Moving to California Part 1 - Fun in Ithaca

Oh, hello there.  I didn't see you come in.  Looks like you've arrived just in time for me to regale you with the tale of my recent move from Boston to San Francisco.  THAT'S RIGHT, CHUMPS.  Another road trip story.  Enjoy my journal entries.  DO IT.


Sunday 7/27/14 - Boston
Tomorrow begins my adventure into a new life on the West Coast.  I begin the first leg of my drive to San Francisco, bidding Boston goodbye after living here for 10 wonderful years.  It has been a bittersweet buildup, but I think today's rainy weather is a reflection of my own emotions right now.  I'm excited to move and to start a new adventure in an amazing new city in California (one that won't have as many rainy days), but I'm terrified and sad to leave my life and friends here.  Not to mention I will now be on the other side of the country from my parents and sister in Philly.  It is extremely bittersweet.
My last day at GE was a few weeks ago, and while I'm excited for my new job, it was slightly sad to leave the job I've had over six years.  The only real job I've ever had.  But it will be an amazing career opportunity doing some really cool things with rockets!
During my funemployment, I've tried to knock some things off my Boston bucketlist, and have done a pretty damn good job of it.  I finally painted the Tufts Cannon, which is a Tufts tradition that I've been looking to do for a while, and has been on my Under-30 List for quite some time.  I was also able to see my Boston friends a fair amount these last few weeks.  A final Capture the Flag game, a swim at the rooftop pool downtown, some runs, bikes, swimming, and rock climbsing (indoor AND outdoor because I "rock") all over the place, a few beach visits, and a FABAP (Finish All Boston's Alcohol Party).  I was also able to get out of town a few times: to head home to Philly, to go to Portland just to adventure around, and to NH to tube down the Saco River... with plenty of beer in tow.  There were also quite a few restaurants I made sure to experience one more time: Border (obvi), Shake Shack, Wahlburgers (yes, the Wahlbergs have a friggn burger place in Hingham), and an all-you-can-eat sushi place.  So good!
In general, I had a great time re-exploring Boston - all over the place.  From Quincy Market to Harpoon Brewery to the Mapparium.  There were some feelings flying around, reminiscing at all my important spots around the city, but made me glad to know what a great life I've lived here.  Looking at the entire city out at Spectacle Island one last tie reminded me why I love this city.  Looking at the entire surrounding area from Top of the Hub one last time reminded me of all the amazing times I've had here.  So yes, I'm sad to leave.  But the flip side to this unhappiness is the intrigue and excitement (excititrigue) of trying it all again in a new place.
Tonight I will say my final goodbyes to a few great people here, and tomorrow I start on my way West.  My first stop is Ithaca, where my family is vacationing this week.  I'll enjoy a few days at the lake house they are renting.  I will also collect my sister, who has never been West of Pittsburg, to join me on this road trip.  I intend to show her a few cool things so she can see this world is a big, wonderful place with limitless opportunity for new adventures.


Monday 7/28/14 - Ithaca
Today is the day of my departure from Boston.  I woke up at 5am and started driving out to Ithaca.  It was a fairly uneventful drive through the rain (besides stopping at Stewarts for a milkshake), and I made it to my parents' lakehouse they are renting in about 6 hours.  There, I was greeted by my parents, sister, and buddy Ian.
We spent most of the day indoors on account of the rain, but it was nice to watch movies, play monopoly, and just hang out.  After a while I decided that the rain didn't matter for hot tubbing, so we just got in and had some beers.  The rain may have even made it better, who knows.  I made some ribs for dinner, and in general it was a pleasant, relaxing day.  I was, however, exhausted from what I can only assume was my early wakeup, so I hit the bed pretty hard.

Hi there Khaleesi

So majestic.  So brainless.

Tuesday 7/29/14 - Ithaca
It's Jessticle's birthday!  We celebrated with a morning of lazing.  Once again, weather isn't great, so it might be a wine tasting kind of day.  Ian had to leave early on, but we started the day off with French Toast, so that's good.

