Dinner with Friends

Tonight Emily and I had Tim & Lindsay and Kevin & Alexa over for dinner at our place.  We all chipped in a bunch of food on the stove and on the grill.  It was the first time hanging out with Tim and Lindsay after their wedding so we got to hear all about their honeymoon on the East Coast fishing with Ladd and her family.

Matt & Sarah Visit

This past week Matt and Sarah came to visit for a long weekend.  I hadn't seen him since 2009 when he came out to visit and attempt Mt. Washington with me.  This time Sarah had the time off to also come along and see Oregon.  They came in on Wednesday night and I reserved a room at the McMenamin's Edgefield to surprise them after the long flight with a relaxing soak in the spa and a few good beers before bed.  The following day we got a weird (but huge) breakfast at the Cameo Cafe in Vancouver, WA, then visited the Johnston Ridge Observatory at Mt. St. Helens and hiked Latourel Falls in the Columbia Gorge before returning to Corvallis for some beer variety and Woodstocks Pizza. Friday we hung out downtown, checking out my office and enjoying some Gelato and had a bbq at our place that evening followed by watching the Hangover which neither had seen yet. On Saturday we drove up the coast from Newport after stopping to get some Dungenous Crab for Matt and Sarah to try.  We then stopped at Pacific City for dinner and did a short hike around Cape Meares.  Getting a hotel room was a disaster as the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn express made us go back and forth 4 times before finally giving us a room.  This was at 1am after a couple of relaxing drinks at Kell's Irish Pub in downtown Portland.  Matt was either sick or had a reaction to the crab (later found out he was sick).  On Sunday morning we woke up early and brought them to the airport where they missed their connection in Texas and had to drive 5 hours to get Sarah to work on time on Monday - Hopefully the fun trip was worth the cold and all the effort of traveling here!  Check out the great Pano I got of Mt. St. Helens after the clouds finally lifted from it by clicking the read more link.

Tim & Lindsay's Wedding

This weekend Emily and I had a terrific time at Tim & Lindsay's wedding in the Columbia Gorge.  The wedding was on Friday afternoon at the private Bridal Veil Park in the Columbia Gorge.  Lindsay arrived at the ceremony via a canoe paddled by her father.  All of their Oregon friends and a few of their closest friends and family were in attendance from the East Coast.  It was a beautiful ceremony with a really great reception and dance party with DJ Grey Matter before returning to the incredible McMenamin's Edgefield for the rest of the weekend to soak in the spa and drink at many of the 12 bars on site.  To read more click the link.

Thievery Corporation - Best Concert Ever!

Emily and I joined both Colin and Doug for a trip to Portland to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.  We got to Portland a bit early so we headed to Escape from NY Pizza for some really good thin crust NY-style pizza (rare in Oregon).  We also picked up some beers at a local convenience store.  We stopped at a park and ate and drank for a bit before heading over to the concert.

I have to say that Thievery Corporation is now the best concert I have ever gone to!  There had to be 20+ musicians on stage throughout the show.  Thievery Corporation is only two DJ's themselves but when they pool together all their musician friends into a concert like we saw it was truly amazing.  We had the greatest seats in the 2nd row in front of the stage too!  Honestly, best concert ever!

Bachelor Party Fishing Trip Weekend

This weekend was our buddy Tim's Bachelor Party at a house in Newport, OR.  His friend Wes from the East Coast, Jason Abbott from Portland and all of his Corvallis buddies (Mischa, Scott, Kev, Colin, and I) joined him at the coast for a weekend of drinking, fishing, washers, spirit quests through the woods, drinking, crabbing and drinking to celebrate his last weekend as an unmarried (read:free) man.  We gorged ourselves on crab, rockfish, steak, chicken, sausages, etc and relaxed in a hot tub for two glorious days.  Click the link to read more.

Boulder Creek Lakes - Trinity Alps Weekend

Because the next two weekends are going to be a bachelorparty and then a wedding, both with plenty of partying and drinking, Emily andI decided to use the long Labor Day weekend to get out of town and into theoutdoors. Because we had 3 full days wedecided to go a little further and venture into the Trinity Alps Wilderness of Northern California, a 7 hour drive away. Neither of us had been there and weren’t really sure what toexpect. I had chosen a side trail off the most popular Cascade Canyon Trail which would take us to a couple alpinelakes in the Boulder Creek Basin area. The trip turned out to be one of my favorite overnight backpacking trips, even better than our beloved Goat Rocks trip we did the last two years. Click the link to read more about our amazing weekend.