Any given Wednsday in downtown Portland

This past Wednesday I had a really nice day. It started out early for me, Ash took the van and went to work around 5am, and my neighbor picked me and one of the foster rabbits up around 7am. She gave us a ride to Troutdale OR to drop of said bunny to get spayed. After leaving the bun in the caring hands of the vets I went and got some coffee and food to fuel me up for the day's adventures. This was going to be the first day I ever attempted to use public transportation by myself. Sounds lame that I met this prospect with trepidation right? I know, but I'm pretty notorious for getting lost easily. Lucky for me navigating around using the buses and MAX rail system is pretty easy out here. For 4 bucks I got myself from Troutdale to Gresham on the bus (which ran on bio-diesel) then to Portland on the MAX rail. My MAX ticket was good for continuous rides for the remainder of the day as well. I'd brought my mp3 player with me, it gave me a nice soundtrack with which to enjoy watching the passing scenery. I can easily see how people here go without having a vehicle at all, the public transit is fantastic, all sorts of people use it from corporate business folks to families to homeless people. It's a big mish-mash of humanity. It was cool watching random strangers strike up conversations on their brief rides together. Upon arriving in Portland I took Ash some flowers and lunch to the world trade center building where she works. After that I had around 3 hours to kill before she got out so I went for a walking tour of the downtown district. I tried to snap as many pictures as I could, and also took a couple of videos all of which I'll post below. The day started out cloudy but was clear blue skies as the afternoon progressed. I went down to the riverside and took a video showing a little park and two of the many bridges the city is known for:

On the way to the park I passed what I thought was a most unusual sight, but I found out later it's actually a daily occurrence- a group of businessmen in their suits playing hackey sack out front of one of the WTC buildings:  

I think stuff like this can give you a sense of the fact  that Portland is most certainly not your average city.

Everywhere you look in Portland you see contrasts and contradictions Old European style architecture juxtaposed by modern glass and steel. Staunch looking business folks waiting in line next to punks and street musicians to get some food from a Vietnamese food cart. Industrial factories next to hemp shops and green parklike spaces. Suvs and expensive sports cars next to rows and rows of bicycles. You would think its a city with an identity crisis, and perhaps it is, but the people here seem to like it that way, everywhere you go you see buildings and bumper stickers that say "Keep Portland Weird".

It's a pedestrian city, everyone seems to walk everywhere, like I remember NYC being. You could choose to drive but good luck, the streets are narrow and you will be fighting for space with bike lanes, cross walks, MAX lines and bus stops. The city was designed with people not vehicles in mind. Honestly walking is the best way to get around because you get to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the city. There is usually always music to be heard from guys drumming on buckets to girls strumming their guitars to trumpeters and harmonica players. And the smells are really something to behold. Portland is a foodie's dream locale, Every 20 feet or so and the smell of food changes.. think of walking around the fair grounds...your nose is just bombarded by yummy aromas. Unfortunately I cannot convey smells through this blog but I can show you the pics:

Portland in a Jiffy- CLICK HERE FOR PICS

After walking around and getting lost in Powell's books (check out the photos), I went and met Ash. We walked down to Voodoo Doughnuts and got two of their signature menu items. Its a place you must see at least once if you decide to come to Portland, and to give you a sneak peek check out their menu CLICK HERE (not for children or the easily offended).

When we finished eating our sugar coma sticks we went and picked up the bunny who did very well in her surgery, then went home.