My prediction was correct; we went on a winery tour around the lake today.  I think we ended up going to four today, trying some great rieslings, the type of wine famous in the Finger Lake area.  So yeah, those were great.  We then went to Taughanaugh Inn (or however the fuck this waterfall is spelled) for Jess's birthday dinner.  It was pretty decent.  And then obviously we had a nightcap in the hot tub.

I'm a... sour grape?

LET'S GET WASTED

Wine tasting with views!

I don't remember what I got for lunch but I remember it being horrible

Wednesday 7/30/14 - Ithaca
Today started a little gray, but actually turned out to be a nice day.  Mom and Jess went into town to go shopping or whatever it is that girls do, so it was Dad, me, and Lexie swimming in the lake.

Catching our dinner.  We went to the butcher shop.

Half my DNA comes from this man right here.

What the fuck are you doing

Gawwww pretty!

At about midday I went and picked up my highschool/Tufts friend, Chelsea, who is in a PhD program at Cornell right now.  So we were able to hang out and catch up by the lake and in the hot tub.  It was great to finally have some nice weather and to see her!
At night we cooked up some great NY Strip steaks we got from the butcher in town.  So good.  Then we finished the night with some drinks in the hot tub and playing board games.



Thursday 7/31/14 - Ithaca
Another lazy, relaxing day at the lakehouse.  We spent it shifting from the lake to the hot tub to indoors to read when it started drizzling.  The weather here has been very strange the past few days.  On and off rain non-stop (50% of the time it is mixed weather all the time?).  But it was nice to relax and hang out with my parents.  They seem upset that I am leaving for the west coast because they won't see me as much, which I understand, but I tried to explain that it's still very do-able.
Right now we're making some dinner, washing clothes for the big journey ahead, and getting in my last bit of not-driving before tomorrow, when Jess and I head out westward.  After diner I'm going to meet up with Chelsea again for a drink in town.

If I fits, I sits.

I met Chelsea and her girlfriend at a pretty cool bar downtown, where they had a delicious Gold Rush beer, which is very applicable to my current situation of moving out to CA.  And the outdoor picnic area was really pretty and fun.  But after a while I had to leave to prepare for the early departure.

SF to Vancouver Adventure Part 4

This adventure is grander than I remember.  But the pictures don't lie I guess.


Tuesday 7/1/14 - Portland/Seattle
Today I woke up on Ryan's small couch and like the good friend that I am, I drove him to work.  He then gave me a tour of the Nike campus: kind of a symbiotic relationship.  It is gorgeous and has tons of great fields and facilities.  Then he went off to work or train or workout or whatever he does there, and I started on my way to Seattle.
I drove directly to Von Trapps, a German beerhall that Cronin took us to last year.  It was showing the USA World Cup game, so I met Cronin there with some of his resident friends.  The food was so good.  The game was not.  Oh well, let's go Germany.
We then went to a park/beach right on Lake Washington.  The water felt great and it had INCREDIBLE views of Rainier.  There was even a little dock with a high dive board.  Imagine jumping off a high dive with Mt. Rainier as your backdrop.  Now die because your life just peaked.

Just the view while swimming.  HOW DO YOU ADJUST TO THAT???

The adventure continued as we went to a delicious burrito place in Belmont neighborhod.  I stuffed myself with what might have been a five pound burrito (living in the Mission District in San Francisco now, this is a pretty common occurrence.  But at the time that was so magical.)  Then Cronin, his resident friends, and I went over to Gasworks Park and met up with James.  We chilled in the park for a bit with some beer; it was great hanging out with these two.  And I love that park.  Someone had the fantastic idea to turn an old gasworks facility into a beautiful park.  And it has a great view of downtown Seattle from across Lake Union.

Dat Skyline

Just a couple of champs champing it up

Gasworks!  YOU ARE ART NOW.

