Gone coastal

Wrapping up my travels and birthday tour I enjoyed time and people on the coast...

Brightest seaweed

Peaceful

Bright

Ferry chickens (that's all the commotion at that truck)

Back seat driving and sleeping 

Lucky girl got another trip to a winery

Best beets ever

Thank you to my hosts and lovely treats. It was wonderful! See you again soon! X

my roses

I was lucky to get to spend another birthday in Portland. We tried to figure it out, maybe 4 or 5 birthdays in PDX over the last decade with my man CR and a few of the crew. 

I had the apartment in the city pretty much to myself and wandered, drank fancy coffees, bit of shopping, interesting drinks, fun people and had a really nice time. 

Besides the gun range we also checked out some new bars/restaurants, I had an amazing birthday dinner cooked for me, surprize rendezvous with some friends from home, and a sake brewery. 

Change room change up

Coopers Hall Winery, east side

Target practice

Hello, salmon birthday dinner

St. Cupcake cupcakes aftermath, Cards Against Humanity

Birthday hazelnut affogato in the Pearl

This is how you make sake in 18 simple steps 

My view of the soccer stadium

#pdxcarpet is actually a hashtag. Check it. 

Great week, great people. Thank you CR and Miss A for an awesome time. 

trigger happy

Sometimes the "only in America" rings so, so true. This week while in Portland I was going about a usual day, wandering through town, a bit of shopping when CR texts me and drops a casual "btw we are going to a gun range tonight".  It was actually a birthday plan for another friend who's day it was the week before and this was what he asked to do for a celebratory treat. 

Unbeknownst to CR this is something I have very much wanted to do for quite some time. As I rode the Max out to Beaverton to meet them I was so excited... but also preparing for disappointment that they wouldn't let a Canadian out there with a gun, or fear when I suddenly had no idea what kind of yahoos I was going to shoot guns with. In America. 

This was a private gun club that another friend of CR's belongs to. He is ex army and he owns the guns we shot with, brought all the ammo, and was an amazingly serious, informative and kind instructor. It was awesome. 

We started with the hand-gun pistols. I was up first and I hit the black target in my first shot. Not bad for first round. The guns are, surprisingly heavy. Plus trying to stay calm and focused, some nervous tension AND hit your target, lets just say my arms were sore the next day. 

We went on to a different range area to shoot rifles. Here you could lean the gun on the table, use a couple props to help you aim. I was most nervous about the kickback and that I was going to get hit in the face accidentally by the body of the gun- but if you pull it in close, and lean your cheek on the gun, your whole body moves with it. It was also a lot less startling when I was the one pulling the trigger. You know what's coming. Turns out I'm a pretty good shot. 

Reloading

Shrapnel

Yeah. I'm a ten. 

BTW if you're going to do it, I figured I gotta do it right. Yes I rocked the red lipstick at the gun range. I was the only lady there and I meant business. 

Banff

I started my summer vacation with a trip to Banff Alberta for the wedding of a family friend. It was a full weekend with so many great events and people. Everything was amazing and the locations were always stunning. 

Check out that caribou stained glass. And those cherbs floating over the mountains at St. Mary's church

Dance floor at the Cascade Ballroom, Fairmont Banff a Springs Hotel. Bride on the dance floor. I can not really think of the last time I have shared the dance floor with my parents and brother. It was so much fun

Vancouver International Soccer Festival

A good friend of mine had been telling me for years about her volunteer work for the annual Vancouver International Soccer Festival, VISF. It's an organization which promotes sport and community and the power to overcome personal and national struggle with the outlet of sportsmanship. This year my friend was the volunteer coordinator and a few other friends and I came out to work with her. 

It was pretty much the hottest weekend Vancouver has ever seen, and I sweat like it was no body's business and all I did was man the info tent, tidy the beer garden and pick up trash. Those teams were out there in the hot hot hot heat. We actually ran out of water. Twice. 

It was a really fun, good spirited event which was a welcome cry from the usual annoying shenanigans of sport in this city. I think a difference was that these fans- are the athletes. 

Yeah. I realize no actual soccer pictures. Beer garden (those are teams though). My amazing burger from on site food truck. The fields at dusk. My ride home after a long day, in a convertable, which was a treat!

2

2 years. What the what? The 2 years that have gone by like that. 

2 Birthday balloons for the birthday boy

2 fish, one of his favorite creatures 

And 2 year old antics at our birthday picnic. Buckets & water. Rolling on the grass. Checking out the photo book I made him.  

Happy birthday my little n!

Silver lining

This weekend the weekend couldn't decide what to do. Are you a long weekend? Are you a normal 2 day weekend with a bonus week day off weekend? A couple of us were lucky to take the Monday so I had what felt like an eternity off. EB and M and I went up to my top location near Hope, Silver Tip. You can't make a reservation ever so we always just go for it and hope for the best. Night one we were 1 of 5 sites out of 45. Night 2 it was so quiet we started to freak ourselves out. Night 3 was just as quiet, but we'd warmed up to the darkness- and there was WAY less cracking in the bushes. When we drove out if there on Tuesday, we were the only ones on the property. Crazy! 

Apparently the weekend before was a VW convention that filled the joint...

On our last full day we packed up and headed out on the road a little further. We had to ourselves a creek bed that flowed into the river. We sat in the sun. Drank our beer. BBQd. Listened to music. I had a flash of Kimberly as a kid and seeing a scene like this and hoping one day that would be me. That day it was.