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Bike Culture, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

Here in PDX we think we've got it pretty good when it comes to commuting by bicycle. After all, Portland is far and away the best city in the US for biking. It's compact, (relatively) flat and easy to navigate (hurrah for the grid system). There's also an increasing amount of infrastructure at very little cost to the taxpayer: bike lanes, special signals at intersections, lots and lots of bike only parking... yep, things are good in Bike City USA.

That is, until you visit Amsterdam and see how things really should be. Bikes are absolutely everywhere and the amount of infrastructure to support and encourage bike use is simply amazing. Bike lanes thread their way through most of the city, often separated from the main roadway by a median, always coloured red to signify them clearly. Traffic lights almost always have bike signals on them and everyone gives way to bikes as a matter of course. The main railway station - Amsterdam Centraal - has a multi-level parking lot for 2,500 bicycles and there are secure and patrolled lots dotted throughout the city as well.

The other thing that's really different is the complete lack of bike snobbery and one-upmanship that is prevalent in Portland. Hardly anyone rides a fancy 21-speed Bianchi or a Cannondale with titanium forks, nor are there any hipster fixed-gear bikes. Instead, everyone rides big, clunky, black bikes with just enough gears to get you over the steepest bridge in town, barely functional brakes, a kickstand, fat fenders and a chain guard (hence no one in Amsterdam has to roll their right trouser leg up to save it from being ripped by the front gear sprocket, the sign of a hardened Portland cyclist). These are commuting bikes, make no mistake about it. And because everyone's bikes are so similar (black, old, dented), theft also seems to be much less of a problem - most people use a simple chain to secure their bike instead of super-hardened whiz-bang Kryptonite locks that are required here if you want to see your ride again.

Also not to be seen: that old Portland favourite, the cute little tricycle baby cart that trundles along behind your bike. Babies sit in little "car seats" mounted on the handle bars, while older children just climb on behind their parents and hang on. Older people give friends lifts on their bikes just about everywhere; we often saw women wearing incredibly chic outfits perched side-saddle on the back of a bike as it whizzed by.

Things aren't perfect in Amsterdam, though - a huge amount of tourists hire bikes every day and ride around as if they're immune to the very real dangers of the road, seemingly thinking that Amsterdam is Disneyland and they're on the latest theme ride. I saw countless numbers of people get their tyres caught in tram tracks and just have a general lack of awareness that put them in danger. However, drivers in Amsterdam all seem to have a great awareness of cyclists (probably because they're so omnipresent), and this lessens the risks somewhat.

In the end, the main proof of the difference between the two "bike cities" lies in the statistics. Portland's bicycle commute rate (ie, to and from work) just hit 6.5%, up from 4.0% a couple of years ago. Amsterdam's lies at around 40%, a truly staggering number.

Posted in: chaosboy, photography, travel on October 12, 2009 at at 9:23:00 PM 0 comments    

Golden, Golden Gate, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

Well, I'm back from my little jaunt down to San Francisco. Even though I worked hard (staying in the office until 10:30pm the night before the presentation), I did manage to get out and about and play the tourist a bit.

Here's my favourite shot so far – the always impressive Golden Gate Bridge (coincidentally, the subject of the presentation) as seen from Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. The place is way too touristy, but it does offer spectacular views of the bay, especially at sunset!

More soon!

Posted in: chaosboy, photography, travel, united states on July 12, 2009 at at 10:10:00 AM 0 comments    

The best – the absolute best – thing about having our own car is that we can get out of Portland on a whim and go Elsewhere. For once, Christine and I both had the same two days off (Sunday and Monday), so we decided to head out to Central Oregon to see the high desert sights.

We decided to camp at the Cove Palisades State Park, simply because it had the best facilities. I had originally wanted to stay at Smith Rock State Park – an area that looks absolutely stunning in photos I have seen – but their camping facilities were limited to a bivouac area with a pit toilet and no open fires allowed (due to the sensitive nature of the park), and what fun is camping without a roaring campfire and marshmallows at the end of the day?