To infinity and beyond

I know I don't get a chance to update the blog from my perspective, but here it goes. A ton has happened since I last updated. Kris does really well at keeping up the blog. We went hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail recently and I had a life changing experience. The hike was beautiful and ardous , but worth it. Kris posted pictures of the hike below. Half way through the hike there was a clearing of de-forested area and this made me really sad. I talked it over with Kris and I think I am going to try and start a campaign to re-seed the area with native plants, as well as other de-forested areas around our home. Living in Washington has made me more aware of the environment and the effects of human destruction on it. Along side the re-foresting effort Kris and I have decided that trying to get a community garden going here would be a fun thing. That will probably be more of a spring time project.
        The weather here has taken some getting used to. I am glad we got to experience the tail end of fall when we came because 26 degrees is cold. It's easy to want to stay inside on my days off and bundle, but when you finally do go outside you realize it's not that bad. In fact, most of the time when we go hiking we end up taking some of our layers off. At work is another story. On the weekends the building managers cut the heat in the lobby of one of the buildings. It gets especially cold in that lobby because air comes in under the doors into the lobby. They have supplied us with personal heaters but I still end up wearing a jacket and scarf. The wet I can do without, but honestly you get used to that to. It doesn't rain all the time like I expected. . .about a couple days a week. Thanks to Debbie for the chapstick. I was never a chapstick person before we moved, but now it is my lifeline. I apply and re-apply like you do with sunscreen in Florida and my lips are still chapped. . .but I am getting used to that too.
         I have experienced so many things since we moved here. If I am really tired on my drive to work I usually stop and get a soda from somewhere. I take a few sips and then leave it in my cupholder in the car while I am working all day. I usually start around 7am and end around 3pm. When I get back in my car I pick up my soda and it is always as cold if not colder than when I left it at 7am. I pararllel park alot. . .especially working downtown. I take this transit system called the MAX on the weekdays to work from the mall so that I don't have to pay for parking downtown. It's interesting. The MAX carries all kinds of people from business people to the homeless. I have obviously seen snow. Actually I have seen almost all the stages of water now. I have driven through clouds. I mean that literally, not metaphorically. In Florida, the world stops at the cloud line, but in the Pacific Northwest the cloud line is just the beginning. Often in the mountains you drive through cloud clusters. It's like driving through a heavy, floating mist. It kind-of greys out the structures all around you and when you look out your window it's almost like you are in an airplane or flying car. The hospital has an Airtram that employees take from the parking garage to the hospital on the other side of the water and it looks like a ride at Disney. Random people come up to me in grocery stores and start conversations with me. . .not at Walmart, and not in Gresham. . .but in other places: like Safeway. I went into the Fred Meyer the other day. They are like a gigantic, more expensive version of Walmart. They sell all sorts of stuff from expensive diamond rings to Kayaks and everything in between. It's almost like a small mall. On the weekends I take the elevator up to the 19th floor of our building and then take another elevator up to the helipad and watch the sunrise while I eat my breakfast. I think it's really awesome that my bosses encourage me to do as such and that I get paid for it. The view is one of the best in Portland. Our building fronts the water and on a clear day you can see Mount St. Helens and Mt. hood from our building. When it isn't clear, you can't even make out an outline of where they are supposed to be. Even if you know right where they are you can't spot them. Then, when it's clear they magically appear out of seemingly nowhere and they are so huge and right in your face. I still think they are an illusion. I have had mexican food from a place owned by asians. That was weird, but the food was really good. We have experienced so many things that it's hard to recall them all.
          The new year is here already. . .I wasn't expecting it until next year. I know Kris said she didn't make a resolution, but I made the same resolution I make every year. Actually it's more of a non-resolution. I always resolve to be happy with who I am and that if I don't like something like my weight or my environment to use any of or all of the other 365 days a year to make the change rather than waiting for one day. Every minute is another chance to turn it all around. If you did make a resolution I wish you all good luck in pursuing it. Dream big and if your dreams fall through and make a hole in your heart where your ambition used to be. . .dream bigger.

-Ash

Happy New Calendar Numbers Everyone!

     Hopefully you spent your New Years doing something fun, watchin' fireworks, toasting some bubbly, something festive. Did you choose a resolution? One that you can keep? We didn't really do anything for the calendar change this year, Ash had to go to bed early to wake up for work the next day, and I just played computer games and relaxed... and watched the cops busting people on the road below passing through town drunk driving.... those idiots......the drunks i mean, not the cops lol.  As far as a resolution goes, I think we considered achieving our goal of moving cross country enough of a resolution met that we can afford to chill for at least a couple of years haha. In all seriousness though, the typical resolutions people have like loosing weight, getting healthy, taking a vacation, or getting motivated to do something great, all these things are fulfilling themselves just by virtue of us living out here. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to get good exercise just by having fun hiking and seeing the sights. I've done a little video to encapsulate our recent 8 mile jaunt on the PCT:

 (follow the instructions from the last blog on how to make the video quality better, this time it's in high definition, choose 1080p. it will take a while to load but once it does, maximize the video by clicking the button with the four arrows pointing in opposite directions at the far right of the loading bar. Then press play and enjoy!)

