CANADIA, VEGAS, AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF (SERIOUSLY, IT'S A LOT)

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This little post is a SUUUUUUUPER late write-up of stuff that's happened post-Boracay 2017. This is gonna cover a lot of stuff, so if you've got more time than sense, feel free to trudge on through. If not, well, not sure what to tell you.

Family in Town!!!

Right after I got back from Boracay, my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew made their first trip out to the PNW as an expanded family! It's a good thing I didn't change up my return back home, because not only that, but little Peewee decided (with the help of Mom) to surprise us all and join us for a grand 'ole Easter weekend!

The whole weekend was quite a blur. We had some fun, ate a ton of food (don't worry, my world famous macaroni salad made an appearance), and just got to spend some quality time together as a family! I also got to show my whole family my office, and all the cool trucks we've got in the shop. On a bit of a sad note, since we were finally all in the same place, we were able to put our good 'ole dog Dude to rest at a nearby park.

Well, as this was the first time that we were all together as a family, it was a great time! The big benefit, as I mentioned, we just had a ton of time to be together. No itinerary, no events, no timeline, just hanging around at home as a family and relaxing. It was absolutely wonderful!

Another Work Trip

As is always the case, we had a quarterly test workshop at the end of April. Nothing too crazy about this one. We drove some trucks, tested some systems, and all that jazz. The one unique part of it was that I learned how to drive a manual truck.

Most of the trucks we test are what's called an automated manual. It's essentially like an automatic transmission in a car (as in you don't have to touch a thing and the vehicle will shift gears). But the internals of the transmission behave a little different. But due to the chaotic plan of that workshop, there were trucks all over the place, and I had to drive a manual truck back from Madras after the first week.

Well, driving a manual semi tractor is a whooooooooooole different ball game than a manual car. The whole matching of RPMs, a much wider range of gears and speeds, and a whole bunch of other influences make it quite a trick. One fun part though is that you don't necessarily need to use the clutch. You can slip-shift, which is just moving the shifter around and getting into gear simply by matching RPMs. That was pretty fun. Luckily enough, I didn't have to pull a trailer. And, it was a pretty straightforward drive.

Back on the Board

Kind of a shitty situation, but I pulled/strained my right quad playing frisbee during spring league. The shittiest part of it was that it happened during the very first game of the season. Bummer. I did my best in resting it and trying to rehab it, and I owe a lot of the speed and quality of the recovery to biking! Thank goodness I'm living close to work, because it makes it a helluva lot easier to get in some biking with my schedule and lack of motivation to exercise. Boom!

Well, during my recovery, I got an invite by my good friends Alex, Alisha, Brad, and Kelly, to head up with them to Mt. Hood Meadows for the second-to-last weekend on the mountain for 2017. Alex had a leftover buddy-pass from his season ticket, so he roped me along to use it up. What a treat! The weird part, I hadn't been snowboarding since high school, about 10 years prior. So not only was I out of the game for a while, but I was still nursing a bit of an injury.

Throwing caution to the wind, I eagerly went up for a grand ole time. Thankfully I had some hamstring wraps that I tightened all up on my leg. Luckily enough, it all worked like a charm! We did a few runs, went all the way to the top and then screamed on back down. Holy crap it was awesome to ride again! The crunch of the snow under the board, the white snow and sunshine beaming down, it was all such a great reminder of how much fun it is!

After about 6 runs or something like that, I could tell I had to stop. My legs were hurting from working hard, thankfully not from getting torn apart again. But by the time I was feeling it in my legs, the snow started to get a little too mushy for riding, so we all headed down to the main lodge to grab a drink and watch the pond skim!

That was a fun event to watch. Tons of people in costumes, one contestant was actually two people strapped to the same skis, and a lot of shenanigans going down.

Here's a selfie. A rare thing from me.

May - The Best Month of the Year

This statement is true for many reasons. And that statement also held up in a few big ways this year.

New Digs

The first (in chronological order) big, awesome event involved a move. It was very much a spur of the moment occurrence, but I ended up moving from my room to a new apartment! I was looking around on craigslist, and there was one place that didn't have any pictures of the inside, so I scheduled a viewing. I got there, and it was 700+ square feet of single bedroom goodness, still in a great part of town close to everything.

I didn't really have it in my game-plan to find a place, but at such a reasonable price for so much space in a good area of town, I had to pounce. One week later, with the help of my amazing mommy, I moved into my own apartment for the first time ever!!! Needless to say, I was and still am super stoked about it. All the space I could think of to do whatever I want with. So. Awesome.

During my times moving around for the CAReer program, yes, I lived in my own place in Tokyo and Karlsruhe, but this new apartment is something a little more special. For the first time I'm paying for (unfortunately, but no one else said they'd foot the bill) an apartment that only I am in, and all of my stuff is there too. That's a key one, because most of my stuff has been in storage for the last few years as I've bounced around. So having my own place with all of my stuff as a place to call home, it's quite an awesome feel!

The first major thing I did was, about a week after I moved in, I had Mommy over as my first dinner guest! That's one thing I've been excited to be able to do is have people over. It was an honor to have such a great lady over to start things off right with a healthy 'ole plate of Sloppy Joes!!!

The second fun dinner party involved the lovely likes of Sam, Morgan, Drew, and McKenna. Not only did we feast on more Sloppy Joes, but I busted out the good 'ole world-famous Tilson Macaroni Salad to go with some Dom Perignon (happy House Warming Drew and McKenna!!!) and a board game. Cheers to you lovely folks!!!

One of the other major things I was excited for involved a lot of bubble-wrap, newspaper, and glass. If you followed me through Germany at all, I became somewhat of a kleptomaniac in regards to beer glasses. Throughout my time in Germany, and the through the rest of my travels since, I've collected a good amount of glassware. Here's the total stash I had to unpack, as well as the boatload of packing stuff needed for it.

In total, I think it was something on the order of 137 glasses. That is a shit-ton. There was no way my small amount of cupboard space could handle all of that, and to be honest, some of it was just overkill. It was a tough process, but I weeded my collection down to my favorites, getting rid of just around half. But now my collection is still full of memories and quality drinkware. Come on by for a beer and see for yourself!!!

The project I was most excited about getting to with my new place, however, involved a bunch of photos. All throughout my travels, I've taken a good few pictures. And all throughout those travels, I've envisioned putting my favorites up on the wall of whatever domicile I resided in. Now, with my own place, it was FINALLY time to do it!!!

It has taken me quite a while to get this plan and project under way. To start, I found some frames on Amazon that I liked, and got a few of them to see what they're all about. I liked the look (solid black frame), and decided four wasn't quite enough. But with the four, I had a good start with what I was looking to do. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get the rest, but with the first four I started the design on the main wall.

Eventually, the rest of the frames arrived. I filled out the design above with five more frames, three portait orientation on the bottom row, and two more in landscape along the top row. I attached them to the wall and my design was complete! Except now I needed pictures.

I'm not sure why it took me so long to get them, but I finally got some pictures printed out! Well, one reason it took my so long to get them printed out was because I had to figure out WHICH ones I wanted to print out. Looking back on them, it was a cool realization to see how many of my pictures were print-out ready. But somehow I whittled it down to the top pics, and headed to Costco to make them tangible.

Weirdly enough, this was the first time that I'd printed any of my pictures (I kinda wanted to say 'work' here, but I'm no artist). And I've got to say, it was a really cool experience. When I pulled them out of their folder and saw the picture in real, large form, it really made the coolness tangible too. I took those pictures, this was my artwork that I created with a camera. Pretty fucking cool.

The only thing left was to put them in the frames. In addition to the main 9-piece work, I had three extra frames, so I put up two in the dining room, and one in the kitchen. I gotta say, it's a cool feeling to have this idea finally come to fruition. Everyone that's come over has looked at them and admired, and it's cool to be able to talk about the trips and experiences behind the pictures. BUT, you'll have to come over and visit to see what's hanging on the walls!!! :-)

Anyways, I still am a total bachelor. Despite having the place mostly setup (shoutout to Mommy for helping me put up the corkboard and sewing and installing my drapes with me!!!), I still am in need of a couch and a coffee table. Being frugal, I'm trying to do that on the cheap (read: free). It's a slow process that I haven't touched in a while, but I should probably get to that here soon.