Because we organised so quickly and changed our preference of campsite so late, we didn't really have much idea of what Cove Palisades would be like... were we in for a pleasant surprise! You can't see much as you approach, but gradually you realise that the high, flat plain is intersected by deep river canyons, well over 1000 feet deep. Further downstream, the gorge has been dammed (for hydro-electric power), filling the canyons with a large lake, upon which boats of all descriptions were enjoying the beautiful weather.

We had arrived too early to check into a campsite, so we hiked from the valley floor to the top of the escarpment for spectacular views over most of the park:

The isolated plateau between the two arms of the lake is known as "The Island", and is one of the last remaining areas of never-farmed grassland left in the United States. As such, it is a vital habitat for eagles and other raptors as well as being an important research site – it is closed to all public access to preserve it. It looks like something from "The Land Time Forgot" to me, and I half expected to see dinosaurs roaming across it. That's Mount Hood you can see way, way off in the distance. This area of Oregon offers the most amazing views of the Cascades mountain range I have yet seen; from Mount Hood in the north all the way down to Mount Bachelor (near the town of Bend) to the south. Here's a shot of some of the mountains that I took on Sunday morning:

To the left is Broken Top (most southerly), followed by the "Three Sisters"; South Sister, Middle Sister (almost obscured) and North Sister, also known (apparently) as Faith, Hope and Charity. In the foreground, you can see more of the spectacular gorges of the Cove Palisades State Park.

However, our trip was not all fun, games and awesome photos. Late on Saturday, we were at a fun little beach within the park to take some photos of what promised to be a beautiful sunset. Christine ventured out along a pier and onto some floating pontoons that eventually joined back on to another wooden dock at the other end of the beach. The gap here was wider than the first gap, but Christine was confident that she could jump it, rather than having to walk all the way back along the pontoons to the first pier. I decided to take a photo of her leap...

... which turned out spectacularly well, but unfortunately the jump itself didn't end quite so happily. Christine's left foot slipped on the wet wooden dock, and when her right foot tried to compensate, it got bent in the wrong direction, causing a horrific sprain in her right ankle. However, we didn't know this at first, as the initial pain was in her shin. Thinking she'd just grazed her shin and that she'd be fine after the initial pain died down, we sat around for a while, telling concerned onlookers that we'd be alright in a minute.

However, when Christine tried to stand, the real injury became apparent and its serious nature sunk in. Christine was in immense pain with every little movement of her ankle, and I had to enlist the aid of a nearby burly gentleman to help me carry her back to the car park. We headed back to the campsite and got directions to the nearest hospital, which was in the nearby town of Madras. We set off on our way, with me trying to drive both quickly and smoothly at the same time, as every bump in the road caused Christine excruciating pain. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, we arrived at the little hospital and checked Christine in. After an interminable check-in process ("Do you have a religious preference?" was one of the questions!), Christine was attended to. X-Rays confirmed no break, just a serious sprain and we were soon on our way, with Christine's ankle safely held in an air cast,armed with painkillers and a pair of crutches, which the hospital were very reluctant to give her until they realised she had insurance!

Remarkably, we went back to the campsite (which we had set up earlier in the day) and camped out as intended... although we arrived back at camp after 10:30! On Sunday, we drove down to Bend and had lunch at the excellent Deschutes Brewery and Public House before returning to Portland in the afternoon. Quite the adventure!

Posted in: chaosboy, hiking, oregon, photography, travel on May 20, 2009 at at 10:54:00 PM 0 comments    

We have wheels!

Although Portland is a great city for biking around and has great public transport options, there are times when you just need a car. Whether it's for a shopping trip, a party in the far reaches of south-east PDX or – most importantly for me – for getting the heck out of of town on weekends. Up until now, we've got by with using Zip/Flex cars for shorter trips and hiring cars/hitching rides for those longer journeys, but these do require some degree of planning and aren't exactly spontaneous methods of transport.