View The Video: CLICK HERE


If you want to see any of the photos as still pictures
( like mom does for desktop backgrounds): CLICK HERE



On a hiking unrelated note, I had one of the best craigslist scores recently, a $5 office chair.. yes.. only FIVE BUCKS!:

And in case you were wondering, it looks just as good in person as it does in this photo (with the exception of a tiny tear on the seat that was repaired and not noticeable). Check out all that great sun. I picked the best spot in the house to put the desk. You can just sit there and take in a panoramic  almost surround view of the gorge!


I can't believe we have been here what is it, going on three months already? In a way it feels like we've just arrived, but in another weird way it feels like this has always been home. Like I can't imagine living anywhere else... is that strange? I guess it's just that we love it so much. The weather, while cold, has not been unpleasant. It's still novel to some degree but I genuinely like it. It makes things beautiful in a way that no other climate can. Things sparkle and shimmer in the cold and snow and ice. Items that were previously ugly like the mud puddle in our driveway become beautiful little artifacts. I can't get over the frozen waterfalls. We pass several of them on the way to and from Portland and some of them get completely frozen and still, it's the strangest sight. Speaking of Portland, I've gone there on several occasions so far and that city is really something else. I'll be taking a camera with me next time so I can share all it's urban marvels. Another interesting thing we took note of recently is that neither me nor ash has been bitten by a mosquito the entire time we've been here. I know even now in the dead of winter in FL those little buggers will still get you if you aren't careful.

Take a deep breath and a sigh of relief

I know many of you have been incredibly busy this holiday season, and we can count ourselves in on that too! The holidays are always fun but I know I'm usually tired and glad when they are over. All the prep work for decorating, gift making and buying, food cooking, card writing, house cleaning... you know what I'm talkin about. It is all worth it in the end though and hopefully everyone out there had a warm and lovely holiday. Did everyone get what they wanted from santa? We certainly did! I'd list our presents here but I have a feeling only outdoor folks and tech geeks like us would appreciate them LOL. Thank you to everyone who sent us cards and presents.... and food : D ... it made us feel the love even across the miles.

That all being said, I would would like to apologize for getting so backed up on the blog. Below is a  re-cap of what we've been up to.




It was unfortunate that we could not make it back to FL this first christmas but we still tried to surround ourselves with people we care about. There were many holiday parties happening in our little town, a couple of which we made it to. There is one party that is held every year here where a local resident harvests the chestnuts from the tree in her yard and invites everyone to come and roast them in her chestnut roasting machine! There was another party where wine (for me it was sparkling apple cider) and conversation, and later dancing and drumming took center stage. And we ourselves hosted a small get together.  Angus, the lodge owner, was one of the only Stevenson folk who didn't have any plans on the 25th so we invited him over to dinner. He gave us an awesome gift, a certificate for a stay at his lodge for ourselves or any family or friends for any amount of days we need! In addition to that he also invited us to come along and paddle his tandem touring kayak on a 14 day trip down the hudson river to woodstock ny then ultimately to the big city! We are very excited by this prospect and are working through the logistics to see if we can make it happen.

 So the holidays are supposed to be all about the kids right? Well we have 2

two kids of our own, furry as they may be, who got in on the christmas action:

We have had some beautiful days here lately and I'd like to share some photos of our ever changing living room and office view:

A few days before the 25th we drove down the road to explore the Bonneville dam. We always pass it on our way to Vancouver but had never stopped before. We'd heard that you could see sealions in the river where they come up from the ocean to eat the easy to catch salmon and trout in the fish ladders of the dam.