A Mommy Birthday

As you all know, my mom is hands-down the best mom in the world. Another reason why May is so awesome is because not only is it Mother's Day, but my Mommy's Birthday!!! Unfortunately she had to work on Mother's Day and I think on her birthday too. But just so everyone else recognized how awesome she is, I made her a special name tag for her to wear at work:

From what I heard, it was a big hit. And of course, 100% the truth. You're the best Mommy!!! Here's to another year of you teaching me, Alicia, and Paula, what it means to persevere, work hard, and be such a selfless and helpful person. I love you Mom!!!

Another Birthday

All in all though, there was another pretty important day. My birthday!!! I say it's important, but I downplay it pretty good every year.

Keeping it simple and low-key, me and Sam rode around town for a bit, and ended up getting some drinks at Bunk Bar. I'd heard about this place through Leon and Alex, and they have a drink called The Iceberg which is fuuuuuucking fantastic. It's 3/4 of a pint of Rainier topped off with a margarita. So good. So me and Sam rode around to that and a few other places to have a very relaxing, enjoyable, and fun birthday. Cheers to you Sam for a great B-day ride around town!

Back to BC

The next big event that crossed my path was a visit from the lady who made my trip to Boracay. She was in the US for a couple months, and to shake things up a bit, she came out to Portland for an extended Memorial Day trip.

She flew in on a Friday night, and thankfully Spirit Airlines didn't shit the bed and cause some kind of mishap. I was super stoked to see her all that day (and week for that matter), and thankfully I had a work event in Madras to keep me busy and active for most of the day. But she got in, and the fun began.

We spent that weekend brunching and brewery-ing it up, and it was a great time. Although one downside was some super shitty service at Burnside, which is probably my favorite brewery in town. Other than that though, it was a great weekend of exploring around and showing her the awesome side (that's all there is) of Portland.

Unfortunately, I had to work for a couple of days that week. Monday and Tuesday were a bit of a blur. Work happened, but I was able to get out of the office at a somewhat reasonable time to go hang out. On Tuesday we had a nice date to a place nearby called Noble Rot for a beautiful evening of wine, delicious food, and getting schnazzed up for a bit. It was wonderful.

That next morning though, we hit the road for a good 'ole PNW road trip! Me, her, and Marvin headed out, with our first stop being the Tillamook Cheese Factory! The last time I was there was in elementary or middle school, so I was overdue for a visit. But that was her first time and as is required, we "Beheld the Power of Cheese".

From Tillamook, we drove the gorgeous drive up the coast. It was a bit of a grey day, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the Oregon Coast. In Astoria we took a nice long pit-stop, and explored the Astoria Column to get a great view of the mouth of the Columbia and watch a bunch of folks go crazy for far-flying balsa wood planes, then we went down the waterfront for a bit.

The main event was Buoy Beer Co., where we had some om-nommy food, fresh beer, warm and energizing coffee, and got a glimpse of some lazy seals through the floor in the taproom.

From our delicious vittles and visit to Buoy, we walked around the waterfront for a bit. It was still a bit cloudy, but Astoria is a very quaint, laid-back harbor town. I definitely recommend a visit if you can swing it!

Leaving Astoria behind and crossing the Mighty Columbia, we headed into Washington with a plan to make a little headway then stop for the night. We found a deal in Ocean Shores, and hit the sack after a fun day of exploration.

That next morning, as is the usual on the coast, we woke up to a foggy, overcast sky. After getting ready and checking out, we made a detour to the beach before hitting the road. It was pretty quiet out there, and it was neat to see all the seagulls go crazy for some dude feeding them bread. But after our quick jaunt along the beach, we stopped to grab some coffee, then continued North on Hwy 101.

Our drive was going super smooth. But by the time we were just about to pass Lake Quinalt, I made the quick decision to pull over and check the lake out. A quick pit-stop turned into a super-relaxing 3-hour wine and cheese lunch by the lake at the lodge. It was a beautiful day; we had a delicious bottle of wine between us; with some delicious cheese, meats, and other snacks; and it was just a perfectly relaxed and awesome way to eat, drink, and be merry.

After our delightfully long lunch break, we hit the road again. Despite growing up next to the Olympic Peninsula, I had no recollection of taking Highway 101 up around the point of the peninsula. It was quite a pretty drive though, with tiny towns spread out here and there, lots of trees and nature, and a little stretch right along the coastline. Quite pretty.

Night two was a flexible plan, but we ended up shooting for the Sol Duc Hot Springs, and ended up pitching a tent. Before we had dinner, we did a quick hike up to the waterfall right near the park, and enjoyed the forest atmosphere right around dusk.

It was a quick hike, but afterwards we headed down to the main lodge area to see if we could jump in the hot springs before dinner. We got there right before it was about to close, which was quite a let down. But lo and behold, the lady behind the counter was super nice and let us go in for free! SCORE!!! A half hour was really about all we needed anyways to get in and relax in the warm sulfur-heavy water. From there we grabbed a quick dinner at the lodge, then went back to our cozy tent.

Big plans were in store for Day 3. We got a bit of a later start than anticipated, and had to scratch out the morning hike if we were going to get where we wanted. Cleaning up the camp site was pretty quick, and from there we hit the road headed to Port Angeles, looking to catch a ferry over to BC!

The drive over was gorgeous, and we stopped a couple of times to enjoy the trees and water and all the PNW beauty.

I had the ferry time set in my head, and as we got closer to Port Angeles, I got more and more worried about making the ferry. Long story short, we got lucky as hell. When we rolled up, the line was full, and we got placed 19th in the waiting list. We walked around, got some food and coffee, and just waited, watching all the other cars jump on the boat. But, as luck would have it, our number got called, and we were the third-to-last car on the boat. Hot damn!!!

The almost-two hour ferry ride was gorgeous. It was a beautiful clear, blue-skied, sunny day across the Straight of Juan de Fuca, and it made for a perfect way to enter Canadia. We had a beer on board, talked to a lady from Seattle who was venturing out of the US for the first time (good for her!!! We encouraged her to keep it up!), I saw a couple of dolphins alongside the boat, and sooner than we knew it, we were entering Victoria Harbor. Weirdly enough, the landscape of the harbor as we entered really reminded me of Oslo, Norway...

As we were last on board, that meant we were also pretty much last off the ship. That's ok though, we had a slow approach to the customs kiosk. But when we got there, we were greeted by a friendly border agent, who struck up a conversation with us about all of our travels. The cherry on top though? He gave us stamps in our passports!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!?!?!

Victoria, B.C. What a beautiful town!!! Not to waste any time, we parked the car and got our walking flip-flops on. We didn't have any plans other than beer and food and a little bit of exploration. So that's what we set off for.

Before we could get too far, we hit a stop light, and waited with the other friendly Canadians. Then, the most Canadian thing occurred. While we were standing there, a tall, well-kept guy walks up right next to us on the phone. He isn't talking, but the only words that come out of his mouth are the following, "A bit toasty today, eh?". I almost busted a gut laughing. That made my trip.

Our walking continued, and we toured through the main part of downtown. We happened upon Chinatown, saw a really cool mural of Vancouver Island and a little bit of its history, but overall, our wander was quite aimless. Eventually we saw we were no longer in the main part of downtown, but on the way we stumbled upon the Philipps Brewery. As beer was on the list of to-do, we stopped in to see what our options were.

A nice chat with the delightful bartender informed us of B.C.'s beer setup. It's the brewpub system, where there's something to do with having to sell food in order to sell alcohol. Philipp's spot there was just a growler fill station, but if you came to fill a growler you could have a pint. We didn't have a growler, so we were at a loss there. Thankfully, the delightful bartender had a few recommendations, and with that, we were back on track.

Before we got too far though, we find a nice grassy knoll right on the water. So we stopped and laid down on the green grass under the sunny blue sky for a bit. It was a nice little spot too, because it was right on the harbor, in view of all of the sea planes and boats coming in and out. Not only that, but we made friends with a raccoon trying to steal some other people's food/make friends.

Relaxation achieved, our journey continued. A short walk away was Canoe, a higher-class brewpub right on the water. Higher-class, not what we had in mind, but brewpub was, so we were definitely in the right spot. There was a bit of a wait for a table outside, so we hit the bar for a warm-up beer. It was only then that I realized I forgot my wallet in the car; way to go me. So I jogged back to go get it as she waited for a table to open up on the patio. I made pretty quick work of it (thanks taxi driver), and by the time I got back, there was a spot on the patio waiting for us.

Chorizo mussels, a meat and cheese plate, some delicious beers, and a beautiful day. What more could you ask for. It's amazing how awesome patios and outdoor seating is. A beer in hand, some food on the table, it's just the perfect way to spend an afternoon or evening or any time in general.

