"Cribs"

OK, time for a virtual tour of our new apartment. We FINALLY got (mostly) unpacked. Enjoy.

Dining area/DJ setup/bar (in reverse order of actual usage amounts).

Kitchen.

the other side of the kitchen...

...with full coffee bar (yes, I am COMPLETELY addicted to caffeine). If you don't like our espresso, there's a Starbucks on the first floor of our building!

looking out of the kitchen into the living room

Living room

Living room/breakfast bar

(aka the internet cafe, as it tends to be covered by 3 laptops, 2 iPhones, a digi cam, and other random things that need to be charged)

Master bed (we just got a new king size bed and have never slept so well)

Master bed (looking into walkin closet and master bath)

Master bath


Second bedroom (aka YOUR ROOM when you come visit). Sorry, only a full size bed for you; we'd loan you the king, but we're not THAT nice. ;) You will, however, enjoy full workout facilities [notice the dumbells on the floor, the foldup bench, and excercise bike (not pictured)] and a computer with free internet, fax, copy, and printing. Wow, even the Ritz charges for that stuff. Our building does have a larger gym (if ours doesn't cut it for ya) with a nice hot tub and sauna so you can relax during your stay with us.


Second bath (aka your bathroom)


a miniscule balcony almost big enough for 2 people to hang out on


the view from our balcony....mostly trees, but quite nice (this is also the view from the living room and the master bed)

PLEASE COME VISIT!! Enjoy skiiing/snowboarding on Mt Hood ~1 hr away, the coast ~1.5 hrs away, Mt St Helens ~2 hrs away, Multnomah falls ~30 min away, endless hiking, many good restaurants, microbrews, and tax free shopping. Oh yea, and we can hang out when you have free time.

Mt. St. Helens

Saturday we took a drive (~2 hrs) to Mt. St. Helens in Washington. Along for the trip were our good friends Matt and Kristina Kern, their puppy Zoe, and Kristina's sister Lila (visiting for the week and behind her 10MP camera).

A cool bridge on the way to Mt. St. Helens.

It was sunny in Portland when we left (which I am told is a rare event) so we figured it would be a good day to get outside for some sightseeing.

However, as we approached Mt. St. Helens, we were a little disappointed to see that it was buried in clouds (although it was beautiful in its own right). The clouds give some perspective of the magnitude of this great mountain. When we arrived at the observatory, we were unpleasantly surprised by a mandatory $8 just to look at the mountain. So we left, drove down the road a few miles, and decided to pull over to the side of the road to view it for ourselves (for free)......and yes, I will always be a cheap grad student at heart.

It was still very cloudy, but patience is a virtue, so we waited it out for the sun to burn off some clouds.

...and it was definitely worth the wait (as you can see from the pic). Note the low lying clouds. It is still hard for me to fathom the force required to blow the top off of this mountain. The power of nature is truly incredible. Pics pre-1980 show that the slope of the mountain continues upwards to a sharp peak, so you can only imagine how much debris was created when it exploded.

Here is the valley, which is still filled with sediment from the 1980 eruption. If you look closely, you can see a river cutting through.

Seriously, this is not Photoshopped.

Here is a view of Mt. Ranier in the distance (covered in snow). It will be the subject of future excursions (possibly a weekend backpacking trip?).

A lot of firs were replanted after the eruption to help the natural habitat recover. They kinda reminded me of that wacky painter on PBS in the 80's with the fro who always wanted to put "a happy little tree" in every part of his paintings. I think he was smoking too many trees.

We ended the trip in a very Portland-esque way by having fast food at a place called Burgerville. They only use wind energy. They only use 100% recycled paper and recycle all their trash. The straws are not made from plastic, but instead, they consist of corn starch so they are 100% renewable. This intrigued me as a chemist; what a great use of natural materials......I only wish other establishments would follow suit. One more reason Burgerville rules: SWEET POTATO FRIES that are awesome!!

-much love,

Brad and Em

A Weekend of Sushi and Apples!

What a random but fun weekend! Brad and I headed to Todai to check out their sushi buffet Friday night...yum! We went buck-wild on sushi for our first round if you can't tell from the pic (we were hungry) and stuck to mostly sashimi (!!!) afterwards.


Saturday morning, we met up with Tom and Alana. Funny story...Alana is also from the St. Louis area, and Tom and Alana met at Northwestern University while he was getting his PhD there and then they moved to Portland (and just got married in April!). Sounds oddly similar to our story...

