Fish and visitors stink after three days

That's what Tom's buddy Glauser told me when he arrived in June, quoting our old inventor friend, Ben Franklin. Actually, Chris was a delightful guest and it was a lot of fun having him around. While he was visiting, we did one of our favorite hikes—the Falls Creek Falls Trail, which is located about an hour north of Hood River in Washington. It has to be one of the most spectacular falls in the Pacific Northwest.

Carley, complete with pink water bottle.

Hiking Falls Creek is one of the most fun ways to spend a rainy day. So, Chris, Tom, Carley and I donned our rain gear and hello kitty knee-highs and hit the trail. :)

Little arm rest.

After about 2 miles, you reach the lowest of triple falls on Falls Creek. The moss here is amazing. From this point, we scrambled up to the second and finally the third waterfall to an amazing view at the top. The trail involves climbing with hands and feet, using strong tree roots as holds. It's fun!


At the top of the third falls, there is a really awesome campsite that sits right on the edge and looks down into the gorge. From here, we hiked out to the trail, which at this location doubles as a hiking and super-awesome mountain biking trail. This part of the trail will always remind me of the fateful "bike walk" earlier this season when we tried to ride the 20+ mile Falls Creek Trail too early and ended up pushing the bikes for 7 hours in the snow. Read the whole awful truth.


No trip would be complete without multiple Floaty adventures. I was the shuttle while Tom and Chris gave our snazzy pontoon boat its first taste of whitewater on the Klickitat River in WA.


Tom gives Chris a little pre-river schpeel.

And they're off!

Of course, a few moments after shoving off, the sun went in and the wind starting kicking. I hopped in TruckTruck and hit the road. See you sirs on the other side! :)

The Big 3-0 :: WANTED Dead or Alive

My 29th year was like a roller coaster with extreme highs and lows, twists, turns and loops. A few times during the ride, I lost my breath and even blacked out momentarily from all the g-force. Luckily, I landed on my feet in Oregon and life seems to get better everyday.

En-JOY-ing the scene and old age along Tanner Creek.

My week-long 30th birthday celebration started out with a bundle of Joy, who turned the big 3-1 on May 30th.


Continuing the festivities, Carley surprised me with some star-shaped cupcakes (Teddy likes cupcakes). We had many a good laugh looking through the photo album that my mother put together for me to commemorate my big day. The album has a photo of me from each year on my birthday. As you can imagine, there were MANY big laughs to be had—a direct result of all the BIG hair and BIG glasses, I'm sure. My awkward years certainly outnumber my graceful ones.

"Windbag WANTED Dead or Alive".

My mom also sent me a Captain Jack Sparrow t-shirt, which is now in the weekly rotation and gets a lot of compliments. People always say, "I thought that was Bon Jovi for a second".


My official 30th birthday pic—my mom left a place in the photo album for a 30th and future photos.


I called Carley to invite her down for a beer on our new boat. Silly girl thought we were taking it out on the water. We pulled up the garage door and enjoyed a few beverages, a cool breeze and some practice rowing/captaining. Arrgggghhh, Matey.


Teddy picked out my pajamas and was waiting for me for a birthday snuzzle.


After a short work week, Tom and I spent a perfect weekend at Lost Lake—Floaty's maiden voyage. Tom and Carley got me a great birthday gift—a new fishing rod and stocked tackle box! We slayed the fish on Saturday morning and enjoyed some rainbow trout on the campfire for lunch.


Coffee in the middle of the lake with a smilin' Mount Hood view—happy birthday to ME!!!

Family Man

Don't mess.

Kate and I went riding at Post Canyon last Thursday evening after work. We met at the trailhead and climbed up for about 30 mintues to a section of the trail called Family Man. At Family Man there are jumps, skinnies, ladder bridges and teeter-totters of varying degrees of difficulty that create a challenging loop that is a fun place to play around and test your skills and cajones.

The light was perfect and the weather couldn't have been better. Kate and I both hit a bunch of stunts that we hadn't ridden before. You know it's a great ride when you're laughing the whole way.

(: (: (: I heart the bike. :) :) :)

Learning to Fly

It's pretty much impossible to live in a town like Hood River, which is so well known for its wind sports, and NOT get hooked. Enter kiteboarding.


We met our buddy Russ on the beach in Lyle, WA for some kiting lessons and took a moment for a pre-kiting photo op—Tom in his super hero costume and me in my blueberry.


Tom and Russ walked the kites out to the sand bar, while Drake splashed alongside. He likes to chase and bark at the kites.

Tom getting a feel for the power of the kite.

And it's up there!

The first step in learning how to kiteboard is to launch a trainer kite and practice doing little figure 8s. Once you can handle that, you graduate to a bigger kite. Then you get in the water without the board and use the power of the kite to do "body drags", which is just what it sounds like. Add the board into the mix and wah-lah, you're a kiteboarder! Sounds easy enough, right??? Not so much. The kite is not to be taken lightly or it might just lift you up and slam you down somewhere on the railroad tracks.


Here's Kate learning how to control the kite. Kate and Tom both took a turn getting yanked face-first into the water.


Some post-lesson Blue Moons with a view. Pretty good for a weeknight. ;)

Floaty Comes Home (with some Oregon first-timers)

It was a long haul driving up into Washington to a residential area near Mt. St. Helens to pick up our new friend—Floaty. We made the trip right before stopping at the airport to pick up our Memorial Day visitors—Joy & Billy! Tom found our awesome two-man pontoon fishing boat on Craigslist. Pretty much a no-brainer. So, it wasn't but a few hours 'til we were co-ordinating pick-up with the seller. On the way back towards Portland, we stopped at a gas station to secure the straps better. Everyone who saw Floaty was IMPRESSED. One guy said, "which river ya takin' that down?" I said, "every which one I can find".


Here's Tom wrestling Floaty off the roof for the first time.

The seats fold down for better transport and the oars breakdown and ride in the back of the truck. The person in the back seat rows with the eight-foot oars, while the Captain (that's me, sir), sits in the front and drinks beer or coffee (depends what time we're gettin' our fish on).



We did a lot of really fun things while Joy & Billy were here. Above you see Joy and I hiking upstream on Tanner Creek. The weather was perfect.


After dancing with a giant fluttering bunch of butterflies (while trying to photograph them), Joy poses for a photo on one of the bridges that crosses on creek on the trail to Wahclella Falls. Very nice, sir.


I was having a good time. There is a minuscule bridge next to my ear.


We climbed down to the base of the waterfalls on the slippery and sharp rocks. It's love!


Love is better in the woods.


A quick stop at Multnomah Falls. That's one big mother of a falls. Helloooooooooo, momma!


Next we did the short, but somewhat complicated hike to the falls at Oneonta Gorge. After a few shallow stream-crossings and a bit of rock-hopping, you have to negotiate a giant log jam. Here's Joy making her way into the gorge.


Billy keeps his feet from the cold, cold water with some cirque.


Most of the hike is in ankle-deep water, but it does get as deep as your crotchal area. That'll wake you up! We didn't make it all the way back to the falls this day, but it was still a cool place to explore for a little while.


A highlight of the holiday weekend was our white water rafting trip down the White Salmon River in Washington. Tom & I rode front with Billy & Joy directly behind us.


Water adventurer that she is, Joy volunteered to "ride the bull", which means sit on the front of the raft and hold on to the little ropes. Yeehaw!


She's just a couple of booties. Sploosh!


We also enjoyed some camping, mountain biking, shopping and scorpion bowling before our Mass buddies flew back east. Goodbye friends! Floaty is waving. :)