Rafting the North Fork of the John Day River

This past weekend Jason, his fiancé Lindsay and their friends Adam and Mark joined me on a drive out to Eastern Oregon for a weekend rafting the North Fork of the John Day river from Dale to Monument, OR with Dennis Feeney and friends whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, some for years.  It was a great trip through beautiful terrain over mild rapids.  Except for the afternoon of the first day it was sunny and pleasant weather throughout.  Click the title to read on….

Lake Wahtum and Mount Chinidrine

Today, we had a great day hiking on the Northwest side of Mt. Hood with Eric and Adia, and the dogs Milo and Leo.  The weather was great, the views were pretty good despite some clouds and we even got to see a bear on the way to a wonderful dinner and drinks in Hood River.  Click the title to read on…

Flipping on the White Salmon

This weekend Emily and I got our first rafting trip in with friends from work.  Susan, a co-worker and guide at Wet Planet on the White Salmon River in Washington took us for an quick afternoon run down the very fast flowing river.  It was a beautiful, warm day and we had a bit more excitement than was planned…. click the title to read more…

Larson Wedding

This Saturday our friends Sarah and Adam got married at the “Grange Dance Hall” (Cody and Nicole’s Barn next to their house in Shedd, OR).  We drove down in the afternoon after we had a semi-successful tag sale in our driveway in the morning trying to get rid of as much as we could before our move to Portland.  Their wedding was at 7 so we had time to meet up with Chris and Paris before hand to check out their new house on Kings Ave and also get some food at Cafe Yum in downtown Corvallis before heading over in the Prius.  

Their wedding was very beautiful in a barn that was protected from the rain that evening and was lit by literally hundreds of candles.  The ceremony was very nice and lasted about 20 minutes with a lot of emotions.  Out of the wedding party I knew Adams friend Bill and out of the Bridesmaides I knew Stacy and Nicole Younger.  We saw Ben and Tiah and their boys as well as Ian, Colleen, Martin, Brian Carrington and of course Cody with Jesse who was an amazing host as was Nicole.  They had about 5 long tables of deserts for after the wedding and a yummy shrimp gumbo that I helped myself too.  I was a bit hungover from Josh’s backyard party the night before in Portland so it was great to get a bunch of good food in me.  

Throughout the evening there were musicians on stage playing guitar and singing, including a few Chris Holm classics and I finally got to see the Grange Hall Drifters play (Adam’s band with Bill).  They were really amazing and their songs were a lot of fun.  I set up the DSLR to record video from a table below so I could send Sarah and Adam the video later as a surprise as I think I was the only one recording.  Adam is an amazing performer and song writer (as is Holm) and I hope to see them play again someday.  We were both so happy for the two of them as they make a great couple and I have no doubt their marriage will last and little ones will be on the way soon I bet!