Beach House

This post is a little late seeing as this was at the end of May. I just got busy with studying for Canadian boards (which I passed!) and recent travels to post.

Memorial day long weekend, a few of us from class headed to the Washington Coast to stay at one of our professors beach house. We left on a Saturday morning for the 2.5 hour drive. Brian, Mark and myself were off by about 10am even though the plan was to leave by 9. I can admit it was me that was late this time.

Myself, Mark and Brian

We made a little stop in Astoria for lunch at the "Wet Dog Astoria Brewing Company". We sat outside in the sun while sipping on samples of beer and eating clam chowder and left right as it started to rain.

 

Once we made it out to the beach house we went for a walk on the beach. I could spend all day at the beach just running in and out with the waves or sitting on the sand, there is just such a positive energy the ocean gives off! That evening we had barbecued oysters followed by a BBQ and games.

The rest of the weekend involved plenty of eating, walks, more eating, looking at eagles and watching the sun set. A really nice break from the rush of the city. 

Coeur D'Alene

I am currently in Coeur D'Alene listening to an announcer yell off " You are an Ironman!" over and over again as runners make it through the finish line. It is really a spectacular event and how much goes in it is really amazing. I have been here for three days now with a group of chiropractors treating the athletes at the ART tent. These athletes are really amazing (and a little crazy), the amount of time, money and effort that have put in to being here is quiet impressive. The event itself is a 2.4mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2mile run totaling 140.6 miles all in one day.

I have a whole bunch of pictures that I will add to this post soon.

Century

We made it to the beach! 104 miles from Beaverton to Pacific city!

The ride was a lot of fun and I couldn't have done it without Brian, Becky and Margie all taking their share of the work. We set a pretty good pace the whole way but made short breaks at all the rest stops.  There were rest stops almost every 15-20 miles and each stop had plenty  of treats to keep us going. At some of the rest stops we weren't even really hungry but were snacking for the sake of snacks being around.  Definitely happy with my first century and am excited to get some more long rides in soon! Blue B performed well with her new fancy blue stripped tires and nobody in the group had any technical bike problems on the ride! Good thing seeing as I did not bring a spare tube or pump with me.

Weekend around PDX

A few weeks ago a couple of my good friends came to visit, (Kalya coming from Nashville and her sister, Tai, driving up from San Francisco). They both made it in on Thursday night and I had a weekend of activities planned out! I say activities but all the places I had mapped out involved food, either happy hours, breakfast places or dessert places! Those three things involve some of my favorite things to do in Portland so why not share it with friends!

We managed to do a pretty good tour of the whole city. We started with the SE (my neighborhood) and went for a nice lunch on Friday at the "Bread and Ink Cafe". A great little restaurant with a somewhat french take on the menu. We followed the afternoon wondering down Hawthorne and Belmont to window shop and grabbed a mini cupcake at "St Cupcakes"- I went for the red velvet as I can't seem to turn down cream cheese icing these days.

I directed the girls off to Powells Book store in the NW as I went back to school for an exam. We met back up in the Pearl at Henry's for a simple pub like evening and ended the night with Voodoo donuts.

Saturday was filled with more Portland classics. We headed to the SW to "Mother's Bistro" for breakfast, followed by a nice stroll through the Saturday market and than made our way up to the PSU farmers market. We sampled everything from the cheese curds to the lavendar infused caramel! Yum. My favorite sample of the day was the fresh apply juice!

We headed back to the NW to check out the shops and went for a late lunch/happy hour at "Jo Bar". I had never been to this restaurant and we were all really happy with our choices with a lot of variety around the table. You really can't turn down happy hour prices for such great food, and I really liked the presentation of it all.

With such a busy morning and afternoon we went back to my place to just relax for a an hour while we came up with a plan for the evening. The original plan was to tackle three dessert places in a row. First crepes at "Le Happy" followed by Waffles at the "Waffle Window" and finish the night with pastries at "Pix". Well the plan fell through after we ordered two sweet crepes and needed something savory in between. So we found ourselves at "Bridgeport Brewery" for a late dinner and a sampler tray of beer.

We finished off the busy weekend with a Sunday hike/walk in Forest park from Lower Macleay Park to Pittock mansion. It was such a beautiful day out so the trail was busy with families, dogs and the regular runners. We ended the hike with my Forest park tradition of treats at Boulangerie de St Honere but this time we had lunch first before dessert at Kenny and Zukes.

The view of Mount Hood from Pittock Mansion

That evening headed over to the Alberta district for happy hour at "Ciao Vito" and of course we couldn't forget dessert so grabbed some slices of pie from "Random Order" coffee shop (another one of my favorites in Town)!

Definitely an awesome weekend with great friends and good food!!

Mileage..

