Jan 16, 2017

We got up and made our way to Cornell University for sunrise. It's a gorgeous campus with historic buildings and great views of the town. We wandered around for the better part of an hour checking out the architecture and admiring the light as it appeared on the brick facade of the tower. Another nice start to a day and a good walk on the hilly grounds.

We had about two hours of driving down to Ricketts Glen State Park in PA. The trail was immediately icy, but this time there was a lot of snow to go along with it. The gorge trail was marked to stay off unless we had proper gear like crampons and axes, but we felt like we would be fine and could make the decision to turn back if it seemed dangerous.

The waterfalls were insanely beautiful covered in snow and ice. I can't believe I've never come here in winter before. This is another example of a place I didn't think could get any more beautiful, but here I am proved wrong again. We spent a lot of time at each set of falls admiring and photographing them from different angles.

The trail did end up getting a little precarious at times, but we both made it without incident. I am impressed even more with the Yaktrax after this. We decided to do the whole loop, which probably made it about 6 miles total, but it definitely didn't feel that long with so much to see.

Toward the end we were able to get behind this waterfall that was almost totally frozen over. The view from behind the ice looking down on the glen was so amazingly unique. We couldn't have been happier to get to see all of this.

Sadly we had to leave eventually, but some cake batter/chocolate twist from Vegan Treats cheered us up. We sat there eating the ice cream that the guy "poured too high" which we both agreed wasn't possible and no one would ever care. It was delicious and we each picked up another little treat for later. The drive home seemed super long in traffic and we stopped at Trader Joe's in Philly for groceries before heading back home. Just grocery shopping on the weekend like average people.

Jan 7, 2017

Becca and I slept in and woke up to snow outside and a text from Ryan saying his rehearsal was canceled so we could leave for Vermont earlier. It was already 10:30, but Becca made blueberry pancakes that were amaaaazing! We ate and then spent a little more time together before I had to go and finish packing.

I got to Ryan's at 2 and we headed out slowly onto the snowy roads. We thought it would let up after getting past Philly, but that wasn't the case. It took an hour or more to get to the NJ Turnpike and even then the traffic was hardly moving. Things only got worse as it got darker.

In Connecticut we ended up behind 4 plows blocking the whole road going between 15-25mph at any given time. This lasted for a long time and we stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom and get away from it. Amazingly as we pulled back onto the highway we got behind 4 more plows. We just had to laugh at how ridiculous that was. Once we got to Massachusetts the roads finally cleared up a little and 7 hours in we finally hit were able to go the speed limit on a road. 10 hours of driving and we arrived at the Econolodge in Brattleboro, Vermont. It was quite a day.

Dec 26, 2016

We got up before the sun and quickly headed out of the hotel to find a spot along the water for sunrise. When the first place was unaccessible I headed a short distance away and found a great spot with a view of an offshore lighthouse that was just in front of the glowing sky. The sun rose perfectly behind the lighthouse and I got some great shots. It was incredibly cold out there and I couldn't feel my fingers for a good while after shooting. But it was worth it.

As the feeling slowly returned to my hands we drove into Maine and headed to Woodland Valley DGC. We went into the office and paid to play, where several other groups had already started out. Disc golf is amazingly popular on the day after Christmas at a snowy course in Maine. The course itself was pretty nice, with the snow packed down it didn't feel too different than regular play. I did, however, lose a disc after shooting a second shot and somehow it disappeared in the snow. After a long search we accepted defeat and moved on.

We had to cut the course just a little early to make the 40 minute drive to Portland in time for our Allagash tour. When we arrived we got our badges that all had punny phrases using the word "tour." Mine was TOURture. They gave us our first sample of House Beer and we milled around for a short time until the tour began. Disclaimer: The rest of this post will be very beer heavy, so if you're under 21, please look away.

Our tour guide was hilarious and good at describing the processes of brewing without being overly verbose. It was a big crowd and he handled it well. It was fun little tour starting in the brewhouse with a sample of Allagash White, moving on through the old facility, and ending in the barrel room where they age everything. This is also where we got our last three samples of the day and got to wander around. We took some photos for people, people took some photos of us, and we just had a good time. All the beers were good, with the Little Brett and Sixteen Counties being my favorites.

Maine is nice enough to have great breweries right across the street from each other so we walked over to Foundation where we did some flights of really good beer. Everything was great. The Zuurzing sour was the standout. The Ember IPA was incredible as well. Overall just a great little brewery with a nice vibe.

Around the corner was Austin Street so we walked over there and sampled the three beers they had on. Both pale ales were very good and the stout was also tasty. This is a pretty great place to spend a whole day drinking.

We were heading for the coffee shop and I forgot that rising tide is directly across the street so we stopped there on the way. We got one flight that was decent and then moved on. It wasn't as good as I remember and it was a little crowded.

We walked over to the Portland Coffee Roasters and I got a delicious cold brew and saw this coffee bean on the trash sign. Things I did.

