PDX Random

OK, I realize you are probably getting tired of hearing about snowboarding so I won't give details about our last few trips up to Mt. Hood during our days off work for Christmas. So instead, here is a compilation of random pics I have taken on my iPhone while in Portland.


We will start off with a pic taken during our recent snowstorm on my way to work in the morning. It is a life-sized elk sculpture in the middle of the street a few blocks from our apt. In the spirit of the holidays, someone has placed jinglebells around its neck.

A movable road barrier that doubles as a park bench.

A unique sign warning of the dangers of riding a bike on the trolley tracks.

There are lots of bikes in PDX...apparently parking is an issue too. :)

Now that it's rainy season, it's time to hit up Powells Bookstore. It is the largest independently owned bookstore and occupies an entire city block.

As I was out driving the other day, I got to see the drawbridge raised and then lowered. Very impressive....a great feat of engineering. I'm just glad I was not in a hurry to get across the river.

Last weekend we went to the Kennedy school. It is an actual school which closed in the 60's and not much has changed since. McMenamins (owner of the Kennedy School) has a lot of unique establishments like this throughout the Pacific Northwest. They own and operate hotels, their own microbreweries, movie theatres, music venues, restaurants, etc. Each building has its own character and a lot of history. The Kennedy school has been converted into a movie theater, a pool hall, several restaurants, and several bars. It was very cool and erie at the same time. I liked the nostalgia it inspired, but I would NOT want to be there alone in the halls at night. The darkness in the pics accurately portrays the overall mood of the place (it is as if everything is in sepia).

The movie theater has a bunch of old couches and recliners surrounding the silver screen.

I am kinda glad we decided to get rid of this waterfountain design. I remember awkward moments in Lanier middle school when two people would try to use one of these and end up hitting heads.

The detention room has been converted to a cigar room.

Kern feels like a giant here...

I hope they are not still actually using these electrical transformers and circuit breakers.

The Boiler Room was converted to a bar with multiple levels to hang out. The railings are made from old radiators.
The End.

Holidays

Last weekend, we traveled back to Ohio to be with Mom for her surgery. She is doing well and we wish her the best during her recovery. Since a lot of us (3 out of 5 siblings, hey that's a 60% majority) were in town, we decided to do Christmas a little early. The best part was getting to visit with everyone. I had my hands full wrestling my 3 nephews (Logan, Grant, Chandler) simultaneously while Em had her hands full with Mom and Dad's new kittens. The kittens are named Salt and Pepper, can you guess which one is pictured here? A close inspection reveals that this cool cat has one green eye and one blue eye.


The best gift we received this year was a donation that my parents made in honor of us to Heifer International. Their donation bought a goat and 2 flocks of chicks for a family in an impoverished nation. As much as we all complain about the current economic slowdown in the U.S., we gotta realize how nice we have it compared to many other areas of this world. Damn us for being so selfish and materialistic that we complain when we don't get a company Christmas party this year, or that we won't get that end of year bonus, or that our stocks are worth half what they were a few months ago. I guarantee there are millions out there who are in a worse situation. We should be grateful that we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and access to modern medicine. It is our duty as humans to have a heart and help out others who are lacking the basic necessities of life that you and I take for granted every day. I am not saying that we have to drop everything and join the Peace Corps....just do a little more each year. If you're low on cash, give your time. Volunteer. Do a good deed for a neighbor. Always remember to give thanks and appreciate where you are, what you have, and who you love.

OK, enough preaching, let's have some fun.
Mt. Hood has been getting dumped on this week (47 inches of fresh powder in the last 3 days). So I chained up the tires on the car, loaded the boards, and we drove up Mt. Hood amidst the worst snow storm PDX has seen in awhile. Sweet.

Tire chains, required by Oregon state law during snow storms. We would not have made it up (safely) without them.

Here are some pics of the drive up to Mt. Hood. I am told that this very road is where the Stanley Kubrick movie, The Shining (based on the Stephen King novel of the same name...which I remember reading in 5th grade after getting it from the H.S. library....and being totally freaked out by) was filmed. Ya know the scene where the guy is driving an arctic cat up the mountain to the haunted hotel to save little Danny and his mom from the possessed Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson)....only to be axed in the back as he is walking down the hall. If you can't picture this exact scene in your head right now, you have homework, go rent it. Our destination up this road ended much more amicably with unbelievable powder and some of the best snowboarding conditions I have ever experienced. I would love to share some shots of it, but the camera battery died (probably cold-induced) so instead you just get several shots of the frosted drive up.

Look closely in this pic at the wall of snow on either side of the road:

We planned to go up again on Sunday, but the road conditions were just too bad to warrant the trip. Afterall, I gotta be able to live to tell about it on the blog. Downtown PDX was completely buried after receiving heavy snow all night. Here is a shot of downtown from our balcony:

So we called up our good friends Matt and Kristina Kern. I made a killer brunch for us all, including eggs, thick bacon, maple sausage, hazelnut pancakes and O.J. Kristina whipped up some hash brown potatoes with onions while Em played barista. Matt brought over Zoe, their bulldog/pug and we all stayed in for the day and watched movies and played some games. Here's Kristina with our cat, Jasmine, who likes to play in the snow on the balcony.
Hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a great new year!! Keep posted for more....

