Inaugural Portland Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon

On Sunday, May 20, 2012, I completed the Inaugural Portland Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in Portland, Oregon, with my parents.  We decided to head down to Portland on Saturday morning in order to attend the expo and pick-up our race packets.  After the expo, we headed down to find the Big Ass Sandwich truck for lunch.  The sandwiches online looked amazing, and we were a little disappointed at them in person as there wasn't quite enough meat.

After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the Portland Saturday Market that was a short walk away and close to the start line of the race.  We got lucky with having a sunny day on Saturday and enjoyed the sun as much as we could.  For dinner, we got to see Rick and Sandy Bowen.  It was fun catching up with long-time family friends and we enjoyed a great meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  After dinner, my mom and I decided to take a short walk and ended up at VooDoo Donuts.

We were lucky with a late race start on Sunday and our hotel was only a couple blocks from the start line.  We were unlucky in the fact that it started raining around mile 3 and rained the rest of the race.  I am always amazed by how diverse the courses are.  We went through some not so nice industrial areas, some cute retail/commercial districts, and some expensive residential neighborhoods.  The other downfall of Portland was that it felt like it was uphill THE WHOLE TIME.  I know it wasn't, but there was a lot of gradual uphills and just a couple, fairly steep downhill sections.  My time wasn't great, but it wasn't my worse either.  However, in all the pictures, I look totally pissed off, so I need to make sure to smile more during the next run so I don't look so miserable.

After the race, we ended up back at the outdoor market for lunch.  My mom and I shared African food while my dad had a pulled pork sandwich.  Overall, we had a great trip.  I really enjoyed Portland and can understand why people would want to move there.  I would really like to go back there for a weekend in which we didn't have a race and could just enjoy the city a little more without having to go to bed early and being very careful about our nutrition prior to the run.

Snow Shoeing

For my dad's birthday, we planned a trip to go snow shoeing on Mt Baker.  It would have been a lovely trail with amazing views had the weather been more agreeable.  Unfortunately, it was cold and rainy, so we turned around after about a half hour.  The best part of the trip was stopping at Graham's on the way home for some burgers.

Bringing in 2012 with a splash

On New Year's Day, I jumped into Birch Bay for the 29th Annual Polar Bear Plunge.  It was my mom's idea.  It was something that she had always wanted to do, and standing out in 42 degree weather waiting to jump into a 38 degree ocean, the thought crossed my mind that she may be a little crazy.  But then again, with the hundreds of people that stood around us for the noon plunge, the idea didn't seem that crazy at all.

Trinity, cousin Grace, my mom and I all did the plunge.  And, it really wasn't as cold as I expected it to be. We were in and out of the water within 2 minutes.  The best part is now that I have done it once, it is crossed off my bucket list so I won't ever have to do it again.  But, it was kinda fun, so then again maybe it will turn into a New Year's tradition!

Survivor Mud Run

Here is a write up courtesy of my dad of how we spent the Saturday before Father's Day:


Date:  Saturday, June 18, 2011  (Fathers Day Weekend)
Destination: Survivor Mud Run, Remlinger Farms, Carnation Washington

Amy came up Friday night after work. Debbie, Amy, Devon, Jackie and I registered to run in the Seattle Survivor Mud Run. It was raining and a mild 50 degrees out. We loaded up the motor-home and picked up Devon & Jackie around 8:00am and drove to Carnation. We arrived in time to pick up our packets and made the 11:15am corral start.  The race consisted of 14 obstacles to challenge us on the 3.3 hellish mile course. We had to run through tires hoping over 4’ walls, crawled under webbing, climbed over two 12’ walls, waded through a couple deep mud pits, traverse the river, crawled through deep mud, climbed over a 20’ net wall, & slid down steep mud ravines. One of the teams was the owner of Carlile Transportation (Ice Road Truckers TV series). It was amazing how many people were running this event. This was one of the funniest events yet. Bringing the motor home was perfect. We all rinsed the clumps of mud off using the outside shower, and then all took hot showers inside to remove the little chunks of mud. Check out the before and after photos…  On the way home we stopped in Duvall and had lunch/dinner. We arrived home around 7:00pm. We all had a great time playing in the mud….

And here are a couple of before and after pictures:

It was a great day and I hope that we do it again next year!

Northwest Plant and Garden Show

Yesterday was my annual trip up to Seattle to go meet my mom and go to the garden show.  It had snowed most of the week, so I was a little worried the weather might hamper our trip, but we got lucky.  There was a crisp breeze, and it was definitely cold, but overall, it was a sunny day in Seattle.

Andrew decided to drive up with me and have lunch with us before having to go home.  It was a huge step as not only was my mom there, but also my grandma and her husband's two daughter in-laws.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous about him meeting my grandma as that makes it a little more serious. I knew he would make a good impression, as he is a total people person, but now it's more official that we are in an actual relationship.

He insists on make faces in pictures; he thinks it's funny.

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Pacific Place and browsed around a little before heading into the show.  The show was neat.  As always, the display gardens were amazing and the vendors always have some interesting stuff to look at.  We were there for about five hours before leaving after a long day on our feet.  Below are some of my favorite gardens:

After the show, we headed up to Lynnwood to have dinner at Red Lobster.  It's one of my grandma's favorite restaurants and since they don't have one in Whatcom County, we decided to treat her to a special dinner at her favorite place. 

Chamber's Bay Walk

On Friday, my mom and I decided to take Zeus for a walk around Chamber's Bay.  The weather wasn't be best, but it was really pretty there.  I hadn't ever been there before, but heard other people talk about it, so we went down there.  It was really fun and I hope to go back sometime when the weather is nice!