Trip to New England - Flight Over

Okay, I have completely sucked when it comes to updating my blog. No real excuse... I was in New England for a week, but what was I doing the other two or so weeks... I don't know, maybe drinking too much, watching too much Michael Jackson coverage, sleeping in too late. But, I'm back on track.

Trip back home was fabulous. It started off with a few freebees on the flight over. First off, on our charter from Portland to Seattle on Horizon Air (yes, remember this wonderful airline) we got a free drink. When was the last time you got a free drink of a flight? Like, I'm not talking the standard soda, tea and coffee. I'm talking about 9 ozs of red wine in a plastic cup. Then, in Seattle, instead of reporting when the last call for our flight to Boston, I HAD to get my food... they were taking forever, but I am so grumpy when not fed. I'd be better off missing my flight. Brent told me to forget about it, only paid for our drink (which I didn't realize) and I took off with my pizza bagel. I still feel bad. Sorry, pizza bagel place.

Arriving in Boston, we were totally wiped. The flight from Seattle to Boston was a red-eye that was only 4.5 hours. We arrived with little sleep on Thursday. But, after a short rest at my super brother Stuart's condo, we were able to take a walk around Boston and pump ourselves up for Trivia. For those of you who aren't familiar with my sketchy past, I used to be a trivia jockey. I went to bars and... well... uh... just kidding, I just read trivia questions in bars over a microphone and kept score. We went to one of my old stomping grounds, Newtowne Grill. Man, I totally missed that place. The bartender, Carol, the $10 pizza and pitcher special, the locals... it has it all. Stuart and Maria joined up with us about half way through and good thing they did. They kicked ass that night. We ended up in a three-way tie for second against like 25 teams. After a tie-breaker (what was American gross for the movie The Wedding Planner), we came in third and got a $10 gift cert. Pretty good...

On Friday, we headed up to Maine for Noah and Sarah's wedding (Noah is a med school classmate of Brent's and was also one of Brent's groomsmen). I am going to write about it next post.

Sunday on the Bikes.

So, Brent and I seem to be reliving our pre-marriage/engagement days when we would sleep until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Although Sunday morning wasn't THAT bad, we didn't get up until 11. Sometimes the bed is just so comfy, it's virtually impossible to leave it. Today was dedicated to exploring Portland on our bikes. Our first stop: The Blues Festival. Now, Brent and I are not huge Blues fans, but it was entertaining nonetheless. This was due mostly to the $1 meat-on-a-stick and interesting collection of individuals attending. See picture and movie for a better grasp of what I'm talking about.

(1st: Brent and his meat sticks. 2nd: Video of Blue Festival, check out random dude dancing)

After the Blues festival, we decided to trek out bikes around downtown and look at future neighborhoods to live. Along the way, we stopped at the Rose Gardens in Washington Park (an item on the Residents "must do" list, see other blog). It was pretty. Brent's ferrocious appetite made him nearly eat the rare types of rose. Silly Brent. I was getting tired and hungry (I am seriously dead to the world when I'm hungry), so we biked home. All-in-all, a good day.

Happy Birthday, America! We love Silver Falls.

Okay, since we were... umm... sluggish in our start on Friday, we said early rise on Saturday. We did fairly well, getting packed and ready for our trip to Silver Falls in Oregon by 10:30am (that is good for us). It might have been closer to 10am if Brent didn't have to visit the bathroom 10 times. Thank goodness for Immodium or else we'd never get anywhere. I digress. Silver Falls is home to Canyon Trail, a trail that "is a nationally recognized trail system that leads hikers along the banks of the north and south forks of Silver Creek. It takes you to 10 majestic waterfalls, ranging from the grand South Falls (177 feet), to the delicate Drake Falls (27 feet)."

This place was gorgeous. We ended up hiking about 8 miles. The hiking was moderate at it's worst, which was fine with us. I don't have much to say other than if I had visitors, I'll be sure to take them there. I don't even think the pictures do Silver Falls justice. I love Oregon (New Hampshire, don't get jealous, you'll always be the #1 state in my heart. Live Free or Die, baby!)!

