We drove around a bit more to some of our old haunts to see what was still there, then went back to Paul and Anne's to read a bit before falling asleep.

The next morning we watched one of the World Cup quarterfinal matches and Anne went to go teach one of her aerobics classes (now I say that loosely because it's more than that, but easier to ask her to describe), but then she came back later to get a book and read since no-one showed up for the first class (there was another a bit later). We got going and went to pick up Constance. She showed us her home (cute and desirable in southeast towards Burnside) then we went to find coffee. The independent place around the corner from their house was strangely closed, so we ended up walking a few blocks to a Starbucks that was open (the northwest is know for coffee, and I can't believe I didn't start drinking it until I moved away. Stupid me.). After getting back to her house and finishing our coffee, we 'kidnapped' her and went to eat at a diner we used to go to called Dots Cafe on Clinton Street (right near the Clinton Street Theatre where we saw a few K Records showcases). Anne also met up with us there and had dessert while we ate lunch (she had eaten at the house). After lunch Anne went back to the house while Constance, Kelly, and I went down near the river. This part of town is one of the few 'industrial' areas still left in the main part of the city, and I had wanted to take some photos with our 35mm camera. We walked around a bit and snapped a few photos, got a good whiff of the tea brewing at the Tazo Tea Company warehouse, and then grabbed a cup of coffee before heading back towards the car. It was still a bit warm walking around in the sun that afternoon. We took Constance home then went back to Paul and Anne's to rest then drive back to meet Constance and Jones for dinner at one of our old favorite places to grab a bite to eat after shows. Montage is kind of a taste of New Orleans with the food offerings on their menu. When we used to come the wait staff would have a horrible attitude, but it was kind of funny. Now they really put on a show of great service, and are entertaining to boot. We had a few appetizers that we all shared, then all of us ended up ordering different macaroni and cheese dishes. Great food, and healthy servings that we had leftovers to take home, which is part of the show. The servers pack your food into saran wrap, then they make tin foil creations surrounding your food to take it home. Mine was a squirrel, although the most impressive at another table was a giraffe with a neck that was almost two feet long stretching up into the air. After dinner, we went down to the infamous Voodoo Doughnut that we had     
                        
head about. We didn't get a full dozen or anything, but we tried about three different kinds each. In the photo you can see the Voodoo Doll Doughnut (pretzel stick in the heart filled with raspberry filling), the Cap'n Crunch (white frosted doughnut with Cap't Crunch cereal on top), the San Dimas (cake doughnut with three types of chocolate on top, including chocolate chips), and Kelly's favorite, the Maple Bacon Doughnut (a maple bar with small strips of bacon on top). I had a Dirt Doughnut (raised doughnut covered with vanilla glaze and oreo cookies) earlier and it was pretty good, although the San Dimas with the chocolate chips was also a good one. Mmm...heart clogging good. Well, maybe not that bad, but not really healthy. We said goodbye to Constance and Jones who were going to take the bus home, then we drove back to Paul and Anne's.