Anyways, we all met up at an apple and pear festival. They had over 60 varieties of apples and pears to try out. I didn't realize there were soo many apples. But it was good! We definitely came home with about 10 lbs. worth of apples and pears ;)


Afterwards, we wandered around the Nob Hill neighborhood. What a great area...there was a lot of unique shopping and boutiques along with some fabulous restaurants.

Sunday morning, we went to the Portland Rock Gym to learn how to rock climb and belay each other. Another hobby for us to get into together!

Chicago to Portland in 52 hours

The empty apartment in Chicago. Sad to leave, but it was time to move on to bigger and better things (namely a bigger apt in PDX, and a real job.....wow, 29 yrs old and I am finally joining the workforce!).

I always knew my random summer jobs in college would come in handy. I spent a summer loading boxes in trucks for Fedex.....they taught me how to tie in loads so they don't shift during shipment. It was kinda like a giant 3-D puzzle. And, to my credit, NOTHING was broken during the 2300 mile trek (even despite some off-roading in the fully loaded truck.....oh, you have to keep reading to get to that part).


Here's our beast of a truck (26') + trailer (and Chris, Em's brother, who volunteered to make the cross country journey with me in her abscence). I figured if the truck breaks down, we can take the car. If the car breaks down, we can take the bikes (see pic - on top of the car). If the bikes break down, then I guess it will be a long walk.




Ummmm.....not exactly sure what this was. I guess it passes for a museum in Nebraska. Seriously, I am gonna look funny at anyone I meet in the future who tells me they are either from Nebraska, are going to Nebraska, or would like to go to Nebraska. I seriously hate that state and you'll soon see why.....


Here is my view for approximately 12 hours. Gotta love Nebraska.


....and here's a side view of Nebraska......FOR 12 HOURS!!!!

Halfway through the trip, we ran out of gas money so I traded the Acura TSX for this car (pic above) + a house (pic below). The car just needs a little work, but I figured it would be a good beater to drive to work. The house is a real fixer-upper, but a great start given the current economic status of our country.

Chris shows off our new homestead.

Actually these pics are from a ghost town located in....anyone? anyone? ....oooohh, you are not correct when you said Nebraska....but close.....the correct answer we were looking for is Wyoming. Sorry, no points this time. This is something you can find on Google when you are bored in a truck for 2 days driving across the country on I-80.

The west is big on trains......and apparently tanks too. This train literally had hundreds of these little tanks. Thought it might be a good idea to fortify our new establishment to ward off any attacks from terrorists, tourists, or angry locals.

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After a few weeks trying to maitain the homestead, we were threatened by starvation, lack of firewood, and little Timmy had come down with a bad case of small pox. We decided to try our luck further west. So we packed up our limited belongings and continued our journey.

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So we continued along the Oregon trail......

....and then our trusty mule died of starvation, so I was left to pull the wagon myself. Not fun....especially in Reefs!

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We continued on into Wyoming.

Chicago has the cow sculptures. Cheyenne, WY has giant boot sculptures. Not really sure what this is all about. I jokingly told Chris that it would be cool if they had working (spinning) spurs.....and sure enough, a swift kick with my foot sent these daisywheels into action. Saddleup partner!

The Union Station in Cheyenne, WY is a majestic two-tone stone building that was very reminescent of the Union Station in STL where Em and I wed just a little over a year ago.

More random stuff in WY:

OK, this is not one of the pyramids, but we are definitely in BFE. Somewhere near Laramie, WY, someone decided it would be a good idea to build a monument (Ames monument) to the railroads. Since then, the railroading town has dried up, and all that is left is this monument out in the middle of nowhere. I think it is around 60' tall. Chris found this when looking on the satellite view of Google maps. It stands out in the satellite pics b/c it is surrounded by miles of dirt. We ended up driving on dirt roads for a few miles just to get to it. Luckily, we had a GPS. As we drove further off-road, I was getting a little paranoid about a vehicle breakdown/flat tire. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Penske would not be happy if I told them their truck broke down while off-roading (while pulling a trailer). I guess I still have a little Ohio blood in me.

Here's a pic of the Ames monument as the sun is setting.