Sure enough we were lucky to see some playing and tossing their food around as well as some other really neat sights. I've made a rather long video of our day trip posted in the link below, after the page comes up look to the right side of the loading bar where you will see 360p. click on that and select the 480p. This will reload the video in a higher quality.  Please pause it and allow time for it to load, it's about 9 minutes long.

Our day at Bonneville --CLICK HERE

The other day our friend Tressa sent us a picture she took on her phone of some frost on the roof her car in FL. It made us laugh because only a couple months ago we would have been really excited about a little frost too lol. We've been having some light snows on and off, nothing sticking, and nothing like the one week where everything was white. But still we're getting some nights where our whole van is covered in a dense layer of ice. We finally broke down and bought a scraper from the dollar store. I'm still finding it amusing, but its funny how quickly you become accustomed to new weather patterns. One weather pattern we got used to but were not really expecting was the wind. Alot of the businesses here are called "wind river" something or other. We quickly began to realize why that is. On any given day wind gusts of up to 40 mph come whipping down the gorge. Some days it looks like the hurricane days we use to have back in FL where all the trees are swinging about, you can hear audible whistling and howling of the wind, and you think any minute your roof may come off. Of course it doesn't come off, and honestly all the plants here must have adapted to it because you don't even see downed tree limbs or moss or anything like what we would see back home after a wind storm.  The other day we took a walk across the road and down to the river. The river level was much higher than it had been the last time we were there and we noticed a floating bridge extending out by the park's boat launch. We walked out onto it and felt it rocking soothingly up and down. The view from the end was so incredible, I wanted to take a video but my camera batteries were dead :(. We lay down at the end of the dock and allowed ourselves to become amazed all over again at the natural beauty that surrounded us. You would only just have to turn your head to the side to see an eye full of magnificent snow dusted mountains and majestic waves rolling across the water's surface. And just then, tiny beads of snow began to fall on our faces as we stared up at the clouds. In that moment we couldn't believe we were actually there, laying on a dock in the middle of the cloumbia river, in washington, being snowed on. It was perfect, if not a little too surreal. 

~Kris

Tis the season......

....for creativity it seems, at least in my world. Maybe its all the pretty colored lights people put up, or maybe its the excuse to make decorations and gifts for people. I'm not really sure but whatever it is my creative juices really really start flowing this time of year. I've been busy working on arts and crafts lately, and as a side note to this blog I sold three more wire pieces recently! But on the home front Ash and I dug up our live holiday tree and its now happy and healthy planted in a large container in our living room. It stayed bare for a couple days until we started making decorations for it. Now is all shiny and rainbow colored! I've put up some pictures of the tree and the home-made goodness we've covered it with:

CLICK HERE for photos of holiday crafty fun

These pics above show what it looked like around our house a week ago. Now the snow is all melted and I dont think we are going to get any more before christmas. I hope we do though because I've never experienced a "white christmas".

While I've been getting crafty with art supplies, Ash has been getting crafty in the kitchen. She regularly whips up delicious foods for us to enjoy but of particular note lately were the soft movie style pretzels, they were sooo good. She made some honey mustard sauce to dip them it... OMG...

In other news updates we got a vehicle of our own now, a 1995 Plymouth Voyager Soccer Mom mini van! It runs so great and it's really comfy. It gets good gas mileage and fits any and all outdoor equipment we will be putting in it. My cousin Lisa is to thank for this beauty, she rocks! Thanks so much Lisa for this fantastic present, you have no idea how much it helped us!!!

Today Skype allowed me to spend some time with my family from over 3k miles away. It was really nice to be able to see and hear, and in some strange way feel like I participated in a yearly family gathering. I will make sure I can attend in person next year though, because there is something special, important, and unique about a real life hug that you just can't get through a computer screen, not to mention missing out on all the yummy home made foods! Now we just need to get Ash's parents to use skype so she can feel a little closer to "home" this holiday.

Excitement is brewing in both ash and I about our plans for the upcoming weekend: Whale Watching! We're gonna drive down to depoe bay oregon to see the winter whales, we're soooo happy! Stay Tuned for photos from our encounter with the aquatic giants.