Friday morning we got up and watched some more soccer with Anne (Paul had to work), then she rode with us to the new REI store in 'The Pearl' (newly developed area in northwest Portland near Powells Books towards the train station). We bought another rolling duffle bag since we had bought too much stuff on our trip, but also since we had been considering getting one for me a bit smaller than Kelly's, which she has been really happy with. After dropping the bag off in the car (which we left in a parking garage for the day), we went to get coffee, then find the PDX Contemporary Art Gallery to see if they could point us in the direction of locating our friend Brad. We stopped in and Kelly started talking with the woman working there that day, when I realized that I knew this person. Her voice was distinct and I looked at her again and asked her name, which indeed it was another friend from my high school. She told us that they do represent Brad and his art, and proceeded to tell us about his work and show us some of his pieces. We had a laugh discussing Brad, and she said that he didn't have a phone, but did have a laptop computer and if she emailed him he would probably stop by the gallery. Kelly and Anne went up to Powells where I was going to meet them in a bit after talking with my old friend about former classmates. I then headed up to Powells to browse around, and about 20 minutes later Brad called and we decided that he would meet Kelly and I in front of Powells at 4pm (which gave me another 45 minutes to look around). I found a few more books as did Kelly, then we went out and there was Brad. Anne had left earlier to meet Paul who had gotten off work early, then we were going to meet up with them later for dinner. We walked to get coffee at a good little place next to Reading Frenzy, which was just across the street and around a corner from Powells. We talked with Brad about his life, and laughed about his art and Kelly said that Brad's laughing all the way to the bank. We only laugh because we know Brad pretty well, and he's very intelligent, but at the same time kind of a slacker who's found a way to make a buck easy. He has very ingenious concepts though and approaches it from the everyday person's perspective and ability. What he does could be done by anyone, but he's had the initative to do it and has become successful at it. Just hearing him describe his pieces, like 'The Spare Keys to My Parents' House', which is two keys on a keyring in a small clear acrylic display box and sold for $750 (or was it $1000). That to us was totally amusing, but if people are willing to buy it, then more power to Brad. Here is a picture of our good friend Brad who we used to

After the swim hole, we headed further up into the mountains, crossing the Cascades, and into Bend on the other side. Wow, I hadn't been to Bend much previously, but it used to be a sleepy little town. Not anymore. The population has increased to over 70,000 residents in just the past few years. That was pretty shocking. It's still a nice community. We drove around a bit on the way to our hotel, then after checking in we looked up places to eat. We ended up at the Deschutes Brewery Brewpub. We had wanted to stop by here anyway and try their beer to bring some back home (well, Kelly is the one who drinks beer) for a northwest beer tasting with friends. They had a sampler of six 4oz. glasses of your choice from their 16(?) beers on tap. The food was also quite delicious. Kelly had a steak, which came with a salad that she shared with me, and I had a cup of their great clam chowder (so good that I asked for the recipe). After dinner we drove back to Barnes and Noble near the hotel to get coffee and some books about the hiking and biking trails in the Bend area.

Saturday morning we were up early and watched some of the early round World Cup match on tv, then went to the bike shop to pick up my rental. Dan (who turned out to be the owner), at Pine Mountain Sports that I had been emailing prior to our trip was there and hooked me up with the bike. He also gave some great suggestions about the trails including some info of where Kelly could go hiking then come back and pick me up at the biking trail I went to. He also recommended that we hike at Smith Rock later in the day when it wasn't so blistering hot in the middle of the afternoon, as well as a dual hiking/biking trail along the river to hit early the next morning before it got too busy with locals and before I returned the bike. I asked what brought so many people to Bend, and he said that the hospital there (where most people work) is the largest one east of the Cascades through Washington, Oregon, and northern California into northern Nevada. Most people come for that, as well as the service industry for the hospital employees plus the tourists coming into town. Despite the population explosion, we both were enjoying the city and wouldn't mind retiring in the area someday. It was really fortunate for us that we had the Toyota Matrix rental upgrade because any smaller vehicle wouldn't have allowed us to fit the bicycle in the back (I could have ridden to the trails, but driving was more convenient and faster). We put the back seat down flat and managed to lay the bike in the back without having to remove the wheels. I rode at the Phil's Trail series of crisscrossing mountain bike trails. Most routes weren't that technical, and for an average rider like me, were a perfect choice. There were some steep climbs, but along with the climbs there were some great descents. The trail itself was mostly dirt with areas of rocks and some roots. I was glad that I chose to rent the 29" fully suspended Gary Fisher Sugar 293 model because it rode really well over the rocky terrain and some of the larger trees in the path were a piece of cake. Despite the heat (it was forecast to get up into the upper 80's that day) there were quite a few riders on the trails, both local and out of towners like me, but everyone was pretty friendly. I didn't have an odometer, but according to the map I think I rode somewhere around 15 miles on the trails. It was a lot of fun, and I'd definitely want to come back again and spend more time on the different paths on a bit cooler day. Overall I had ridden about 2 and 1/2 hours while Kelly had gone hiking on some trails where there was still snow (closer to the mountains).

