DOWNTOWN! Things Will be good when your when DOWNTOWN!

What next!? I will tell you, it was time to “Come on, ride the train, hey, ride it, woo woo” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gEdQ5KpY8Y). We decided it would be fun to give the Portland transit system a chance to impress. We took the short walk down to the TriMet station, the Portlandian tram system!

Taxi cabs can be fun if you can squeeze an epic story out of the driver. Cab drivers have a tendency to cross paths with some real characters all in a day’s work. I once rode in a cab with a guy who moonlighted as a professional boxer while in South Africa. He told me that he had a guy try and skip out on paying his fare by running away into his house.

The cab driver did not take too kindly to it so he jumped the fence of this guys compound (they tend to live in compounds due to the safety issues in Cape Town) chased him down and threatened to kick the guys ass if he didn’t pay. The runner obviously did not recognize the driver from his televised boxing matches shown on local cable, and definitely underestimated his athleticism and desire to recover the money he was owed. I quite enjoyed that one J.

We arrived at the station at the same time as the tram. Our initial reaction was to hustle up and get on that train. We soon realized that was not a great plan since we had yet to purchase our tickets and, furthermore, had no idea where that particular train was heading. As tempting as it was to take that train just because it was there, we resisted the urge for the greater good. Instead we let it pass and turned our attention towards figuring out how we were going to get where we wanted to go.

It ended up being a good call for us not to throw caution to the wind and jump on the first tram that we laid eyes upon. If we had, we would have not only been headed in the wrong direction, but also on the wrong line....it turns out there are several benefits to how we handled our business.

Once we had our tickets and the knowledge we needed to get where we wanted we were in good shape to take on the rest of the night. Our first stop was in fact one step in the wrong direction but a necessary one in order to get on the right tram line. This step backward took us across the bridge, over the river, towards the downtown core.

After arriving at the station we realized it was not the first time we had been there. On our last trip to Portland, Shannon and I had done an unofficial walking tour of downtown Portland. In search of a restaurant or pub with a view be headed in the direction of the river. We soon realized that in the area that we were such an establishment did not exist. Instead we ended up in the “bad area of town.”

This was not a big deal since it was mid morning on a bright and sunny day. Not to say that bad things can’t happen in the light of day, but the threat seems much more serious in the dark of the night. We saw some interesting looking people in that area including a fellow wearing a tiger striped onesy unzipped to below the belly button (talk about a deep v.... http://vimeo.com/68421532). I did appreciate his style, but being around people that appear unpredictable is not an appealing thing to me.

This is how I felt while being at the station at that time of night. It is not a feeling of fear but rather a feeling of edginess. I have noticed that in these environments the people always seem to enjoy talking loud. It is not necessarily that they are in some kind of conflict, but you are never sure because you are used to associating elevated voices with some form of trouble. The combination of all these makes for a circumstance of hyper-awareness not dissimilar to how they train police officers to always be alert, and always have an exit plan.

Of course nothing bad happened to us while we waited, we didn’t expect that it would, we were just thankful to get on our way once the right tram arrived in the station. We eagerly hopped aboard and began our journey....along with the Goth couple a few seats over aggressively making out.

It was more of an adventure for me because I had never been on the tram and I had never been to that area of the city. Shannon had, but she did not remember as well as she could have, Bachelorette parties tend to be that way. I was impressed about how good her memory was in spite of all the stories I had heard about that weekend.

A quick look at the map and we decided that we had just a few more stations to go before we had to make a switch. Just before we were about to arrive at our stop we got up out of our seats in anticipation of disembarking only to look at each other in confusion when the tram, without slowing, blew right by our stop. We could see out the window as we passed the station that it was under construction and was “out of order” at the present time. Fair enough. What followed was that feeling that you get when you miss your stop and are hoping beyond all hope that you will have a chance to get off and turn around sooner, rather than later. In this case it was not too far to walk back.

I do have a funny story about a time that I was not as lucky though. About a year ago today, I was finishing up the training program at my new job and in celebration my fellow students and I decided to go out for dinner at a restaurant literally across the street from our office. I’m talking less than a 5 minute walk....but I decided to drive instead. My reason for this was two-fold. One, it was pretty chilly and two, I figured it would be easier to leave right from the restaurant rather than walking back to the office to get my car.

What happened on the short drive over was I got confused, thinking that I could park closer if I turned into the second drive way, instead of the first. Well considering there was only one drive way in the end, I made the wrong choice. Instead of finding this second drive way that didn’t exist I ended up merging on to the highway. The next exit ended up being a solid 10 minute drive east. Then, instead of turning around and getting back on the highway, I thought it would be a better idea to take the back roads back to the office. Nope, it wasn’t. It was just another bad decision. In the end it took me close to half an hour to get to the restaurant that I could have walked to in less than 5 minutes. “Where were you?!” my friends asked....”you don’t want to know” was my response. So embarrassing lol!

So the situation on the tram....not that bad. We walked back through the dark and deserted streets, another area that could create some fear in the minds of travelers. I have never really felt afraid in Portland and this situation was no different. Once we got back to the stop we had wanted, we found what appeared to be another abandoned tram stop for the train we needed heading south. Usually, we would have walked right up to the stop and looked to see if there were any notices of closure, but this time we chose not to. The reason for this decision was the pissed drunk homeless guy ranting and raving in the direction of anyone that he could see.

I did not fear for our safety but I still chose to avoid any interaction with this dude. I, once again, refer back to my feeling on unpredictable behavior. Instead we kind of just hung out on the other side of the street figuring we would have enough time to cross if we saw the tram coming.

We waited and tried our best to avoid the attention of the drunk fellow. As we waited we saw a girl walking her way over to the station. At this point we decided to make our way over to the station as well. We did this for two reasons. One, she might be able to help us determine if we would be able to catch the tram we wanted from that stop and two, power in numbers. We should not leave one girl to deal with the drunk dude on her own.

It turns out that we were in the right spot, as the young lady was able to help us determine using the transit app on her phone. It was very kind of her but also very naive and stupid. Don’t flash your new Iphone in front of strangers you just met...for all she knew we could have been thieves who would beat her up and take her phone! Lucky for her we are not that kind of people. Don’t get me wrong we definitely stole her phone....we just didn’t feel the need to kick her ass in the process. Is he joking??

