Things that might be decidedly odd…

Rafting the White Salmon

A group of us went with OutVentures this weekend to raft the middle White Salmon River. It’s near the Oregon-Washington border, a ways east of Portland.

Don, David and I drove down on Friday night after work. We camped at Memaloose State Park in Oregon. We arrived pretty late, but set up camp and sat around the fire for a while before heading to bed. On Saturday, the group got up, ate breakfast and stopped in Hood River for supplies before starting the official outfitting at 1:30.

I’ve been rafting before, but it’s been a while. This river and trip were different than the last one, but it was still a lot of fun. I fell out of the raft in a rapid, but this time I managed to grab onto the rope right after falling in which made it a lot easier to get back in. Our guide also fell out of the raft while going over Husum Falls (a 14 foot waterfall and highlight of the trip), whict was a little unnerving. We all survived though and it was fun. We finished sometime around 5pm. Afterwards, the staff cooked us a tasty steak dinner before we headed back to the campsite to relax.

We drove back to Seattle this morning. It started out about 80F+ and sunny, but ended 60F and rainy. There was also a lot of traffic, first from an accident on I-84 in Oregon then later from Olympia through Tacoma. Still, it was a fun weekend.

Olympic National Park

Jason, Sarah, Sarah’s brother Sean (visiting from out of town) and I went out to the Olympic Peninsula this weekend to see Olympic National Park. We took the ferry over on Friday afternoon and spent two nights camping at the Heart O’ the Hills campground in the park. I was worried about being able to find a campsite on a summer weekend so late, but there were actually quite a few sites available when we arrived around 10pm. I think the rain forecast for the weekend might have kept more people away. It did rain most of the weekend, but I didn’t mind too much. It was still scenic and great to get away from the city for a few days. It’s also awesome hanging out with Sarah and Jason. I’ll miss them when they’re back in North Carolina again.

On Saturday, we did the Sol Doc waterfall hike then drove down to Rialto Beach for lunch followed by a walk on the beach. Both places were quite beautiful!

On Sunday, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge where we looked at the partial views of the mountains and then did a ranger walk where we learned about the effects of wind on snow on plant life. We saw quite a few deer there as well as a marmot off in the distance.

On the way down the mountain, a black bear crossed right in front of the car. The black bit just to the left of the tree is the bear,

but I didn’t take the picture quick enough to really capture him. Oh well.

We got back to Seattle a little after 5pm. On the Bainbridge Island Ferry, I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the Seattle skyline line this one:

Pictures are here.

Vancouver

Summer is such a busy time! I’ve got a few minutes before heading off to bed, so I’ll recap what I’ve been up to lately.

Last weekend, I went to Vancouver, BC for the weekend. It was Vancouver Pride, but mostly I just went to visit some friends. It was a fun time, but somehow I managed to spend $300 (CAD = USD these days) without staying in a hotel or buying anything while shopping. It was all food, drinks and cover charges.

Robert and I drove up on Friday after work. Upon arrival, our hosts (Jean and Javeed) were already having a small cocktail party so things started off right away. Later we grabbed some food and went to 1181 where we ran into various other Seattle people. We tried to get into Odyssey, but eventually gave up once the line stopped moving. We ended up at Numbers which was fun but so extremely hot I couldn’t really dance for very long.

Saturday morning involved wandering around Robson St and Davie St doing some light shopping followed by more eating and drinking. That night, we managed to get to Odyssey early enough to get in without waiting forever. Once inside, I felt really old though. I’m not sure why we go there. The crowd is not our scene, it’s not cheap ($15 cover during pride weekend) and there’s always a long line. Oh well.

Sunday was the parade which we watched for a while before seeking out some food. I had some of the worst Mexican food I’ve had in a while. Note to self–just because the employees all speak Spanish doesn’t mean it’ll be decent. Yuck. After that, we went back to the condo for some prefuncing before heading over to the Trouble T Dance we bought tickets for the previous day. It was no doubt my favorite part of going out on the whole trip. There was some dancing, but it was just a nice space to be in with a good number of people. Afterwards, we ended up at an impromptu party at a friend of a friend of a friend’s place nearby. We had some pizza. I spilled my glass of wine all over the place after trying to set it down on the curved edge of this funky coffee table. Robert fell asleep and started snoring in the middle of the party. We were terrible and probably never welcome back. After that, we somehow got the bright idea of going out to Odyssey yet again. I ended up getting to bed around 2am I think after having a few cocktails.

Monday morning, I got up at 6:30 so that I could drive back home in time for a work meeting. Ugh, I was so tired. I didn’t make the work meeting because it took something like 80 minutes to get through US Customs. Every car in that line up had BC plates, I swear. Monday was a local holiday (BC Day) and with the current exchange rates, apparently a lot of Canadians decided to drive over the border to get in some good shopping.

Whew

I’ve been off the wagon with blogging lately, what with STP, San Francisco, Guerneville and starting a new job!

