Mt. Bachelor Snowboarding 2012

The recent storms brought some record snowfall (35 inches in 24 hours) to the mountains, so my co-worker, Sean, and I decided this warranted a day off work. I also called my H.S. friend, Chad Staker, to join us....he caught a last minute flight up from Denver. We took Friday off and drove 3.5 hrs down to Bend, Oregon to ride the slopes at Mt. Bachelor. Since Sean's wife, Adrienne, is a freelance writer, it was not hard for her to convince her boss (herself) that it is OK to take a powder day.

on the drive from Portland to Bend, we saw the sunrise over Mt. Jefferson

the snowbank was taller than the truck...I'm glad I splurged for new 31" Toyo M/T tires last year (the deeper the snow, the better they grab, due to lugs on the outer sidewalls)

Mt. Bachelor Resort

Sean and Adrienne's dog, Porter takes a nap after a long day of playing in the snow

Our accommodations for the weekend were at the McMenamins Old St. Francis School. It is an actual school from the 1930's that has been restored and transformed into a hotel, restaurant, movie theatre, and brewery. They did a great job at preserving the charm while incorporating modern amenities.

our rental cottage for the weekend

Adrienne is surprised at how awesome this place is!

the kitchen still harbors the original icebox

the courtyard outside our rental house....the fire pits are clutch after a day in the snow

the soaking pool (warm saltwater) is instrumental in loosening up legs made stiff from snowboarding all day

original water fountain in the hallway of the school....brings me back to memories of grade school

Of course, no trip is complete without finding the best food....we found an amazing brunch spot called "Chow":

banana french toast with almonds

I'm still amazed that we have lived in Portland for over 3 years, and we are just now checking out nearby Bend. This just goes to show you how much Oregon has to offer. We had passed through the town before, but never spent the time to truly discover the charm it holds. This town is a front runner for places I would like to retire....but, until then, I guess I will just have to come visit more often on the weekends. :)

Phoenix 2012

We went down to Phoenix to visit the Kerseys for a long weekend in mid January. Their recent addition, Aiden, was the prime reason for the trip....however, we didn't mind also getting some nice sunny weather in the middle of winter. It was a little too cold (60-70 degrees) to enjoy their backyard pool, so I guess we will have to visit them again when it gets warmer. :)

a proud new father and his son (Paul and Aiden)

Leeanna with her two favs, Aiden and Miley

On Saturday afternoon, Leeanna watched Aiden while Paul took us for some sight seeing around the Phoenix area.

Superstition Mountain

Goldfield: an old gold mining town

the chapel at Goldfield

no trip to the desert is complete without seeing some cacti

Canyon Lake

On Saturday night, we drove up South Mountain and took the tripod to get some night shots of the city skyline. Here are some slow shutter speed pics:

South Mountain light towers
(photo taken in complete darkness...I'm still amazed at how much light this lens can capture without a flash)

Phoenix (with a couple of planes coming in)

downtown Phoenix (I finally got to use the full 250mm zoom!)

And like it was no big deal, Emily ran yet another half marathon (13.1 miles) while we were in town. She looked online before the trip and noticed that the Phoenix marathon and half marathon were scheduled for the same weekend of our visit. I guess she couldn't pass up the chance to run in nice sunny weather. After Emily's half marathon on Sunday, we met up with her old friend, Sebastien, from Northwestern. It was nice to get caught up, and we even bought a few of his T-shirts (he's an artist).

Well, it was a jam packed weekend, but that is just how we roll. It was great visiting the Kerseys, meeting Aiden for the first time, and catching up with old friends. We will definitely be back to visit them many more times.