No we did not steal her phone. Instead we allowed her to keep it if she could help us figure out the stop that we wanted to get off at, and she did. This was helpful since Shannon had it down to two choices but could not say with any certainty which one was better. We also learned that she was new to the area. She moved all the way from DC to move in with the boyfriend she met while working in the Peace Corp. We continued to chat and traded advice of things to see and do while in the city.

One interesting thing that happened while we were riding this tram was when the drunk guy did eventually try and come over to talk to us. He started stumbling his way over to where we were sitting and then he stopped dead in his tracks. We didn’t quite understand why until we looked down and realized that in his state he did not trust himself to navigate the two stairs it would have taken to get up to our level. He stood there looking confused for a short while before he decided it just wasn’t worth it and turned around and went back to his seat. I would be void of truth if I said it was not a humorous situation J.

A short time later our friend from DC left us, and a short time after that we left the tram. This was the start of a whole new adventure!

First Night of the Dirty Thirty Weekend

Our week was about to get off to a very strong start. We made it to our hotel in time to take advantage of Happy Hour.

Before this trip even began I would say there was an unsaid expectation that we were going to do our best to make it down to Portland in time for Happy Hour. It was never made into formal plans, but as much as we said we should take our time in the morning and not rush ourselves out the door, we got ourselves ready within a certain time-frame in order to get there in time to bask in all the glory that is Happy Hour.

I, for one, am excited to see this trend surface in North America. I remember being both impressed, and a bit confused, seeing the Happy Hour specials when I was in Europe. I was impressed to see drink specials, but I was also confused, wondering how many people would take advantage of drink specials so early in the evening.

It should be mentioned that Happy Hour starts significantly later in Europe, my guess would be because of the long hours they tend to work (especially in Germany) but even so I still thought it was early in the night. This was back in the day when I was still a party animal and didn’t even start to consider hitting the clubs until 9 or 10. But life has a tendency to change, and change it did.

When Happy Hour started to become a thing in Vancouver I had already graduated out of my bar star days, and was much more interested in after work drink specials than I was about late night and early morning jagger bombs at the club (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5QJ9i_o5vo).

Anyway all I am really saying is that I have learned to appreciate the Happy Hour lifestyle and was excited to see what our hotel had one to offer J.

After checking in to our hotel, we dropped off our stuff in our room and did a quick wardrobe change. The hotel room was…..rustic. It was what we have come to expect at a McMenamin’s establishment. It shared a similar décor to places we have stayed in the past and on top of that it was especially old…it kind of reminded me of my Grandparents old house.

It was no 5 star resort but that is neither what we expected nor wanted. It was a perfect room for what we anticipated using it for. It was inexpensive, it sat atop a saloon and its proximity to downtown Portland was not to be topped. The haunted past was a merely a bonus J.

We left our room rocking some fresh and stylish threads (how could we not, we are hitting the town?!) and had yet to see any ghosts. We slipped in just before the end of Happy Hour, maybe there are ghost down there?! There were not, but there were drinks and good food!!

Our first order of business was an order of two Ruby Ales, our McMenamin favorite! With that being taken care of we gave our attention to the food menu (http://www.mcmenamins.com/997-white-eagle-saloon-happy-hour).

We had intentionally avoided stopping for lunch on the way because we intended to do our eating once we arrived at our destination. Stopping along the way would not only eat up some valuable time we could have spent driving, but also would have taken away from the appetites that we fully planned on indulging once we arrived.

After a short chapter of strategizing we determined the Cajun tots and hot dogs were what we were about. The hot dogs were tasty but not really anything rave about. The tots were a different story. It was the beginning of a long lasting relationship with the tots.

We loved them the first time and the second and third. I would like to say that we only ordered them three times during the weekend in Portland but in all honesty I cannot, in good conscience, say that for a fact.

I know that they were the first item that came to mind when we were in a snacking mood and they were also the first suggestion that we gave to our friends when they asked for a good recommendation. Tater tots are not usually anything amazing. They are consistently satisfying, but rarely sought after as anything special. I think what made these tots special was the Cajun seasoning for one and the dipping sauce was the deal sealer. It was impeccable!

As for the drinks, we gave the beer menu our attention as we finished what was left of our Ruby Ales. What we decided on next was the Berliner Weisse, a seasonal sour that was still a part of the line up following the Oktoberfest celebrations that are a big deal at Edgefield (as we experienced last year) and in all likelihood the other McMenamin establishements as well.

I was a bit hesitant at first. I was still new to the idea of sour beer. I know that it has been growing in popularity as the next trend in the micro-brewing scene, but the closest thing to a sour that I have had experience with would be the really cheap beer that I used to drink when in University.

But I was up for an adventure and I decided to give it a chance. I am glad I did! It took a few exploratory sips to acclimatize my palate but a few sips was all it took for it to distinguish itself. It was not in the same league as Colt 45, the beer so strong that downing a six-pack is like drinking nine regular strength beers. Really it was a terrible comparison because Colt 45 is not even actually beer....it’s technically malt liquor lol, pure class in a bottle J.

The Berliner quickly became a favorite and continued to be that way for much of the weekend. This might have been partly because of it being on special, but that was only part of it. It was not my favorite type of beer, but it climbed its way up the charts in a substantial way! It took some getting used to but if you give it a chance you will be happy you did!

After our appetites were satisfied and our thirsts were quenched (for the time being) we turned our attention to where the evening was headed next.

Luckily for us in Portland, you are never too far from a WIFI Hotspot. This has come in handy to us a number of times while visiting Portland. The last time we were there, Shannon and I got separated but did not want use our phones because of the extravagant roaming charges we would have incurred.

So, both of us thinking the same thing, we used the ever present WIFI to log into Facebook to message each other so we could reconnect. Our medium to stay in touch has evolved to Viber, at present, but at the time Facebook more than did the trick.

On this occasion we used the WIFI to set the stage for the rest of our evening. It is not hard to find fun in Portland but you do have to decide what type of fun you are looking to have. Each section of Portland provides you with something a little bit different from the others, so where you decide to go will be based on the good times you are looking to get involved in.

Let the Madness Begin!!

On this particular trip Shannon and I got an early start. We decided that we since we were both able to get the time off, that we leave on Friday morning to start our journey instead of the usual Friday after work.