James, Cronin, and I then went to a dive bar with "zoo" in the name (so you know it's good) and had a few beers whist reminiscing until it was time to head home.  Such a great laid back day.  I love Seattle.


Wednesday 7/2/14 - Northern Cascades National Park
Today I got up early with Cronin and his roommate Becky.  While they went off to work, I drove the two-ish hours to North Cascades National Park.  A beautiful park in the North of Washington, near Canada.  I spent most of my day driving to various viewpoints to see sweeping vistas of these magnificent mountains.  Especially Diablo and Washington Gap overlooks.  I could stay at these two all day.  And the weather is great, so driving through the park is just a really pretty, fun time.
The river running along the main highway (where I stuck to most of the day) is home to three hydroelectric dams that help power Seattle.  These dams offer some pretty great views as well, especially since you can drive or walk over two of them.  So freaking pretty.  It's just really cool to see a work of engineering art in the midst of a gorgeous mountain range.  Hard to beat.  I basically just found myself snacking or eating lunch by the river most of the day just taking in the sights.  What a lazy bum.  Tomorrow is my day to venture forth and do some intense hikes up into the mountains.  There's still a fair amount of snow, but I should be all set with my microspikes.

I had to photoshop this to look uglier so it wouldn't completely blow your mind

SO FREAKING FUNCTIONAL

Nature makes electricity for us sometimes

It's July and that's snow over there

"Oh I didn't see you there, you caught me hanging out by this hydroelectric dam and mountain"

I started getting annoyed by all the "normal" timer pictures

Also there were random mountain goats

And some birds.  Whatever.

For now I'm just hanging out at Diablo overlook, trying to see i the sunset will be decent.
It was ok... the mountains were so close that the Sun just went behind them and didn't really go through enough atmosphere to make the really crazy colors that I'm used to at this point.  But it was still a nice night, cooking up some dinner back at camp.  I'm heading back up to Diablo overlook later at night to see how the stars look up there.
Yeah I didn't do that.  I was tired and the sky looked overcast.


Thursday 7/3/14 - Northern Cascades National Park
Today was nuts.  I hiked 18 miles today amidst some of the grandest mountains I've ever seen.  I ended my day super exhausted, but happy about that accomplishment.
I started early, driving about an hour over to Cascade Pass trail.  This requires you to leave the park and come in on a gravely, dirt road.  Thanks, that's always a fun and not-nauseating ride.  I started the hike up to Cascade Pass at about 8am, originally intending to hike up to Boston Glacier.  But the entire morning I was fogged in.  I couldn't see anything, even after the path turned to snow and I had to pop on my microspikes.  Oh well.  At least I made it to Cascade Pass... I think?  The trail kind of disappeared in the snow, and then got dangerously steep, which is where I think the trail continued to the glaciers.  Risking my life for fog wasn't worth it, so I turned around.  The views cleared a bit on my way down though, so you know, that's fun for whoever got to see that later in the day.

Wow, such a great view from up here!

That's pretty cool... it'd be nice if I could see this stuff when I was higher up maybe.  No?  Ok don't worry about it.

I then immediately drove to the town of Diablo to hike Sourdough trail, which I was advised against by a park ranger.  She didn't realize I have my microspikes though, and that I'm a complete baller.  Snow can't hold me back.  The trail description was "steep and strenuous."  No.  Fucking.  Joke.  Definitely one of the steepest trails I've hiked before.  I made fast time at first though, running up these steep switchbacks; I was motivated by the fact that I started hiking at 2pm and wanted to finish the 10.5 mile round trip hike before sunset.  It was definitely strenuous too - a lot of parts weren't maintained (I think it's too early in the season possibly), so I was climbing over a lot of downed trees.
And then I got to where the snow started.  Kind of scary, because the trail just disappeared beneath the snow.  But I saw a pair of boot tracks, so I followed wherever that guy went.  There was supposed to be some sort of fire lookout at the end of the trail, but nope, I never found that.  Instead, I followed my mystery guide's tracks around through a snowy meadow and up a steep, STEEP incline to the top of a mountain.  I was worried on multiple occasions that I would slip, which would have resulted in me sliding down the entire fucking slope to the bottom of the mountain.  But I had faith in these random footprints.
I passed treeline to see some breathtaking views of the surrounding mountain ranges and the lake waaaaay down below (I think this mountain was an elevation gain of 5000 ft).  At the snowy top of the mountain is was 360 degree view surrounded by amazeballs mountains.  Surrounded.  It was beautiful and incredible.  So glad the fog had cleared.  Words can't describe the feeling of romping on top of a mountain completely surrounded by the Cascades.  Absolutely astounding.