We went out on the 4th to one of Brent's fellow resident's (and his very nice doctor girlfriend) house who so kindly invited us to their party. Their home was immaculate and enviable and they've only been in for two weeks. My friend (yay, again, I have a friend) Emily came out to the party sans medical boyfriend (he was working), she rocks! The party provided good times, great food, and absolutely gorgeous views. We could see like ten different firework displays across Oregon from their roof deck. Alas, I forgot my camera and have no photos to prove that we actually were invited to a party. You'll have to trust me. :-)

We came home, passed out on the couch. Unfortunately, I don't have any wild crazy stories from the 4th. Send me yours so I can live vicariously through them.

July 4th Weekend - Friday!!!

First, I'm sorry it's been a bit since I last posted. You know, I am just so busy. Okay, that's not so much the case as weekly activities are quite boring to write about. Anyhoo, White Cloud Brent strikes again - he was given a 3-day weekend! And, well, we took advantage of it. The hospital administration have put on a contest challenging Residents to visit a list of ~90 sites in and around Portland by May 2010 and we killed 7 of those this weekend. Go us! We are totally going to win the sweet prize awarded next summer. (On a side note, when I don't have much to do, my competitiveness increases to a level even more overwhelming to the average person than it already is. I seriously want to win this thing. Don't play Scrabble, Bocce, or other generally non-competitive events with me on vacation.)

(Above, Apollini Winery. Below, outside Tilamook Cheese Factor)



(Below Two Pictures - Fun Times at Blue Heron Cheese Factory, family friendly!)

Friday, we wake up late. Lazy on both parts. Since it stays warm and light out until about 9/9:30 we said, "Lets go to the coast!" Our destination: Cannon Beach! Did we make it?! No! But, only because we were sitting in practically stand still traffic for about an hour and decided to take instead to take a road leading to wineries and cheese factories! Wine and cheese are probably like my favorite things... rivaling Brent on some occassions, mostly in times of severe hunger and thirst for alcohol (just kidding, sugar pie, honey bunch, delicious mc-rib... wait, what was a I talking about?). We visited two wineries: Apollini and Purple Cow. These were OK. We ended up buying a bottle of Pinot Grigio from the first winery because we wanted some sort of momento. We chose the P.G. because Pinot Noirs were like $30+ and we can not tell the difference between $10, $20, $100 bottles of wine so why spend more than $10? Our palates are not that refined. Maybe you winos out there can come visit and give us some lessons.

After our visit to the wineries, we head into Tilamook to visit the famed Tilamook Cheese Factory. For those of you that don't know me, I will probably die of cheese intoxication. I LOVE cheese. I am deathly afraid after each yearly check-up that I will get back cholesterol readings that doctors will gossip about post-appointment. I have been lucky thus far. Anyways, we first visited the Blue Heron cheese factor. That place was pretty kick ass. Loads of tastings: brie cheese, dips, mustards, ice cream, wines, etc. Seeing how great this place was made me think that Tilamook C.F. was going to be the place I dream about, the place I will retire to, the place to send postcards to Ireland about. I don't believe in much, but I do believe in Cheese Heaven. I thought this might be it. Well, not so much the case. Not that this place was awful, I just expected way more. I expected endless amounts of cheese, Tilamook workers trolling around with serving trays of cheese, endless cheese. Ugh, dream crushed. We got a measly 5 samples of decent cheese. AND, we had to wait in line for it. What the hell. The one redeeming part was watching the cheese being manufactured. It was kind of mesmorizing. What do they do with the excess shaved cheese? Why does that block of cheese go into that reject line? Why why why? Although, for the workers themselves, I imagine this is absolutely and utterly boring. We finished the factory off with some ice cream which always makes things better. Brent had to figure out a way to stop me from crying.

Enough about cheese. Post-factory, we visited the coast, about 9 miles away. Despite it reaching boiling temperatures of 90+ in Portland, it was only like 50/60 on the coast. We went on a short walk where I had to wear a towel over my shoulders. We were not prepared for these temps. Although we had bathings suits, there was no way you could get me into that water. I like cold water, but you'd have to pay me obscene amounts of money to get in the Pacific on Friday.

After our trip out west to the coast, we came home, had dinner and went out for drinks with some of Brent's classmates in Multnomah village. One of Brent's classmates is on medicine wards at the university, which is notoriously one of the most difficult rotations. Try to guess which one he is in the picture below. Ha.

(1st: Brent reminds me why I married him. 2nd: Brent and classmates)

Friday was good. Saturday was great. See next post!