnomah County Library system. There are also some really cool loft apartments above.

More antiques- I like this one the best because the hanging sign looks like something out of the Lemony Snicket movie.

A neighborhood tree (that Sammie pees on every time we pass, without fail).

View overlooking the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and downtown in the distance. This is at the curve where SE 13th turns into SE Bybee.

The fall is really long here, and the beautiful colors are just starting to fade.

Another bakery in the area. I have yet to try this one, but it looks delicious. This street is the start of the Westmoreland neighborhood.

Westmoreland's Milwaukie Avenue is the other main street in Sellwood-Moreland. In this photo you can see the Moreland Theatre, which is the last one-screen theatre still in business in Portland. It's actually cheaper (admission and food), the seats are extra cushy, the owners are nice, and it has a really cool old theatre ambience to it. The green part of the building a few doors down is a mish-mash Asian restaurant called Stickers, and their pot stickers are incredible. As a side note, for as small as our neighborhood is, there are tons of restaurants (Italian, Greek, Sushi, etc) that have been continually rated the best in Portland. Lest I forget Mexican- there are 4 that I know of, one of which is both incredible and cheap (we're talking $5, delicious, Chipotle sized burritos). All of this is within 15 minutes walking distance. Lucky for us!

Portland has been named the most dog-friendly cities in the US. Sammie knows all the water stops on the main streets by now, and I regularly take him into the movie store, bank, and post office here. People actually encourage it!

These last two photos are just me being a dork- I finally ordered an electric rice cooker, and it came in the mail today, so of course I had to try it. I'm already obsessed with it. It made delicious rice on the first try, and it was so incredibly easy. Well worth it.

I decided to make some Szechuan green beans and tofu to try out the new rice. Delicious!

Eagle Creek

2006-11-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we made it out to Eagle Creek and did a six mile hike, turning back once we hit Punchbowl Falls. It's supposedly one of the most traveled trails in Oregon (I wonder if the outdoor gear company, Eagle Creek, is named after this area), but since it was pouring, it was pretty quiet and we only passed a few people along the way. High levels of rain the last few days caused some seasonal waterfalls to come back to life, and regulars to double or even triple in size. I would guess that we saw upwards of 20 waterfalls, and while some were far off in the distance, others were along the trail, and you had to walk through or behind them to continue on. A man we ran into at the trailhead said he's been doing this hike for 25 years, and this was the heaviest water he'd seen yet. Very fun in the rain and definitely the best hike we've done since moving here.

Some of the waterfalls over the trail early in the hike.

Although it's hard to see them, the reddish-brown things in the water near the bank are salmon. This was at the trailhead, where they were pushing against the current and trying to get over the dam that's pictured below. I would say they were all probably close to two feet in length. Our first wild salmon spotting!

Jason crossing one of the streams that was overflowing. Notice the steeping stones, which are probably normally dry.

This is Punchbowl Falls. You can see three other waterfalls emptying into the bowl in the center and right of the photo. Needless to say, it was really loud. During the summer (dry season), this is what it looks like: http://www.reardonww.com/Tanner-Eagle05/59-Punchbowl%20Falls.JPG

This was labeled as Lower Punchbowl Falls, so my guess is that this is where the "bowl" empties out into.

The Beach again, twice

2006-10-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

I went to the beach a week and a half ago and again a couple days ago. Same beaches, just some new stuff. Also, I discovered my error in picture posting, and now when you click on the photos, they will actually enlarge to a size that allows you to see some more detail. I'm planning on doing some biking/walking around our neighborhood and the city soon, so hopefully I'll post some photos of that next week.

At Hug Point, there is this cute little waterfall spilling out onto the beach. If you climb up the rock, you see the stream that it's coming from, which is shown in the first photo. The stream was so cute- it reminded me of a mix between the place Hobbits live in the LOTR films and the higher altitudes of Cerro Chirripo near el Valle de los Conejos .

Looking back out at the beach from one of the caves.

A lot of jellyfish had washed up on shore, but none had their tentacles left when we found them. This was the biggest, at about 6 inches in diameter. You could see the blue organs inside of it when looking closely.

This photo was taken after bushwacking (well, more like walking and squating on a trail that hadn't been used in a long time so much so that the bushes had grown together at head height) up the side of one of the hills to get to the crest. Because the waves were so strong and the water so high that day, we couldn't go the usual route of walking on the sand around to the next little bay.

On the hike down to the beach at Oswald West State Park, there were some beautiful sun rays shining through the trees.

This is the largest Sitka Spruce in the US. It's approximately 750 years old, 205 feet tall, and has a circumference of 52 feet. Plus it has a giant-sitka-spruce-sized fungus growing on it. You really have no idea how big this tree is until you visit it, but for reference, that fungus is probably one to two times the size of my head.

Sammie and I hanging out on the couch (that he's normally not allowed on) the other day. So precious.

Oswald State Park

2006-09-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we went back to the ocean and decided to hike down to the beach from Oswald State Park. It was gorgeous, smelled fresh, and there were only a couple other people on the beach.

Walk along Macadam Avenue and Bay

2006-09-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Sammie and I took a walk over the Sellwood Bridge, which is our street, to Macadam Avenue and down to the Macadam Pier. It started raining on us only a few minutes into the walk, but it was enjoyable!

The view from our street on the bridge.

Some cool dried up flower cones- I have no idea what they are...

Macadam Bay is mostly colorful house boats and is open to the public during day light hours.

In this photo you can see the Sellwood Bridge in the background. We are on the left hand side of it, about 9 blocks up the street.

Orchids grow wild in Portland. I've only seen a few varieties, but it was still surprising to see them.

Sammie and I, soaked after our walk.