This was a great way to go about it!! But I guess there are few people in this world that would prefer to work rather than go on vacation. Sure there are people that think that they should be working rather than taking vacation, but I would argue that is not because they enjoy it more, but rather a feeling of obligation or of necessity. I have met few others than my Father that would rather work than go on vacation and that is not a feeling that we share.

Needless to say there was no arm twisting involved in getting me to agree to take the Friday off. I know that it was not a popular decision since it was right in the middle of campaign time at my office, but I had made the plans for the trip a year in advance and months before I even started working the new job that I am working now. So I thought that was enough of a reason to not really care too much about how people felt about me not being present for that week’s campaign meeting J.

Leaving Friday morning was a pleasant change from the ordinary. It allowed us to treat Thursday evening like the beginning of the weekend. In our household, this means staying up a little bit later, snacking a little bit more, and sometimes even including a night cap or two since we would be able to sleep in slightly more than we usually would on a Friday morning. It sounds great and it was great!

After a relaxing and rejuvenating Thursday evening we woke up on our own without the usual help we get from our alarm clock. Not to say that I have any issues with our alarm clock, because as far as alarm clocks go, I think we have found a great compromise (http://www.philips.ca/c-m-li/light-therapy). It wakes us up on time like it should, but it does not do so by using the same scaring techniques used in horror films. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer not to be woken by a simulation of an air raid siren that has me diving under my bed seeking protection!

This year we woke up at a decent time and we got ourselves collected and ready to go in record time….well at least record time in relation to how things went down on our last trip. We had a quick but adequate breakfast, enough to get us going and then we were on our way. Shannon also insisted that she be the one to drive on this occasion as a birthday gift to me. This was a lovely surprise! It is rare that I ever get the chance to be a passenger on a road trip and honestly I wasn’t quite sure about it.

I didn’t know how I was going to occupy my time just sitting there for a 6 hour drive. It didn’t take long for me to make the adjustment from driver to passenger and I have to say, it’s a welcome change to hand over the reins of the chariot every once in awhile. Thanks again Shannon for being my chauffeur!!

The trip went as smooth as we hoped it would. Traffic was a breeze since we had a head start on all of the other travelers the might have had their eye on getting into the States later that day. There were limited slow-downs in Seattle and Tacoma…much better than last year once again. The 6 hours went by very quickly.

One thing that I would recommend for any road trip is getting your mitts on some new music before you embark on the journey. It takes your mind off the other aspects of the trip that might usually get your attention when you are listening to the same music that you have been listening to in the car that you have been for the past year.

Another tip for long road trips and what you play on the radio, try new things that are not necessarily music. We have tried audiobooks in the past and that was very successful. You get so wrapped up in the book and what is going to happen next that the hours of the trip just seem to melt away.

Something that was suggested to me by my younger sister, who also road trips on a regular basis, was to listen to comedy acts. This was a brilliant idea! Shannon and I downloaded the new Louis C.K. stand up and loved it! He had us smiling and laughing for an hour straight. It is quite difficult to get aggravated in traffic when you are hearing the comic genius that is Louis C.K. I cannot believe that I have not thought of this before! All I can say is try it!

During our trip we encountered a déjà vu scenario. We must have had close to the same amount of gas in our tank at the beginning of this trip as we did the last time we went to Portland just a couple months back, because we engaged in the same “how long can we go on one tank of gas” game and we ended up pulling off at the same exit as we did on our last trip.

We rolled up to the exact same gas station as we did the trip before. The same gas station that Shannon left her only pair of flip flop sandals outside the car as we pulled away to drive the last leg of the trip. All of this was completely unplanned but strangely amusing. Shannon even went to see if they had a “Lost and Found” to see if she could recover her long lost sandals. She did this not because they were particularly special, but rather as a “wouldn’t that be crazy if they were still there” exercise.

Unfortunately they were not there waiting for us to come and save them. Though the woman behind the till was wearing a pair that looked very familiar…..I joke, I was not even in there to see. The experience allowed us to get the gas we need to finish the drive and the closure needed in the lost sandal saga. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors cheap and well used Old Navy flip flops!!

With the chance of running out of fuel no longer an obstacle we were back on the road and headed to our sleep quarters for the night. We decided to spend the first night in downtown Portland since none of our friends were going to arrive until noon the next day. So Shannon found us an eccentric, reasonably priced place in the industrial area of downtown Portland. I was happy to experience yet another McMenamin’s hotel, this one called White Eagle Saloon and Hotel (http://www.mcmenamins.com/WhiteEagle) at least until she did some further research and found out it was haunted.

I am going back a little bit in our timeline because this was something that I had forgot to mention.

During our enjoyable, relaxing evening that we spent enjoying our time together and getting excited about our trip, Shannon started to look further into our first night accommodations and found out it had a haunted past. This was not something that I took well initially. Why would I willing spend a night in a place that I know has ghosts? I don’t know a whole lot about ghosts but from what I know most people’s experiences with them are not overly positive. They involve being scared and creeped out and in some cases being sexually assaulted (http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/difficulties/Ghosts_Demons/ghostspictures/sexualmolestation1). None of these are situations that I would knowingly put myself in the position to experience.

This being the case, my first reaction was to ask Shannon to cancel our reservations and book us a new spot. She responded by saying that it’s too short notice and that we wouldn’t be able to find any other place that was so reasonably priced in that area…..I wonder why they are so much cheaper than everywhere else lol?

My second reaction was to take a deep breath and come to grips with the fact that we are going into ghost territory, and I decided that I was not going to be scared, because, I mean, hey are you really going to be that surprised to see a ghost if you were told before hand that they might be stopping by? I was now more excited than nervous, and I was ready to see some crazy stuff and have more exciting stories to write about on my blog J.

So back to our trip, we made it from the gas station to the hotel with little incident and we checked in, and even lucked out and found a place to park in the busy lot… and we didn’t even have to pay. Score!

I have once again run out of time so I will save the rest of the story for another time. Hope you enjoyed it up to this point and I hope I have you interested enough to come back and hear the rest of it at a later date!

Dirty Thirty Here I Come!!

As I mentioned in the previous post my intention was to spend my thirtieth birthday in Edgefield. As a general rule my birthday celebrations have always been more of a hit or miss type scenario.