From Canoe we continued our walk back towards town, this time along the waterfront. For some reason, we were both still hungry, so we stopped into an empty but classy sushi joint, and chowed down on some delicious nigiri and edamame. Whuh, Japanese food is so good.

Finally full, and just hitting the fun part of the harbor walk, we were really enjoying the day and the beautiful town we were in. The sun was shining the whole time, there were tons of friendly people filling the streets and sidewalks, and it was just a great day. But, all good things must come to an end. We had a reservation at a town a little ways up the road, so we jumped back into Marvin and hit the road headed North.

It was a fairly quick 2+ hour drive north along the West coast of Vancouver Island up to the tiny little town of Port Renfrew. The drive was relaxing, quiet, and right along the coast for most of the way, which was great to enjoy as the sun slowly dipped down to the horizon. Once we got to town, we found the right back roads to lead us to the Soule Creek Lodge and the awesome little yurt we'd call home for two nights! It was late, but we took some time to enjoy some wine on our little deck and watched the stars in the clear night sky before calling it a day.

The next morning, as we were only in town for one full day, was full of adventures. We started things off right though, with a deeeeeelicious pancake breakfast at the lodge. This place is awesome (Soule Creek Lodge), because it's tucked away on a hillside away from the town (that's super small to begin with) just above the fog level overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and the owners are retired/former chefs who built up a bunch of yurts around a main building, and the place is just awesome. If you're ever looking for a place to go on Vancouver Island, go there.

So, breakfast was fantastic. After that, we went back to the yurt to prep for some outdoor adventuring. Nearby the lodge was the Juan de Fuca Botanical Beach Park. As per the recommendation of the people at the lodge, the best time to go was early morning, as the fog was lifting off, and all the tide pools were exposed. They were sure right.

There was no fog to speak of, and by the time we hiked down to the beach, it was prime adventuring weather. Sunny blue skies and just a slight breeze accompanied us as we walked up all the rocks and stuff. It was great. Some highlights included a Sea Lion that kept us company for a little bit as we started...

...tons of little fishies and mussels and barnacles and other sea critters...

...a potential otter sighting, crazy cool rock formations that looked like someone came around with an ice cream scoop and just removed chunks of rock along the beach...

..some REALLY cool colors, especially this mix of algae that had me mesmerized for a hot minute...

...and (not pictured) our new friends Blair and Tom who shared some good stories and other stuff with us, reaffirming just how friendly and awesome Canadians and Canadia are!!!

After we wrapped up our lovely little hike, we headed to the bustling metropolis of Port Renfrew, and headed to (I think) the only brewpub in town. We found a lovely little spot on the patio overlooking the tiny harbor, and sampled some of Port Renfrew and B.C.'s finest brews and vittles with a lovely view.

From our wonderful afternoon pitstop, we headed back to the Yurt for a nap and to freshen up. After that though, we had a reservation back at the lodge for what turned out to be an absolutely amazing dinner!!! The retired/former chefs offer a nightly dinner that they will get all of the ingredients from town from local providers, and then come back and cook up something local and unique to Vancouver Island.

Needless to say, it was Ab-So-Lute-Ly delicious!!! I don't fully remember all that was on the menu, but it was all absolutely fantabulous!!! I brought a bottle that I picked up in Karlsruhe a couple of years back to pair with the dinner, and it was truly a meal to remember.

Totally satiated and enjoying the wonderful taste hanging around on our palettes, we hung out at the yurt for a bit, before heading to the hot tub to enjoy the sunset. We had another bottle of wine ready to go, so we brought that with down to the tub overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca and the other side of the Port Renfrew Inlet to end the night. Ohhhhhh relaxation.

The next morning we were back on the move. After another delicious and relaxing breakfast of course... We slowly got everything ready, said goodbye to our lovely little yurt, and then hit the road again. The first stop was barely before we got out of town. The fog was still rolling out, and before we crossed a bridge, it was a very picturesque spot. I liked it. But I got a few shots, and then we continued on.

From there we headed to Canada's Gnarliest Tree. Yes, that's an actual thing.

The tree was pretty gnarly, but the overall location was the cool attraction. Canada's Gnarliest Tree was tucked into a large swath of old growth, which was the overall highlight. The one trail led up to the gnarly tree, and the other trail on the other side of the road was a loop leading through some more gnarly trees in the old growth. After hitting both trails, enjoying the gigantic trees looming overhead, and enjoying some more greenery and forestry, we continued on.

The next stop was at Lake Cowichan for lunch. We found a nice little brewpub close to the water and had a great view of people floating down the river as we ate and drank under the cool shade. Not only that, but we got to watch a parachuter land in a tree as he was trying to land in a park. That was funny (but the guy looked to be ok).

After we ate and drank, we made a mandatory pit stop at the park, while I took a nap on the grass. Then we went and put our feet in the ice-cold lake water. I kinda wanted to jump in, but damn it was cold. It still felt super refreshing, because Marvin's A/C was still inoperable. Ahhhhh sweet cold lake water...

Nanaimo was next on the list, and it was just a quick drive away from Lake Cowichan. We didn't have any big plans for that town, just two little things. One - get in line and take the ferry from there over to Vancouver. Two - Tim Hortons.

Jess had never had Tim Hortons, which makes sense, because this was her first time in Canada. But because we were in Canada, and Tim Horton's is an absolute must for visitors, once we parked the car in line for the ferry, we were on a mission. Thankfully there was one pretty close to the ferry terminal, so we walked up the hill with a nice conversation in tow before we arrived at Canada's most well-known landmark.

As is necessary, I got some Timbits. We both got some coffee, but the important thing was the Timbits. Soooooo gooooooooood. Canadia achieved, we enjoyed a slow walk back to the ferry terminal. We still had some time to kill, so we jumped on wifi to find a place to stay in Vancouver, oogled at all the sweets and ice cream for sale, and ended up tossing the friz in the parking lot for a bit. Eventually, our ferry was at the dock and our number was called, all aboard to Vancouver!!!

I love ferries. It's fun to be able to ride a boat in the middle of a road trip! They cost a pretty penny, but they're super fun. This ferry ride was no different. We spent a good amount of time on the top deck enjoying the view. It was a great time of day to cross the straight over to Vancouver, with tons of boats, sunlight, and the gorgeous scenery to occupy the senses.

The further the sun dropped, the closer we got to the other side. Right as we saw the sun disappear for the day, out boat docked, and we were off and running towards downtown Vancouver. For the many times that I've been to Vancouver, easily one of my favorite cities on the planet, I'd never driven across the Lions Gate Bridge, connecting North Vancouver to Stanley Park. But our route into town took us over the bridge, and it was quite a cool way to enter into Stanley Park, and then into downtown Vancouver.

We had a hotel lined up, and after our long day of driving around and fun exploration, we decided against a late-night adventure in favor for saving up some energy for a full day exploring around beautiful Vancouver, B.C.

The next morning showed up at our door, and we were greeted with another sunny, blue-skied day to explore one of the most enjoyable, international cities I've every seen. Hot damn. To start us off, we headed to a coffee shop to grab some breakfast and coffee, and take part in a little people watching of the locals. Delicious and fun.

One of the big draws of Vancouver is how integrated it is with the water and mountains around it. It's such a beautiful location, and it all works together so well. Enjoying one big aspect of that, we spent a majority of our time exploring right around the waterfront and the awesome walkways and boat taxis that engulf it.

We passed some cool statues...

...saw what we thought was a sea otter...

...enjoyed the beautiful scenery and city...

...and just soaked up all of what we could in our lovely little walk around town. We continued following the bike path along the water, and that eventually brought us to one of the many water taxi stops. As has been an occurrence for me every time I've visited Vancouver, we had to head over to Granville Island. So, that's what we did.

A short ride across the water on the aquabus, and we were deep into Granville Island Market, exploring the many fineries and delicious offerings from all over B.C. There was a shitton of delicious cheese (which we got), a ton of fresh fish and smoked salmon (which we also got), she was dying for some Phó (which she definitely got), and I even crossed paths with a lady from Hamburg selling maple syrup (you're goddamn right I got some, and some maple butter to boot).

Following the theme from earlier and throughout the trip, we were all prepped for one helluva lunch. There was an open table in the courtyard overlooking the water and the market, so we pulled up and got ready to dig in.

People watching, good food to slowly enjoy, some musicians playing right in the plaza, and a beautiful day. Again, what more could you ask for; what a delightful lunch.