We headed up the street to the HoneyMaker Meadery and when we walked in everyone turned around like we were in a movie and the bartender asked us if we were in the right place. It was an awkward start. There may as well have been a record scratch as the music went off. Anyway, misunderstanding diffused, we did our tasting. The lavender mead was quite good, but the lavender mead lemonade was even better. He saved the best for last as there was a Chai mead that Becca and I both immediately agreed we need to get a couple bottles of. The bartender told us about a barrel aged sour at Oxbow right behind their bar so we went back there and did a quick sampling of two beers. Not bad.

We got to Pleasant Hills DGC maybe 45 minutes before sunset and it was already cloudy so it made it even more dark. We played 8 holes on the icy snow before it was too dark to find our way, but this is a course I'd definitely like to come back to sometime. It was mostly open, yet they made most of the holes pretty interesting in some way. 

After stopping at a brewery called Earth Eagle and finding the beer list and the atmosphere to be not at all appealing, we headed to Stoneface Brewing for another quick flight. There it is. The beer was pretty good, but I'm starting to think the amount of things we tried over the day possibly skewed my reactions.

We got to our hotel outside of Boston and got an Uber to Night Shift Brewing. The guy drove us in silence the whole way and I used my "first ride" credit to pay for it. Nice. The place was packed because they were doing Geeks Who Drink trivia night. We jumped right into the game and eventually went up to get some flights.

It was a very strange night, and Becca went and made the executive decision to take chair that people were using just for the jackets and purses so we could also sit down. Pretty awesome. The game was hectic and hard to hear the host over the crappy speakers or microphone. It was a bit stressful, and we only got to taste our beers once in a while during a break. The beer was good though.

After the game we breathed a heavy sigh of relief, finished our last beers, and then got an Uber back to the hotel.

Dec 15, 2016

I woke up to unexpected snow outside my windows, meaning I'd need to do some scraping before driving to work since the snow was light and icy, not fun and powdery. It was only a minimal delay before I got to Memorial and accepted my special ed job with coverage for a full block since a ton of teachers were out for a workshop. Still somehow they can't fill all the positions even with that notice. The day wasn't really bad, but it was long and I was tired. I co-taught with another sub, Lauren, during one class who seems pretty cool and wants to go skiing sometime. I got some Amazon Christmas shopping done during my last block.

Once my long day had ended I decided to go get at least one gift taken care of so I ran over to Bellview Winery to pick up a bottle for Becca. Hopefully she doesn't stumble across this blog before I give it to her. I got another bottle for Christie too. I feel like I'm making progress with gifts, but at the same time I still feel very behind. I ordered glass coasters online that I can insert photos into and they look like Polaroids. I wish I had come across them sooner, but with Amazon Prime I'm hoping I'll get them quickly and can find out if they'll be suitable to give to a bunch of people.

I decided to skip going to another store and went home for a nap instead. Of course it took me quite a while to actually get to the napping, but it was really nice once I did. I kind of wanted to just stay in bed after that, but I went to Becca's and we grappled over where to go to Through Being Cool or not. I was just feeling too tired for the drive to Philly and back so we ended up talking about future travel plans and mapped out a basic skeleton of what it might look like.

We spent a couple of hours going through the logistics of everything we'd (more like she'd) have to do before we left, including selling or renting her house out. We looked through the US, Europe, and gazed around the whole map to see places we would want to go. As always, my desire to just get on the road and keep going was prevalent, but I also know it was nice having a place of my own in Oregon. I really think I'd like to live there again.

Mar 9, 2014

We got up early this morning to spend our full day at Bretton Woods. This place was a little farther from the hotel, but still much closer than we expected. It's the biggest ski resort in New Hampshire, so we needed all the time we could get. It was a little chillier than yesterday but still very nice. The view was even better than yesterday somehow. We were much closer to Mount Washington and we could see it in great detail. I spent quite a bit of time just standing and looking at it.

Again, the trail conditions were perfect and there were virtually no lines at the lifts. Also, I was surprised at the black diamond trails and how they weren't overly difficult. They were steep, but I didn't see many moguls. They were all fun and Brenda was able to join us on all of them. There were a few pretty steep sections that I paused at for a moment before dropping in, but they were within my ability. We did one glade trail that was listed as blue. It wasn't too bad, but I wasn't interested in doing it again right away. 

One of our favorite trails was Granny's Grit/Herb's Secret (Granny's Grundle). It was a narrow trail covered with bumps, drops, and moguls that required sharp turns and a lot of leg work. We did it twice, and I wish we could have done it a few more times. We did a mostly straight diamond trail three times in a row and then headed back up to the top for a few more long runs down before ending the day with one last race run down which ended with a trail of moguls under the lifts that Ryan and I did extremely well. Another great day of skiing.

I wanted to check out The Cave, a pre-prohibition tavern underneath the Mt. Washington Hotel, but it didn't open until 9 so we couldn't do that. We headed back to the hotel to change and then headed out to get Thai food for dinner. I had spicy red curry that was exactly what I wanted and Brenda and I split a ginger fried ice cream that was really good but hard to eat.

When we got back we went down to the pool and swam for an hour or so before it was closed. Ryan and Bree didn't spend much time, so Brenda and I passed the time by swimming underwater as far as we could, talking about sea monsters, and trying to do backflips and handstands in the water without getting water in my nose. Not that easy. We got in the hot tub for a few minutes after swimming because you can't go the other way.