Seeing as my birthday weekend is always the same at Canadian Thanksgiving, the majority of the people that are on the guest list already have prior obligations. It would be bold of me to think that my birthday party would take precedent over a National Holiday but I do take consolation in the fact that most people would rather be out partying with me rather than visiting family for the traditional turkey dinner.

I really quite enjoy my family dinners. The food is great, my family is full of good people that I enjoy spending time with, but even I on occasion have blown off my family dinner to go out and celebrate my birthday at the pub. In my defense it was not just a simple matter. It was also that time of the 2007 Rugby World Cup. So all of you that were gasping at my lack of family loyalty can stop that train of thinking right where it started. I am not a bad guy! I am just someone who enjoys drinking beer and watching rugby on his birthday. Nothing wrong with that J.

My point is that I am no stranger to having less than 10% of the guest list show up to my celebrations. It is for this reason that I decided to make up my mind very early on what my intentions were going to be for my Dirty Thirty. I wanted to give people ample time to make the proper arrangements to make sure that they could be part of the action. It also worked out well that Thanksgiving weekend was a bit later this year and so we did our Shin-Dig on the weekend before.

Even with the extensive notice, it was not an unbelievably large crew that was there in the end. But, I will say, that it was just the right amount of people. Any larger and we would have run into issues booking rooms. Any smaller and it would still have been a lot of fun but it would not have been the same. In the end we had a party crew of ten including myself and my lovely wife.

I would also like to take this chance to give a shout out to my wife who did a fantastic job arranging everything for this special trip. She was very astute in booking the rooms and keeping everyone updated on the availability and even when the right time would be to book. She arranged all of the details, all the way down to which communication app we were going to use to keep in touch which each other when on site (Viber is what we agreed on….the stickers are so fun!!) She is an amazing planner in general, and she really flexed her planning muscles in a big way making this trip happen!! Thanks again my love!!

To go back and fill in a few gaps, you might be wondering why booking seemed like such a complicated issue for us. The reason for this is because by the time we went to book our rooms there were not many options left. We found out later this was because of a number of events that were happening there at the same time we were booking. There was a wedding, a business conference and even a child’s birthday party (though I believe that might have been the parent’s choice of venue lol.)

This being the case, out of the ten of us, two couples were able to book a joined room and the other six ended up in dorm rooms. The three dudes bunked up in the guys’ dorm and the three broads in the girls’ dorm. Very summer campy, I know, but it made for a memorable experience. Some enjoyed it more than others I think, but I (being one of the three) thought it was kind of fun! Both the guys and the girls had some fun stories to share about their bunk mates the following morning J.

For full disclosure, the dorm rooms contained roughly 8 bunk beds, so we had some bunk mates to co-exist with. One such bunk mate decided that he needed to get into his locker at the crack of dawn, or close enough to count. I give him props for trying to open his locker without turning on the lights, but what happened in the end was far from discrete.

I fully believe his intentions were to avoid disturbing the other guests. Well that was good in theory, but did not work out so favorably in reality, for he could not open said locker. The tried and tried and tried some more but it was not happening for him. The would rattle the locker for a good minute, then stop, pace the rooms taking some deep healing breaths, then start rattling away once again.

In the end, a staff member of the hotel had to pull the locker out of the dorms and into the hallway and then break into it using a crowbar. It appears it was not the fault of the fellow trying to stealthily get his stuff in the morning but he was still able to wake up most of the people in the dorm despite his initial intentions. It didn’t bother me much, I actually found it quite amusing, but I cannot speak for the others.

On the girls’ side, they had a couple characters as well. One woman with a sleep apnea machine and another older woman knitting in the corner…..watching everyone change!! I kid, I kid, I added that part myself. I have no proof to make such an accusation lol.

The one dorm story that I especially appreciate was the one where my wife told another girl in the dorm that she was using the wrong locker. It was the classic 6, 9 mix up. If they do not make it clear which one is which you are always going to have confusion? I understand that she thought she was completely in the right when she told the poor girl to pack up her stuff and move on over to the right locker, but it turns out she was not. The girl had been in the right spot and was right to protest, but my wife can be very convincing and intense and I assume that is why the girl gave in despite being correct the whole time.

This story, to this day, does not make much sense to me seeing as the key for locker 6 would only fit locker 6 and would not fit locker 9. I would have thought that would have been the best way to settle the debate. But if you are able to convince someone that there are using the wrong locker despite this hard fact, than you must be good J.

Good times were had in the dorms. I would have chosen the same arrangements, even if I had the options of a room, strictly for the randomness of it all. I love experiences that give you interesting stories to tell, and that is exactly what these rooms did for me!

I do believe that I have gotten a bit ahead of myself. You do not even know how I got to this point yet. That is a story for another day.

Thank you everyone that continues to visit my blog on a regular basis. I appreciate your interest and will continue to detail my experiences for your amusement. I apologize for my inconsistency with the regularity of the posts. I work a full time job and I am not always in the mood to write after a long day at the office. I have made a mental goal to be more diligent with my writing, so we will see what that looks like from this point moving forward.

Keep coming back, and I will keep providing the entertainment J. Also tell your friends!!

30^th Birthday in Edgefield

Last year my wife Shannon and I decided to celebrate her birthday in a new fashion. We were drawn to a location that had caught our attention some years back.

My younger sister had gone on a road trip to Portland with three friends. Two of the three friends were making the trip to attend a concert and the other one and my sister were just going along for the ride. What attracted them was that the concert was taking place on a piece of property a short distance outside of downtown Portland. The property was yet another creation by the McMenamin brothers, who seem to be buying up every available piece of real estate that becomes available….especially those that have a haunted history.

The concert was taking place in Edgefield (http://www.mcmenamins.com/54-edgefield-home), about 30 minutes outside of downtown Portland. Edgefield was formerly a poor farm, a place where the state of Oregon housed and took care of their less fortunate citizens. It has now been transformed to what was explained to a friend of ours at the “adult Disneyland.”

What does “adult Disneyland” consist of you ask? Well first of all I would like you to try and imagine it for yourself. Picture it in your mind, feel the feels, smell the smells, and experience the experiences. What would sort of things could result in an adult pulling on the sleeves of their friends saying “we gotta go try that!!” What sort of place could cause adults to be too excited to sleep, their minds running a mile a minute in anticipation for the pure joy to follow?

