The Trip.

us.


the fam at 9am.


the car.

The Route.

9.18.10. Omaha, NB
Icky and rainy the whole drive out of the midwest. A rather dull beginning and this Super 8 was pretty groddy. But, I did drive the manual car on the highway, success!

9.19.10. Nederlands, CO
Stayed with ryan's cousin at their awesome new house in the mountains. Nederlands is 30mins outside of Boulder. Super cute town, with apparently rad mt. biking trails. Lots of good coffee shops and the Carousel of Happiness. The story goes- a guy hand carved all the animals for the marry-go-round and it took him around 20 years. The carousel just opened 4 months ago, so we had the luck of good timing & got to ride it before we bounced out to Steamboat. p.s. yea not sure what I am doing in this foto.

oh yea, double rainbow! saw that on the way to ryan's aunt's house in Steamboat. All the aspen trees were changing colors, too! Colorado is definitely a great, great place.


9.20.10. Steamboat Springs, CO
Us by an infamous spring.
We stayed an extra day in Steamboat Springs & Ryan's cousin took us out to lunch and gave us a tour of the cool new library she works at and her new home. We, also, went for a short hike to Fish Creek Falls.



9.22.10. Boise, ID
Stayed with a couchsurfer in Boise. We walked around downtown & got tasty food. Hope I get a chance to visit Idaho again and do some biking or hiking. Also, made me wanna watch My Own Private Idaho again to see if I recognized anything (though I don't think any of the movie takes place in Boise).

The Destination.

Quick stop in Pendelton! In my imaginary world, there would have been tepees & undisturbed Native American tribes and culture. Instead it was sorta desolate, or just another small, small town. But the mill was cool and one day I'll be able to afford a blanket and maybe some flannel shirts.


9.23.10. PDX, OR
we made it!

Thanks to everyone who hosted us. It made the trip awesome getting meet new people & hang out with folks.

I have not updated for some time & now I'm not sure where to start. Lot's of catching up. So, Ryan & I moved from MI to OR on Sept. 18. We've now been living in SE Portland for about 3 weeks. We really like our apartment & I'm quiet happy with having gotten the majority of our furniture for free. People are moving a lot or cleaning a lot, i dunno, but they just put things by the dumpsters or trash cans & its a free for all. Pretty awesome because we've gotten an Ikea couch that we're re-upholstering, a wood dinning table, a side table, a dresser, & a tall wine rack that we use as a shelf. it's a bit harder to find chairs, which sorta renders the kitchen table a bit useless, ha.

I like our location, we're a couple blocks away from Mt. Tabor, an extinct volcano. I went for a leisurely bike ride there- i think i wore my break pads out the whole way down & I only climbed a quarter of the way up. So, that's one thing, it's hilly here - so different from the midwest. I am horrified of bombing down a hill and then getting rammed in the face by someone opening their car door (since bike lanes & street parking often overlap in limited space). Back to location, we're also a few blocks away from Laurelhurst Park. This is a really pretty park with beautiful trees & apparently a cool pond, but that part is under construction currently. Hawthorne, Belmont, & Laurelhurst districts are only a few blocks away and all of them have sweet $3 movie theaters + beer options. People here love beer & cats. Every street, there is a cat on the prowl. Oh, and food trucks at Belmont & 45th... so tempting.

For another post, I'll throw some fotos up from the trip & such. More fotos of the apartment as it comes together.

Miss all you Michigan folk!

a loose & jumbled list of things to do once in portland.

• visit apts. - sign lease - move in done 09.30.10
  
• visit 17 list places from dirty cheap guide to pdx
  
• turn in SNAP application to DHS01.03.11
• send postcards home done 10.10.10
  
• explore the neighborhood: find grocery, coffee house, theater, parks, comm. gardens/csa i'm partial to: Coopers Coffee shops (SE Stark + 60th), BiPartisian Cafe (SE Stark + 79th), & stuff on SE Belmont + 34th

• buy cheap commuter bike CL (>$100) probably not going to do this, because i realized my bike is sweet!
  
• get a bus pass too expensive. i'll just pay per ride!
  
• freecycle furniture still need chairs!
  
• buy a bed done 10.02.10
  
• find yoga, tai chi, taekwondo montavilla yoga studio, represent!
• sign up for at least 1 pcc class
• join a club? knitting circle?
• volunteer - once a week? (farm/csa, tutor) i start tomorrow! 10.13.10
  
• shop at the farmers market
• find a favorite food truck belmont & 47th creme de la creme
  
• tour psu art grad program - actually maybe Urban Studies or Natural Resource Policy instead
• do app. for grad school?
• update website, new pgs yea! done!
  
• finish '08 bike zine