Northeast Parkways and Adia's Birthday

Emily and I had missed the North Portland Sunday Parkways earlier this summer as we were busy moving into our new house but this time we had the weekend free for our own neighborhood's Northeast Sunday Parkways.  Basically, it is when the neighborhood shuts down certain streets to create a bike corridor for bikers to move from one city park to another.  Along the way there are people giving out snacks and playing music and at each park there are booths setup from local vendors with free games and bike obstacle courses.  We really appreciate a town like Portland that really goes out of it's way to support the local biking community and we think it will be something my mom will really enjoy when she moves out here (more on that to come this fall).  Read on....

Surveyors Ridge Mountain Biking

On Sunday after a surprisingly peaceful sleep next to rumbling freight trains in our campground we got up late in the morning and headed into town for some breakfast at Egg River cafe.  It was pretty busy and we ended up eating at the bar in the back but the delicious food made up for it.  By the time we drove all the way to the trailhead for Surveyors Ridge it was early afternoon and I was little concerned about how long it would take us to ride the 20 miles back to the Prius we had parked at the lower trailhead, seeing that it had taken us nearly 8 hours to bike the 25 mile Mckenzie River trail just a few weekends prior.   Read on for more.

One Year Wedding Anniversary

This weekend Emily and I headed out to Hood River for our 1yr Wedding Anniversary!  It's hard to believe it has already been a year!  In the morning Emily gave me a wonderful anniversary gift.  It was an amazing house with heart balloons coming out of it but the house and balloons were map cut-outs of significance in our lives together.  The hearts were Saratoga Springs where we met, Hawaii where we got Engaged, and Hood River where we got married while the house was Portland, OR where we now have our first house together!  I didn't have anything to give her but I did inform her I had finished a well thought out wine box letter that we were supposed to put in there before our wedding!!! Shhhh don't tell anyone we didn't!  I think Em still needs to finish hers as I didn't see another one in there.... hehe.  Read on to hear about the rest of our anniversary.

Mckenzie River Weekend 2014

This weekend Emily and I joined Nicole, Ian, Coleen, Jake, Richard, ____ and Chris Harmon for a wonderful weekend on the Mckenzie River in central Oregon.  We left Leo with friends in Portland and headed south on Saturday morning to meet up with everyone else who had camped Friday night at the McKenzie Bridge Airfield in Blue River, OR.  We got an early start and met everyone around 10am at the upper trailhead for the Mckenzie River bike trail near Clear Lake.  They were a little late to arrive which was good as it took us a little bit to get our bikes put together from the back of the Prius.   Read on for all the details

Pizza Night at Arley and Katies

Tonight we had a wonderful night of wine and homemade pizza at Arley and Katie's.  Of course Ryan was there to teach us how to make everything correctly.  Anna also joined us for the good times.  This was special for Emily and I as it was the first time we had gotten out of our new home for a local get together.  We were so excited we put Leo on a leash and biked over to their place which was a little far for poor Leo who was out of shape and too hot in the summer heat.  He made it but looked pooped for the rest of the night and thankfully Ryan gave us a ride home in the Red Dragon.  We finished off the night with a great bonfire in the backyard.