Not wanting to spend the whole day enjoying just one thing, we eventually wrapped up, and continued our journey. The main reason I always visit Granville Island when I visit Vancouver revolves around one toy store on the island and a certain LEGO set. I won't go into the story, but needless to say, that LEGO set was still not there. Bummer.

Not letting it get me down for too long, we hopped back on an aquabus and got a little bit of a history lesson of the harbor as we were headed along to our stop. For instance, the penthouse of the building pictured below cost $28 million, encompasses the top two stories, and even includes a car elevator to the top. Dayum.

Back on land, we continued our stroll along the waterfront walkway. As is usually the case, there was a nice green patch of grass along the way, so we laid down for a bit to watch the world pass by. At the market, we picked up some fruits and snacks, so we pulled those out to enjoy with the sun and beautiful day.

As we were laying there, a dude with a beautiful little golden retriever puppy walked by. Of course we put on our adorable puppy voices and were lucky enough to be able to play with the puppy for a bit! Then something truly Canadian happened (and something that would NEVER EVER happen in the US). While we were playing with and petting the puppy, the dog's owner asked if we could look after her (Devon) for a bit. Before we could really say yes the dude was off, not sure where. But holy crap! We just got a doggy to hang out with! How cool!!!

Devon was a cute little puppy, super fun and energetic. Goddamn I want a dog. But before we knew it, her owner was back and then we were puppy-less again... That was unfortunately short lived.

Nap-, snack-, and puppy-time accomplished, we were back on our feet and moving. We finished moving along the boardwalk, walked past the sports arenas near downtown, and eventually made our way over to Gastown. Once there, we found a nice patio to stop for a beer and do some more people watching. The location was pretty cool, right near the weird triangular building. As luck would have it, about halfway through our conversation and beverage, a German couple sat down adjacent to us. Eventually I got to chatting with them, and as we were leaving, I wished them a lovely trip in Canadia!

As we were in Gastown, we walked past the old Steam Clock, and ogled at the tourists ogling it, and then made our way towards the Convention Center. I've always loved the Convention Center/Cruise Terminal building, because it's super iconic, and has a great spot overlooking the harbor, North Vancouver, and the mountains immediately behind all of it.

On the ramparts of the building, we spent a good amount of time just taking in the sights. There were two cruise ships, one on either side of the building, both of which departed as we were there; numerous seaplanes came and went from the seaplane terminal just down the way; and there were a bunch of people enjoying the wonderful day just like us.

A little tired from all the walking, but still wanting to take it all in, we walked past the seaplane terminal and continued the journey along the walkway. Such a beautiful city. But, before we knew it, the walkway took us by our hotel, so we stopped off for a break and a well-needed nap.

Dinner plans for that evening were pretty fluid, but fluid in the terms that I had to pick, because she wanted to take me out as a belated birthday evening. What a treat! After a little bit of research, I found a spot with a couple breweries worth hitting up. So in the car we jumped, and on our way we went!!!

First stop was 33 Acres Brewing Co. This was a pretty sterile looking place, but ended up being a super low-key atmosphere with some delicious everythings. I got a beer and she got the sampler, and then we nommed hardcore on some pierogis and mac and cheese. So. Damn. Delicious.

The second stop for the night was Brassneck Brewing. This place was pretty dope too, with some good beers available, and yet again a laid-back atmosphere. Not only did they have good beer, but they had some local jerky available, and we snacked on that yummy goodness.

I'm trying to remember if we did anything else other than those two spots and a good bit of walking around, but I think that was it. Another wonderful birthday celebration successfully digested and in the books!

The next morning we woke up ready to head back to Portland and wrap up a great trip. We were greeted by a solemnly grey and wet PNW day, which I was really digging. With our rain gear in hand, we ventured out to find something yummy and heartwarming for breakfast. We ended up heading to a cafe close to the water, and got to watch the rain come down in the comfort of the building.

Content and full of successful adventuring, it was time to head back to the USofA. Our drive went by fairly quickly. It was quite a breeze getting through the border, there was smooth sailing through Northern Washington, and surprisingly enough, there was little to no slow down through Seattle. Who'da thunk!?

Before we made it back down to Portland, we made a pit stop in Olympia for a couple of things. One was to stop by my old house, and see what the new people had done with the place. They weren't at home, but so far they'd changed a good number of things! Kinda crazy to see... Next we went and grabbed some coffee, and more importantly some tacos from the best taco truck I've ever seen. Those pickled carrots and beets dough, DAYUM. Not to be outdone, we also stopped by Fish Tales for a quick beer and some more tacos. Olympia Pit Stop successfully executed.

Back on the road for a quick jump from there back to Portland, and our awesome little road trip was a wrap. What a fun trip! No idea how many miles, but it was a beautiful drive with a great person, and a whole helluva lot of fun!!!

Unfortunately, she only had another day and a half or so left in town, so we did our best to keep brewery-ing it up and enjoying all that we could get into in that amount of time. But alas, I eventually had to take her to the airport and bid her a safe trip back to Chicago. What a good time and a great visitor!

KC Killin It

About a week later, the day after my spring league team made it to the finals but came up just short from taking it all, I was able to head down town to The Circus Project. Nope, I'm not joining a circus troupe, but my buddy KC pretty much has! He'd been working for the last few months with his team on a show, and I was able to attend their second of two showings.

UMBRA. It was one helluva show. Very emotional and captivating. There were no vocals or words with the show, but the music, lighting, and very evocative movement of the members on stage really grabbed your attention. KC killed it, as always. He did an amazing job on the straps, and the whole group put on a great performance. It was awesome to be able to go show some support for his awesome work!!!

Another Work Trip

That next week, I had another road trip lined up for work. This one was a little bigger than some of the others for a couple of reasons. One reason was that it was not just our group or department, but there was another department joining the trip testing some completely separate systems. So inter-departmental synergy for the win. But the bigger reason was that we were able to bring over two colleagues from Germany who were influential in the fine-tuning and design of one of our systems, and have them come along and live-tune some of the systems. Pretty sweet.

I'll make this one short, but there are a few key points to come out of this one.

1. Herding cats fucking sucks. I was pretty much the point man in setting up the trip, and had to be the one organizing everything throughout the week. Needless to say, trying to keep 8 different people all on the same page, timeline, route, and planet is not fucking easy. Whuh.


2. The Bonneville Salt Flats are AWESOME!!! Our route took us through Utah, where we overnighted in Tooele, then headed straight West from there to Reno. But, thankfully our shy German colleageus piped up and said they wanted to stop at the flats, and I'm super glad we did!!! I was blown away at how flat and huge the place is, and of course at how salty the ground is (Zack, Kat, Dawn, just like the salt mine, but on the ground!!!)
   
   
   Also, it was weirdly deceptive how there were mountains directly bordering the flats on all sides. They seemed so close, but were really super far away.



3. Eating steak on the company dime is the life..


4. When people don't do their job, and you're left having to wait three hours as the trailer tires are replaced because of balding tread, that sucks.



5. Eating sushi on the company dime is uhhhhhhhhhmazing... Edamame as far as the eye can see!!!



6. For being certified truck drivers, a lot of my coworkers do not know how to back in a trailer. It's kind of ridiculous. Just keep this in mind, a lot of the drivers you see on the road are not as skillful or as veteran with their 80,000lb steel death traps as you'd think. Comforting, right?

But, after a short week-long trip, I somehow made it home, and after reporting out, it turned out to be quite a success. It's amazing when the hub of the wheel actually cares about the spokes, right?

Chicago-Land for Family

Something like a week later, my mom and I jumped on a red-eye out to Chi-town. There was some frustration at the airport, first-world problems that I couldn't let go of, but we both got very little sleep by the time we saw Alicia at the airport waiting for us to head back to her place!

Why was I there, you ask? To help pack Alicia, Aaron, and my nephew Jeffrey up and get them moved out to the PNW! It was a full 10 years ago that Alicia moved out there, but after that, starting a family, and missing the greenery and four actual seasons, she and the Boock-Case decided it was time to head West. So I headed out there with Mommy to get everything packed into a truck, and I was tasked with getting that truck in one piece out to Washington. Little did I know that would be more hair-raising than I anticipated.

Well, we got in, got to work, and in about a half-a-day had the truck packed to the brim with all of their stuff! It was packed pretty tight, but all of their stuff was ready to meet the wonderful beauty of Evergreen Trees and Hipster-ism. I bid my sister, mom, and nephew adieu, and hit the road. I was lucky though, because despite having to race back to the PNW for work that coming Monday, I had a roadtrip companion in the bag.