Are you picturing a place that has its own vineyard and winery on sight? Are you picturing a place with a selection of unique bars where you can sample an impressive menu of beer that is brewed across the path from the winery? Are you picturing a distillery that seconds as the pro shop for the par 3 golf course that winds its way around the perimeter of the property?

Edgefield has all this and more, it has everything that you need to make for a memorable experience. I could go into the whole description at this point but I think that the best strategy would be for me to save that for later. Instead I will finish setting the tone for my birthday weekend.

Shannon and decided that Edgefield would be a great place to spend a weekend away while we celebrated her 28^th birthday. It was a good weekend to take such a trip because we were able to attend on the same weekend that they planned to celebrate Oktoberfest. The weather was awful but that did not stop us from having a time that we would not soon forget. The live music and seasonal beer were a great addition to the pure bliss of the Edgefield experience.

I will not go too much into the details, because once again the beginning part of this post is just to set the stage our most recent encounter with Edgefield. I will say, however, that our first trip down there was a memorable one. It is entertaining to think back on it now but at the time it was less amusing.

It should be mentioned that we ended up leaving on a Saturday and the Friday before was the actual day of Shannon’s birthday. This being the case, she felt that she had little other option than to go out and party. It is somewhat rare to have a birthday that you can celebrate to the fullest on the actual day, and celebrate she did.

One of the fun slash devastating things about including the drinking of alcohol in your birthday festivities is that all of your friends feel the need to buy you a drink as a gift. The thought is a good one, and at the time it is appreciated and encouraged, but this appreciation is not fully recognized the next morning. If you ask me, I would prefer a stack on birthday cards stuffed with cash, like used to be the norm throughout our high school days….mine at least, I was not big into underage drinking…and neither were my parents. I didn’t become cool time later on in my life lol.

Anyway this is exactly what happened to Shannon the next day. She had a really hard time getting up in the morning due to all the “gifts” that she consumed the night before. Our original idea was to leave early-ish in the morning, in order to get to Portland with enough time to enjoy the evening.

We had planned to spend the first night downtown before venturing out to Edgefield the next morning. We had plans to borrow my Mom’s convertible so we could ride down in style. We told her that we would be picking the car up around 9am….but didn’t actually get there until closer to 2pm. Kind of awkward when your Mom keeps calling you asking why you haven’t come to pick up the car and you have to come up with an answer that doesn’t involve throwing Shannon under the bus and telling the whole story. She just…..was really tired. She had a late night last night J.

That was just the beginning of the adventure. We didn’t even make it down to Portland until close to 11pm. It started out with nightmare traffic crossing the border, and then again outside Seattle, and then again outside of Tacoma. This was due to some awful weather that was also doing its best to delay us even further. At one point it was raining so hard that all traffic slowed down to half of the speed limit since they could not see more than 10 feet in front of their own vehicles. This would explain all the accidents that were responsible for the traffic delays we were experiencing. It was raining so hard that we got completely drenched on the 5 second excursion from the McDonalds lobby to our car parked right out front. Needless to say the roof of the convertible did not get a chance to do its thing on the journey down.

All things involved the trip down was not the best start for the high expectations that we had for our trip. But it did not take long for things to turn around. The time we did get to spend in downtown Portland did enough to entice us back and the epic time we had celebration Shann-Oktoberfest at the converted poor farm in Edgefield was enough for me to name it as the destination of choice for me upcoming 30^th Birthday celebration!!

More of a Very Good Thing!!

The second day got off to a much better start. There is a lot to be said about waking up in a nice warm cozy bed, or at least a dry sleeping bag that is on a dry air mattress. We luckily had the opportunity to dry the sleeping bags the day before, once the weather started to cooperate with our wishes. Not that we were necessarily in a bad mood the morning before but it is a lot less work to get yourself into a positive mindset when you are not wet and cold. So this morning was much more amiable than the one previous.

We started off our day with a champion’s breakfast. Eggs, bacon and hash browns all cooked over a warming morning fire, all consumed while sitting on dry camping chairs. We were off to a good start. The breakfast provided us with the energy that we needed to take us through a day of surfing, the Vitamin water hydrated us before another day of beer consumption and the “Anaconda” playing in the back ground got us in the right mindset to party! Our day actually started when I decided to fire up the speakers from inside Shannon and I’s tent, sending out the intention for everyone to take a deep breath and get ready to go hard for our second day of surfing….and I do not think that I need to tell you which song was the one being played as I was sending this message to our fellow campers J.

We were in no real hurry to get to the beach. We spent a considerable amount of time letting our morning fire run its course, relaxing and enjoying the freedom that we felt with a day of nothing but fun ahead of us. Those are some of the finest moments of life. The feeling of relaxation mixed with excitement that you have when you are on vacation with nothing else to do but think about what type of fun you intend to have next. You have your whole day ahead of you and the opportunities are endless. Even if you have a plan in mind you never really know what other sort of excitement you might attract into your reality along the way. How great of a feeling is it when you have nothing but awesomeness in your daily forecast?! I will tell you it feels amazing!!

Once the fire was no more, everyone went into action with the same relaxed energy that has been with us most of the morning. The surf boards were piled up and tied down, the snacks were being packed and the coolers were being filled. All the items on the “great day checklist” were accounted for, so we were on our way!

The weather once again was amazing! As I mentioned before there is an understanding that most every day in Westport starts off overcast and foggy. Sometimes it burns off quickly, other times not so quick and other times not at all. On this day we were pleased to see if slowly breaking to the point of complete clearing once we reached the beach. The parking lot had a different look than it had the previous day, and I would suspect that the current weather conditions had a lot to do with this being the situation. We looped around once with no luck so we decided to drop off the gear at the closest point to the beach and then have our friend go and park. While he was doing this, a spot opened up that we could not get to without looping all the way around one more time because of the one way nature of the lot itself. To make sure the spot was still available once the car was able to make it back to the spot we had another friend go and stand in the spot in order to save it. A person standing in a parking spot would be a useful deterrent to stop someone else from taking that spot, or at least one would think. Well on this occasion this was not the case. A family in a large truck decided it was a good spot for them to park so they started backing up right into our friend!! If our friend didn’t get out of the way the guy would have backed right over him!! We could not believe the audacity of this guy! We were beside ourselves that someone would do something so reckless without any warning. At the very least swear at us and tell us you don’t give a $$%$^& if we want to save the spot because you are taking it anyway. At least have the nerve for a verbal confrontation before you run him over!!