So we started looking around at options for a car of our own. By the strangest of coincidences (or not), Christine's mom was looking to get herself a new car and was more than willing to cut us a good deal on her old Subaru Forester. We just had to come up with the cash in a lump sum, as she rightly said that monthly payments to her would put an unnecessary strain of family friendships. We had around half of the money already, so set out to obtain a loan for the other half.

To cut a long story short, it was an adventure in itself. We found out that while I am on my "interim" 2-year Green Card, I actually don't exist in terms of a credit rating. My rating is ZERO and will not move until I qualify for my full 10-year Green Card. This meant that Christine had to qualify for and take on the responsibility for the loan all by herself - my income could not be added to hers as proof of ability to repay the loan! In the end, we had to take a secured loan where the car itself stands as equity and the interest rate is somewhat horrific. The good news is that Christine will have an awesome credit rating when we finish paying the loan off!

Once the money was secured, we just had to get ourselves to Idaho Falls to pick up our new car. Plane fares the day after Thanksgiving are possibly the cheapest fares of the holiday season, and the planes themselves amongst the emptiest I have travelled on in the US. We spent a couple of happy, lazy days with Keener and Karen (gotta love having a beer in the hot tub out on the deck!) before taking possession of our new wheels and driving back to Portland.

I had made sure to get an Instructional Driving Permit from the DMV before we left, meaning that I can drive so long as a licensed driver is sitting next to me. It's kind of embarrassing to be treated like an "L" driver when I've driven for over 10 years in Australia without a single accident, but them's the rules! This meant we could share the driving on the way home, some 760 miles (1,200km) away. We took two days to drive home, taking the (slightly longer) scenic route rather than racing home along the (very dull) Interstate. Along the way, we stopped off at two of the most amazing places I have ever seen – Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho and the Painted Hills in Central Oregon.

Craters of the Moon is a giant lava field spreading across the Snake River plain, a huge black scar that suddenly appears as you drive along the highway. Within the park, giant cinder cones rise up above the twisted black lava, while underneath your feet lie huge lava tubes – caves left behind as rivers of lava cooled over, forming long tubes. We spent a long time exploring the park, going down into one of the lava tubes, Indian Tunnel. This tube is the only one you can explore without a helmet and a light source, as regular roof collapses have left many "skylights" along the tunnel's 800 foot length. The tube is over 50 feet wide and 30 feet high and is an amazing sight. One day, we will return properly equipped and explore the other tubes, some of which have permanent ice on the cave floor!

The Painted Hills – which we saw on the second day – are part of the John Day Fossil Beds, one of the most important sources of prehistoric mammalian fossils (and their entire ecosystem) in the world. The hills themselves are an ancient riverbed, with layer upon layer of different coloured alluvial soils – and their attendant fossils – now compressed into beautiful folded hills. Much like Uluru in Australia, the hills can change colour completely depending on the light and the forms created by light and shadow are nothing short of amazing.

We were treated with more spectacular sights as we reached the home stretch – the Cascades mountain range spread out before us, high volcanic peaks dotting the horizon from north to south, with Mount Jefferson (below) and Mount Hood being particularly view-worthy as sunset approached.
Finally, we reached home and began our new life with our own transport. Now we just have to get enough cash together to register the car in Oregon, and I have to get around to getting a real driver's license!

Posted in: chaosboy, idaho falls, oregon, photography, travel on December 15, 2008 at at 8:57:00 AM 0 comments    

Tired of being stuck here in Portland all the dang time (one of the few disadvantages of not owning our own car!), Christine and I resolved to take advantage of a small gap in my work schedule and get the heck out of town for a few days.

So we rented a car and drove on down to Crater Lake, an enormous clear blue lake that is entirely within the enormous (6 miles by 4 miles) caldera of a volcano that blew itself apart a mere 7,700 years ago - a mere blip in time geologically speaking. In a few weeks' time, the area around the lake will be covered in snow that will last until June next year, so this was probably our last chance to see it for a while. The drive down was fairly uneventful and quick - the I-5 corridor may be dull, but it does get you places quickly!