I started from Evanston and headed to Brookfield to pick up my friend, and then we went over to some heavenly location to have beers with Shazad! Seriously, this place was magical.

Red Arrow Taproom, look it up if you ever head back to the Chicagoland area, is a pour-your-own bar. It's fucking awesome. You load money onto a card, you swipe that card at a tap, and you pay by the ounce for what you drink. Not only is that awesomely cool, but the fact that you can try as much as you want is totally up my alley. Win.

From there though, it was time to hit the road. We got a couple of hours in that night, and then stopped to rest. The next day, the long journey began, and eventually we stopped to get some fuel. As soon as I get out of the truck to fill up on gas, what do I hear (I can't repeat the term), but my sister walking on over to say hi. Despite the journey spanning some 2000-ish miles, we end up crossing paths at a gas station in Iowa, talk about a small world!

But from there, we really started trucking. Initially, we wanted to have some fun and visit friends along the way, especially in Denver. But due to the time, I had to unfortunately put the kibosh on that and just keep blazing toward the NW. Boooooooooooo me.

Day 3 (I think) we were crossing up from Utah into Idaho along I-84. It'd been a pretty straightforward drive up to that point, and I wasn't expecting anything different. All of a sudden I see a big trail of smoke following me going uphill, and I knew there was something wrong. There wasn't a big crash or pop or anything like that, but chugging along with a POS Budget Truck at a good clip isn't a good way to baby a vehicle.

So I park, get out, and go to inspect what's going on. All I see is a ton of smoke coming from the chassis and a good bit of fluid covering the frame rails and most of what's attached to it. So I call Budget and tell them to get someone out here to check on it, minimum a two hour wait. Good thing were were still 60 miles from the nearest shack (quite literally).

I took another walk around the truck, and by that time things had cooled down somewhat and the smoke died down. By some weird chance I happened to look back at the tires. Wouldn't you know it, one of the back duallys was completely shredded, the top wall separated from the side wall. Oh great.

Somehow I limp it to the next town as we wait for someone to at least come fix the tires. The mechanic did, and was super helpful throughout, but said it was likely some kind of expensive leak causing the smoke. We called it a night after that.

The next morning, we chugged on, taking it slow-ish to prevent the beast from spewing its black flame. We got just into Oregon, when it happened again. Being safe, I called out a mechanic again, and after waiting for three hours, he turned a couple of screws and said he probably didn't fix it, but thought we might be ok continuing on. That's fucking reassuring.

But, that's what we did. To make another long story short, we made it back to Portland. In Portland, I grabbed a bit more of their stuff, and eventually got all of their belongings parked at their new home in Washington.

Alicia, Aaron, Jeffrey, Maize, and Mira, welcome to the Pacific Northwest!!! We're all happy to have you home!!!

Wedding Week Fun

That week with my friend in town (and up in Seattle), it was the week leading up to the Fourth of July. I had to work a little bit, which was no fun, but it had to be done for some reason. But come that weekend, it was time to celebrate and see a bunch of good college friends!

My good friends Alex and Alisha were tying the knot that week in Portland, so a ton of good friends from all over converged to meet up, hang out, and celebrate the great occasion. It all started off with a Friday after-work bonfire. Brad and Kelly are some more friends from OSU who live in town, and they hosted everyone for a nice chill reunion at their place. Holy crap it was good to see everyone. A lot of people were there that I hadn't seen since I left Columbus 4 (HOLY SHIT) years ago. But just like then, it was great to see everyone and catch up with what's going on in their crazy lives!

That next day, it was time for a hike. We headed over to Larch Mountain, but took the long way up through the crater, and it was a great time. The view from the top was a little cloudy, but we still got a little peak at Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens (foreshadowing!).

We stopped at Vista House on the way back to get a good view of the gorge, but that night (after taking a nap and getting cleaned up of course), I met up with a lot of the crew for a schnazzy dinner. Great to see another group of old friends and acquaintances, and make some more. After dinner, we headed up to the Radio Room to meet up with the wedding party and toast a few drinks to the lovely couple!

The next day, my friend got back from Seattle and Potlatch, and we made a lazy day of getting ready for the wedding. I'll keep it brief, but what a fun wedding!!! Alex and Alisha are wonderful people and an absolutely lovely couple. It was a pleasure and an honor to celebrate their union with them and all of the wonderful people in their lives!!! We danced the night away and eventually made our way to a bar or two (can't quite remember) before calling it a day and heading home.

A Desolate Fourth

We didn't have any plans for the Fourth, so we decided to keep it pretty low-key and stay in town. To be honest though, it felt like we were the only ones to do that. Once midday rolled around, we decided to venture out and go grab some beers. As we were walking around, there were so few people and cars and commotion in town, that it really threw me off.

We headed to Base Camp, and the place was pretty empty. We had a good few beers there, some good conversation, and then figured we'd just up and go to the next watering hole. That ended up being more of a challenge than I anticipated. A ton of places were closed, and I'm not sure why I didn't see that coming. But we ended up walking a good bit around town before finding another place that was open.

So we had a few beers there, then headed back home for dinner, and eventually made our way to the Steel Bridge to watch the fireworks downtown. It was a great night for it, and there were surprisingly enough a few people that were also out doing the same. But all in all, it was kinda crazy, and really nice to have the town be so empty.

A Transition

So my friend and I were a thing for a hot minute. She is a great woman, with a lot going on. But long story short, we both saw that we weren't going to be the best for each other long term. There are a ton of things where we match extremely well on, and things that I really value in a relationship: communication, openness, honesty, an open worldview, and much more. But there were a few things that each of us saw in the other that would not work long-term.

Despite not seeing a future together romantically, it's kinda cool and a little weird for me because we're still staying in contact and remaining good friends. I so far have little to no contact with most of my ex-girlfriends, so this is definitely a weird adjustment for me, but because she is such an awesome, open-minded, communicative, and sensible person, it's been a smooth transition to a great friendship that we've got.

Later that week, we said goodbye at the airport after a quick, emotional, and memorable trip together. She was headed back to Vietnam just a week or two later, and she was quite excited for it. It was a rough goodbye, but we will for sure be seeing each other again soon. But from there, she was off back to Chicago and then back to SE Asia, and I was off to my own short adventure.

Mt. St. Helens

From the airport, I headed back up to Washington. The goal, meet up with some friends and summit the mountain that blew up 10 years to the day before I was born! Mt. St. Helens, here I come!!!

I got up there a little earlier, so I putzed around a couple of the lakeside parks nearby and got in a wonderful nap under a tree. It was hot out, so naturally a shady nap is the right call. Still with some time to kill, I headed up to the Ape Caves in slow manner, and stopped at the smaller nature trail along the way. It was a quick loop, but there was one spot where you could crawl through a tree grave, essentially.

It was a spot where a tree got carried down by a lava flow thousands of years ago. In that time, the tree burned or decayed away, but the rock had already hardened around it. It's just a couple of hollow rock tubes that intersect, and you can crawl on through it. Pretty cool!

I still had a bit of time to kill before everyone showed up at the parking lot. I somehow got talking to the park lady from Alaska, and she had quite the long stories to share... Luckily I broke off from her, but followed her advice to a lookout a ways up from trailhead. From there I got my first good view of the mountain up close. What a beaut.

Back down at the parking lot, I finally met up with Ben, Pat, and Brad. It's weird how not having cell reception makes things a little more complicated! But we met up, got our gear set, and headed up to hike through the Ape Caves.

I'll make this quick, but if you ever get the chance, go to Ape Caves!!! It's a short hike to the cave entrance, but going inside is crazy. The temperature drops a good 20 degrees, and you enter this tall, long, dark tunnel of nothing. It's about a mile and a half long of a huge tunnel, that's it, but it's super cool! We took our time walking through and only felt like we were gonna die a few times.

But luckily we weren't stranded in the dark vast nothingness. Eventually, as the trail markers above ground stated, we came to the end. What an awesome thing to experience though! A giant vacant tube underground caused by lava flow phenomena that was just discovered by total chance by a farmer. Really fucking cool; go check it out.

After that, we went to the tiny town of Cougar, WA to grab some dinner. Grubbed up and ready for a wonderful day following, we headed back up to the mountain to camp out. We got lucky, too, because that was the first day that the summer route was open. It was a long and dusty road up to the Climber's Bivouac, but we got there, tented up, and hit the hay with beautiful stars shining down overhead.