We found out later in an awkward turn of events that he did not see our friend at all and was very, very sorry for the incident. He even offered to move his car and let us take the spot. This all happened after our friend came back and told us what had happened and then we all started talking about how amazed we were of his demeanor and his boldness to threaten physical injury without any warning. This was then followed by many points and glares sent from our group to theirs. I stand by the fact that he was still very much in the wrong for being so unaware of his surroundings but he did not deserve the character abuse he was unknowingly receiving from our party. This is the trouble with jumping to conclusions when you do not know the other person’s reasons. Shannon and I once overheard a bartender at a wine tasting talking about some customers that she had that had used the vessel to dump out some of the wine they were tasting. We went on for probably a good ten minutes saying how ridiculous we thought that was, how bad could the wine possibly have been to waste it by dumping it out. We talked about how arrogant that person must have been and how we did not believe that anyone’s palate was so sophisticated that they could not possibly taste anymore of that wine, it was just too below them. We said a lot of things and made many assumptions that painted whoever this was in a worse and worse light. We then decided to ask the woman behind the bar what reason the person gave for pouring it out. She then surprised us by saying that it was because the glass had been filled too high and the person wanted to make sure they didn’t drink too much since they had to drive home. Imagine how silly we felt after all of the bashing we had been doing lol. It was a perfectly legitimate, not to mention exceedingly responsible, decision. In that particular situation, it would have been a poor decision not to pour it out. It was an important lesson in our lives. It brought to light the importance of asking questions and learning about the real situation before you start jumping to conclusions. It was a situation that humbled us and opened our eyes to the error of our ways. I truly believe that is has had an impact on how I have conducted myself going forward in life.

In the end we accepted the apology from the guy driving the truck, we said no to the parking spot he was offering, and another spot two cars down opened up so we were all able to benefit from being parked in an advantageous location. With that being taken care of we were off to the beach.

There is not much for me to say about the surfing itself. The description would have been very similar to the one that I gave for the day previous. The waves were still choppy, we still got pushed way down the beach by the current, it was still hard to get out past the breakers, and we still had an amazing time. We all caught some quality waves and we all felt like our skills improved by logging some more surfing experience.

Up on the beach we were up to our old tricks. Enjoying some craft beer, snacking on chips, and lunching on hot dogs grilled over our beach fire (that I once again started with my Old Spice body spray blow torch). I love cooking hot dogs on the beach after surfing. I get so freaking hungry that my usual two is just not enough for me. In fact I believe I had 4……and sadly, possibly 5…..on this occasion. The volume of hot dogs consumption correlates with the amount of shredding you do on your surfboard, it is a scientific fact. So just imagine how much shredding I was doing to earn myself 4 (or 5) Johnsonville Brats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H_2mzLVa2o)!!

One funny story worth mentioning had to do with some of the dogs that were similarly enjoying their time on the beach. There are many, many dogs gallivanting along the beach. It is a great spot for friendly dogs to roam as their owners are out surfing. I like it…you have to be careful to not leave your food out…..but I enjoy seeing the dogs having the time of their lives!! This one particular dog, a small black Pug decided to pay us a visit. This little guy was very friendly and he even brought along his German Sheppard friend/bodyguard. It was very cute how this German Sheppard was looking out for his little buddy. The Pug stayed with us for some time, enjoying all the love he was receiving, but then it was time for him to move along. We said our goodbyes and saw him wander off. We didn’t pay too much attention to him since he was not our dog and therefore not really our responsibility. We later saw him going up the hill toward the parking lot. Not long after we saw his owner searching for him. We told her we saw him going up towards the parking lot. She did not seem pleased, whether she was not pleased with the dog or with us or a combination of both, is unclear. Our one friend went up to use the washroom and said she saw the woman angrily scanning the parking lot for her dog, she also said she thought she overheard the woman cursing us for telling her the dog had run up to the parking lot and now she couldn’t find it. She seemed to feel like we had sent her on a wild goose (pug??) chase. Minutes after our friend got back to us with the news we say the dog returning from the parking lot, down to the beach. We knew the woman was still up there searching but we did not feel like it was our duty to go up there to inform her of the new situation, especially after how ungrateful she seemed when we tried to help out the first time.

When she eventually returned to find her dog lying in the arm of her friend she was none too pleased lol. We were not close enough to hear what all went down at that point but I would imagine that dog got a good tongue lashing. Poor little guy, he was just exploring J.

I finished my last ride of the day at a decent time on this occasion. I did not want to interfere with the others intentions for the second straight day. We also had plans to check out the local winery (http://www.westportwinery.org/) on the way back to camp. We tried a number of their wines, and they were excellent! We particularly enjoyed the Bog Berry Blush — Cranberry Gewürztraminer, very tasty! There was also a particular beer that we wanted to try there but it had been so popular that they were completely sold out until the next batch was ready. We did not stick around too long since the wine was a bit more expensive than we were willing to pay knowing that we still had plenty of our own wine waiting for us back at the campsite. It was a good stop since one of our friends really needed to use the washroom. When she was in there we decided to do the old “move the car to a different spot to scare her” trick. It worked like a charm! I think it was especially successful since the campsite was within walking distance, so it was plausible that we would leave her there is we got tired of waiting for her. I don’t think she would have been very impressed if we did, but it was within the realm of possibility lol.

We did not stay long at the winery but we do have plans to include it in our next trip down there. They have live music on Friday nights between 5:30 and 7:30 and they also serve food at the time and could make for an enjoyable evening!!

Once we got back to our site we wasted no time creating another huge camp fire…we still had plenty of wood to burn and a limited amount of time to burn it! It was another great evening, good food was eaten, tasty drinks were consumed and enjoyable company was enjoyed. Those are some of the most relaxing nights. Your body is thankful for the rest after a long day of strenuous activity (surfing), your hungry has been satisfied with a nice big dinner, and then it’s time to curl up close to the warming fire with your favorite drink in hand, all while spending some quality time with the people you enjoy spending it with the most. That is called living the dream and fits right in with the name and spirit of this blog J.