NYE 2012 in Utah

For New Years Eve, I decided to take a roadtrip with a few friends to Utah to do some snowboarding. Unfortunately, Emily's new job required that she work during NYE so she was not able to join us on the trip. Along for the ride in my old 4runner were Sean (a friend from work) and his wife Adrienne. Chad Staker drove out from Denver to meet us there. We left Thursday evening and drove through the night, stopping for only 2.5 hrs sleep, to arrive in Park City, Utah on Friday afternoon. Thanks to Facebook, I learned that cousin Greg Tung was also in town snowboarding that same week, so we got to meet up and ride together for a day at Snowbird.
On NYE night, we were treated to some unexpected excitement. Since we were all tired from the drive and snowboarding, we crashed kind of early in our rental condo. Around 2:30AM we were awoken to a disturbance: there was a random stranger in our living room and he had fallen into a wall!! He was obviously quite intoxicated and not really aware of where he was. From what we could piece together, he knew the person who owned our rental condo so he knew the combination for the door lock. Chad was trying to convince him to leave and threatened to call the cops. Little did we know that minutes earlier, this same guy had been banging on our neighbor's door, so they had already called the cops. The police handcuffed the man, and we all had to write statements at 3AM. What a bizarre way to start the new year!

the crew hanging out in Park City (Sean, Adrienne, Chad)

the mountain view from Solitude Resort

a moose we saw alongside the road on our drive to the mountain

sunset at Park City, Utah (the sky was an unbelievable shade of orange/pink)

Ohio December 2011

Emily and I flew to Ohio last weekend to visit Mom and Dad. Since Emily just started a new job, we didn't want to take time off work, so we took the Friday night redeye to arrive Saturday morning. The redeye always seems like a good idea when buying the ticket, since it maximizes visiting time and minimizes time away from work. In reality, however, it is always a struggle with the middle of the night change of planes and the 3 hr time zone difference. But nothing that can't be remedied with some good coffee!
We spent the entire weekend hanging out with family and got to spend a lot of time with my 3 nephews. We squeezed in 2 of Logan's basketball games.
Dad is still doing well with his rehab and recovery. He seems to be in better spirits, but still has a long way to go to get his writing and speech back. Since I will be on call and working during Christmas, we did an early gift exchange with my parents. We also got to see the nephews in the Christmas play at church. It was a great weekend, but went by too quickly. We flew back late Sunday night, to face reality (work) again on Monday morning.

ice crystals on our rental car in the morning - the thin needles were almost 1" tall and blanketed the car in a perfect uniform layer, resembling a finely manicured miniature frozen turf

Logan handles the ball under fierce defense

Logan shooting

and part of the fan club at the game:

Chandler

cousin Jill and her little R.J.

San Francisco - December 2011

I traveled with Emily to San Francisco for her weekend of MBA classes. She went to class while I got to have fun visiting with family. :)

We stayed with our cousins Danny and Renee (and their two adorable girls Naomi and Nina). Emily arrived on Thursday night so that she would be ready for her early classes on Friday. I flew in after work on Friday to join Emily and her classmates just in time for dinner in downtown SF. On Saturday, Emily went to class and Renee had to work, so Danny and I took the girls out for a little walk at Lands End. For being early December, the weather was amazing: 55 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky! It's nice to be able to walk around in the winter with a mere sweatshirt. Sorry Midwestern people...I just don't miss those winters (if I want to enjoy snow, I can just go to the mountains).

The girls and I at Lands End (with a distant view of the Golden Gate Bridge)

We had lunch at a little bistro on the beach and watched the surfers maneuver the rough waves.

On Sunday, we all went to watch Naomi's dance recital. Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and hung out at home with the girls. We got them a Play-dough set for Christmas:

the Play-dough set for the, ahem, kids

OK, I admit, that stuff is still awesome to play with. :)

Nina shows off her masterpiece: a multicolor Play-dough ice cream cone

Of course the trip was not complete without some famous San Tung wings, so we ordered take-out and munched them down before having to leave for the airport. Our trip was ever so brief, and we were back home in Portland on Sunday night so that we could face the real world on Monday morning.

Thanksgiving

We had our 4th Thanksgiving in Portland. Wow, I cannot believe how fast the years are rolling by. Our tradition is to host a Thanksgiving dinner at our home for all of our friends who are stuck in Portland, away from their families. This year we had 12 people to help eat our 26 lb turkey (OK, technically only 11 people since one was vegetarian). Needless to say, we had plenty of leftovers. It was great to spend time with our long-time friends, The Kerns (and Zoe), as well as with our newer friends from Emily's MBA program. It's also rewarding to see our different circles of friends mix and become friends with each other as well.
We were hoping for some potential excitement, since our good friend Courtney was in attendance and due to have her baby anytime (update: she gave birth on 11/28/11 to 8lb 15 oz Owen....congrats C&C!).

starting from L and going CW: Apu, Courtney, Charlie, Susan, Em, Alvin, Trami, Hiep, Deepak, Matt, Kristina

Thanksgiving would not be complete if the guys were not escaping the kitchen to watch football in the living room

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Thanksgiving. It is great to have such a wonderful group of friends!