Get out of here

So yeah just mountains in every direction

I "like" this stuff apparently

So now I have to go down there again

Meh, it's ok I guess

The trip down was certainly quicker, but not without its dangers (namely, getting lost and/or falling and breaking a leg).  With the Sun setting, I admit that a few scenarious that would end in me dying popped up in my head.  Since I was on the trail alone (I literally didn't see another person the entire hike), it wouldn't take much.  A broken leg, a random slip, or just getting lost in the snowy, trail-less area would certainly be it for me.  I shook those fears off.  Sliding down the snow was quick, nothing would stop me until I hit a tree at mach speed.  I pondered this when I noticed the Sun creating a perfect rainbow circle in the sky, thanks to the thin mist of cloud above me.  I couldn't take a picture of it, so I will have to remember it as a truly unique and awesome sight.
The remainder of the hike down, past the snow sections, were very tiring (it was a long way up).  My dogs were barking beyond any level dogs had previously barked in all history.  So glad to take my soaking wet boots off.
I combined my dinner with my new campsite neighbors, which is great, because i'm down to half a bag of raisins and a can of beans.  Plus it's good to have someone to talk to.  Back to Seattle tomorrow.
One last note about the North Cascades in general - there is no reception for radio stations in most places.  Literally no stations.  I can press the "seek" button and it will scan through the entire frequency range and keep looping until I stop it.  I hadn't seen that before.


Friday 7/4/14 - Seattle
I got up early and started my way toward what I assumed was Seattle.  I didn't have reception for most of the drive, so i was driving blind (in terms of directions, not vision.  That would be a horrible way to drive).  But hey I made it, so everyone wins.  I met up with James in Capitol Hill at a bar to watch a couple World Cup games.
I met some of his friends, and at this point had enough beers in me to decide to join them as they took a ferry over to Bainbridge to watch fireworks.

Sweet views from the ferry

More of those same exact sweet views but actually different views

Just a couple of champions riding a boat

EVERY FREAKING TIME with this thing!

Now we're on the other side of the Sound because TECHNOLOGY

Drinks were had, fireworks happened, the view of Seattle was insane - it was just a blast.  We had to make the last ferry over, but had enough time to hop into the Sound for a swim.  I also got slightly lost on my way back to Cronin's.  But nothing crazy, just hitchhiking for an hour and hopping into an Uber car that was not at all meant for me.  It was a grand day overall.


Caturday 7/5/14 - Vancouver
And today was the day that I took a hungover drive up to Vancouver, British Columbia with Cronin.  It is only a 2.5 hour drive... depending on how long the wait at the Canadian border is... so it's actually way way longer.
But hey we made it... to Canada!  Our hotel, however, was in the absolute worst part of Vancouver.  Shoddy buildings and completely insane people.  A LOT of homelessness.  So yeah we were experiencing some trepidation as we started exploring the city.  But by the time we reached the Gaslight district the city looked pretty nice.
Our first task was to immediately find some food because we were starving.  So we ate a ton of Japanese food and then had a drink at the brewpub down by the harbor (Canada spells it "harbour" though).  Whistler beer.  The port area was beautiful.  We walked around for a good long while and went to the Vancouver Lookout, grabbing a beverage while checking out some cool views of the city as the restaurant revolved 360 degrees.

