2017

First off, hello! It's been a little while hasn't it? 

I think my every other year curse is finally broken. It seems like for the past few years I've been on a cycle of good year followed by bad year followed by good year and so on. Dare I say it, 2016 and 2017 were absolutely incredible!

A lot of pretty amazing things happened this year. From seeing what seemed like a thousand music shows, to climbing trips, to traveling domestically and abroad, 2017 was incredible. 

After getting back from Australia (technically that was at the end of 2016), I started working at Planet Granite again and got a semi "real person" job as PG Portland's Marketing and Events Coordinator as well as becoming a supervisor and a few other "upgrades." I absolutely love my new job and it's been going very well. Plus, the earliest I normally go to work is 11am and I set a lot of my own hours. It's pretty hard to beat that.

In March, my buddies Brandon, Logan, and I drove roughly 12.5 hours down to Bishop, California for a week long bouldering trip which ended up being probably my favorite climbing trip I've ever been on. I also got to see/climb with one of my favorite people, Kyle, who had moved to California in January but was able to meet up with us for the week.

Bishop

Bouldering is hard

A few weeks after getting back from California, I had a quite the crazy time. I went to Las Vegas and played around for a few days, including a day trip to the Grand Canyon. After that, I headed to Fort Collins and ate/drank my way through the old college town. I also made it down to Denver for a day to see a bunch of old college friends which was great. I flew back to Portland to work for a few days and then went up to Seattle with my buddy Mitch to see Deadmau5 which was hands down the best show I've ever been to. Cross that one off the bucket list. After being back in Portland, a few days later I drove back up to Seattle then bussed it to Vancouver, BC followed by flying to Los Angeles after that. Phew! Good times.

Deadmau5!

Grand Canyon

Some months later in July, I somehow ended back down in Australia! Yet again, massive thanks to Aunt Cindi for the flight hookup! It was a pretty mellow trip but great to catch up with people I hadn't seen in almost a year. As corny as it sounds, I had a bit of a realization regarding certain people after getting back which, although a bit disheartening, was needed. Hopefully I can make it back in 2018 at some point.

Fast forward to October, I achieved full on adult status by moving out of the parent's place. I'm now living in NE Portland with 2 awesome roommates and a dog and am absolutely loving it.

Also in October, Brandon, Logan, and I did a Smith trip and met up with Kyle again which, although too short, was great as always. 

At the end of October, I went up to Canada for the second time in 2017 with my friend Kara to see Deadmau5 yet again. Twice in one year? I'm perfectly okay with that. 

Come December, Kyle, Brandon, Brandon's friend Tommy, and I went down to Red Rocks just outside of Vegas for a week to climb and have all the fun. And have all the fun we did. We even got to seem some old friends that had moved to Florida earlier in the year. I love those guys so much and appreciate them like none other. Can't wait for our next trip which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later.

Love these guys

So although the world turned into a bit of a pit this past year, on a personal level, I'm doing very very well. I hope everyone learned from and enjoyed 2017 as much as I did. 

Here's to 2018! Already excited for the first few months as some of my favorite Aussies are coming to visit in January and February.

Happy New Year!

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

Good times with great friends

That's all for now. Bye.

Outside

The first outdoor climbing session of 2015 has happened!  After getting up around 7 and catching a train into Portland on Wednesday, I met up with two friends/coworkers and headed to Washington for a bit of cragging.  We headed to the Ozone area in the Columbia River Gorge, a wall I hadn't been to before.  None of us knew the area very well but there was a nice couple that recommended some routes to hop on.  The weather was perfectly overcast and although our hands got cold during climbs, the temperature was pleasant.

The routes were interesting and fairly high quality.  There were some fun moves on each route and the views from the top were incredible.  As you climbed above the trees, you could look down into the gorge.  Although there were a few chossy sections of rock, overall it was solid.

View from the top.  Very cool in person.

We all had to work that evening so had to head back to Portland earlier than we would have liked but it was a really good time.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Auld Lang Syne

New Years is kind of an odd holiday if you really think about it.  Nothing magical happens between December 31st and January 1st but it somehow always feels like the end of an era and the beginning of another.

For celebrations, a group of us gathered at a friend's house to bring in the new year.  There was food, drinks, games, and good times.

2015!

2014 was one of, if not the most, craziest years of my life.  There were some extreme highs and some extreme lows.  It marked a major shift in the life that I knew and forced me to start almost completely over.  I try to keep these postings light but have a feeling this one might be a bit heavier.

So what big things happened in 2014?

• Despite going borderline insane due to being enrolled in 21 credits, I had my most fun semester at CSU of the time I was there
• Was able to have a fantastic time traveling across the country from New York City to LA (where I finally got to experience Disneyland!)
• Got to see some of Canada for the first time and made some (hopefully soon) travel goals
• Graduated from university.  That still hasn't really hit me yet
• Mentored and made a noticeable impact on a 10 year old's life
• At least for me, made what I hope to be a lifelong best friend from the other side of the world who has been through an eerily similar amount of identical life experiences/situations as me
• Lost one of my oldest friends but still think about him often
• Had to say goodbye to my two best friends and all the other people I got really close with after 3.5 years living in Colorado.  I think about them everyday and miss them terribly
• Moved back to the Northwest
• Even though the process was long, I got a job that was number one on my list
• Started writing this weekly blog which is both fantastic and frustrating.  It's great to look back at something for every week and see when I had nothing to write about or when the ideas were flowing

What will 2015 bring?  I don't really do the whole resolution thing but I do like to set some goals.  What might those be?  I don't want to give away too much so those are just for me.  