Anyhow, things are well. In summary:

1. STP was great. Even though I was sore and tired afterwards, I was definitely less sore and probably less exhausted than last year. I was sort of dreading riding it again this year, but I’m glad I went through with it afterall.

2. The trip to California was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away from Seattle, work and all of that for a week and a half. The drive back took about 15 hours. That sucked, but overall a good trip.

3. I started the new job on Friday (right before doing STP). Because I was on vacation Monday (to get back from Portland without rushing), today was only my third day at work. I’ve unpacked my moving boxes and gotten all my computers set up. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and just trying to wrap my brain around the new project, but generally things have been going swimmingly.

Followup on California Trip

Yikes, things have been busy during and since I’ve gotten back from California. I need a vacation from my vacation I think.

Anyhow, I have gotten around to posting the pictures from the trip. Lots of pretty shots of California wine country and a few of me riding a horse in Oregon. They’re not exactly a comprehensive record of my trip (I just managed to snap pictures with my iPhone when I got the chance), but they’ll do I suppose.

San Francisco

On Thursday afternoon, a group of us began our trip by car from Seattle to San Francisco. We stopped for the night at my parents’ house in Oregon, before continuing on Friday. I went out Friday night in the Castro, which was quite busy being pride weekend and all. We went from Moby Dick’s to Midnight Sun to Lookout trying to find a less packed bar, but of course each was more packed than its predecessor. Still, it was a pretty fun evening.

On Saturday morning, Robert and I went to Costco and Safeway to pick up various food and drink items for the next day. The SF Costco was a madhouse, but we got in and out of there pretty quickly. We grabbed a relaxing brunch at some French place on Potrero Hill which was great as well. Everybody traveling in our group met at Lookout in the afternoon for drinks before heading over to Alioto’s for dinner.

Unfortunately, Alioto’s became probably the worst dining service experience I’ve ever had. We had three separate tables of 6-7 people, each with its own separate check. We all ordered at the same time, except for two people who arrived at my table late. Through some confusion, the waiter held all the food at my table because of the two late arrivals, even though we did not ask the staff to do that. Consequently, our food didn’t even arrive until about 30 minutes after another table in our group had finished eating. Some people’s food was cold because it had been waiting. We were mad about all of this happening, but I found it relatively understandable. Stuff like this happens at restaurants all the time, so I wasn’t going to get too bent out of shape about it. Still, I felt like we needed to lodge a complaint about what happened.

Despite asking to speak to a manager several times, the restaurant refused to send one over. Instead they sent over a hostess who tried to explain what had happened. After her explanation, the waiter came back over and accused us of accusing him of intentionally ruining Robert’s food (it was cold because the food had been held and he had sent it back to be reheated). Worse still, the waiter wouldn’t even listen to our complaint. In fact, he kept talking over Robert and wouldn’t even hear him out. I was shocked by how rude and unprofessional the waiter was. When dealing with a difficult customer, usually wait staff will try to be polite and apologetic (customer is always right and all that) even if the customer is dead wrong (not that we were). The checks for our entire party added up to somewhere around $900 before tip. The check for our table alone was close to $300, but after what went down we left the waiter a whopping 41 cents in tip. I can’t remember the last time I stiffed a waiter because it’s not something I really ever do. The way the waiter reacted to our complaint was just totally and completely unacceptable. I’ll would never eat at that restaurant ever again and would never recommend it to anybody. Extremely disappointing.

After all of that drama, we cabbed it back to the Castro for Pink Saturday, which is a big street party held on the Saturday of pride weekend. Our cab driver was hands down the angriest, most road ragey person I have ever met in my life. He was yelling loudly about how he wanted to cut this other driver’s head off, how it would be a luxury if somebody shot him, how people driving in this city are animals, how his hair had receded and greyed because of the stress of driving a taxi in this city, and so on. It was highly entertaining and provided a nice contrast to the sour ending at the restaurant. The street party was a lot of fun and there were A TON of people. In particular, I had never seen so many drunk lesbians in one place in my life. After wandering around to take in the atmosphere of the street party, we all ended up at the Midnight Sun for the rest of the evening. It was packed, but fun. There were just two bartenders but they were working non-stop the entire night. There were literally piles of tip money behind the bar because they didn’t even have time to put it away. Those guys must have made quite a haul that night but they worked hard for it!

Sunday morning, I got up and went over to the Parc 55 hotel where most of my friends were staying. We had a small party in a hotel room where we could refill our drinks and get something to eat in between watching the parade. The parade was fun and of course there were a lot of people there watching it. Afterwards, we wandered down to the festival at the Civic Center. Again, lots and lots of people but it was fun. After another trip back to the hotel to regroup, we went back to the Castro. It was crowded, but not nearly as crowded as it had been the other nights. After a couple bars, I was getting grouchy because I hadn’t eaten in a while. Mark, Ken and I walked over to some taqueria on 18th and Valencia in the Mission to get some tasty Mexican food. After that, we met up with some other friends at 440 Castro (aka the bar formerly known as Daddy’s), but I suddenly felt super tired. I haven’t been sleeping very well since I’ve been here and even then I haven’t been getting my necessary 8 hours. I went home early so that I could crash around 9:30. Now, I’m sitting awake and can’t sleep, which is why I decided to at least do something productive like write a blog entry instead of laying in bed starring at the ceiling.