Cronin's gonna Crone

And then some Olympic torch thingy thing

That's something too!

Pretty good setting for a Bloody Mary

And then there's this spheroid that is possibly vaguely museum related

We walked around a ton more - we seriously walked so much today holy crap.  And then went back over to the Gaslight district for a drink and some doner kebab.  We didn't stay out too late, but had a good time with a drink here and there.  So we called it early after a long day of walking around the city.  This city reminds me of a cross between Chicago and Seattle - lots of skyscrapers made of glass in a pretty setting.


Sunday 7/6/14 - Vancouver/Seattle
Today was raining when we got up.  It's weird; the only  times I've been in the rain on this trip were one night in Yosemite and in Canada.  But it was a short day in Vancouver.  We woke up, had the shitty continental breakfast, and drove North to Stanley Park.

Vancouver in the rain - it's like regular Vancouver but with rain.

Totem Poles!

We really didn't have much impetus to walk around in the rain.  But we did end up seeing crazy totem poles and a lighthouse.  So that's good.  Anyway, after that we drove back to freedom aka the US.  And back in Seattle it was sunny and we had some delicious salmon!
Unfortunately now is the time that I have to pack.  And it is going to take some doing.  And that rental car reeks.  This redeye back to Boston is going to be tough.


Fantastic west coast road trip!  I guess it's time to start planning the next one.

SF to Vancouver Adventure Part 3

Fun fact: reading this means you are indebted to me for life.

And now for the solo portion of the trip.


Friday 6/27/14 - Northern California Coast
I woke to the smell of PANCAKES.  Jimmy had cooked us breakfast (can you believe this guy?) as we cleaned ourselves once again and packed.  Then finally some down time to watch a little TV while Jimmy worked from home and we waited for Kyle and Amanda's flight.  It was all too quick though; I drove them to the airport for our final, tearful goodbye.  Fairwell you magnificent bastards.
And then my solo adventure began.  The rest of the day was just me driving.  All day.  From noon until 10pm.  It was both fun and exhausting.  It started through San Francisco, which had some aggressive traffic.  I am not looking forward to that when I move there (hah! joke's on me, I deal with that all the time now!).  Then across the Golden Gate and on to CA-1, which I drove the entire way up the coast North (until it merged with Rt. 101, which I drove into the Redwoods).
I had a few nice stops along the way: Hog Island Oysters, where I had a few delicious, fresh oysters and beer, Stinson Beach (the water was cold!), and Point Reyes Seashore: all tremendous places.

This bridge.  EVERY. FREAKING. TIME.

Yumfest 2k14

Oh hey I found those sunglasses in Yosemite!

And the drive is beyond gorgeous, so I obviously stopped plenty of times for beach overlooks.  After a while though (several hours), the twists and turns started getting to me.  But I powered through.
HOURS later, I finally made it into Redwoods National Park, which seems to be just an amalgamation of state parks all tied together.  Very strange.  Before the Sun set I was able to get a few cool views of the area: the entire landscape was covered with evergreens.  It was beautiful.  And the "highway" turned into a scenic tour where I was literally surrounded by enormous Redwood trees.  Not as wide as Sequoias, but taller.  Holy crap so tall.
I stopped for shitty fast food and was way too tired to be driving, but I did manage to make it to my campsite.  Luckily this is the one night that I had booked ahead of time, so it was there waiting for me.  It was so late when I arrived and I was so tired that I just decided to sleep in the backseat of the car.  So much for camping.