Early the next day, we were up and ready to hit the trail. It was cold, but not cold enough to deter us from an awesome day upcoming. Needless to say, we were pumped. I think Ben can sum it up pretty well here:

The first part of the trail was in the woods. Since the summer route had just opened that day, there was still a good bit of snow on the trail, but thankfully it was pretty clearly marked for us. Before we knew it, we were out of the trees and into the ____ (I forgot the saying). Once out of the trees, we had a pretty clear view of the way up. So up we went.

Needless to say, we had a beautiful view around every turn and every foot closer to the top. What a beautiful day to climb a mountain!!!

The trail was actually pretty straightforward going up. It followed Monitor Ridge for nearly the whole way up, and the ridge was pretty clear. To make my rental worth it, I threw on my crampons for a little stretch and hiked up the snow, but that ended up being more work than hiking on the rocks. The snow was just melted enough to be soft and slide-prone. Oh well. Keep on going!!!

Me, Ben, Patrick, and Brad had some good shenanigans and a damn good overall time on the way to the top. As should be done. Hiking and the outdoors are too awesome to not have a good time. And surrounded by great people? Damn, icing on the cake...

The whole way up, we had a beautiful view of the PNW. Mt. Adams was hanging around to our right (East), showing its snowy peak the whole way up.

Then further to the south, Mt. Hood was saying hi.

Well, again, long story short, we made it to the top. And holy shit was it beautiful!!! The trail on the mountain takes you up the south side, so when you get to the top, you're looking right down into the crater, looking down about 1000' onto the bulging volcanic crater that is itching to explode again. Then, in the background, is Spirit lake, with Mt. Rainier peeking up right behind it. Just. Beautiful. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

And here you go mom, proof I made it up there ;-)

I probably could have spent a few more hours up there just taking in the view. It was absolutely stunning having such a clear view of Washington and Oregon; Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood; just the huge amount of greenery and Northwest beauty hanging around. Absolutely beautiful.

But, eventually we made our way down. The best part about that, we got to glissade for a ton of it. Ooooooooohhhhh baby!!! Now THAT was fun. I really got cruising on a few stretches, the snow was perfect for it, and there were some really long stretches of snow. We made it back down in record time, killing the average round trip time on the mountain. Mt. St. Helens, it was a pleasure.

On the way back, we stopped at the other restaurant in Cougar, WA, and had some ridiculously good food. I can't remember the name of my dish, but it was a burger covered in gravy fries and oooohhhh baby was it great for a post-mountain-summit meal. Winning.

Ben, Patrick, Brad, it was a pleasure summiting with you folks. What a helluva day.

Tsukuru Expansion

So in my last post I talked about the book "The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki". Well here's a little more on that topic.

I had another convo with mommy about it, and she re-emphasized some points I'd forgotten. As a kid, I had the feeling that I didn't belong, like I didn't fit in anywhere. I was always super self-conscious, often times thinking I was the outsider, regardless of where I went; I felt like I always had to try to be liked by the group or wherever I was at.

In a lot of ways, I still feel that. The self-consciousness is pretty well gone; for the most part I'm pretty confident in who and what I am, knowing that I am what I am, and that's that. But sometimes I still feel like an outsider in more situations/environments/locations than I would like to think. In the last few years, I can contribute at least a little bit of that to the constant movement of my life. Not living in one city for more than a few months before up and moving to the next place.

But now I've officially been back in Portland for over a year (as of mid-July), the longest I've lived in a city since college. That time length notwithstanding, I still feel like I'm brand new here, still trying to scratch and find a place to call 'my own'. Sometimes I get in a funk and overexaggerate my lonliness/out-of-place-ness to myself, but there's still some element to that, and sometimes it gets to me more than it should.

Vegas, One Crazy Bachelor Party

After a pretty hectic week at work later in July, and a fairly busy week in general, I took off early on Friday to head down to the land of Lost Wages, I mean Las Vegas, to go celebrate my buddy Sam's loss of bachelorhood.

Leading up to the trip, I gotta admit, I was not super excited for it like I normally am for jumping into a flying aluminum tube and going to a new place. I've always had a negative image of Vegas in my head, and that really permeated through my mental pre-trip. Being the selfish dick I can be, I wasn't really focusing on the fact that I was going down there to celebrate a great dude with other great people and to just have some fun. But Friday after work rolled around, I took my car back to the mechanic, and then made my way to PDX.

A quick jaunt through security (thank you PreCheck) and I was in the Alaska lounge (thank you priority pass) getting a beer and some snacks to cool out and get ready for the fun. Not long after, Sam, Kirti, and Casey made it through security, so we went and grabbed a beer before departure. In the plane and nap time hit me good.

We got in no sweat and headed to the Bellagio to check in and get the fun started. A few of Sam's buddies were already there, and had one of the rooms chocked full of ice, liquor, and mixers. Once we got a little settled and a couple more people joined, off we went to hit the strip.

Thanks to the suggestion from a couple of my coworkers, we headed over to the Cosmpolitan for a thing called the Flower Drink. I had no idea what it was, but was told it was a must. We got there and I asked around and eventually found the small bar that provides them to the public. Long story short, it's a tequila based something-or-other, but the kicker is there's a flower you have to chew before you drink it. The flower was a Chinese Bellbop or something like that, and after chewing it for ten seconds on each side of the mouth as directed, you get a nice little numbness like you're eating some Szechuan food. After that, the cool drink goes down smooth and it was quite the yummy experience.

For food, we snagged a few cheap pizzas from the hole in the wall joint in the Cosmo. Since there was no dining area, we took over a part of the walkway and ate some yummy cheesey gooey goodness. The rest of the night was quite a blur for me. I know the following things happened: we hit up a Walgreens and I somehow ended up with a bud light lime in my hands (.....), there was a little bit of wandering the strip around the bellagio, beer pong at O'Sheas, walking past a döner place that I bookmarked for later, not following up on that bookmark (stupid stupid stupid), a little blackjack at Linq to get my feet wet (don't remember my net gain, but I'm pretty sure I was in the positive), and then a very un-fun end to the night spent mostly in the bathroom. Booooooooooooooo that guy.

I woke up to the sound of death. Actually the room phone ringing, as the other room was calling us to head to breakfast. I did not want to move a muscle; my body was on the precipice of death. But somehow I made it down to breakfast, some reason I paid the crazy price for the buffet, and by some miracle I was able to maintain sentience and put down some food. I was not feeling like a champ the entire time though. Thankfully, the beer pong tournament got nixed from the schedule and replaced with pool time. In the state I was in, it was mandatory nap time.

The other dudes hit the pool, and I was out like a light by the time I entered the room. But, true to its beauteous nature and magical powers, my nap changed my world. I woke up feeling good, detoxed, and ready to go join the group at the pool, just in time to lounge around the warm pool in the blistering heat.

But damn it was hot out. Thank goodburger for the water. It was nice to chill out, keep recovering from death, and just look around at the ridiculous opulence. Pool time was great, then we got all cleaned up and headed to some place in Ceasar's Palace, where they've got the fake sky thing going. That was pretty cool to see (for some reason I remember seeing some show on the travel channel about that ceiling as a kid. Not sure why that popped up in my head.).

Dinner was delicious. Good food, good people, good wine. From there, it was off to Casino Royale (unfortunately minus the opulence of James Bond) to go live it up with $1 beers on the strip, and some gambling for the evening.

I took advantage of Blackjack and Roulette. Charles was killing it for me dealing Blackjack, so I stuck with him for a while and rode the wave, going down big then somehow coming back out of it. From there I tried my hand at roulette, what a roll of the dice that one is... I kinda found a swing, but was moreso impressed at the ridiculous amounts of money people would throw down on a single roll. I'm wayyyyyy too stingy/conservative/frugal to be able to do that. Just insane.

All in all, I kept bouncing back and forth between Roulette and Blackjack. In that time, we just kinda jones'ed around the place, watching each other ride the waves, cheer on the big wins, make fun and support during the dips, and keep slinging those $1 beers back. Seriously, what a steal (despite it being Michelob Light).

That night was a little more responsible for me on the drinking, and surprisingly enough also positive on the gambling! I walked away from Casino Royale up a full $17. Not bad for my first real foray into the dark world of money-throwing-away.

Wandering, more beers, strip shenanigans, In-n-Out. That about sums up the end to a great night cruising the strip with these dudes.

Once the level of tired was at a breaking point, I headed back to the room along with a couple other guys. Being Vegas, I felt a little spur-of-the-moment coming on. Being up $17, and before calling it a night, I walked over to a Roulette table in the Bellagio on the way to the elevator, and threw it on the 2nd 12 for the roll. What a risky move.