                          

I met back up with Kelly at the trailhead and we drove back to the hotel. It was really warm now, probably close to 90 degrees (which although it wasn't humid, was still uncomfortable) and we rested for a couple of hours (I fell asleep for a bit) then went out to Smith Rock which is about 20 miles north of Bend. We decided to hike up to the top overlook point near Monkey Face rock. Not being used to the altitude or doing serious hiking, we got kind of winded, but it was a worthwhile challenge for the view at the top (and no, we didn't scale Monkey Face rock or any of the other rock walls like some of the climbers in the park. We stuck to the trails.).

                        

                                            

We started by hiking up the Misery Ridge Trail to the top where Monkey Face rock (bottom left photo) was, then hiked back down on the other side along the river. We probably hiked around three miles total. Kelly had sucked down most of the water in her Camelback on the way up, so I shared mine to prevent her from getting dehydrated. Her pack was smaller and I'm more used to taking small sips while riding my bike which makes the water last longer. We were pretty tired at the end, so when we got back to the car we headed straight downtown for dinner. Again we ate at the Deschutes Brewpub since it was so good the previous night, plus Kelly could try six different beers to get a better scope of all the flavors. The food selections we had didn't seem as great as the previous night, but it was still good, plus Kelly was able to sample more beer and I bought myself a cycling jersey. I may not drink the beer, but the jersey is nice and I can tell people that my spouse says this is really good beer (actually one of her three favorite types that she tried). Although it was still light out at 10pm, we were pretty tired after a pretty active day, so we went back to the hotel and read.

Sunday morning we woke up early and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hotel, then drove down to the Deschutes River Trail, which runs right along the river. It's more of a hiking/running with your dog trail, but it is open to bikers. I rode off and agreed to meet Kelly back at the car within a couple of hours so we would have time to go back to the hotel and shower/change before heading to Mt. Hood. It was a pretty nice trail, but a bit too much pedestrian traffic (which bikers are supposed to yield to, although some riders don't), so I rode for a bit before going back to the car a bit early. It was nice sitting in the shade and watching the river go by. I was also entertained by the park ranger coming and ticketing a couple of cars next to ours for not paying the $5.00 daily use fee. I had made sure we put our money in the slot and the pass in the windshield before we went off, and as a result I got the last laugh. Kelly got back and we dropped the bike off at the shop, changed at the hotel, and headed north (after filling up at the gas station and getting coffee). We were originally going to go to the John Day Fossil Beds, but the heat was setting record highs in the 90's that day, plus it was out of the way, so we skipped that detour and drove directly to our hotel in Welches, OR, down the road from Mt. Hood towards the east side of Portland. It was a nice drive over the mountains, although we didn't feel like doing too much when we arrived. Kelly went down to the pool while I stayed in the room and read while half-watching game two of the College World Series finals against North Carolina. It was a best of 3 series and North Carolina had won game 1 the previous day. OSU was down 5-0, so I shut the tv off and walked up to the recreation center (which happened to be closed). When I got back I flipped the game back on and OSU had somehow taken the lead 7-5. We watched a bit more then went to find something to eat. A few small places in the area served dinner, and what we had wasn't great, but it satisfied us. We were also able to catch the end of the baseball game which OSU ended up winning and sent it to a deciding game 3 on Monday night. We then just headed back to the hotel and read. The next morning we got up and after packing the car, drove up to the Skibowl Area near Mt. Hood. I rented a mountain bike and got a lift pass to take the bike up to the top of the lower lift and ride down on the trails. Unfortunately, it was in the mid-90's and not really as enjoyable to ride in the heat, but I still had a good time testing myself on the downhill slope and the technical trails, although I stuck with the green and blue paths and did not even attempt the black diamond (most difficult) sections. I didn't have the gear for that kind of riding. It was exhausting but fun, especially the Optimator trail that the guy at the bike rental shop told me was named after a beer in Germany, or something like that. Kelly went up to the Timberline Lodge and watched some of the boarders and skiers on the mountain because there was still snow. She didn't get to do any hiking, but talked with some people and snapped a few pictures.