We entered the National Park from the north and soon achieved our first view of the lake. It certainly didn't disappoint!

No photograph can possibly do justice to the scale and majestic grandeur of this remarkable place (although that didn't stop me taking almost 200 shots over the next couple of days!), with sheer, soaring cliffs over 700 feet tall surrounding the bluest of blue waters that you have ever seen.

After soaking in the view from this initial view point, we quickly headed down to the campground, 7 miles south of the rim and set up our tent for the night. We were warned that bears frequented the campground and took all necessary precautions to secure our food in the provided bear-proof lockers before heading back to the Rim Village to view a beautiful clear sunset over the lake.

The small island is known as Wizard's Island, supposedly because of it's resemblance to a wizard's hat. It is a small volcanic cinder cone that rises from the lake's floor, and has a small crater of its own on top - a crater within a crater!

The next day, we drove a complete loop around the crater rim, stopping often for photographs. Our main goal was to walk to the top of Mount Scott, the highest point within the National Park at 8,929 feet (2,721 metres). The trail itself rises 1,200 feet over its 2.5 mile length, making it a pretty strenuous climb, especially for those unaccustomed to exercising at higher altitudes (i.e., me!). However, we made it to the top in just over an hour and were rewarded with absolutely spectacular 360 degree views, including the whole enormous lake laid out before us. Totally worth the effort!

(Our car is parked on the road at the absolute bottom right of the picture, just to give you some idea of where the trail has come from!)

In the evening, we climbed to the top of Watchman Peak on the exact opposite side of the lake (it's just to the right of my hat) to view another sunset - this one completely different to the previous night. Forest fires were raging to the south and the north of the park and had covered large parts of the sky with a thick pall of smoke. So where there had been crystal clear blue skies, there was haze and smoke, which was spectacular in its own (slightly eerie) way.


After the sun sank under the horizon in a blood-red blaze, we descended the mountain ( much easier path than Mount Scott) and retired to our campsite for a very well-earned beverage and meal. We left pretty early the next morning, as we were unable to secure seats for the boat cruises around the lake itself (curse you, large tour groups, for booking out all the early cruises!).

Posted in: chaosboy, oregon, photography, travel on September 9, 2008 at at 9:52:00 PM 0 comments    

Well, we've actually got a few seconds to spare and can finally post an article about our big Late Wedding/First Anniversary bash that we recently held in Boston, MA. Certain persons have been clamouring for a review of events, and we just love to share, so here we are!

Ever since our humble little space wedding atop Rocky Butte just over a year ago, we had wanted to throw a bigger and better party for all our extended families (Booth, Moore and Garcia!) to attend. As things turned out (mainly because of my parents' travel itinerary), Boston presented itself as the perfect venue and plans were set in motion. Our spies in the area (Ann Elise) searched high and low for the ideal party spot, accommodations were found, airline tickets were booked and we soon found ourselves on the Atlantic side of the USA (via Minneapolis and New York airports!).

After settling in at our comfy hotel, we ventured out into Boston in search of a restaurant to celebrate Christine's birthday. With the help of her swanky new iPhone, we located a wonderful restaurant in the North End, just off the main drag, Hanover Street. The difference this 100 feet or so made was incredible: every trattoria, ristorante and cafe on Hanover Street was spilling out onto the sidewalk, while our restaurant was only about two-thirds full and quite relaxed and romantic. The food was exceptional, and the wait staff knowledgeable and friendly. Here's a pic of us about to enjoy some delicious desserts:

Early the next day, Keener picked us up at our hotel and whizzed us off to catch the ferry from Wood's Hole to Martha's Vineyard, a small and somewhat exclusive island just off the coast of southern Massachusetts (next to Nantucket, if that helps any). Christine's Aunt Alison and Uncle Peter were to be our hosts for the this day and the next, and they made sure to show us all the sights of their island. Peter took us out on his boat and we took full advantage:

After enjoying the warm sun and water for a while, we tried our hands at waterskiing. Keener, as you can see, is obviously a salty seadog and had no problems whatsoever.