BADA-BOOM, BADA-BING!!! One play, one win. I turned my $17 into $54 and had that to cap off one helluva night.

The next morning, we had a short list of things to do before heading to the airport. We went and watched the Bellagio fountain show (holy shit, that's one technical piece of work, and impressive as hell to boot). A couple of us went and walked down to the Venetian to see the gondolas cruising around indoors (wut...), and then wrapped things up with some goodbyes to the dudes before a group of us headed off to the airport.

Thanks Spirit, way to delay our flight by three hours. Seriously, fuck Spirit Airlines, never ever ever fly them. But to cut to the chase, we made it back home eventually to cap off a great weekend. Sam, it was an honor to celebrate the end of your single life with you.

Here are some notes on Vegas in general from my newbie point of view:

• The opulence of everything is insane, no detail missed and no expense spared
• The size of everything was nuts!!! Our hotel alone had about 30,000 rooms, which is just fucking insane. And that's one of the tons of hotels on the strip, a lot of which are that size or bigger
• The money. It's everywhere, and it flows like water. So much on the craps table, on the slot machines, in the food, in the shows, in the shopping centers, its nuts. Absolutely nuts.
• The amount of people
• The heat
• The weird feel of the strip, so orchestrated and planned out and weirdly set up

Daimler Cup

Another week at work. Nothing special, at least I don't remember what happened. But Thursday I had some fun with our department playing in the annual Daimler cup. Thursday we played some play in games. Our department was just planning on having a good time, as we'd practiced twice beforehand, and we didn't have any real ringers to put us over the edge.

I had to miss the first game because of too much shit to do, but made it out for the second and third. It was fun. I suck at soccer, but that's why they put me on the defensive side to suck a little less and not have ball control. We ended up losing the first one, but I think we won both of the last two, or tied the second and won the third, or something like that. But by a stroke of luck, we were the sixth out of six teams to move on to Day 2. Hot damn!!! What does that mean though? We got to play in Providence Park. BOOM.

That means we went to work for like an hour on Friday, then headed over to the home of the Timbers to take it all out on the pitch. I got there early, because how often do you get to play on a professional MLS field?! Early there, got suited and laced up, and then warmed up with the team.

We unfortunately had to wait for the first game to finish up before we could take the field. So we stood on the sidelines and watch two other departments duke it out. But, soon enough, we were on.

Game on. We were playing one of the teams from our Mexico plants, Saltillo. We were a little over-matched, and they controlled the ball for most of it. Sure enough, they put two in the net with about 10 minutes left. We finally scraped some offense together, and our director had one helluva free kick just skim the cross bar, but all in all, we came up short. Helluvan experience though! I can technically say that I am/was a professional athlete for a day (paid to play, in a major league stadium, with fans and spectators, company-provided uniform, it all fits)!

One downside, and fuck soccer, but my ankle got all fudged up. I was planting to cross the ball, and as my foot was planted into the turf, some dude came up and pushed me awkwardly from behind. I felt a little tweak, but kept on playing through, no sweat. I put some ice on it after we were done, and didn't think too much of it. So I went and sat with Mommy to watch and explain some soccer, and then finished the night with some coworkers drinking and being merry.

The next morning, I went to get out of bed, but almost collapsed when I put weight on my ankle. I spare the details, but I sprained it. X-rays taken about a month later showed no fracture, but it was weird because the muscle issue was on the inside of my ankle, not the outside. It's still healing, and I've been prescribed some PT for it, so it's a work in progress.

Everything coming up KC

Not one to let a little injury get me down, the next day was gonna be big. KC turned 27!!! Naturally, we had to go drink. He started the night off at a cozy little bar right next to Santeria downtown (I think it was called Tugboat, and is apparently going to be closed soon). I got to meet a bunch of his fun circus friends (I was the only non-circus person there. Go me! haha), and we had some fun drinks watching KC get slowly more and more dramatic, drunk, and dreaming of a younger day.

But the fun didn't stop there. Off to the Stag. KC was in for a treat... It was a helluva time there, where I surprised KC with a private dance (hearing about it afterwards was hilarious), and we all chipped in to get KC up on stage for a lapdance. Oh man. He looked totally shell-shocked by it all.

Not surprising, but right after the lap dance ended, he almost went full stripper and jumped on the pole. Being a circus guy, I guess that's a natural reaction. But the MC put the kaibosh on that pretty quick, so we went back to celebrating with the birthday boy in a liquor-infused way.

What a birthday for an awesome friend and wonderful human being. KC. You da man. We'll kick 27's ass together. Don't worry.

BRUNO - the MJ of our Generation

This next experience is all thanks to my boi KC. After his ridiculously awesome birthday party, I got a question from him the next morning. "Do you want to go see Bruno Mars tonight?" Uhhhh, yeah. I was interested in seeing it, but the tickets were pretty pricey. But when a cool guy like KC pins you as his +1, damn right you say yes!

So that day after his party I spent the day doing something low-key, and then towards the evening I met him at the Moda Center. He was doing some stuff with his former radio station, and we got to watch a street dancing crew do their thing to some Bruno music. After that, and a little bit of walking around the center, we headed in.

I'd never been to a Top-40-type of concert before, so I didn't really know what to expect. But in a quick summary, I was blown away. We got some beers before it all started, and then sat around in our seats. The location was a little sub-par, being behind and way above the stage and all. But free seats are free seats, no complaints here!

Some pop chick (I have no idea who she was) opened up. She did a good job, got the crowd a little warmed up, and had a decent show herself. Then we had to wait a little while until Bruno came on. Needless to say, the place erupted when he did.

All in all, I was blown away. That was my first pop concert, and it was fucking amazing. Bruno Mars is Rico Suave in human form. The dude has so much style and steez, it's fucking mindblowing. His music is catchy as all get-out, his dance moves are mesmerizing, and he's just got that style that you can't get enough of. Damn son, that was one helluva concert. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing him live again!!!

Summer Test 2017

Every year our company has this big hullaballoo for a whole bunch of nothing. A bunch of trucks get sent down to Nevada for testing in a warm environment, and then to Colorado or something for testing at altitude. On the way down, or during one of the days of testing, they noticed that some lane lines near Las Vegas were causing my systems and its affected nested systems to not work. Great. What came out of it? I got to fly down to Las Vegas for a little over 24 hours.

I packed up all my measurement equipment in a near-bulletproof case (not really, but it felt like it), and flew down on a Monday afternoon. The plan was to get there, install my equipment, do a night drive with the old camera software, do some more night driving with a new software, then the next day ride along while the summer test crew drove to a spot irrelevant to me, but where they passed over the stretch of roadway on the way there and back. I got in, and got to work.

I was going to put a picture here, but realized as I was about to do it that it was still confidential. Good save Nial...

As with ANY time you have to do testing, something went wrong. It took me a while to figure it out, but the power cord for my measurement computer was pinned wrong. After about an hour and a half, I got a hold of some folks (shoutout to Sarah and Memo, you guys are dope) and they gave me access to the tool truck so I could get a soldering iron and get shit straight.

I completed my night drive, and found some issues. I was really tired though, as I had worked already at the office in Portland, then jumped on a flight, and continued to work through the night. Eventually I finished up the night drive and went to sleep for a few hours before having to be at the trucks for the next day of testing.

The day testing plan was to drive down to Baker, CA, the powertrain testing would do some laps around the long slight grade that was there, and then eventually we'd drive back. I sat in the truck for the first lap that they did, and then decided against the next ones. Here's what my office for the day looked like though.

The shitty part was, that all of my data was on the 20 mile stretch right next to the hotel. So all the driving around the day was somewhat beneficial, but not what I went out there for. The benefits were that I got to see the world's largest thermometer (and got a collector penny to boot!!!), got to be outside in the really fucking hot heat of California/Nevada, and had a killer burrito from the hole-in-the-wall place in Baker. Overall not a bad day.

But eventually we headed back to Vegas, and I got some more data on that home stretch. But once we got back to the hotel, I had to pack all my shit up and get back to the airport to catch a flight home. I always kind of imagined having to do something like this, an emergency situation comes up where I need to fly out in a few hours to go get some data and then fly back. But it finally happened, and it was super tiring. I made it through though, and it was interesting for sure. Another benefit was that I got a free polo shirt out of it for participating in Summer Test 2017. Win win I say!

A Wonderful Weekend...