Wahclella Falls

2006-09-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Wahclella Falls, about 40 miles east of Portland. There is a second waterfall farther up on the trail, but we couldn't get to it because a bridge was closed for maintenance. It was a beautiful little hike nonetheless, and as it was along water most of the way, felt pretty chilly and refreshing.

The Springwater Corridor and Esplanade

2006-09-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

This morning I took a bike ride on the Springwater Corridor and Esplanade, a bike/walking path that follows the Willamette River into the city. It was beautiful- great views and about 60 degrees. I started on the Springwater Corridor just a few blocks from our house where the Sellwood Riverfront Park and Sellwood Bridge are. The first photo is of the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, which is a wetland area with some beautiful flowers and grasses. From there I went north into the city all the way to the Hawthorne Bridge and then decided to make my way back. All in all, a good 5 or 6 mile bike trip. If you're curious about the trails, visit their website.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Multnomah Falls

2006-08-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Multnomah Falls, about half an hour east of Portland. You could walk up to the first bridge shown here, and then continue on a one mile path up to the top of the falls, which is shown in the fourth picture. It was a beautiful hike and very accessible, since it's just off the highway.

Our Goonies trip to Astoria

2006-08-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we made our way to the coastal town of Astoria, which is about a 2 hour drive from Portland. The Goonies was filmed there, and our mission was to find some of the buildings, as we've had several requests from Goonies fans for a trip in its name. Enjoy!

These first two photos are actually from Canon Beach, OR, a town south of Astoria. This rock shown above is "Haystack Rock" in the Goonies. The beach was beautiful, but chilly and very windy, so we ended up having to wear our sweatshirts.

This is an aerial view of Astoria from the Astoria Column, a giant column with an interior spiral staircase you can climb to the top. Really though, the view was just as good from the bottom of the column as it was from the top, so I'd say spare your legs and chill out below. The bridge spans across the mouth of the Columbia delta, and on the other side is Washington.

Saddle Mountain

More aerial views.

Astoria Pier

The Goonies house, off in the distance (you'll know which one it is once you see the close-ups).

These sea lions were hilarious to watch, and very loud. You could hear them from most places in town. And Sammie was scared shitless of them for a while.

Data's House!

The Goonie's House!

The bowling alley where Chunk spilled chocolate milk and pizza all over himself.

And lastly, the County Jail!

House Pictures

2006-08-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

They were actually sleeping in this photo.

Living room.

The point of this picture is to show you the success of my first try at reupholstering chairs. They turned out pretty nicely!

Excuse the paint- I was in the middle of painting the kitchen white. You can see the original orange color just a little bit on the kitchen ceiling from one of the living room photos. Imagine that...everywhere. It was awful.

Jason insisted on displaying the Jayhawks flier from the best basketball game we've ever seen, versus Oklahoma on February 5, 2006.

This is the guest bedroom, the bed of which Sammie is quite taken with. Our computer is in the same room, so whenever we're online, he hangs out on the bed. I originally hated the color scheme of this room, and planned on painting it, but after painting the whole master bedroom and kitchen, I decided to just leave it. And it's even kind of grown on me. But I will be painting the shelf arms white, because I can't stand them as they are.

Kind of looks like a creepy old ladie's house here, doesn't it?

Notice the hanging fern! I'm so excited about them, and the fact that we can leave them out there year round.

This is the doggie door I built for Sammie, because there's no back door out of the house leading to the yard. Before I extended the fence and built this contraption, you had to walk around the side of the house to the gate, and it was a pain in the ass. So I put up some chain link fencing from there to the porch, and built the doggie door and a ramp so we can just let him out the front door, and he's on his way.

Welcome to Portland!

2006-08-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

This is the view just a few blocks from us, looking North from the Willamette River.

The next few are of Wyoming, on our drive up. Southeastern Wyoming is gorgeous, but southewestern Wyoming is pretty boring and quite hard to get through.

Shortly after making it into Oregon, we saw one of the most amazing sunsets ever. It was a huge tapestry in front of us, as we came around the side of the mountain. The pictures don't do it justice and don't show the scale well, but you get the idea.

We stayed the night in Pendelton, OR and this photo is taken just outside that area the next morning.

One of the biggest grain elevators I've ever seen. Plus I like the photo...

Okay, this is just hilarious. How's that for unflattering angles?

The next three are of north-central Oregon, driving along the Columbia River. It's one of the top windsurfing and kitesurfing (which I will hopefully try soon) destinations in the world. As you can see, the water is choppy, which means strong winds.

And suddendly you're in forested mountains!

This is a view of Porltand from Forest Park, which is the largest in-city park in the US. It's an old-growth forest with plenty of hiking and biking trails, an arboretum, a Japanese garden, rose garden, and more. If you come to visit us, it will, by default, be one of the places we'll take you. In this photo, you can see Mt. Hood (which has year-round skiing) very faintly in the background on the right between two trees.

Portland is known as the City of Roses, and you'll see them everywhere. In Forest Park, they have the International Rose Test garden. It's pretty and smells good, but not as cool as the park itself, in my opinion.

This morning we went to the Sellwood Riverfront Park, just a few blocks from our house. Sammie obviously enjoyed it.

The riverfront park is on the Willamette River, and looking north you see the city center (first photo of the post) and looking south you see the Sellwood bridge, which our street, Tacoma, turns into going west.

Lots of cool stuff gets washed into the sand there.

This is Oaks Amusement Park, which is adjacent to the riverfront park that's a few blocks from our house. There's no entry fee, but you buy tickets for each ride you go on. There's always tons of kids there, and it's kind of cool to have an amusement park blocks away, in case you feel like doing one or two rollercoasters occasionally. We have yet to try it...