Hope everyone had a memorable year and that 2015 will be just as eventful.  I've got a feeling this is going to be a good year.

Happy New Year!  

That's all for now.  Bye.

Goodbye England

Very short one this week.

On Thursday I got to meet up with an old friend from high school, Summer, who is visiting town.  Summer is going to school in Liverpool, England but is back for the holidays.  The last time I saw Summer was in Europe.  I got to fly over to Liverpool from Dublin and she showed me around the town for a day.

Summer wanted to see the climbing gym where I work so we had a little climbing session and then headed on down to Bridgeport Brewery for some food and festive beverages.  

Getting on the ramp

Crushing it

Cheers

After wandering around REI, we made our way up to 23rd to browse the shops and Summer had her first ever Salt and Straw.  It was a fun day.

Salt and Straw

That's all for now.  Bye.

It's The End Of The World

The following is based on true events:

 November 13, 2014

5:30 AM
There's an eery cold in the air.  Many school districts have declared late openings.  What is happening? 

7:15 AM
Schools are shut down across the metro area.  Many businesses have closed.  It's been advised to stay indoors.  It seems like we're on the brink of a statewide emergency.  I don't know if we'll make it to nightfall.

8:24 AM
I have my window locked shut and the blinds pulled tight.  I don't want to see what is happening outside.  The sound of cars on the street going about their everyday business must just be a trick.

8:33 AM
It has to be done.  I need to see what is going on out there.

8:34 AM
It has happened...the snowpocalypse has reached Portland.  We got hit hard but it looks like the neighborhood might pull through.  Our neighbors seem to have taken the brunt of it.  Hopefully they're alright.

I'm hoping our deck can recover

The neighbors got it the worst

12:22 PM
This strange, wet substance keeps falling from the sky.  I've never seen this before in the Pacific Northwest.  The roads are covered in this odd liquid but don't seem affected at all.  It could all be just a clever trick.

Terrifying

It's spreading!

12:47 PM
I hear sirens outside.  This must be even worse than I thought.  I've seen things like this happen in other places and in movies but never this bad.

2:02 PM
I've tried to reach the outside world.  The internet cut for about 8 seconds, even though it does this pretty much everyday, but I was able to see how the rest of Portland was faring.  It seems like things are rough Portlanders are standing strong.

 

2:59
I think it's getting worse...

3:54 PM
It's over.  We've done it.  All clear.  We survived.

-----

But yeah, it's been four years since I spent a winter in Oregon and I almost forgot how ridiculous they take "snow."  In Colorado, we would have over a foot, tree branches falling on people and sending them to the hospital (true story), icy roads, negative 20 degree weather, and still have to go to class.  In fact, in my 3.5 years at CSU, I only had an entire day of classes cancelled one time for weather and that was for heavy rain (which I was laughing about the entire time).  

Hope you people in Colorado and the rest of the country are surviving the actual harsh conditions.

That's all for now.  Bye.

40 Oz. To Freedom

It's the last full weekend in July which can only mean one thing...Oregon Brewer's Festival!

The festival commenced along the Waterfront on Wednesday and taps close tomorrow.  According to their website, there are over 88 craft beers from around the country with another 100 in the "specialty tent."  This was the event's 27th year.

Basically how it works is you get in for free but buy a glass which counts for your admission fee.  To fill said glass, you buy tokens and give them to the lovely people pouring the beers.  1 token gets you a 3 ounce sample (unless you're extra nice to the pourer) whereas 4 get you a full glass.  I'm pretty sure 3 samples would fill a glass so that seems to be a little bit of a scam.

Last year I went on a Friday which was a mistake due to the amount of people.  This time I headed down on Thursday.  There were still a fair crowd but it was a lot more manageable.

My favorite of the day was a chocolate porter from the Boulder Beer Company called Shake.  It smelled exactly like a chocolate milkshake and the taste was not far off.  Delicious!

I ran into one of my friends from middle school who I don't think I'd seen since which was a bit of a trip.

This was kind of sparse.  I've got what I'm expecting to be an adventurous post coming up in two weeks so be excited.
 
That's all for now.  Bye.

Born To Run in the USA

Look at that, you get 2 song titles cleverly mashed together into one this week!

On Thursday, I headed to NW Portland with some friends to participate in Fit Right Northwest's Urban Adventure Run.  For those of you new to the Portland scene, the city has a lot of first/last day events each month.  My friend Ariel found this one where you look at a map and run around NW Portland going to different points and collecting raffle tickets.  The more places you go to, the more tickets you get.  At the end of an hour, you take the tickets back to the start and put them in the two giant bins.  Then, in my case, you wait to not hear your ticket number called to not win a prize.  There are also a bunch of local food booths set up giving out free samples (which were all delicious) and even a 10 Barrel stand giving out free festive beverages to the 21+ crowd.