... while the less said about my attempts the better. Needless to say, I never actually stood up. All too soon, it was time to return to Boston, where we met up with my friend John who had flown in all the way from Sydney via Yosemite and San Fran for the party. As my "guest of honour", we spent as much time as we could with him and even managed to walk the entire length of Boston's famed Freedom Trail... on a day where the temperatures climbed into the 90s!

Finally, the night of the party rolled around and all our hard work and planning finally came to fruition. After some early doubts about the size and suitability of the area that he hotel had set aside for us, everything turned out perfectly and a fantastic time was has by all. In honour of our first anniversary, the theme was paper and everyone turned up wearing paper hats of all shapes and size. Some people even commissioned artists to make a hat for them! Here's a rogues' gallery for posterity's sake:

The happy couple: me in my Aussie cork hat and Christine in her amazing papier mache chicken creation.

The two mothers. Karen and Keener made hats for my parents, as they probably wouldn't have had time to do it themselves, having just flown in from France.

King Nick. Or is it a court jester? He seems to have a mischievous grin either way...

And finally, here's Peter proving that a hat doesn't have to be an enormous production number to be a winner... the happiest dang pirate I ever did see!

We finally rolled out of the hotel at around 12:30am, quite a bit later than our original booking was for! Quite a few people had been incredibly sensible and had booked rooms in the same hotel the party was in, smart thinking! The party was an incredible success and it was wonderful to see so many members of our extended family. A big thank you to all who attended and to all those who couldn't make it but passed on their best wishes - it means a lot!

Posted in: boston, chaosboy, party time, travel on August 5, 2008 at at 8:49:00 PM 2 comments    

Drunken People Crossing, originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

The photo above is a sign at the entrance of a brewpub's car park in Missoula, Montana. It vividly and visually portrays the huge difference between Portland and Missoula when it comes to drinking alcohol.

The sale, distribution and consumption of alcoholic beverages in Portland (and all of Oregon) is controlled by the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission), who rule with something of an iron fist. Venues are regularly tested to see if they are checking the ID of patrons or letting underage drinkers in; so much so that most bars will ask everyone for ID, even if they're way above 21. And once they've asked you for ID, no one will turn a blind eye if you've forgotten it. No card, no drink.

Whereas, as this picture shows, Missoula almost seems proud of its hard drinking reputation. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Top Hat Club has a "$5 Tap Beer" promotion on Wednesday nights. What this means is that for $5, you get as many pints as you can drink between 10:30pm and 1:00am! Guidelines for bar owners in Montana suggest that encouraging binge drinking isn't such a great idea, but it doesn't seem like that message has quite sunk in yet for some bars. Missoula is a university town, so I would expect that a large proportion of the drinkers who would want to take advantage of a $5 beer night would be college kids. Spencer (who grew up in Montana) told me that bars would do "Quarter Beers" - 25 cent pints!!! and "cheap drinks until the first person goes to the toilet" nights.

As a final demonstration of the differences between the two cities, Spencer's sister - who is 23 - forgot her ID when she came to the Top Hat, but was allowed entry anyway. It just wouldn't happen in Portland.

Posted in: chaosboy, party time, travel, united states on April 16, 2008 at at 11:25:00 AM 0 comments    

Click on the map above for a full-size image.

This last weekend, I got out of Portland with Kim, Spencer and Jaime as we headed off to Spokane, WA and Missoula, MT to see the last two shows on Colin Lake and Wellbottom's 2008 Spring Tour. Colin is a good friend of ours (and I've designed his logo, web site and latest album cover as well) and Kim's boyfriend Kevin plays bass for the band. So it seemed like a great idea to pile in the car and cheer them along the home stretch. Christine couldn't make it on the trip with us as she has to work weekends and we kinda need the cashola at the moment, but she certainly didn't begrudge me going off and having fun.

