Well, it’s fairly official. We’re heading to Me-hee-co in late April slash early May for Laura’s (and Lauren’s) 30th birthday!! Lauren and Laura came up with the idea and Shad and I have been fully supportive like good husbands that have no issue with drinking on the beach do. Started out thinking we’d head to Hawaii, but after looking at costs, Mexico looks a lot better. Plan is to rent a house in Sayulita as per Isaac’s recommendation. Very exciting. This’ll be my first time south of the board. Can’t wait for a little R&R too. The basic plan, I believe, is to go to Sayulita, get a bunch of cheap beer and taquilla, find a lawn chair on the beach and not move for 5-7 days. Awesome. This’ll be the first real trip Laura and I have taken since 2008 when we went to Asia, so we’re totally pumped. And by “real trip” I mean a trip that doesn’t include going to Minneapolis and/or Lawrence. In other words, it’ll be our first real vacation in quite some time. We’re excited. Did I say that? I think I did.
Well this past weekend was damn near perfect, which has been very well deserved by Laura and I as we’ve been putting in some pretty excessive hours over the past few weeks. This was the first weekend in a while that we didn’t have to work and all, and the weather gods must have had us in their favor. The weekend was filled with blue skies and temps high 60s, low 70s. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.
So what did we do with our free weekend? Biked. Here’s the route.
I had a few errands I’d wanted to run around town and so we hoped on our bikes and started the journey. We decided o start out with some fuel and went to the Little Red Bicycle which is this amazing neighborhood cafe about a mile from our house. They’re only only until 2pm and closed on Mondays, which I constantly want to scold them about, but they make some of the best damn sandwiches on the planet. Fried egg with caramelized onions on ciabatta? Hells yeah. So we got some deats and headed out for the long haul. I’d wanted to get to this bike shop in South Portland to get a new rear wheel so I could gear one of my bikes; Portland has a lot more hills than Minneapolis. We decided to go the route of Willamette which is always an awesome view and winded down Greeley Ave, past Adidas (which is a really ugly building) proceeded by a HUGE hill that was quite a bit of fun to ride down.
This part of the ride I think really sums up what I love about Portland. The roads we were on were really quite large roads, with on ramps to the highway (which we had to cross over) and times really almost felt like we were riding on the shoulder of a four lane highway. The whole time we were in our bike lane and felt no danger from traffic what-so-ever. I think it’s truly commendable how much the city pays attention to bicyclists and makes them feel safe throughout the city. In Minneapolis it’s a lot easier to feel like a nuance to drivers that are obviously more important than god. Long story short, you can bike damn near ANYWHERE in Portland and you’re welcomed. Cars stop and let you pass before they make a right hand turn. People are just more considerate.
Steel Bridge from the floating dock
From our massive hill and highway we came across the riverfront and road along this floating dock on the opposite side of downtown Portland from the Willamette. The eeriest part was that we hadn’t realized we were floating at all until we were about halfway down the dock. It’s basically this boardwalk that runs along the river about 40ft from the coast. It was pretty damn beautiful.
And on we went to City Bikes. There are actually two “City Bikes”, one with the sub-name of Annex. I was looking for a used bike parts story and wasn’t quite sure which one was which, so we stopped at both. I’m pretty sure it’s the same shop with two locations. I think City Bikes Annex is the spoiled little sister, and City Bikes is the ugly older brother. We were looking of for the ugly brother.
New Wheel from City Bikes
The Annex was nice though. They had a cool upstairs with a bunch of used bikes. Saw an old tandem that was about the same as the one I have from home that needs rebuilding. Thinking about buying the one they had for the parts or see if I can make a deal for the parts I need. It’s a really crappy tandem either way, but pretty sure they only wanted $200 for it. Anyway… made it to the right shop and scored a new rear wheel and cassette. The cassette was really nice, but super dirty. Just caked with mud and grime, but about an hour on Sunday later and it was spit shined to perfection. And away we went.