~kris

An Unexpected Day

I awoke this morning with a list of somewhat normal things to do: laundry, house cleaning, composting, etc. Ash was sleeping off her overnight shift so I set out up the street into town to get to business. First stop was the laundromat. I put my clothes in to wash and walked across the street to the Bahma coffee shop to get a drink and pass the time working on some holiday ornaments for family and friends. This is where the day took a turn from the ordinary to the unexpectedly wonderful. I was sitting in Bahma making an ornament (who's future owner's identity shall remain secret to keep the gift giving surprise factor) when two quirky, eccentric, sixty something ladies sat down across from me. They inquired about what I was making and were complimenting me on a completed little wire lizard I'd brought along. I love how wire work is such a great ice breaker.... the three of us ended up chatting for over an hour about all kinds of stuff. When they were getting ready to leave they told me they loved frogs so of course I told them I would be happy to make them one in the future and gave them my business info. Then one of them asks if she could buy the little lizard there on the spot! Score one for wire girl! Once they left I realized I needed to go put the laundry in the dryer. I asked the lady behind the coffee bar if I could place my finished ornament and wire supplies with her and told her I'd be right back. 10 minutes later I came back to Bahma and the lady behind the counter informed me that the owner of the shop saw what I was working on and wanted to buy my little ornament..(or one like it). Score 2 for wire girl! At that point the coffee shop was closing so I collected my stuff and met up with Ash for dinner at what is becoming our favourite restaurant in town, the "big river grill". They have a killer veggie burger and vegetarian black bean chili, and Ash says their meat-stuffs are tasty too. Some time earlier while I was in Bahma I'd overheard that there was going to be a holiday parade down our little main street later in the evening so Ash and I decided to check it out. Our neighbor was having a pre parade party at her house so we went and visited, then the whole party made a mass exodus down the street in time for the parade to start. Here's a little collection of clips from the parade which was a very cute little "piece of small town americana":

You know how they say *when it rains it pours*? Well, after the parade everyone made their way back to our neighbor's house to continue the festivities. In that group of people was the fantastic owner of a beautiful local lodge whom we've befriended (the one who let us borrow his station wagon when we were carless). About a week ago he let me put my life sized horse bust sculpture down at his resort to get some exposure. He told me that today he saw some of his guests admiring it and inquiring about my contact info. He decided he'd become too fond of it to let it go to someone else so he purchased it right there! How many points does wire girl have now? I think that one deserves more that one point since it's been my most expensive piece to date and I've been trying to sell it for like 5 years now LOL. AND it doesn't quite end there, that same wonderful lodge owner was so kind he took it upon himself to set up an appointment for me to meet with those guests tomorrow morning to discuss some commission work! Wowza... I never could have imagined that such a normal looking day would have turned out to be this amazing!

~kris

Video of the snow covered woods

Somehow in my last blogs I managed to pass over this little clip showing you some beautiful woods we hiked through:

A little tip for those not used to viewing online videos, wait till its fully loaded before pressing play, it will help with the playback interruption. Also, to make the video larger, you can press the button of the 4 arrows pointing in opposite directions, when you mouse over it it will say full screen. Warning though, sometimes the video will look less clear when enlarged.

As a tail on this post I will tell you that we've been in full swing preparing for the holidays here, lots of crafts and whatnot are being made and hung and its starting to look quite festive! Today we drove out into the woods to find ourselves a tree to bring home, funny how naive I was thinking we could just dig one up with no problems lol. We discovered that the root systems of a tree the height we wanted were long and thick, and in this particular location the trees were growing up through about 2 feet of rocks. We managed to clear away most of the ones around the base with our hands but saw that we would have to spend all day moving rocks and digging before that little tree was going anywhere. Interestingly while we were digging around the tree we noticed the scent of it was unlike normal "christmas trees", these had a delightful fruity smell to them. We gave up on that location and are going to try again tomorrow to find a similar tree growing in more of a soil sub strait. In more accessible news,  there are holly trees growing all over the place here and I plan to make some wreathes from it. I'll be getting up some photos soon of all the crafts and decorations happening around here so check back.