Brad & Emily's Adventures on the Oregon Trail

Not too much new here. More snowboarding. However, last time we went up, Em managed to sprain her ankle. Unfortunately we don't have a cool story behind it, like doing jumps or rails, instead she was simply walking in an icy parking lot and took a nasty spill. It has been progressing through the spectrum of purples and blues. She is gradually getting better, but still tender. I guess her timing wasn't bad because we have had 50-60 degree weather this week, which means the snow is kinda wet and slushy anyways. So in the mean time, we have been getting caught up on some movies on Netflix. We also got season tickets to a local theatre and have a few shows we will be attending in the near future. We went to see a show tonight with a friend from Northwestern. It was nice because the theatre is only one block away from our apartment. Gotta love living downtown in the heart of it all!! We are going to see a show Tuesday night for the Chinese New Year. It involves traditional dance and drumming, similar to that of the Olympic opening ceremony. On Wednesday, we will be attending a screening for a documentary about the downturn of the Portland Chinatown.

Walking around town the other day, we saw a historic home which had to be physically moved to allow the construction of a new condo building. They jacked up the house on wooden blocks and drove it down the street a few blocks. After digging out the foundation for the new condo building, they rolled the house back to its original location. I wish I had pics of the whole process, but I only have this pic from my iPhone after they put the house back. (the new condo is the glass box in the background):


Because the warm weather would not allow snowboarding, I decided to do some mountain biking with Kern. It is nice to be able to say mountain biking and truly mean "mountain" biking. When I was in Chicago, I had to drive about 45 min just to get out of the city and hit some decent trails. Here, it is within riding distance. The day was 45 degrees and sunny so we geared up and rode out to Mt Tabor. It is only 5 miles from the city, however we didn't realize it is literally uphill the whole way there (with a strong headwind, might I add). Mt Tabor is an old volcano cinder cone that rises 630 ft. I know 630 feet doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it is when you are riding a bike up it. Here's a pic of Kern at the base of the mountain (the dirt trail in the distance is the one we took up):

We came to a fork at the top of the mountain. Which way? Oh, good thing they have this statue at the top to tell us the direction (or maybe he's pointing to Portland or something?):
We actually ended up going right. I guess we took the road less traveled....and it made all the difference. :) I've always been a little rebellious. We later found out that the top is a large circle, so it doesn't really matter which way you go. Wow, that's deep. OK, I'll quit with the metaphorical stuff.

There are several reservoirs on the mountain, this one has two levels and a nice fountain in the center.
Here's another view of the same reservoir from a higher vantage point. I love the building....reminded me of White Castle. Maybe that is because I just rode up a mountain on an empty stomach. I could probably murder about 20 sliders right now!
I decided to take a break on one of the steep hill climbs to catch my breath....err...take a pic of the great view of Mt Hood from here. Whew, good thing I have my camera to give me an excuse to stop!
This may be the future training grounds for Emily and I getting ready for the triathlon this summer (more to come on that in future installments). I just gotta load the theme song from "Rocky" into my iPod so we can have a montage...