Snow Days in Portland

Coming from Chicago, Brad and I are naturally used to lots of snow, ice, and cold weather. Apparently, Portland residents aren't. On Wednesday, the city was estimated to get 2-4 inches of snow. What we ended up getting was about 1/2 an inch and some rain. I had a dentist appointment that day (with one of the last alumni from Northwestern's Dental School!), and they had called me asking to come in for my appointment a little early so that they could scoot out of the office before the "big storm hits". On the walk home, I noticed that the huge federal building next door to our apartment complex was completely shut down. No security guards or anything. The lights were all off in their lobby - and this is a 25 story building.

Before moving out to Portland, I have never seen chains on a tire before. On "big" snow days, they're required out here...even in the city. By law, we're actually supposed to carry chains in our vehicles at all times. What I found truly fascinating (and I wish I had a picture) was that all the buses and police cars have tire chains on now. They must take tire chains really seriously around here.

I also noticed that the city of Portland lacks snow plows and salt. They definitely have black ice out here because of the constant temperature fluctuations around 32 degrees and consistent rain...so I don't get why they don't salt around here at all? It would definitely help save a lot of people from slipping on what appears to be wet pavement but actually turns out to be sheets of ice on the sidewalks and roads.

I guess I'm just grumpy because in the last 13 years, I have never had a snow day and I feel in Portland they're just handing out snow days like it's candy on Halloween. But I guess the positive side to all of this is that Mt. Hood is getting hit by a lot of snow (22" on Thursday alone!), so there may be a chance we go snowboarding this weekend...

Columbia River Gorge

This weekend was filled with wonderful visitors and adventure. Our brother in law, Pat Papczun (from Chicago), and his friend Brian Miner (from Ohio) visited us Thursday through Sunday. Brian taught me how to snowboard back in college and Pat gave me my first snowboard (which he had previously inherited from Brian). The snowboard was a Burton Mystery Air....yes, old skool. It has since been retired and returned to its original owner (Brian), and I have been led to believe that it is proudly hanging in a Smithsonian (or just a wall in his house?). Pat and Brian came out to do some snowboarding on Mt. Hood (lured by our previous post?). Unfortunately, mother nature has given us uncharacteristically warm weather lately and most of the snow on Mt. Hood has melted. We decided to make the most out of the weekend and do some hiking.

On Thursday, Pat and Brian arrived in the early afternoon while I was still at work. Em took them for a walk around the city in the evening, which concluded with a hike up Burnside to the Pittock mansion. The view from the Pittock mansion includes the entire city and, being a clear day, Mt. Hood.

On Friday, they dropped me off at work in the wee hours of the morning, and then they headed to Mt. St. Helens to do a 13 mile hike. Whew, good thing I had to work...not sure I could keep up with them on that one!

In addition to Pat and Brian, I had an old grad school friend, Evan, who happened to be in town for an interview with Intel so he decided to crash with us for the weekend.

Saturday, we headed east about 30 min from the city to do some hiking in the Columbia River Gorge. Here is an overlook from the Rt. 30 scenic byway:

Left to right: me, Em, Pat, Brian (Evan is behind the camera)

A short hike from the road is Coopey Falls (~100 ft). Look closely at the bottom 1/3 of the pic to see the columnar basalt (rock formations from slow cooling magma).

A few more minutes of driving leads to the impressive Multnomah Falls (upper section is 542 ft; lower section is 69 ft). To put the height of this waterfall in perspective: Niagara Falls is a mere 173 ft. This is my second visit to Multnomah Falls and I would love to do it a thousand more times before I die. It is that good. Here's Pat on the lower observation deck:

Here is the view from the observation deck (the small bridge visible in the pic above). The upper falls are so massive, I cannot fit them in the frame of the pic!!

We hiked on up the falls and found this random little cove.

Finally, we made it to the top. It was quite an exhausting hike with some steep switchback. The hardest part was keeping up with the blazing pace set by Pat (who is in much better shape than I). Here is the view from the top of the falls. It is amazing that such a small stream can have such a dramatic visual impact. For perspective, look at the size of the cars in the parking lot (visible in the upper right corner).

With a few hours of daylight left, we decided to continue on a longer trail to loop back to the car (to avoid doubling back on the same trail....gotta see more!). There are rumored to be literally hundreds of waterfalls in this area. After a few hours of hiking, I believe these numbers to be true. You start to lose count. It reminded me of our honeymoon trip to Hawaii in which we drove the road to Hana. Anyone who has done this knows exactly what I am talking about. Waterfall after waterfall after waterfall. There is simply not enough time in life to enjoy such treasures....I think I could spend hours at each one just staring.....however daylight is fading so we must march on.

Here is an outlook from up high on a cliff overlooking the Columbia river. The size of the road helps give you perspective, but you can't truly appreciate this unless you experience it in person (hint, hint, come visit us).