                          

After a few hours of riding I was ready to call it a day and get on the road to Portland. We took highway 26 to I-205, then after jumping on I-5 we got off again on 99W and drove to Newberg (southwest of Portland) where we were going to stay a couple of nights with a family friend from Alaska who now lives in Oregon (as you'll see later, this is kind of a recurring theme). After we arrived at her place (her directions I had written down a few days prior were perfect to a T) we chatted a bit then she took us for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. It was really good. I had some fantastic chicken mole. After dinner we went back to her house and talked for awhile longer before she went to bed. I stayed up watching the news to find out World Cup results, the highlights of OSU's CWS win (only the second national championship title any OSU athletic team as won), as well as the weather forecast. It was now Monday night and the past three days they had been breaking temperature records all around the northwest in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. The temperature had reached 102 degrees in Portland that day. There was some pressure system holding the hot air in, but was supposed to move out in the next day or so bringing slightly cooler temperatures. It usually tends to get hot in the northwest a few times each summer, but this was very out of the ordinary. It was still hot in the evening when we went to bed, so we left the window open, although when it did cool down in the middle of the night Kelly got cold. Not like the weather here where it stays warm and muggy all night long.

Tuesday we slept in a bit, but got up to watch some of the early morning World Cup match. After the game, we went to a local coffee house called The Coffee Cottage. This place probably had the best coffee on our whole trip (although Interzone was a close second), at least in my opinion. On top of that they also had some yummy scones as well to go with the coffee. After coffee we went to a nice rose garden that had many varieties of roses. Kelly took some photos with our 35mm camera and we got some information to see if we could find some of the hanging roses that grow up into large bushes that might grow in our climate. It would be nice to have roses as a border inbetween our yard and some of the neighbors. The next stop was the Beaverton location of Powell's Books.We spent a little over an hour browsing and ended up with five book finds, and this was just one of the smaller branches. We were still planning to spend an afternoon at the main location on Burnside later in the week. We also had picked up a copy of The Portland Mercury (one of the local newspaper rags) to find out if there were any films that we could go see that afternoon that we probably wouldn't be able to see when we got back home. We found a location nearby that was showing 'the Al Gore movie' An Inconvenient Truth, so we decided to go see it. We had been planning on seeing it, and it was starting in New Orleans the week we left (it's actually still playing there at Canal Place), but we weren't sure when we'd get to see it. This was a really good film. It's kind of sad that most people who go see it will probably have a clue about global warming (kind of like preaching to the choir) and it's effects, but it really hit the point home. Most striking was the before and after photos of glaciers around the world and the ice of Antarctica and Greenland, and how they have melted away to almost nothing in the past few years. Admittedly, sometimes Al Gore isn't the most dynamic speaker (and maybe that's part of what lost him the election), but still I would like to be able to see his lecture, which is what this film is about. We both enjoyed the film a lot and definitely recommend it for anyone, especially those who want to think about changing our future. After the film we got coffee at Starbucks and I called my friend Constance (from high school) who lives in Portland. We made plans for her and her spouse, Jones, to meet us at The Coffee Cottage in Newberg the next morning so we could drive around the Willamette Valley and participate in wine tastings at the many wineries in the area. After coffee we took some back roads to Newberg (as opposed to traffic heavy highways 217 and 99W) and had Gardenburgers for dinner while sitting outside on the back patio of Melinda's very nice home and yard. She made some spritz cookies after dinner to take to work the next day and she let us eat the 'mistakes'. After cookies we watched a bit of tv then went to read before hitting the pillow. The next day was going to be a busy one.