Wild Alaska

I recently took a break from work to visit the Great State of Alaska.

I went up to visit my friend Tina, who I met in law school and with whom I initially traveled to Alaska after the Michigan Bar Exam in 2003. A bit about Tina. She's brave. She's adventerous. She talks to strangers. She does things I have to Google to understand. Skijoring. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skijoring Dipnetting http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/aug/fishing/dipnetting/index.html She loves Alaska and plans to be there for good. I'm lucky to have a good friend in such a beautiful place.


In addition to hanging out with Tina and meeting her friends and beau, we also saw two concerts. Which bands, you ask? Only one. Wilco. Two nights in a row. (Excessive, you say? Bordering on obsessive? Bah.)

The band would play their first night in Fairbanks. Having never been there, I decided to fly straight there to check out the town before the show. After quickly realizing there was not much to see in Fairbanks itself - mostly McDonalds (I saw at least 3) - I headed out of town on Alaska Highway 3 in hopes of catching a glimpse of Mt. McKinley (Denali, as it's called locally) even though it was probably a hundred miles away.

I never saw what was obviously a 20,000 foot mountain, but I did see several nice vistas along the way.



Tina had (wisely) stayed in Anchorage (working) while I explored Fairbanks. Later in the day, I picked her up from the airport and we headed straight to the venue. The most unlikely of venues, I might add.

We were close to the stage; I was loving every minute. And, thanks to Tina's keen eye, I snagged this souvenir. (For those not as crazy as me, it's a set list - very valuable :) )


That night, we stayed in the cabin of a friend of Tina's.


We flew to Anchorage the next day for that night's show. Anchorage has been having a soggy, cold summer. The evening of our show was no exception. I didn't take any of my own photos, but found this video on You Tube. Check out all the soaked fans. If you watch closely at the end, a brown haired head pops into view in the lower right corner. Me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvxstHg4_Y0

Home Sweet Home

My year anniversary in Portland was May 1st. On May 10th, I received the keys to my new house.

Here's a better shot of the front.

Enter the Dragon

Now that I'm settled into my new job http://www.markowitzherbold.com/showattorney.asp?Show=73, they've decided I need to start marketing myself. In my case, that means meeting as many people as I can in my new city. To that end, I've gotten involved in several organizations, including the Oregon Women Lawyers.

As it turns out, the Oregon Wowen Lawyers sponsor a dragon boat team. A what? A dragon boat looks like a long canoe in which paddlers sit two abreast on a bench and paddle on their own side of the boat. I'll let Wikipedia help me with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_boat

I love it! As I've mentioned, Portland is divided by the Willamette River, which is where we paddle. It's a different way to see the city and it seems like a very Portland thing to do. There are lots of teams in Portland.

Our team, called the Dragonflies http://www.owlsdragonflies.org/ competes in several races a year. I've just signed up to participate in a race in Tacoma, Washington. We race in these big boats:

Here's a head shot for you:

And a couple of tails:

By contrast, these are the boats in which we usually practice:

Ok, that's it for now.

My First Visitor from Another Time Zone

My law school friend Melanie traveled across three time zones to visit Portland (and me) over Easter weekend. (Family: flights also leave from Michigan!) She is not my first visitor (that was Angela http://alladither.typepad.com/ from Seattle), but she does hold the honor of farthest traveled.

We spent some time in the city one afternoon:

There are lots of cool bridges in Portland across the Willamette River http://www.portlandlogue.com/bridges/ , so we checked out a couple. We walked across the Hawthorne Bridge:

We also visited Cathedral Park underneath the St. John's Bridge http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=97&action=ViewPark :

Even though she really seemed to enjoy Portland, I'm guessing she was homesick for NYC. You may not be able to read it, but one of those directional signs informs you that Times Square is 2,443 miles away.

Deciding that I wasn't going to impress Manhattan Mel with the "cityness" of Portland, I took her to visit our waterfalls the next day.

Here we are all soggy at Multnomah Falls:

Here's another waterfall (I've no idea which one):

Finally, here's a shot that shows some falls (again, no idea). You can also see the Columbia River in the distance -- all of these falls are in the Columbia River Gorge.

I think I won her over with the waterfalls.

It was great to see you, Mel! Come back anytime.

Snowshoes!

Long ago, I made a pair of snowshoes. I was on a class-taking binge at the time (also learning to scuba dive), so spent a few evenings at Woldumar Nature Center http://www.woldumar.org/ learning to weave some snowshoes that I'd never use. They look cool. They are the old fashioned kind you see hanging in lodges with wood frames and long tails. They were fun to make, but they've never been in the snow. In fact, until recently, I had never snowshoed.

Lots of people snowshoe here. My friend Margie and I decided we should join them. We bought matching snowshoes and matching hats (!) and on a sunny January afternoon, my beau David took Margie and I to Trillium Lake to try out our new gear.

Here is a group shot of all of us: Me, Murphy (David's dog), David and Margie. For good measure, Mt. Hood is in the background.


Here's one of me and Margie:


And, finally, an action photo:

Sure, it rains...

Before moving to Portland, no one ever asked me about the weather. To be fair, most of us were in the same state, at most 90 miles from each other and we all knew what Michigan weather was like.

Yes, it rains. Sometime alot, for days in a row. But, in the same way that Midwesterners scoff at those who complain about a little purifying cold, Portlanders seem to scoff at those who complain about the rain. It's all just about being prepared. And, remember when it was fun to play in the rain, jumping in mud puddles? Well, it still is. Check out my shoes and running pants after a particularly fun run through the woods:


I swear, they looked muddier in person.

But, it doesn't always rain in the winter. Today was a beautiful, cloudless day.

Here's a picture of Mt. Hood taken from Mount Tabor (an inactive volcano about 30 blocks from where I live):

Finally, a shot of the downtown, taken today from a path that I frequently run along the waterfront. The bridge you see is the Hawthorne Bridge. I work in one of the buildings in this photo. Although, it is nearly obscured by the building with the flag on top.

More sun predicted for the next two days!

All Right Then...

It seems like 100 years since my last post, so much has happened. My last installment shared the happenings of late April/early May when Rich and I first arrived in Portland. For the sake of catching up to real time, I'll only hit the highlights. From May to the end of July, this was my typical day --


Once the Oregon Bar Exam was done, we took a quick trip to California to see the redwoods --


Then, I waited. I'd wait two months for my results. During that time, I applied for a few jobs and did a lot of running. I took a quick trip to Michigan to visit family and for my annual trip to Mackinac Island with my mom. This year, although I don't have any pictures to share, my dad and Karen surprised me by stopping on the Island before the race. Here's a pic of me and mom after the race, me with my race medal (she makes me wear it :)) and the Mackinac Bridge behind us --


On Sept. 14th, the results came out. The secret is already out that I passed (woo-hoo!!), but here it is again: http://www.osbar.org/admissions/examresults_july2007.htm#o

Here's me, newly minted Oregon lawyer right after the swearing in ceremony --


This is where the story gets interesting. In the midst of looking for a job, Rich and I decided to part ways. I had considered inserting an amusingly unflattering picture of Rich in this spot, but I decided to stay positive. There are still two men in my life and these guys are as predictable as ever -- Sam appears first; Rudy, second.

So, everything is new. I found a great apartment within walking distance to a lot of cool stuff, including a beautiful old park called Laurelhurst Park. Here's one view --

Miraculously, I landed a job at a small law firm just about a month after receiving my Bar results -- http://www.mhgm.com/home.asp

Check out the beautiful flowers my dad and Karen sent in honor of my new job --

PDX Adventure, indeed! But, it's good. It's all good.