We headed off after lunch on Friday, out along the stunning Columbia River Gorge towards Umatilla, where we entered Washington State and headed up to Spokane, a 350 mile journey in total. The weather was beautiful, the first 70°F (21°C) day since last October, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The familiar verdant green and waterfalls of the western Gorge soon gave way to the very different – but no less beautiful – desert-like eastern part and plains of Eastern Oregon. Much of the area is kept alive and productive by extensive irrigation; an aerial photograph of the area near Umatilla shows all the circular fields that seem to be the norm for irrigated farmlands in this part of the country.

We finally rolled into Spokane (pronounced "Spo-can" for all the non-locals) at around 7:00pm, where we met up with band and headed up to the house of one of Kim's friends to freshen up and have a few drinks before the show. The gig was at a small bar called "The Swamp" in a semi-industrial area of town, but attracted a pretty decent crowd, all of whom seemed to appreciate the show that the guys put on. Touring for a few weeks has definitely helped the band sound really tight, the show was pretty flawless. Here's a couple of photos:

After the show ended, we headed back up the hill to the house, where the party continued until 3:00am or so, after which everyone crashed where they could. The start the next morning was slow to say the least, with no-one even stirring before 11:30am. We finally got out of the house for a late breakfast at 1:00pm at a great cafe before everyone hit the road for the next leg to Missoula, Montana – a mere 200 miles away.

This leg of the journey took us across the "panhandle" of Idaho, a narrow strip of mountainous land that extends all the way north to the Canadian border. Looking at it on a map makes you wonder why a state would bother to claim such a narrow strip of land - and it actually all comes down to a mistake. The original surveyors were meant to mark the edge of the territory along the US Continental Divide, but went the wrong way and were almost at the Canadian border before they realised their mistake. The border should have been much further to the east, but the mistake has remained. After a mere 80 miles or so, we crossed the border into Montana, the "Big Sky State", the 10th US State that I have visited.

The scenery from Coeur d'Alene in Idaho all the way to Missoula was quite spectacular, with huge snow-covered mountains and pristine lakes. We also passed the town of Wallace, which holds quite a few claims to fame. It rose to prominence as the biggest silver mining town in the US, then had the last set of traffic lights on the US Interstate system: these were removed in 1991 when the bypass around (and above) the town was completed. Finally, in need of some tourism to help the struggling town, Wallace decided to declare itself "The Center Of The Universe", with a manhole cover downtown (seriously!) denoting the exact spot. I think that Rome and Greece had that idea some 2000 years earlier, guys...

We arrived in Missoula at around 7:00pm and got ourselves something to eat before heading off to the Top Hat Club, the venue for the last show of the tour.

Note the "$5 Tap Beer" sign... I'll be talking about that in another blog soon. While fairly unprepossessing from the outside, the Top Hat was a very atmospheric bar on the inside, and had a great big stage for the guys to perform on. Another great show, and a lot of the college kids in the audience got up and danced, which was fun to see. We were way too cool to dance ourselves.

The show finished right at closing time (2:00am) and we were treated to the Missoulan way of closing a bar: the chairs and tables were all instantly stacked on top of each other while the bartenders shouted things like, "If you don't work here, GET OUT!" and, "What are you still DOING HERE?!". We helped the guys load their gear into their rig, then headed off to a nearby hotel where we got half-price rooms for the night. Some of us headed off to a nearby 24-hour diner, but I took the opportunity to get an hour's headstart on sleep.

Sunday was the whole 550 mile trip in reverse, which took pretty much the whole day. We were all pretty tired and glad to be home, but felt for the band: in their big and slow rig, they didn't get back to Portland until late in the night, well and truly tired of this whole touring thing. Kevin had to get up and go to work first thing Monday morning as well, ugghh!!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, photography, travel, united states on April 15, 2008 at at 1:08:00 PM 0 comments    

Hey!

It's me and Cam isn't pulling a one man show over here. We are still happily living in our little blissful bubble. However, you don't realize how long you've been in one place until you go somewhere else. Just driving out of town a few hours and you suddenly feel like you are in a new country. Even going to Seattle for the second time, there were always things to point out that are so different than what we have grown accustomed.

