Washington Park, Portland

Saturday was by far the nicest day when I was in Portland. I hiked up to Washington Park, a 400 acre park near the top of Portland. It seems to be Portland's answer to Central Park, or if you combined Cherokee/Seneca Parks with the Louisville Zoo. It has a nice rose garden (of course none of them were blooming this early in the year), a Japanese garden (that I just took a quick picture of over the wall - too expensive to get in), and some amazing views of the city. In the first picture you can just make out Mount Hood in the back ground (it was much, much clearer in real life). While it was great to walk up to this park, my legs were hurting for two days afterwards, as I was not used to climbing such steep hills.

Portland Pictures

Here are some pictures of the sights of Porland. The first one is downtown overlooking the Columbia River, the second is the railroad draw bride, and finally Made in Oregon sign from the old town section of the city.

Portland Bikes

These are a few bikes that I saw while in Portland. Lots and lots of single speeds, town bikes, etc. The third picture is from River City Cycles, one of the best bike shops in the US, it is a 1984 Colnago Super, set up in time trial mode. It was a pretty amazing looking bike, with even the tire bags on it to protect the tires. This shop had a bunch of other bikes hanging from the ceiling, like a 1965 Cinelli Supercorsa, and a 1972 Eddy Merckx (built by Colnago), but due to poor lighting and a crappy camera, none of those pictures turned out very well. The last picture is of what I think is a Trek 760 like Dad's bike, but this one has been canabalized into a single speed. I even saw a Match bike. Match was a small, custom frame shop that was located in the Pacific northwest back in the late 1990s. It was one of the leading builders of its day, but sadly is closed down around 2000. Reason I know about them is that they built the steel Paramounts back then, and I had a chance to bid on a Match frame on ebay years ago, but passed it up and have kicked myself for it ever since.

Multnomah Public Library

Yes, I know that I am marking myself as a nerd for posting pictures of a library (especially since I failed to get a picture of the outside of the library), but here they are.

The first one is of the children's department - the tree is a bronze statue.

Rogue Brewery

Okay, so I just realized that the first picture is blurry, but I can't do anything about that now.

One of the cool places that I visited in Portland was the Rogue Brew Pub (the makers of Dead Guy Ale, Morimoto Soba ale, etc). I actually was going along to help a co-worker pick out a t-shirt for her son (and I actually convinced her to buy him a Dead Guy t-shirt, though not the ti-dyed one).

I have not tried a hugh number of Rogue ales, but the one that had there at the brewpub was good - John John Dead Guy. It would have been fun to try all the beers they had on tap, but I would probably still be there.

Sammy Rides Again

Yesterday was one of the first really warm days that we have had so far this spring, so I took Sam for a trailer ride. This was the first time that he has been in his "chariot" without his car seat and I think that he liked it more this way. Our ride itself wasn't all that exciting, as we just rode north out of Utica up along the road through the ammunition plant. At the end of that road, we took one of the other roads through the plant that has been opened up to traffic. We took a break so that Sam could have run around next to a big bulldozer. Sam thought it was pretty cool to sit in the drivers seat!

The Water Kept on Rising...

Well, not really, but we have seen the Ohio River keep rising and rising this week. I took these pictures on Thursday morning, close to what was supposed to be close to the cresting of the river (and yes, Dad, these pictures are for you).

These photos and the ones in the next post I took on Saturday night while I was walking around the back streets of Shinjuku. I came across a bike shop that specialized in single speed bikes, parts, and accessories. All the cool stuff I see on bikes around town (lugged Nitto threaded stems!) -- I guess this is where people get it. Still, nothing in the shop was as cool as the bikes parked outside. These four guys have a bike team (gang?) that they call "Far East Smoking Sliders" or something like that. The yellow t-shirt the guy in the middle is wearing is their uniform. Nice guys, but they didn't seem about to ask me to join their team or anything like that.

Riding in Nagano Prefecture

I found this ride report on Rapha's website about their rides in Japan (or Yonretto as they are calling it). This first ride was in Nagano Prefecture, from a small town called Nobeyama, situation at 1400m above sea level.

Introduction
Part I
Part II
Part III

Just a few more shots

of Sam from Sunday. He loved going to the park to play on the jungle gym.

Maple Syrup Festival

These are a few pictures from the Maple Syrup Festival that we went to this past weekend.

Sam hung out in his backpack for awhile, but mainly he just wanted to roam all over the place.

The maple syrup production took place in the main building, and of course they had to have a fire going constantly to boil the sap down.

Dead Ride

Last Saturday we went to the Sugar Bush Maple Syrup Festival near Salem, IN (about 30 miles from our house), and I, being a complete idiot, decided that I would ride my bike up there, even though this would be the longest ride I had done in probably 6 months. I decided to ride up and over Pixley Knob, which is one of the steepest hills in the area (it tops out at somewhere between 15 and 20% grade).

The weather could not have been better for spring riding (around 40 degrees and sunny), and I started out feeling great, but by the time I hit the knobs, I was feeling like I had been riding only my training for the past 3 months, as my legs were starting to give out. I got to the bottom of Pixley and looked up at it and decided to walk up it. Once I reached the top and starting riding again, I felt okay, but then just a few miles down the road I started to bonk big time. Some how I made it to the festival and by the time Kate, Sam, and her parents showed up I was feeling better, but it was still a good reminder of the difference between riding inside and out.

I was on my way to setting up my photo exhibition (!) when I saw this bike. My camera was in my bag and I had to dig it out and snap this shot before the light turned red again (you can see the green crosswalk sign there in the background) In the end it turned out all right, not too blurry or anything, and what a cool bike.

Some Spring Weather Finally

After a month of winter (yes, I know it is so long, especially compared to Michigan), we had some nice weather this weekend. Sam made the most of it by being outside riding his bike and running around.

Pictures from Michigan

I think that Dad probably already sent these out to most people, but here are some pictures of Sam and others from our time in Michigan two weeks ago.

Sam in Michigan

Here are a couple of new Sam vids...

Here is Sam walking all over the house, dragging a plastic bag on his foot (plus you get to see how messy our mud room is)



Sam and his Aunt B learning to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star