It’s been a fun but intense weekend. San Francisco is a great town and pride is of course a big event here. I’m reminded of how much I miss the Bay Area. I frequently think about moving back whenever I come visit, but when I return to Seattle those feelings sort of go on the back burner. Maybe some day I’ll move back, although I always have this strange feeling of not actually being cool enough to live here.

All right, time to try to go to sleep again…

Late

It’s late and I should be sleeping, but I thought I’d do a quick update before heading off to bed.

The past few days have been really busy. Here’s a brief run-down:

1. Work’s been getting busier this week. I won’t go into details, but gears are predictably shifting once again with regard to what I’m doing on a day to day basis at work. The interesting thing about 2-3 year product cycles is that there are so many stages to go through, stretched over that time. It sort of keeps things fresh.
2. I’ve been finishing up the transition to the new OutVentures website. This is a volunteer project I’ve been working on since around September or October, so it’s nice that it’s mostly finished at this point.
3. On Saturday, Marc and I went “pan and hat shopping”. I didn’t buy any hats, although I did try a few on. I did buy a new set of pots and pans though. My existing ones go back to 1999 at the latest.
4. Today I had lunch with a friend from the swim team. He works in the fancy new Building 37. Lots of glass, impromptu lounges, fashionable design and a giant atrium. The building I work in doesn’t have any of that, but I guess I can’t complain too much.
5. Last week, I made plans to go to Puerto Vallarta for the week of MLK Jr’s birthday next year. I’ve already bought the plane tickets and put a 50% deposit down on the condo. Yikes, that’s some serious advanced planning but I guess it’s taken care of now and out of the way.

Why am I still up?

Ugh, I told myself I was going to move everything up an hour by going to bed by 1am and getting up by 9am each day. Yet, as I type this sentence, it’s 1:28am. Oh well. Changing a body clock is hard I suppose.

Anyhow, I’ve been relatively exhausted since getting back from Vegas. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep while I was there. On Friday night / Saturday morinng, I was drinking a handle of Jim Beam (with no mixers or ice) with my brother and his friends until like 7am. That’s totally not something I normally do, but it was Vegas and I had to keep up with the 21 year olds or go to bed early like the old folks. I spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to catch up on my sleep. Saturday night, we had pizza and birthday cake at a mini-party for my brother in my parents’ hotel room. Saturday night, some of us wandered up to the Bellagio to see the fountains there which is always kind of neato, then wandered back along the strip to the MGM where we were staying. I went to bed fairly early that night because I was tired from the night before and because I knew I needed to get up early Sunday for breakfast and my flight out of town.

After getting back Sunday afternoon, I went over to Ken’s for a bit to watch the latest two episodes of Torchwood. The show definitely has its ups and downs, but the last two episodes were quite disappointing. The pregnancy one (”Something Borrowed”) wasn’t strictly bad, but it seemed to be mostly about the greater story line of the characters’ personal lives with some alien stuff thrown in to make it Torchwood-y. I didn’t like he second one we watched (”From out of the rain”) at all. It departed from the other episodes in that it seemed to have no real sci-fi aspects to it. It was really just a paranormal, ghost story that remained poorly explained.

Today (well, actually yesterday–Monday) I went back to work and spent most of my day doing an OS install and computer setup, which I suppose was nice and easy for an exhausted Monday. While waiting for some part or other to complete, I even managed to squeeze in a jog at work. I haven’t gone jogging at work (or otherwise) since the day before my whole abscess procedure about a month ago. After work, Robert, Don and I met for a pho dinner followed by a couple beers at the Elite. The new Elite on Olive seems to have attracted a lot of cute, hip, gay sort of crowd in their 20s and 30s, which I suppose isn’t surprising considering the immediate neighborhood.

Leaving Las Vegas

It’s been an interesting and fun weekend. Back to the rainy sanity of Seattle.

Visiting the parents

I escaped for the weekend down to Oregon to visit my parents. It was a pretty standard trip all told. Got to see my parents, watched them bowl at league night with their friends, saw the new horses, played some Wii (my mom recently bought one and my parents have been playing it a lot) and just generally kicked back out of the rain. My weekends have already been booking up lately, so I knew this would be the best weekend to go visit. Next weekend is Easter and I’d rather just avoid all the additional travel hassles of going around a holiday. I’ve been out of town most of the past few weekends and will be gone again soon enough to the mountains for back country camping (well, I’ll be in a covered/heated cabin without power or running water so it’s probably not technically camping) and then Vegas for my brother’s birthday.

Driving down went relatively smoothly except for some traffic in Pierce County and then again at the 205/5 junction south of Portland. Coming back, the only traffic I hit was in Tacoma. Ugh, stupid Tacoma and its worthless traffic! It really wasn’t all that bad though, but I am glad to be back home and done with spending 12 hours on the road this weekend.