Our next stop was at this great park that Laura knew of in the area, Laurelhurst Park. Apparently it was designed by the same guy that designed Central Park and Golden Gate Park. It was pretty sweet. We walked through the part with it’s lines of furs and lake and plopped down for rest and so I had a change to return a phone call to my mom.
Continuing on we stopped on our way to Mississippi Ave at this super awesome little bar on Failing and Williams called the 5th Quadrant. Played some Connect Four, which Laura totally kicked my ass at, had a couple drinks and some food, and continued on our way. Most of the rest of the trip was just our ride home. All in all, we started biking around 1pm and didn’t get back home until about 7pm. In my mind a damn near perfect day. That evening we biked to a friends house for a bond fire and had pretty relaxed day on Sunday that started out with home made pancakes. It was an awesome weekend.
Billy Mays for Oxi Clean
So I’ve got this shirt right? I love this shirt. Laura’s folks gave it to me for Christmas a year ago, and I’m not exactly sure what the material is, but it’s the most comfortable, warm shirt I’ve ever owned. It’s awesome. And on top of all of this, they don’t make this particular shirt anymore. I know because I tried to buy another but couldn’t. Anyway, when Laura and I took our trip to China, I accidentally left the shirt at my buddy Paul’s place in Beijing. So I’d been without this shirt for about 8 months until Paul was able to bring it back to the States this past holiday season. Super excited to have my shirt back, I wore it immediately, and what happens? I get a super awesome oil stain right on the front of the shirt. Awesome.
So oil stains? I have no idea how to treat any stain, much less a stain as difficult to treat as an oil stain. Oh, and of course I let the stain set. So I tried a few things trying to get the stain out. First just washing it. Then I tried WD-40 (found that online somewhere). Scrubbed with laundry detergent. Nothing got the stain out. Super bumbed. So Laura, being the amazing girlfriend she is, was asking people what they recommended. Sally, my sister-in-law, said that she used the Shout Scrub Brush and added the laundry crystals(?) and then just scrubbed all that business in, and it worked for most everything the kids got into. So last night, we stop by the grocery store and got some Shout Ultra Gel and Oxi Clean. Get home, scrub it all into the stain. Let it sit about 5 minutes (recommended by the Shout directions). Then scrubbed the shirt in the hottest water the tap would produce, and rinsed with cold water. Let it hang dry, and presto! The stain is gone, shirt saved!
Granted I’m not exactly a conisour of cleaning products, and I don’t know if it was the Oxi Clean or the Shout that did it, or both. But the stain is gone, and I’ll probably be using that remedy again in the future. Thank you Laura, Sally, Billy Mays.
Well I’ve definately been slacking on my posts recently. No real particular reason. I guess life’s just been slowing down so there’s not much to write about. That or there so much shit going on I can’t stop to think. The world may never know.
Thanksgiving was two weeks ago tomorrow (WOW – I’ve been seriously slackin’). This year was fairly laid back, but a lot of fun and always good to see so much family. Rob and Nancy Marshall came up to visit and spend Thanksgiving day with us this year. It was great to see them and introduce them to more of the family. They’d met my Mom a few months back on their last visit to town, but this year they got to meet some extended family and my Dad and Kathryn, which was a lot of fun. They even met Molly via Skype.
Cheese Ball!?!
Appetizers Galore
Looks like Rob fell asleep... but not really.
The Feast
Family and Family
Done and Done
Well folks, were back from our amazing trip at the boundary waters. It was definitely an amazing trip. Thursday night we got into Grand Marais and thought we’d stop off of a night cap before getting to the camping area, and what happens? Kate knows the bartender. Insanity. It was a good night and we all had a couple of cocktails and then headed on down to the campsite. Got things set up and were in our sacks by about 2am. Not ideal, but at least we were able to get a good start Friday morning.