Again this year I have signed up for the American Lung Associations ride "Reach the Beach". Last year my friend Margie and I did the 55 mile (88km) distance and this year we thought we should do the full distance of 104 miles!! (167km). I also convinced a few other friends (Brian and Becky) to join along! To make this possible I have been trying to put in more mileage, trying to follow some of Cyrus' exact advice "more time in the saddle!". This has been challenging with continuous exams at school and the weather being well...continuous rain. I have told the group that if the day of the ride is a wet rainy day I will meet them at the beach in my friendly purple van! Riding in the rain for such a long distance is just really no fun at all. But that being said that doesn't mean we haven't had some sunny days and great rides!

On the weekends we have been trying to fit in at least one long ride. These long rides often involve hills. I am trying to get over my dislike of hills and I know they are often worth a great view. Like this past ride up the historical highway along the Columbia river gorge.

B-Blue not shying from the view of the Columbia Gorge

A few weeks ago we happened to stop at this colourful sight!

I will update you on the next two weeks before the ride. This weekend being wet and windy a postponed ride is in the works for a hopeful dry Tuesday.

Busy busy! Fall is here!

Again I have slowed down on posting on here.
I had all these good intentions but once school picked up it was really hard to just sit down and type about my trip which felt so long ago.

It took a couple of weeks to get back into school mode (well not sure I am in school mode or not-but I have to be there). We have started the initial clinic phase of the program, this is exciting but also a little stressful as next quarter I will be right in the clinic treating student patients and doing freshman physicals on new students!

Back in Portland I am trying to take advantage of the nice weather when it is around and I have also started climbing lots. Just been indoor climbing so far but it has been a great time. I am trying to climb 3 times a week and so far with my schedule it is working out! I have never really experienced something like climbing before with such a mental and physical challenge! I love it! Hopefully can get outside before the real winter comes, thinking of heading to Smith Rock with some friends soon! Last weekend a bunch of us participated in the "Muddy Buddy" race! Phil and I were team McMuddyRoo!We were up real early to drive out to Estacada area to McIver state park and get ready for the race. This event was awesome, but very very cold. I started the bike component while Phil ran and than moved on to the first obstacle which was the low crawl. Than I started running and Phil grabbed the bike and we kept alternating until we reached the mud pit which we crossed as a team! The other obstacles involved balancing beams, a small climbing wall and an inflatable slide! My fingers didn't feel warm until we were back in the car driving back to Portland. A great race but brrr!
After rinsing off with the very cold water. We warmed up with some beer and snacks and waited around for the medal ceremonies!!
The following weekend a few of us headed to the "Roloff Farms" (from the TV show- Little People Big world). We went to buy pumpkins from their pumpkin patch! It was a gloomy day in Portland but we convinced the guys to head out and we all had a great time. We finished the evening with dessert waffles for dinner from the waffle window! Yum yum! What a great festive day!

Lots of Pumpkins!
Julia, myself and Sonia!

Back from the UK

The trip was amazing! Three weeks was a perfect amount of time. I stayed with great friends and was welcomed in all their homes! It is so nice travelling and staying with friends! It feels more like a home away from home.

Week 1 in London and Wales :
I flew into London and met up with Marlene and Bronwyn (who both swam with me in Edmonton). We stayed with Marlene who is working in London as a high school English teacher. Trying not to nap and overcome the jet lag Bronwyn and I headed out to see the Tower of London. We spent more than 4 hours there, wondering around, taking a detailed tour by one of the Beefeaters and viewing the crown jewels and armory. Headed home for a little BBQ and enjoyed an early evening and bed by 9pm.

The next two days in London were filled with checking off all the tourist sights. We went on a walking tour, went to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar square, the London Eye (didn't go on it), London bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Shakeapeare's Globe theatre (where we watched the play Henry IV - and had to leave early because we got too cold), Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Harrods, St James Park and made it to the Nottinghill Carnival parade.

Each evening we were pretty tired so settled in at home and watched a couple of episodes of Mad Men. A great way to end the busy days in London.

Monday at 2pm we were off to Swansea, Wales where Bronwyn lives. She works at the university of Swansea and Monday was a holiday and she took Tuesday off as well so she could show me around for the day. Monday evening we did some groceries and than watched cheesy movies set in Ireland to prepare for my coming week.

Tuesday we headed up to the Gower, a beautiful national park area where people go hiking, surfing, picnicking and to watch the sheep of course. Up to this point the weather was really amazing! Barely saw any clouds and wore my sandals most of the time!

Wednesday I was off to Bristol on my own to explore the city and than was leaving for Dublin the next morning.
I will give you the details of Bristol (really the Bristol aiport in my next post.

Here are the pictures of London, Swansea and Bristol!