 
Along with my friends, I've only been to NW Portland a handful of times which made for an entertaining time running aimlessly around the streets trying to figure out where to go.  We eventually got our bearings and ended up making it to a fair amount of the checkpoints so good for us!  None of us won anything in the raffle but it was still a fun time on a perfect weather running day.  I'm hoping to do it again next month.

I Spy a New Belgium shirt!

We Workout

Friday brought forth (see what I did there) the most patriotic day of the year.  A lot of people were out of town/doing other things but I did get to tag along with my friend Samantha and some of her friends from Gonzaga.  We headed over to the potentially anxiety inducing, crowded, Waterfront area to watch the fireworks.  The show was decent but nothing too special.  Nothing says "Amuricah" quite like blowing things up.  The Waterfront was crowded but not as bad as I remember from the last time I saw the show there.  Taking the train back, on the other hand, was miserable. 

Taking pictures of fireworks never really works out

Random fun fact (at least I think this is true) of the day: John Adams thought Independence Day would be celebrated on July 2nd since that was the day the Continental Congress actually declared freedom from Britain.  After some edits, congress approved the final draft of the Deceleration of Independence on July 4th (although it wasn't signed until August 2nd).   Now you know.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Well, I'm back in Oregon, at least for a while.

Packing commenced on Monday this week and took me about three days to get done.  Packing might be the worst thing in the world.  Trying to fit your life into 3 bags is not enjoyable.

Packing sucks

My friend Sophie came up from Denver on Monday so we could hang out a bit and say goodbye.  We ended up going to Odell's brewery on a spur of the moment decision but missed the last tour of the day by five minutes.  Oh well.  It was my other friend's birthday on Monday as well and we went out at night to celebrate.

Courtesy of Will

On Tuesday, Heather arranged a surprise activity for us.  I tried to figure out what it was but was unsuccessful.  It turned out to be paddle boarding!  I had never done it before and the weather was beautiful which made for a great time.  That night we went out to dinner.  I originally thought it was just going to be Heather and me but was surprised when other friends were there as well.  If you don't know, Fort Collins has copious amounts of restaurants and almost all of them are delicious.  Unfortunately, this place is in the top 2 for worst places I've ever been.  I had to send my food back twice (I've never sent back food before).  If you're ever in Fort Collins, do not go to The Boot Grill.  Although the food was terrible, it made for a good laugh.

Courtesy of Heather

Wednesday was a pretty depressing day.  My flight wasn't until almost nine at night and I still had a fair amount of packing to do.  When the packing was finally done, Heather, Will, and I walked around campus and then played a game of Gin Rummy.  After saying farewell to the house, CSU, and Fort Collins, Heather drove me down to the airport and we had our last goodbye (at least for now).  Having to say bye to your two best friends in the span of less than 3 weeks kind of sucks.

Empty rooms are sad

I flew into Seattle because the ticket was about $100 cheaper for some reason as opposed to heading to Portland and my dad was driving down anyway.  The added 3 hours to the trip was not the greatest thing in the world but it all worked out.

Congratulations to all the West Coast people graduating today!

That's all for now.  Bye.

City Of Roses

It's a little strange doing a travel post about the place I lived for 18 years but traveling is traveling.  Right after my graduation ceremony concluded last Saturday, Vlad and I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Portland, Oregon.  There was traffic on the way down which made for a sprint through the airport and a photo finish for making the flight but we did it! 

When we arrived at my place in Portland, we walked around the neighborhood a bit before heading to Washington Square shopping mall so Vlad could get things for family and friends back in Australia.  After getting back and a quick nap, we took the MAX into Portland and had good times at one of my favorite places in Portland, Deschutes brewery.  Before heading back, we made a stop at the oh so famous Voodoo donuts.

The next day after watching a disappointing Heat game, we went to Pittock Mansion before heading downtown again.  When we got downtown, we walked along the waterfront and then towards Pioneer Courthouse Square.  The weather was pretty bad so we stepped into the mall to try and find more gifts but didn't have much luck.

Pittock Mansion

Portland!

Benson Bubbler

On Monday we pretty much spent the entire day going in and out of shopping malls around the Portland area.  Later on, Vlad and I stayed outside almost the entire night in my backyard having one of our "deep" late night conversations.  That night will probably be one of my favorite memories ever.

We headed back to Denver on Tuesday after our flight was delayed due to sever lightning storms.  We were worrying a bit because Vlad's journey back to Australia was supposed to start Wednesday morning and we weren't sure if we would make it back in time.  Luckily we did but it took about 11 hours to get from PDX to Fort Collins which put a damper on our last night activities.  We did get to walk around campus one more time before Vlad shuttled back to the airport in the morning.  Saying goodbye to your best friend is not a fun or easy thing to do and has made for some rough days after.  I'm so glad we got to spend his last few days together and I will be counting down the time until we meet again.

That's all for now.  Bye.