We had a blast though and were very near the Space Needle and the EMP so walking anywhere was made possible. The weather held up great and we tried a bunch of new places to eat at.

One in particular was Kevin's suggestion for breakfast, the Five Point Cafe. Just walking up to it, you get an uneasy feeling that this kinda place would not serve a good latte and pancakes. We walk in and the atmosphere is so dark that finding a table is difficult. We sit down and the waitress gives us some menus and we are short of conversation as the speakers blast explicit music right above our heads. We are sitting next to the bar where the patrons appear to have been there for days and the kids in the booth next to us are sipping whiskey and beer. Its 10 on a Saturday morning. The walls are plastered with posters, bumper stickers, ol beer ads and Cam wouldn't even tell me what the boy's loo had set up in there.

We waited nearly an hour for our food to finally show up and I was getting a bit ansy but it made it all worth it. It was absolutely delicious. We finally busted out into the sunshine, laughing how the Five Point is a great way to start your day.

For the rest of the day we toured the EMP (Experience Music Project) and the Sci-Fi Museum which I surprisingly really enjoyed. The music part of the museum was packed full of information on artists whom I was not too familiar but everyone could relate to the Sci-Fi museum somehow without knowing or caring about Star Trek. They had life size replicas and models of robots and monsters from movies, guns, philosophies, masks, space ships. It was all laid out through a series of tunnels and rooms which made it somewhat more interactive. Most of the artifacts in both museums, was noticed, belonged to one guy, Paul Allen, who owns much of Microsoft. Just being rich can't make you that intense of a collector. That's a state of madness.

Cam and I also visited the Seattle Art Museum for a taste of culture. It had dab of this and that ranging from Contemporary to Italian porcelain to a fun exhibit on how the Japanese envisioned America back from the 16th century and onward. At one point a security woman advised me that I was not allowed to carry an umbrella in the exhibit and generally was suppose to check it in downstairs. We nodded our heads and went upstairs if not to just have a quick look. We managed to get through the whole museum with me carrying my umbrella. We were just ready to leave when I was approached again and told that umbrellas were against policy. The guy was terribly polite and seemed to only be letting me know this. We let him know that we had had no idea and then we left the museum. We found it amusing that although umbrellas were not allowed in the museum it certainly was not enforced. And we certainly never found exactly why umbrellas, closed and hanging on my bag, were not allowed.

Seattle held itself together until the last minute until we had to leave and let the rain loose. Getting home took half the time getting there with the little traffic and being in Portland again already makes the weekend seem like a distant memory. But it was super fun hanging out with family and experiencing new bars. I'm a bit sad that I won't be able to go have a good Thanksgiving with the fam this year as getting time off work will be impossible, but Kevin will be lending us his which should make for some good times and give Cam a chance to see what the holiday is all about (gluttony!).

Posted in: chaosgurl, travel on November 12, 2007 at at 5:19:00 PM 0 comments    

There's a lot of them thar States in this crazy US of A, and I got a chance to tick three more off my list on our recent sojourn to the Eastern side. (Rule: a place doesn't count as visited if you don't leave the airport, so even though I've been through Denver twice, I haven't "been" to Colorado yet.) I have a little widget on my Flickr profile where you can enter countries and states you've been to and it makes a little map showing visited countries in red (see above). So whenever we go somewhere new, I tell Christine that we can colour that place red now. My favourite time was when I got to make all of Canada red just by visiting Victoria, BC for four hours.

So, where did we go? Our first port of call was Michigan, where Christine's dad was getting married to the wonderful Linda, who (as you may know) had made the amazing costumes for our wedding. The ceremony was delightful, held on a sunny day in a beautiful gazebo at a historic park in South Lyon, a semi-rural town not far from Ann Arbor. We had a fantastic time and I loved meeting all the people on that side of the family. Here's a photo I took of the ceremony:

Next, we flew to Massachusetts (which I have now learned to spell correctly!) and caught the ferry from Boston to Cape Cod. Here we spent a few idyllic days with Christine's mother's side of the family... lazing on the beach by day and having good food with good company at night. Here's a view of an old life saving station, the last surviving of many that were set up along this dangerous coast in the 19th century.