So Friday morning we put it on Bearskin Lake, which actually isn’t in the Boundary Waters. We had to paddle from Bearskin out to Duncan Lake. Once we landed at the portage we were in the boundary waters. From Duncan we got to the Staircase portage which led us to Rose Lake where we were planning on setting up camp for the weekend. The Staircase portage is exactly what it sounds like. Fairly steep terrain (at least when you’re carrying a canoe). And there actually were a couple of sets of staircases that some volunteers had put in this past year. Thank you volunteers. Halfway through the portage there’s this beautiful water fall. We ended up stopping there for lunch and Kate and Andy took a little dip. Laura’s and my water wear where packed a bit too deep to get in. Although I did venture down and dip my face in for a bit. And on we went to the camp site on Rose. Set up camp, ate, drank, watched the moon rise and went to bed (by 10 o’clock).
Saturday was a much more relaxing day. In the morning it was quite chilly and windy, but by mid day it had warmed up quite a bit, the wind died down, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was gloceous. We ended up going for a hike in the afternoon where were saw this amazing view of the Lake (pictures to follow). After some lunch we headed back down to camp and started up for dinner. That evening… oh, wait, dinner. We had this chili that was made in Andy’s new dutch over with cornbread topping. It was outstanding… after dinner with sat around the fire for quite a bit drinking wine and whiskey and chatting about anything we could think of. And around 9 o’clock, we took the canoes out onto the lake to watch to moon rise and go star gazing. It was incredible. The lake was still and the moon and stars were quite beautiful.
Sunday, was pretty basic. Packed up camp, ate some breakfast and made the trip home. We got back to MPLS around 10 o’clock last night. It was a long exhausting haul, but very well worth it. I’ll be sure to post pictures soon (once I get them off the camera and onto the computer). And hopefully I’ll post a few more stories about the trip. Just wanted to get a quick rundown of the trip up while I’m stalling here at work.
The time has finally come. Tonight, Laura, Kate, Andy and I head up to Grand Marais, MN for a night of camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior and then we’re off to the Boundary Waters. I haven’t been up there in a few year (probably longer), and I’m super excited. It’s going to be Kate and Laura’s first time up there which will make the adventure even more exciting. Hopefully the weather stays nice up there. Here in Minneapolis it’s been warm and sunny all week, fantastic weather. But I think the forecast for Grand Marais is supposed to be a bit rainy. Either way it’ll be a good trip. It’ll either be beautiful and sunny, or rainy and challenging. As long as it’s not too much of a challenge I’m sure we’ll enjoy either.
Yesterday Laura and I heading out to Midwest Mountaineering for supplies (after two previous trips to REI – one with both of us and one solo trip by Laura). I’d never actually been in Midwest Mountaineering, but I’ve gotta say for all the sales they had going on, I was very impressed. I got a couple of Patagonia shirts, pants, shorts, and knickers (just to cover all bases), a couple of pairs of wool socks and a hat. In the end it was around $200, but if I’d paid the full retail I probably would have spent close to $600, so that’s awesome. We’ve definitely spent a lot gearing up for this trip though. But it’s pretty easy to do when we’re getting stuff that we know we’ll using again. Most of the stuff I got yesterday were also great purchases for biking (wearing my knickers now). Always fun getting some new stuff.
Hopefully my next post will be filled with pics from the trip.
So I finally got around to taking some pictures of Laura’s bike to post. I actually took the pictures to post them up on the Bike Porn forum of Minneapolis Bike Love. Love that site, by the way. Here are a few of the pictures that I took though.
The bike is a Bianchi Sport SS. I’m estimating it’s from around 1984. Nancy (Laura’s Mom) got it new and she thinks it was probably around that time. I haven’t been able to find much on it online, but that’s the best guess.
This past weekend Laura and I went down to Lawrence for Lauren and Shad’s wedding. It’s always nice to get down there. The weekend was pretty rushed and exhausting, got in Friday night, left Sunday noon, but there’s always a lot of good people to see while were there and this weekend was of course no exception. I’ve got a few photos of the wedding reception on my picasa site. There aren’t too many though, which I guess just means we were having too much fun to shoot too many pictures. I ended up getting pretty tanked, oops. It was quite a blast though.