Jul 22, 2013

When we awoke, we headed back to the Redwoods trailheads and I went for a hike on the Miner's Trail that I did last year and Joanna stayed in the car to sleep some more. I really love this trail. It was empty and peaceful this early in the morning.

There's something about being surrounded by these trees that calms me in a way that I've never experienced before. I always look back on this hike from last year as one of my favorites of all time. I feel like I'm just walking in wonderment, looking up and being amazed all the time.

I also spotted this guy on a leaf and spent some time shooting photos of him. I didn't take the whole loop this time. I went a few miles in and came back on the same trail. It was still a really nice hike for the morning.

We stopped at a little town and got lunch at a place called Hey Juan Burritos. They were pretty decent. We called a private disc golf course to try to play it, but it would have taken too long so we headed south to Redwood Curtain disc golf course, which looked pretty awesome from the description online. Once we figured out where to park and how to get to the first hole it looked like it would live up to its description.

Just being in a redwood forest is amazing, but getting to play disc golf there is even better. After playing a couple of holes and being a little confused we ran into a guy that was just starting and he offered to show us the course. This was very helpful and a lot of fun. It's his local course (how lucky is he?) so he was pretty good at it.

There were really some well-crafted holes at this course, including a water hazard, some long drop-offs, and yes, even a tee pad on top of a redwood stump. Craziness. We had a great round and played a couple more holes with our friend before we decided to head out.

On our way continuing south, we made a quick stop at Ukiah Brewing. They had a beer called Navarro Yarrow, that is brewed with yarrow instead of hops. It was really interesting and light. It didn't have that full flavor, but it was still amazingly tasty. The Orr Springs IPA was also amazing. It was a quick stop and then we were back on the roads to the Marin Headlands, where we pulled up to a somewhat foggy scene at the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked up to the overlook and took some shots, but I wasn't really happy with the foot shots I got there. It was still a nice view, but it was cold and windy up there so we didn't stay long.

Next stop was a restaurant called Source. It was a pretty cool little place in an industrial neighborhood. Very hip-like. The food all looked fantastic. I ordered some buffalo wings as an appetizer because I feel like I have to always try them wherever I go. The food was really good as well, but slightly disappointed that the menu described it as being topped with pineapple, Sriracha, and teriyaki sauce, but what it meant was there was a sauce made with those three things. I was looking forward to pineapple chunks and Sriracha. No such luck. I ended up getting another dish because of the misunderstanding and taking home the leftovers from both. All good.


We went to a place off Haight where there is a supposedly awesome vegan ice cream shop. Apparently it's true because there was a line around the corner for it! We waited for a little bit, but when the line didn't move and there were literally 30-40 people in front of us, we decided it wasn't worth it. We took the highway west for a little while until we found a suitable Wal*Mart for sleeping.

Jul 17, 2013

Surviving the night at the house whose WiFi name was "Not a Crack House" after lying on the couch and trying to count the amount of different people I saw pass by and go out the door in the morning, we headed out to the food trucks a few blocks away. We waited for the vegan truck to open and ordered sandwiches. I ended up really liking Joanna's fish sandwich so we switched and I finished it. So good.

We hopped on our bikes and took to the streets of Portland. I love biking in this town. We rode down to the waterfront and planned out a tentative route around over the bridges. We went down the river, zig-zagging across the bridges back and forth along the nice paths made available. There were a couple of detours we had to follow that took us of the path, but we found our way.

Along the route we came upon a brewery called Hair of the Dog so I decided we should go in. It was a nice place for a break and some brews. The Little Dog and Blue Dot were both very good, and the Peach Fred from the Woodshed was amazing. It's a peach beer aged in a bourbon barrel. It was light and huge in flavor. After I finished my pretty-looking beers and had a few glasses of water we hopped back on the bikes and pedaled on.

There are just so many great little things to see as you cross the river. I love this sign, and if you turn the other way you can see Mount Hood. It's such a great town to exist in. I'd really like to live here someday.

We went down to a strip mall that had a lot of vegan stores, like a bakery, clothing store, and grocery. I got a big bottle of Sriracha because why not? I can use that forever on everything. After Joanna finished shopping and I had a chat with my mom on the phone we headed down to Deschutes Brewpub. I know this brewery by name, but not much by beer. Everything was pretty good, but I was really blown away by the Black Butte Porter. That's one I need to pick up again.

We biked to get pizza at a place that was recommended to us. It was pretty good, but not exactly what we had hoped for. We had to ride a bit back to the park. It was up a very large hill through the park, but we were able to cut some distance off by going this way. Once we got back to the car we went directly to Back to Eden for some ice cream. And it was awesome.

We went to McMenamin's Kennedy School, an old elementary school that was converted to be many things, including a movie theater filled with comfortable couches and chair. We got a great seat on a couch and settled in to watch The Internship, which was really funny. It helped that it was such a cool theater and that we had a couch to sit on. Pretty fantastic. I think I love McMenamin's.

We knew we had some time before the party was going to die down at the house we were staying at, so we went down to The Mash Tun, where I got a flight and we started playing billiards for free! The beers were good (especially the Mild Ale) and the pool was great. The jukebox was also open to play for free so we put on some good tunes from Garden State while we played. We ended up playing pool with people we met instead of passing the table back and forth. They were really nice and it was cool talking to other people.

As the party was still not over, we went to The Bye and Bye to pick up food. I got a meatball sub that was sooo delicious. We took the food back to in front of the house to eat our food and watch some Breaking Bad while we waited for the insanity to die down. Once it did that somewhat we went inside and got our couches ready while people still wandered around at the end of the party. Someone almost pitched a mattress on the floor right next to the couches, but after I suggested that I might step on him he angrily moved away. It was strange, but we eventually got to sleep very late.