The last morning is always a bit sad, and the weather resonated that feeling. It was raining once again, not as hard as it had on the first night but it was still noticeable. Packing up in the rain is not ideal since you will then be required to unpack everything, again, once you get home in order to dry everything that cannot be stored wet for risk of it molding. Luckily Shannon and I have my sister who still lives at home with my parents to help us out. We would have no place, other than in the middle of our apartment, to re-setup our tent to dry it. So she has now been our savior on such occasions and offers to do it for us since my parents have the space to do it. We are eternally grateful for it and we thank you!! It is also not fun to end your vacation from reality. Even if you love the job you are going back to, you still don’t want to see this segment of your life come to an end. But I have yet to find a way to stop if from coming to an end at some point so until I can do that, I must be brave and strong and deal with it the best that I can J.

Once we were all packed up we hit the road for a long drive home. We stopped once for a Jack-in-the-Box lunch which ended up being huge meals (http://www.jackinthebox.com/food/jacks-munchie-meals/hella-peno-burger-munchie-meal)! It consisted of a burger, a drink, curly fries, and two tacos. In my experience most meals use “or” not “and”. It’s normally fries “or” tacos, not fries “and” tacos…so we were surprised. It was not easy to finish but we did anyway J. I cannot say that we felt amazing after eating that much food…but it had been good at the time lol.

The trip was quick and easy and we were back at home to lounge our way through the rest of the evening in preparation for the new school year, not either of us have any invested interest in that but even still it does feel like a marked end to the summer and the beginning of a new time of your life. It was the end of an amazing summer, and the beginning of who knows what’s next!!

Life Goes on After Sunset Surfing

By the time we back to the campsite there was very little light left. I realized then, why everyone was interested in heading back a lot sooner than we did. I am a firm believer in doing what feels right at the time, this is why I stayed in the water to experience sunset surfing for the first time. Unfortunately you cannot always have it all, you cannot watch the sun set at the beach and then again at the campsite, it just doesn’t work that way. This being the case, we had to deal with a very small window of sunlight to get changed into out evening attire, cook our dinner and start our fire. It was not ideal, I admit, but if we were able to maintain a positive mood through the wet morning, hustling to get ready for the night was not too much of an issue. I am happy to tell you that we did survive and we did have a lovely night J!!

Our night was not too much different from any other night that you would have when you are camping. It is always a bit of a struggle to cook dinner in the dark, especially when you are grilling meat on top of the fire pit. Anyone that has tried to BBQ in the dark will relate to what I am saying. Even if you have a flashlight available it is still quite the task to evaluate whether the meat is cooked to perfection. The two most common outcomes are; the meat is cooked on the outside and still raw on the inside or the meat is charred on the outside and completely cooked on the inside. I have experienced both situations regularly while camping, the reason why it is not such a big deal is because camping goes hand in hand with drinking…..and drinking makes situations that could otherwise be frustrating, so much more tolerable, even to the point of enjoyment. Add in the fact that we had been surfing all day and worked up quite the appetite, so it did not take much effort to make the “best meal everrrrrr!!”

Our meal did turn out pretty well. The steak was a bit rare and the potatoes were a wee bit rock hard, but they tasted amazing to me. I realized that tastes are very situation dependant. When you are at home with a fully stocked kitchen, that is when you realize that you need some salt and pepper, and some sriracha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce), and some olive and some etc etc. When you are camping you are like “oh you can’t find the fork or the knife, no problem I got hands.”  Big difference!

Once the meal was finished, it was time to amp up the fire and relax. We had so much wood for the weekend and we didn’t have to bring any back with us, so what better time to build a rip roarin’ rager of a fire. I realize that it is always a kind gesture to leave some wood for the next people to use the site, and we have been the beneficiaries of such kindness in the past, but who can pass up the opportunity to make a blazer! There is no better classification of fire!

At this point there was not much to do but enjoy the life. Life is good when you have a cooler full of drinks, a raging fire, and some enjoyable company. It was an ideal way to end the day. We started out soaking wet and cold and finished up warm and cozy around the fire.

Eventually the fire started to die down and by this point it was only Shannon and I left standing. She decided that she was ready to call it a night so it was up to me to wait out the fire. There is a certain enjoyment when it is just you and nature, staring up at the clear sky full of stars as the fire crackles away. The tranquility slowly turns into sleepiness and when you start to get the head jerks you realize that it is time for you to call it a night, as well. I had a big day of surfing ahead of me so I decided to give in. I did my best to put out the fire and off to bed I went J and that is how our first day of surfing went down. 

From Rain to Shine

I would like to say we had a decent sleep that night, considering the situation. It was not overly noticeable that our bed was significantly less hospitable than it usually is when we go camping. It wasn’t until early the next morning that things started to go south. We were awakened by a familiar yet unexpected sound….rain pounding on the outside of the tent!! This was not supposed to happen!! The weather was supposed to have cleared up over night, not clouded over!! We were not prepared to deal with rain. We had no air mattress to lift us up off the ground, we had not covered our tent with a tarp yet , in fact, we almost decided not to put the fly on the tent either. We naively thought that it would be a good night to star gaze and allow the fresh air into our tent J. One for three is not bad for a major league batting average, but it did very little for keeping us dry on this Saturday morning in Westport, Washington.

The rain started out innocent enough, but it grew in rage much like an inebriated Cowboys fan bearing witness to Tony Romo blowing yet another chance at winning a playoff game. That rage is usually an object of amusement for me, since I have never been much of a Romo fan, but angry rain turning our campsite into one giant puddle does make me giggle in the same way….though I did start laughing at one point when the rain started coming down so hard we could barely hear each other talking, despite being in the same tent! At this point we were still relatively dry. The sides of our tent were not as fortunate, but we seemed to be safe where we were, situated in the middle. But even that only lasted for so long.

It was a matter of minutes before Shannon started to realize that water was soaking through our tent and into the blankets on her side of the bed. We could not figure out why her side was getting wet but mine was not. It was not until later that morning when I left the tent that I realized the flaw in our set up. During our half assed attempt at setting up camp the night before we had pitched the tent on top of a tarp. The reasoning behind this move was that it would provide a layer of defense against the morning dew. Not a bad plan if that is all that we would have had to deal with. Unfortunately, the rain was running off of the tarp that I had used to cover our tent after we had woken up to the rain, and then started to pool underneath our tent…..right underneath Shannon’s side of the bed. I attempted to “fix” the problem after it was already too late, by using my sandal to splash all the water off the tarp and pile empty beer bottles around the tent, under the tarp, to direct the water away from the tent. But as I mentioned before it was much to late to fix the problem, it was now more about damage control lol.