Caturday 6/28/14 - Redwoods and Lassen Volcanic
I woke up in the car at sunrise, but the area was overcast, so I slept in half an hour (what a badass).  Then at 6am I started touring the Redwoods area near me: Elk Prairie.  I found out why it was named this when I exited the campground passing a field full of elk.  Pretty cool.  I drove over to Gold Bluffs Beach and walked around for a bit on the beach.  It was nice, but a little foggy that early in the morning.
I then took a scenic drive through some very impressive Redwood groves, a a few walks here and there.  I was making my way toward Crescent City, the northern part of the park which had a lighthouse and a few really interesting beach/harbor areas.  It reminded me of New England with the water on the wrong side.
At 9am I started my way back down south through the park, backtracking to catch the 299-East highway to head to Lassen Volcanic National Park, my next destination.  Also I had some reception, so I was finally able to talk to my parents!  Yay!

Mr. Rental Car enjoying some redwood shade

This is normal

Dinobombing the redwood forest?

Oh there are beaches too.  I do not understand: this state has it all.

This looks like a regular house that someone just said "btw you're a lighthouse now." "ok."

The drive back through the Redwoods was gorgeous, but unexpectedly the eastern highway was also really pretty.  It went through Shasta-Trinity forest, so I had a few views of Mt. Shasta and happened upon a pretty cool lake, Whiskeytown Lake.  I stopped for lunch by a river that followed the highway and decided a little dip in the water couldn't hurt.  Yes it could, if it were surrounded by thorns.  Blackberry thorns.  I scarfed down every single ripe berry as retribution for my thorn stabbings.  So I got a good swim in and a ton of blackberries at the cost of a few thorn scratches: good deal to me.
After a bit more driving I made it to Lassen Volcanic, a park dedicated to the second most recent volcano eruption on the US mainland.  Lassen blew in 1914, so a lot of the plant life has returned at this point.  I got in at 3:30, so I had a fair amount of the day to use.  I got a campsite right away at the northern section of the park, Lake Manzanita.  Then I immediately took off for some high-speed adventuring.  Saw a few high elevation ponds here and there (most of the park is between 6000 and 10,000 ft), then I took a swim in Lake Helen - a glacial lake.  It was so cold.  But so freaking refreshing.
The road basically circled the volcano, so I was able to get a good view of it from every direction as I explored - it was pretty interesting.  There are still a few snow fields at the higher regions and you can see the little plug where the eruption first occurred.  After the swim I hiked down to Bumpass Hell, which is a sulpher-spewing area with vents and bubbling pits.  It reminded me a lot of Yellowstone.  Especially the smell.  Yum.
Then I hiked up the Lassen Peak trail, but only so far; the upper region was still closed for winter(?).  So I went up part way and then "didn't" continue my way up and then "didn't" summit.  Because there were signs and gates that said it was closed.  And that would be dangerous.

Somebody hasn't been paying their heating bills because that water was very cold.

[poundsign]volcanoselfie

It's ok I guess

Ugh, moooooove geese; I'm trying to take a picture

That object on the right was either a log or two very drunk, very wet guys on inner tubes paddling back after a day of fishing.

After "not" climbing to the top, I drove back to Lake Manzanita for sunset.  It was beautiful over the lake and was surrounded by Canadian Geese.  Then I fired up my new stove and pasta'd it up before bed.  What a day.


Sunday 6/29/14 - Crater Lake
I decided to try for sunrise again today, waking up and packing up by 5:15am.  I stayed near Manzanita Lake to watch the Sun rise over the lake.  After splashing into the river crossing and getting wet and dirty, I eventually found a nice place to see some cool colors, but unfortunately the elevation wasn't right to see the Sun.  So I left the park, heading North toward Crater Lake National Park.
The entire drive was really pretty.  Basically it circled Mt. Shasta.  I took a few pictures, but other than that the drive was pretty quick and easy; I got to the park at about 10:30am.  I drove in the South entrance and grabbed a campsite at the South of the rim.  I am setting records for my tent construction speed.  Then I sped off to the East side of the rim drive.  Well, as far as I could; part of the East rim drive  was closed for snow.  I was still able to see a waterfall and the view of Phantom Ship, which is a rock outcropping in the lake that kind of sort of looks like a boat maybe.  But it was my first view of the lake fro the rim: it was incredible.  So blue.  So intensely blue.  And clean and clear.  The story behind Crater Lake is that it used to be a volcano that erupted almost 8000 years ago.  It then collapsed in on itself, and rain/snow gradually filled the crater.