***Gotta give a quick shoutout to Charles and Heidi for letting us crash at their pad in Laramie. I slept much better on their couch than I did the previous night curled up in the cab of the rental truck.***

After miles and miles and miles of boring scenery (or lack thereof) we finally arrived in the Columbia River Valley in Oregon. The vast openness of the west gives way to the beautiful valleys of the Pacific NW. As we rounded a corner, this was the view of the river. It was the exact feeling that I had at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago while visiting the U-boat exhibit. OK, stay with me here; I'll explain. At MSI, they have the original U-boat that was captured during WWII. The exhibit is sorta dismal and like any other museum exhibit: placards and random info. But then you round a corner (sorry to spoil it if you haven't been there yet) and you are face-to-face with the actual U-boat. It is juxtaposed longways such that you truely capture the magnitude of this amazing feat of engineering. Well, I had that same feeling of awe as we rounded a corner and came upon the valley. It was as if everything came to life and it was a sort of oasis. The beauty of the river was surreal and I found myself in stupor. .....or maybe it was the feeling you get when you drive a truck for 20 hours in one day and drink about 6 RedBulls.

"Sometimes the journey can be just as rewarding as the destination."*

*(This quote does not apply.)

....and then Em flew out to meet us (had to put in a dig since she got out of, er, I mean missed out on, this adventure).

much love,

-Brad

The first 2 weeks in Oregon

So I was holding out on posting anything on the blog until Brad got the pics up from the drive out West from Chicago so that we can stay in chronological order...but I couldn't wait any longer! We've been out here for about 2 weeks now...and boy has it been a busy 2 weeks! We have been cranking on the unpacking - we're pretty much settled in now minus about 7 unpacked boxes. We also finally got a king-size bed! Yay! So now our full-size bed has been moved to the guest bedroom (hint, hint! We're ready for visitors!). Jas (our cat) has adjusted quite nicely here...we have 8 inch windowsills throughout the place, and she's loving being able to sit and watch all the car and pedestrian traffic below us.

We have been very lucky and thankful that Kristina and Matt are out here. They fed us numerous times (which meant we didn't have to go grocery shopping for over a week!) and housed Chris and Brad when they first arrived in Portland. And they have showed us around the city, informed us of where the good asian grocery stores are, and explained the importance of happy hour in this city.

So...now on to some fun pictures! Our first weekend in Oregon, we decided to head to the Oregon coast with Kristina and Matt. It's only about 1.5 hours away from Portland. We first went to Tillamook where we visited the Tillamook Cheese factory and the Blue Heron French Cheese shop (yum!).


If you're wondering - YES...those are huge hunks of cheese - soon to be cheese curds!


So I was asking Brad to take a scenic shot of the mountains with me in it and this sheep hopped into the picture. Hehe jk. This was taken outside of the Blue Heron Cheese shop - they had animals and farm equipment!


After Tillamook, we headed North towards Astoria. Along the way, we had to stop to get a few scenic shots of the Oregon coast.


Here are some fishermen out on the bay - we LOVE that there's fresh seafood out here.


Yes...it really is that gorgeous.



The beaches on the coast are expansive - MUCH longer and wider than Lake Michigan's beaches in Chicago ;)


Ecola or E. Coli? Well either way, their clams, halibut, scallops, and shrimp were really good. This was in Cannon Beach, OR (a very touristy town).



Also in the town, we came across a candy shop where they hand make all of their taffy. This was the freshest taffy I've ever had.



We had originally planned on visiting more in Astoria, but we ended up driving across the Astoria-Megler bridge into Washington state. This bridge was 4.1 miles long and all over the Columbia river. We saw signs for a bridge running race for the next morning - if only I had known...I would have loved to make this my first race in Oregon/Washington. AND after the race, they had a chowder feed for all race participants! What could be better than chowder and running??? Oh well...maybe next year.


So we brought along Zoe, Matt and Kristina's fairly new puppy (french bulldog and pug mix). She was exhausted after all her running around on the beach. I couldn't help it - I had to post this picture on the blog!


Here is a view of the Pacific Ocean in Washington state - the entire Pacific Northwest is just so lush!




While we were in Washington state, we found a lighthouse, so we made a quick pitstop to check it out.


So I guess tsunami's are kind of a big deal out on the coast - we kept seeing this sign everywhere! Brad and I decided to do a tsunami drill to make sure we'd stay safe.


Here we are at the end of our journey on the Oregon/Washington coast. Needless to say, we were a bit disappointed.