After another long work week, Peewee came into town!!! And then to top it off, Alicia, Aaron, and Jeffrey came down to Portland to make it a full family affair! Omelettes, Beauty and the Beast, lots of lounging around, topped off with a summer BBQ. An absolutely great day with such a wonderful family. :-)

Then that night, as I was at home and wrapping up the day, ready to hit the sack, my boy Sam gives me a call and drops by for a beer. One helluva conversation with an amazing dude. Capped it off talking about photography, capturing and living in experiences, and if those can or should be transferred from one person to another. Amazing dude.

The next day I brunched with some awesome coworkers. A couple of them had won tickets to the Timbers game, so two others of us got to tag along for the ride. After a delicious brunch at the Brunch Box, we walked on over to Providence Park.

Lucky enough, those tickets to the game got us access to one of the suites. SUITE!!!! We got in, grabbed some beers, and headed to our viewing deck.

What a great spot to watch a game! It was a little different than being on the field this time, but it was great to watch the Timbers. Soccer games are a blast, and having free food (unfortunately not free beer) to go along with it is definitely an awesome time. Also, I had probably the slowest bartender of all time make some margaritas for me, and they weren't that great. So that's a plus to the experience.

But the Timbers pulled out a great W. Always a pleasure to see a victory for the Timbers and the Army. But shortly afterwards, I had to head home. I took a quick nap, but then got schnazzied up and headed out past Hillsboro for one awesome night! Sam enlisted my services to take care of the speaker, moving it from the ceremony to the reception, and I was stoked to be able to help him out. When I got there, I started helping out with a few other things, including trying to transfer cupcakes from the box to the table (wayyyyy harder than you'd think) and some other stuff.

But once it came time for the ceremony and night to start, it was a pleasure to be there to celebrate with them! It was an awesome setting for a wedding, right next to a creek, with a very quaint area for everyone to be close and connected to the ceremony.

What a wondrous wedding. The love and compassion that was on display during the whole ceremony was wonderful to behold. That and there were so many great people there to celebrate the occasion with the wonderful bride and groom!

Sam and Morgan, it was a true honor to share in the wonderful occasion of your marriage! I wish you both love, happiness, togetherness, communication, growth, and a whole plethora of other things in your lives together!!!

Also, Sam, learn how to attack a piñata. Sheesh.

...followed by The Week from Hell

I had to leave the wedding early (and unfortunately wasn't able to camp out with everyone), because I had a 9am meeting with a bunch of managers and directors for the testing workshop I'm the director for. No biggie. A bummer for sure, but that's just how it goes. So I left early, got home, and got a few hours of sleep before heading in.

I get to the meeting room at 9am, a little early, in fact. But I open the door and don't recognize any of the faces. Well I back out of the room and check my computer. Just my luck. The meeting started at 8am. What a shitty way to start the week.

I let that get to me a bit, and eventually sent an email out to the hosting director apologizing and offering the content I was supposed to present. In that time, there was an email chain with another guy in my department named Jordan over some related project topics. But later that day, the director emails me back. His email... "Hey Jordan, ....". You've got to be fucking kidding me. The guy can't even realize who he's talking to? Or even act like he doesn't know who I am? Fucking christ...

The next day, get a call from a manager across the way to discuss some topics. I'd met her a few times, and we are on good terms and whatnot. Twenty minutes later I get copied on an email from her saying, "...I talked with Nail earlier...". You've got to be shitting me. This one's a little more understandable, but have you every fucking heard of proofreading? I was not named after a metal spike that gets beat to death.

I blew up at this one. I pounded my desk and just was lit from this. My awesome coworker John was awesome and took me out for a quick cup of coffee to cool me down and get back to normal. John, you're the best.

But wouldn't you know it! As soon as I get back I see another email from this same manager. Did she learn her lesson? Fuck no. "Nail". People are fucking idiots. I don't give a shit what position you are or in what regard you hold yourself, there is no excuse for being disrespectful to people or treating them as lower than you. None. And getting that treatment (as big or little as it may seem) from two people back to back is NOT something I will ever tolerate.

So those two items were fucking shitty. Then after the last week of summer league (a. we went undefeated! b. I was only able to play a few points because of my ankle still not healed), I went out and celebrated DK's birthday! Chowed down on a delicious torta and had some beers with folks, and then hoped on my two-wheeled steed to head home.

Well, as I was riding, I was riding where cars would park to leave the drive lane open for cars to pass. All of a sudden, I look up and see a concrete curb veering into my path. Fuck. Sure enough, I swipe it as I try and swerve out of the way, and flip onto the curb. I came up with a largely scraped knee and shoulder. My head was fine, my joints were ok, but the scrapes were pretty hefty. So that was a fun way to end the night.

The next morning, I was washing the dishes after breakfast, and all was well, a normal start. When I go to wash my knife, my hand slipped off my sponge, and my thumb slid right down the tip of the knife, cutting a pretty big gash into it. Surprisingly enough I didn't hit any muscle, although I could definitely see it through the cut. So wrapped that up as tight as I could, and went to work a broken, sprained, scraped, and cut man. It was not fun. Needless to say, that week was the shittiest of shitty, and everything seemed to build on top of the previous thing. Thankfully it had to end at some point.

A Weekend Back in a Groove

Friday night tried to turn things back on track. After working way too late on a Friday, I was able to celebrate Nick's birthday and then found out it was John's birthday too (both great coworkers). We hit up Ecliptic to start things off, then found a few beers at Mississippi Studios, then jumped into Crow Bar for a hot second (where I somehow escaped doing a shot). Drinking with some great people. A surefire way to enjoy yourself.

The next morning, I got a fresh start, and met up with KC for a round of plant fun. I got to his place, and he and I had a great and helpful conversation.

Sidenote: KC is an awesome and amazingly genuine person. If you ever get the chance, get to know him.

But from his place, we made our way out past Boring, OR to a carnivorous plant garden! KC is all about them, and I got to tag along with him to one of the few open house's run by this garden. There, I got to meet one of the proprietors (Jacob), learn that a lot of people are addicted to carnivorous plants, and chat with some friendly Portlandians and a guy from North Carolina. The icing on the cake though, I acquired two little plants of my own!

The Last Few Bits

After KC and I gardened it up, I did a few errands. I went to REI to prep for my next trip, ran a few errands, did a little bit of preparation for the trip, and put in a little research on my next bike. I got my current bike (now over 15 years old) serviced, and there were a few problems with it. A seized fork (I knew that), worn cables and housings, a worn chain, and therefore worn cranks and cassette, this bad boy is starting to hit the ropes. I'm not giving up on it or getting rid of it, I just need to find something a little more new and able.

Then on Sunday I woke up and got off to a lazy and relaxed start. I continued prepping for my trip, i.e. getting things laid out on the floor. Then once I was presentable and ready to go, I headed out and did some phone research. To add to it all, my phone is showing clear signs of slowing down. So I went to Verizon and holy shit are new phones expensive! And what is with this shit of not having a headphone jack. Yeah it reduces complexity, but functionality is complete bullshit. No. I don't want to have to plug in a special adapter just to listen to music. Fucking idiotic design.

After that I headed down to the Timbers 2 game with John. I won tickets to the suite, so I repaid the favor he provided me the week before! Definitely a cool feeling, almost getting used to walking into the suite at Providence Park, hahaha.

We were once again greeted by free food, and this time beer! Woot! The refs in the game were pretty shitty, but it was a fun and free game to watch. Throughout the match though, I picked John's brain about day trading and a slew of financial stuff. I need to get to work on a portfolio, and he's got a lot of valuable knowledge to share in that realm of life. A lot of very cool, intriguing, and crazy stuff going on in the world of finances!

After the game I went home for a sec, then I went to a bike store to drool and check things out, and found a decent bike to look into a little more. Damn they're expensive, but I'm in need of a new two-wheeled beast. I ran a couple more errands, then met up with Mommy at Foster Burger. As always, it was wonderful to spend time and chat with her, but this time we got the last two burgers available from Burger Week. What a score!!!

That next day, a Monday, was another standard work day. But I wanted to be productive and keep writing this, so I brought my comp with me to work and headed to Prost on my way home to drink my favorite German beer - Köstritzer and keep cranking this damn post out. I got my beer, posted up, but needed to get the wifi password. As it turned around, I was greeted by an acquaintance from Ohio State. We both knew each other in passing through engineering, and it was a crazy small world to run into Brooke just a few blocks from home!

Up Next

Although this post is a fucking mile long, I've got another one to write up for my most recent trip and some thoughts and other stuff going on in my life. Stay tuned! Hopefully the turn-around for this next one will be a little more reasonable...

Original Publish Date: August 27th, 2017