Dad's Recovery, a visit to Ohio

I went back home to Ohio to visit my parents. My Dad has been recovering quite well since having his brain hemorrhage and surgery last summer. He has regained most of his motor skills and can do most "everyday" tasks. His speech has come back, but he still struggles with vocabulary and has some memory loss. His main obstacles are reading and writing. It has been tough on my Mom to provide the support he demands for his condition. On top of being primary caregiver, my Mom is also trying to keep the family businesses going. I commend my Dad for all of his efforts to recover, and I commend my Mom for her patience with the process. It is tough being far away from family during times like these. I went home for the weekend to try and provide my Mom just even a little respite. It was great to spend so much 1:1 time with my Dad. I don't think I have ever spent that much time with just him and I together. Usually when I am in town, I am rushing around to see old friends and cramming in as much as I can. This weekend was all about taking it slow and easy, at Dad's pace. A great deal of bonding ensued.

One project Dad has invested a great deal of his time in (before his health issues) has been the Garber Farm. The Garber family was gracious enough to donate their home and 113 acres of land to the county for use as a historical exhibit and park. My Dad was monumental with getting additional funding lined up and organizing the key projects required to turn the donated land into a park. Through collaboration with the local boyscout troops, they cleared brush and constructed a handicap-accessible boardwalk so that all may enjoy the natural beauty of the woods. They even added an ecologically friendly Eloo outhouse. The Eloo is an evaporative system that uses no water, electricity, or chemicals and does not discharge any sewage, chemicals, or odors into the environment. Wow, maybe my parents have been listening to my west-coast green preaching. :)

Dad on the boardwalk he help build, making the park into a handicap-accessible area


the boardwalk trail culminates at a 200-300 year old oak tree

The house itself tells a story of a forgotten past. When it was donated to the Park District, it seemed to be stuck in time. It had not been inhabited for many decades, and harbored some interesting relics. The Park District did a great job at securing donations to help restore not only the home, but the antiques inside.

the old Garber Farm house

an antique wheel chair found in the home

the Edison phonograph caught my eye as it is quite similar to the one that resides in our home
(I inherited an original Edison phonograph from my great-grandmother)

The rest of weekend plans included going to therapy, hanging out at the house, and taking Dad to the music store. One of the most amazing things about Dad's brain injury is that, even though he forgot how to read, write, and do most basic skills, he somehow retained his ability to play the drums. From my rough calculations, I figure he has been playing the drums for almost 50 years. It was great to hear that he did not lose this skill because it is something that he truly enjoys. He often joked when we were growing up that most doctors play golf, while his "golf" is drumming. I think that it is very important that he keeps drumming during his recovery; not only will it help rebuild motor skills and coordination, but I think it is important for his self esteem and morale. He often gets frustrated when he cannot perform daily tasks that used to be commonplace. So maybe drumming can give him an escape where he can immerse himself in a skill in which he is still proficient. Since his current drumset currently resides at the church and he is still not able to drive, we (all of us kids) decided to buy him another drumset to use at home. For Mom's sanity, we got him a practice pad set so that it would not be too loud in the house. From the sound of things, it has already gotten good use.

here's one from the archives: This is my Dad's band, The Blue Royals, from when he was in High School. They performed mostly Beatles and Eagles covers. Although I was not present during that era, I did get a chance to hear them perform live when they got back together to play for their 25th year class reunion.

As we are in the Thanksgiving season, I want to give an extra special thanks to the doctors and nurses who saved my Dad's life. They did a superb job with the surgery. I realize they are probably rewarded with high compensation, but sometimes I think that they do not get the true credit they deserve. To save, repair, and extend a human life has got to be one of the most valuable skills a person could ever obtain. I want to thank my Mom for noticing the early warning signs and taking action (even if it was against Dad's initial will to go the hospital). Mom also deserves an ongoing thanks from all of us for helping him through the long recovery phase. I can't think of a Thanksgiving when I have had so much to be thankful for.