The Sellwood Bridge

Sorry, for the blur spot. It was bright and I couldn't see
the panorama correctly in my camera.

Today was my first day on the project site. I won't go into too much detail, but you can learn more about the project here. There's even a link to two live feed cameras. Currently, we have to help Advanced American Construction set 150 pylons by Oct. 15. Basically, I stand on the shore (currently) and tell them based on our instrument readings where they need to go to set the pylon in the correct spot. It sounds like "Go offshore/inshore 3 tenths and upriver/downriver 8 tenths." We aim for a 2 tenth tolerance, but it's up to them to decide when it's close enough. This process takes patience since our instruments are very accurate and a crane on a barge is not so much. Then they use a hydraulic hammer to pound it into the bedrock while we periodically stop and check to make sure we're still in the correct spot and haven't slid out of place. 

Ben took this of me on the east platform.

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Autumn Backpacking Guide

Did you know fall hiking is considered to be the time span from September 22 to December 21? I didn't but maybe that's because I'm from Alaska. The time stretch provides quite a range of temperatures and weather conditions even at a single elevation. Last night we went to another REI hosted presentation  on fall backpacking led by Bernie Wilt. We’ve been to two presentations before and this one was exactly what I was hoping it would be. The first one was on Fall Hikes in the Columbia River Gorge and another one on trail running put on by Salomon, which was really just a 1 hour commercial for their products. It did answer the two questions I had about trail running though. 1) do I need any special gear or considerations to do it? No. Trail specific shoes might help but they aren’t necessary. We did learn some things to consider in shoe shopping though like materials and tread design, but overall we don’t need to buy anything new and definitely not anything expensive (thanks, but no thanks on the $500 watch with GPS, maps, weather, and altimeter or the super duper hydration vest because believe it or not we don’t run super ultra-marathons). 2) Where around here are trails to run on? Technically, trail running is running anywhere but on the road/ pavement, but the only places they had to suggest were Forest Park (which we have yet to check out despite it vast size and trails available and proximity to Portland proper) and a few short ones around the Beaverton area, one of which we have already run on- the Nike campus trails. So, all in all that presentation was our least favorite.  [...]

Food education & shaved zucchini

For as much as we whine (or is it wine? both.) to each other about having to cook dinner when all we really want is to be lazy and throw a frozen pizza in the oven, we make good food. None of it is complicated and none of it resembles the canned veggies, iceberg lettuce, boiled corn, margarine, and baked chicken I was raised on (sorry, Mom!). 

First off, no veggies come from store bought cans except artichoke hearts, chickpeas, and stewed tomatoes. Our corn is always done on the grill with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper (quarter turns every 5 minutes, if you're wondering!). There is only real butter in the fridge and it gets used one or twice a year when I decide to bake something dessert-y. We rarely bake anything. It's steamed, grilled, sauteed, or seared. We haven't followed a recipe, except maybe the first time or two we made something new like chili, shepherd's pie, or curried noodles. Our general method is find a protein: fish, ground turkey, chicken, chicken sausage, shrimp, or on occasion, steak, grab whatever veggies are on hand, and a carb like pearl couscous, basmati rice, pasta, or quinoa and combine it via one or more of the previously stated cooking methods.

It's a challenge to eat this many vegetables in a week. Most of the time we don't succeed.

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Hood River to Mosier

We really enjoy Hood River. We went this weekend because we're members of Naked Winery there and they have a pick up party every 3 months. This was our second one. Also, it is our 40th month as a couple (woohoo!)- what better way to celebrate than enjoying the outdoors!? I've been looking forward to today since last weekend's outdoor fun. Thus, it was the longest 4-day week ever. 

Waited all week for this view! (click for a larger version)

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Labor Day on the Olympic Peninsula

For the holiday weekend we decided to head up to Matt's grandmother's in Sequim, WA. First off, who doesn't enjoy visiting their grandparents (especially fiesty, independant ones like Hana). Second, the weather was predicted to be GORGEOUS all across the PacNW and they have some great hiking. The bonus was that I discovered the Olympic Discovery Trail during the week while searching for activities. It's a paved pedestrian/ bike path that goes around the peninsula connecting all the towns. Naturally, this meant we were bringing the bikes! 

Olympic Peninsula National Park

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