Um wut

Holy hell

I'm actually frozen in that position; this is not a pose

I put my beer in that snow to cool down

Oh man that is just ridics

So here I was staring at this insanely blue lake from the rim of an enormous crater.  So amazing.  I stopped off at a few more overlooks along my drive around the western part of the rim drive.  I stopped for a hike up to Garfield Peak, which offered some more ridiculous views.  And butt sledding.  Then I drove to the North side of the lake to hike down to the water.  Not a bad little walk.  The water temperature was 51 degrees, so naturally I jumped off a high rock into the lake a few times.  So freaking refreshing.  I've really started to get into this cold water swimming thing.
Now, I have a few hours before sunset, so I'm going to hang out at the Watchman overlook and wait for it.  With snacks and beer.  You can't really beat the view.

The jacket is to avoid the mosquitoes

This. Freaking. Sunset.

Eeeeeeeasy

SO MANY MOSQUITOES

What is going on with that sky?

Whatever.  I just don't even get it anymore.

Whelp.  That sunset was unbelievable.  The rim is such that you see the actual Sun setting on one side of the lookout, and the shadows and colors playing out on the lake and across the rim on the other side.  Might be the best sunset I've ever witnessed.  Except there were about a billion mosquitoes.  Oh well.  Now it's time to race down to my campsite and get ready for sunrise.


Monday 6/30/14 - Portland, OR
Ah, the land of Portlandia.  That was my destination this day.  But first I had to get there.  I woke up super early, took down my camp, and drove up to the Watchman Overlook for sunrise.  Are you shitting me?  It was yet again spectacular.  The colors and shadows around the crater rim were unbelievable.  Not a bad way to start the day.

I mean really, we have the atmosphere to thank most of all

That's it.  Stare directly into the rising Sun.  That's good for the old eyeballs.

The drive to Portland, OR was actually really short and easy (relative to some of my other drives).  I didn't have reception, and therefore didn't have maps, for most of the drive, but I basically drove North and West through the mountains until I did finally get reception.  Ryan Jacobs, my buddy/housemate who is temporarily working and living in Portland, is who I'm bunking with tonight, but he was at work (internship at Nike) when I arrived.  The guy is great though, because he gave me his key so I could shower (first one in sooooo long), and I started exploring on my own.
The first mission of the day was to get food.  I stopped at a place called Tilt, which had good, heaping mounds of food and some good local beers.  The guy serving me was like "whoa, starting early" at my beer request.  It may only be 11am, but I've been up for about a million hours.  Give me a break.  With that said, that beer did a number on my stomach.  Could be a combination of no alcs in a week and a really weird diet up to now.
My next task was to go find a beer garden to watch the Germany World Cup game.  I talked to a few Portlanders at what seemed like a cool place (flags everywhere surrounding a bunch of school-bus-converted-to-outdoor-bar kind of things: super Portlandy).  They were incredibly friendly, but this city is definitely a bit odd.  A place where young people go to retire.  So yeah - strange and friendly.  Germany won, so that's good.
Then I walked around a bit in the Pearl District and Washington Park, which has a rose garden that maybe my Mom would go crazy for.  At this point, Ryan got back from work and it was time to get a guided tour of more of the downtown area.  We got some pizza, went to a few brewpubs, went to a bar-cade (arcade that is also a bar: how are these not everywhere yet?) with tons of classic games.  It was a blast.  At the top of a hotel we got some drinks on a roofdeck bar and saw the city from a decent vantage point.  All-in-all a pretty fantastic evening around town, and it was good to hang out with Jacobs.

It's called a camera.  No need to get cranky.

Portlands gonna Port