We went up to Ryan and Bree's room to play Cards Against Humanity next. It was a ridiculous game of hilarious statements. I left with things like "dick fingers" and "shooting a rifle in the air while balls deep in a hog" stuck in my head. We played for quite a while and weren't feeling like playing another long game so we called it a night there. I tried Peak Organic's Fresh Cut Pilsner, which was really refreshing and good company for games with friends. I was really tired and falling asleep as soon as we got back to the room.

Mar 6, 2014

I got started a little late but still pretty much when I wanted to leave for Lancaster. It was a long yet enjoyable drive for the most part. Podcasts make it go much more quickly. I got to Buchmiller DGC about ten minutes before we planned to meet there so I used the frozen porta potty and put my boots on.

Joanna got there shortly after I did and we got started on the course. It was completely covered in snow, which wasn't really so bad. The worst part was the tee pads were icy so it was hard to step up to drive. It was a fun course despite the inconvenience, and I didn't feel the snow was much of a detriment.

We weren't sure if we wanted to travel too far to play another course so we went downtown to The Seed, a vegan cafe, where I got an amazingly delicious reuben that I subbed seitan for tofu. I made the right choice. The soup wasn't too good, but I liked the place.

Next stop was Spring House Brewing of course. I finally got to try the Lil' Gruesome Peanut Butter & Jelly Stout. It was okay. I was underwhelmed by it, but I had a pint anyway. I prefer the Chocolate PB Stout.

We had plenty of time left so we went to Gallery Row to check out a handful of art galleries. A lot of local artists have great work on display here. There was no photography that I saw, but I did really enjoy the work of Freiman Stoltzfus, who did paintings over maps and music-inspired paintings. It was a nice collection.

We went to the Federal Taphouse to see what they might have, and I ended up being really surprised and excited to try a bunch of what they had on tap. They had almost 100 taps and an amazing selection.

I started with a Nut Roll brown ale by PBC. Fantastic. I had to have the Lief & Leed by Molen. It's a sour so it was great. Next I had the Koko Brown from Kona, and it was nice to actually be able to taste the coconut in this delicious brew. I finished with a couple of high alcohol beers, the Horn Dog Barleywine by Flying Dog and the Culmination by Long Trail. Both were very tasty and had me feeling pretty good.

We went back to the car to drop off our warm clothes and walked across the street to the venue. We didn't wait too long after going in for Fireworks to begin their set. They kicked off with a new song and then dove into a fast set of mostly Gospel tunes before ending with When We Stand on Each Other... It was a great set except for how extremely short it was.

The Wonder Years were next and the crowd went crazy. I was right up front but I dropped back so I could actually breathe and move by myself. After a few songs it calmed down, but everyone went nuts for almost every song. It was a great set, but they are one of those bands that will always have a great set and leave you still wanting more. I love those guys. Jen and Stephen happened to be there and we met up afterward to talk for a while as Stephen spoke with Nick for a while.

After that it was a long drive home listening to more podcasts and music. What a great day.

Mar 4, 2014

The day started out well as we got a 2 hour delayed opening because of the poor road conditions. I didn't think it would be that bad, but a lot of roads were indeed still icy. Since the school day was delayed some meetings were canceled and I ended up only working for an hour! Things just kept getting better from there.

I was now able to drop off my car for an oil change at BJ's so I walked over to Starbucks while I waited. Bree was working so she kept me company and made me a triple venti black and white mocha. I think that's what it was called anyway. Whatever. It was really good. So I sat there talking with her for a while until I got my call that my car was done.

By that point though, Jeff texted me to say he was coming down from Philly and wanted to hang. So we hung out at Starbucks for a while catching up and then ran some errands together. I went to Michael's and Wal*Mart for some things I needed. It was good to hang out and chat for a while. We made plans to hang out again soon, but, well, we will see about that.

Another stroke of luck: Brenda left work early so we were able to head up to the rock gym sooner than planned. I did a few routes I was struggling with Sunday. I made it up one of them, but the one yellow route under the lip I just couldn't do. Brenda made progress and finished two that she hadn't done before.

I asked the employees there if they would mind if I set up my lighting and take some photos in their party room. They seemed cool with it. It's good to make friends with people. So I set up my makeshift studio and got everything ready then we waited for Eddie.

This saved him a trip heading farther south from where he lives to meet me, however I don't know how he felt after getting totally lost trying to find the gym. I understand the feeling since that place is terribly hard to find. Once he did show up we got some good shots of his products and design work. It was fun and a good end to a great day.

Mar 3, 2014

Yet another snow day from school today. They called it early last night so I knew I didn't have to be up. I actually had quite a productive morning. I got some work done and some potential future work. I spent much of the day updating the blog and editing photos. I got a pizza and watched last night's shows.

I went to Union Lake at sunset for some photos with the snow. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it was nice and peaceful to stand by the water as it washed up. It gave me some time to think outside of my room. The rest of the night I continued catching up on the blog and watched some Louie.