Luckily, Em just bought some Gore-tex trail shoes hours before the hike. (Much thanks to her cuz, Greg, for hooking us up with a phat Adidas discount.) What better way to break them in and test their waterproofing than to fjord a small stream?

Em and Pat pose for a quick pic by one of many waterfalls. Daylight is fading fast so we gotta keep moving or we'll be spending the night up here!

It was full darkness as we finished the hike. The trail spit us out 1/4 mile down the road from where we had parked the car so we just had a short walk to get back. (Left to right: Brian, Em, Evan, me).
Afterwards, we all hit the hot tub at our place. Strange we would want to be wet after hiking around so much water all day, but it did wonders for sore legs. We all hit up a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner and gorged (pun intended) ourselves on red meat. What a great reward after a full day of hiking!

Whistler/Blackcomb

For the Thanksgiving holiday, Em and I decided to head to Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada to do some snowboarding. I had promised her a trip for our 1 yr anniversary, but as I was busy defending my PhD thesis in early September, it had to take a raincheck. So now I made good on my promise......so Wednesday night we headed towards Canada. We stopped to crash at Jo (Em's NU roomie) and Clayton's place in Seattle (much thanks!) and then got up around 5AM to complete the drive on Thanksgiving morning. Here are some pics from the drive:

A cool bridge in the early morning hours:

As we entered into British Columbia, the scenery was absolutely picturesque. These are shots taken through the window while driving.....so you can only imagine how amazing it is in person. I must recommend this drive to anyone who appreciates the beauty of nature.

At about 11AM we finally arrived at Whistler. Here is the view of the slopes from the road.....

...and the view from atop Blackcomb mountain

....and on the lift

Em atop Blackcomb

another view atop Blackcomb

Here's a shot of our accommodations...

...with the best part being the private hot tub on the deck

Best helmet hair ever!!

Whistler Village at the base of the mountains....very quaint with a great selection of restaurants and shops.
On the third day, it was warm and the previous day's powder had turned to slush. As rain tried to drown out our fun, I was determined to salvage the day. So we decided to forego snowboarding in favor of doing a ZipLine treetop tour of the gorge between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. This gave us our adrenaline fix for the day. There were lots of suspension bridges connecting the treetops.

We're geared up in harnesses and ready for some extreme adventure!

**Please see our videos of the ZipLine at the bottom of this blog. For some reason, blogspot won't let me embed them in the middle.....oh well.

Here's a sampling of local delicacies. No, that's not an abnormally large tongue, Em is munching on a BeaverTail. It's a Northwest invention that consists of fried dough coated in cinnamon sugar.
Another favorite that we had daily is poutine. "What is poutine?", you might ask. Well, my friends, it is amazing.....in detail, it is a Canadian appetizer consisting of fries doused in mushroom gravy and topped with cheese curds. I don't think my Wellness Coach at work would approve of this (especially the daily servings), but hey, I figure I am burning several thousand calories a day out on the slopes. :)
I quickly found out that "bear-proof" trash cans are also "Brad-proof". Seriously, I had to get Em to show me how to operate this sophisticated piece of machinery. Apparently there is a secondary latch underneath the handle that you have to flick sideways to get it to open....kinda like a hood release on a car. Grrrrr.
As our trip wound to an end, we headed back home to the good ol' US of A.....only to be stuck at the border for 2.5 hours!! No joke. Ironically, the place was called "Peace Arch", yet there was no peaceful dialogue here due to the many irate drivers who didn't like waiting. I decided to just have fun with the situation and setup an impromptu tailgate party to help pass the time.


Hey wait a minute....they look familiar! Yes, that is Kern and Kristina. (I forgot to mention that we met them in Vancouver for dim sum as they were in Vancouver visiting family for the weekend.....then they followed us to the border b/c their GPS doesn't work in Canada.) Matt chose to get caught up on some reading while waiting in the border traffic.
BTW, the dim sum in New Chinatown in (Richmond) Vancouver was awesome.....especially since Kristina's aunts frequent the restaurant so much that we got V.I.P. access. No joke, we walked right in and got a table at the hottest place for dim sum in town despite a 45 minute wait. Our bill even said V.I.P. on it and included a nice discount. It pays to have connections.

Finally, we made it to the border after waiting in line for 2.5 hrs.....I was expecting a little better sign demarcating the difference between our respective lands than this 3 foot tall disappointment (that's about 1 m for our northerly friends).

YEAH, that's more like it....at least America put a little effort into this sign. Cheesy, but if you look close, they have most of the good stuff on there.
I also promised Em a trip to her favorite store, which was founded in this area and has an outlet just south of the Canada border. Somehow, she always weasels shopping into things.....;)
Then we met up again with Jo and Clayton in Seattle for dinner on our way through. Korean BBQ at a little local place, yum!

"I have no ending for this, so I will just take a bow." -George Carlin at the end of one of his comedy acts where he just abruptly ended his set after a great joke.

**Please see the videos of our ZipLine adventure below: (the first and last videos are of Em, the middle video is me taking first-hand video as I zip across ~1000 ft)