Our flight home took us through Chicago, Illinois. We had a four and a half hour layover, and decided to head into town to see Christine's old stomping ground. Unfortunately, Chicago's rickety and antiquated train service just wasn't up to scratch (see Christine's earlier post) and we ended up with only 10 or 15 minutes downtown to look around. Sydneysiders, you should never complain about CityRail again... it's the absolute epitome of timeliness and reliability compared to Chicago!

So we headed straight to the landmark Millennium Park and the incredible Cloud Gate sculpture, which I managed to hurriedly shoot off a few decent shots of before our mad scramble back to the airport began.

Posted in: cape cod, chaosboy, chicago, michigan, travel on August 15, 2007 at at 5:16:00 PM 1 comments    

Yesterday was a hectic but fun traveling day!

Cam I traveled from Provincetown on the Cape to the opposite side of the country, Portland, Oregon. Not only did we use every kind of transportation known to man but we had to stop and see everything on the way. Taking a ferry from Ptown to Boston was clear and perfect. Cam took many pics of the city skyline but we were unable to linger long. From there we jumped on a water taxi to the airport in order to catch our flight to Chicago. Once there, we had a few hours to kill before our next leg to Portland so we jumped on the Blue line so we could see a bit of downtown. I was so excited to show Cam Chicago after hyping it up for so long. But it didn't make a perfect first impression. The train was under construction at a stop far before the one we wanted to get off at. So instead we had to jump on an express bus which doubled our traveling time to a total of an hour. We eventually made it to Clark and Lake and jumped out knowing we had only a few minutes to make the best of this before we had to jump on the bus again.

We ran a few blocks over to Millennium park while Cam fervently tried to take photos of the massive skyscrapers above us. We crossed over Michigan Ave. where you could see a clear view of the Wrigley building and had a gander at the Frank Gehry creation that served as a massive stage. And then of course we had to get a shot of the giant silver Bean in the middle of the pavilion. And then we were off like a shot running over to Dearborn to catch the express bus back to the airport. Once again, we had to jump on the train once the bus reached it's last stop and we rolled back to the airport at a snail's pace.

The trains have designated slow zones, particularly the Blue Line and I can not really say why. The wooden tracks are very old and the train had to abide to the speed limits over certain areas which would be a smooth 55mph to a crawling 15mph.

Having not expected theses delays we found ourselves in a panic. Once the train pulled into the station we began to run down the long corridors to our terminal. Our flight was leaving in 15 minutes. Luckily our bags were checked and we had our tickets but when we reached security, we found we were in for a new challenge. People were wrapped through the cattle yards and down the hall. It would take more than an hour to get through. Never hesitating to take control of this situation, I drag Cam up the line and cut in front of hundreds of people in order to find someone of authority to let us through. Cam, my sweetie, who has always played by the book rules, seemed apprehensive. We skip under the rope with the acknowledging nod from a woman who looked like she worked there and with us followed a dozen others seeing our brave attempt to break the system. Once we put our goods through the machine the gate wasn't too far and made it just in time. They may have closed the doors on us if a woman hadn't been there complaining that the plane had to wait for her because her husband was still at Quiznos getting a sandwich. Cam and I leisurely walked onto the plane past the woman arguing with the ticketman, secretly hoping she wouldn't make it because it wasn't fair to get a sandwich and hold everyone up.

The 4 hour flight went by fast and we decided we had to take a taxi home after the long day of adventures we had had. It is good being back in Portland after having a good dose of travel and family to last for the rest of the year. More to come soon of weddings and reunions... and of course fun filled pictures.. but in the meantime, it's time to get back to the grind!

Posted in: boston, chaosgurl, chicago, portland, travel on August 12, 2007 at at 7:11:00 AM 0 comments