Once we were awake and realized that we were wet and getting wetter, it was time to get up and face the day. Luckily our camping companions had the foresight to set up a tarp covering the picnic table the night before. It was by no means a perfect set up, but it served its purpose. Using our surfboards to prop it up to a level that we were able to function under comfortably, it was time to make some breakfast. In order to lift our spirits Shannon and I suggested that we do something a little bit less conventional for breakfast. We offered to share our prized food item with the group for some comfort eating. We offered up a baked brie J. Well at least a wheel of brie that we would bake and share with the group. Baked brie, soft bread, delicious deli meats, and some breakfast beers….oh and I almost forgot, some candles to set the mood.

It did not take long before we were laughing and enjoying ourselves just as much as we would have on a sunny day. There are very few problems in life that cannot be solved using cheese, bread, meat, and beer and/or wine. During our breakfast discussions we realized why the weather was unpredictably poor. My sister and her friend were telling us about the great deals they got on their rain coats from the Columbia outlet store (http://www.yelp.ca/biz/columbia-sportswear-outlet-tulalip). “We bought them just in case it rained this weekend” they said. So they were responsible for bringing the rain! Unreal! We gave them a good tongue lashing for the trouble they caused and then as a group (them included) we decided to put in an order for the weather to clear up for the rest of the day. I know what you must be thinking “good luck with that”, and I would venture to guess that you would be speaking sarcastically in saying so. Well if that is the case, I am happy to tell you that in no more than an hour or two after we decided we wanted the weather to clear up, it did just that. From cold and rainy to hot and sunny, perfect surfing weather!!

After we had our breakfast we headed into town to check out the craft fair/seafood cook out. It was fun to take in the sights of what I believed to be a picture of American culture. We waited in line for a good 45 minutes before we realized that none of us had any intentions of buying anything and then decided to check out Westport Brewing (http://www.westportbrewing.com/).

By this time the sun was out on full display and I was regretting the fact that I was still wearing my cold weather Under Armor gear while the others were working on their tans. The brewery itself was a sight to be seen. It was not your traditional brewery, in fact it started out as someone’s garage. The garage door opens up to a make shift bar, offering growler fill up, tasting paddles, pints, and a fun tasting room to enjoy all that is offered. They also have outdoor umbrella covered tables and chairs to use when the weather is favorable, some are even located on the porch of the of the neighboring house (I would venture to guess that whoever is the owner of the brewing company is the one that owns the house and turned his/her garage into the tasting room, but I can neither confirm or deny that is actually the case). Whatever the case may be it was a great place to enjoy a few pints and even though we were still new to the idea of sour beer it was a pleasurable experience and one that I hope to replicate on a regular basis on my future visits to Westport!

After our memorable time at the brewery we headed back to camp to get prepared to surf the afternoon away. On our way to the beach the task of getting us pumped up for the waves fell squarely upon the sturdy shoulders, or more appropriately booty, of Nicki Minaj. It was an “Anancoda” marathon for the ten minute drive to the beach. It should be noted that playing songs on repeat has become somewhat of a trend on our camping trips. Every year a new song is unintentionally chosen as the theme song for the weekend. One especially memorable trip we had the Park Ranger come to our site and say “I know all I need to know about your friend, and can you please turn down the Chris Isaak?” This was after our group had started ranting about a friend from high school while listening to “Wicked Games” on repeat (I believe the next day our Ipod told us it was played 53 times in a row lol) and thus a tradition was born.

Well what can I say about our time at the beach?! It was great fun! Beers were drunk, hot dogs were eaten, waves were caught, and grand old times were had! Lighting a fire on the beach can be a tough task. Finding dry wood is not usually an issue but kindling can be in short supply. This is why I always include a bottle of body spray in my surf backpack. What does a bottle of body spray have to do with starting a fire, you ask?! Aerosol can + lighter = a sweet….and great smelling…..blow touch!! This is how you start a beach fire quickly and easily J.

The surfing itself was an awesome time! I would not quite describe it as epic, the waves were not big enough or clean enough to provide an epic day of surfing. As much as we tried we could not make it out past the breakers to catch the epic waves. We were also on an area of the beach where the under tow would continuously push us down the beach. There were some areas where it was so strong that we could barely walk out in a straight line. I felt like a drunk dude trying to walk on ice. It was even tougher to paddle out. There were a few occasions where I thought I saw a break in the waves and a great opportunity to get out where the waves were best. After a solid five minutes of paddling (or at least that’s what it felt like) I saw a fellow surfer, and he was standing in waist deep in water. Very discouraging lol. To make things worse when I turned around to look at the shore I realized that I was waaaaay down the beach, a good ten minute walk back to our sun tent. On the up side I did catch a few sweet waves, not epic, but I will take sweet.

The highlight of the day was the sunset surf session at the end of the day. I told my co-surfers that I wanted to catch one more good wave before calling it a day. It ended up taking quite a bit longer than I thought that it would but the view was amazing! I have seen pictures and paintings and I have seen some unreal clips in surf movies, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you see it in person. My first thought was, I wish I had my camera. My second thought was, why not just take a mental picture? Mental pictures allow an element of creativity and imagination that cannot be matched by any of the special features included on top priced cameras. I was living a dream and enjoying every minute of it, so much that I kind of forgot about the other group members sitting on the beach waiting for me. It wasn’t until later that I realized that everyone was not having as much fun as I was, they were actually eager to get back to the campsite before it got too dark, which is exactly what happened. But it was not an experience that I will forget anytime soon and it was definitely worth it J. One of the reasons why I love surfing as much as I do is that it is not just about the waves. The environment plays such a large role in the enjoyment of the sport, that you can have an unbelievable time even if the waves are not going off and providing the rides that change lives. Surfing is more than a physical experience, it includes an element of spirituality that is not common in the world of sports, an element that can create memories that stick with you for years to come. 

Westport, Oh How I Have Missed You!

Westport, Washington is our surf destination of choice (http://magicseaweed.com/Westport-Surf-Report/310/). Most people wonder why we choose to drive 5 hours down to the States, when we are so close to Tofino (http://magicseaweed.com/Tofino-Chesterman-Beach-Surf-Report/1123/). Well we have done the math and Tofino is not that much closer or it might not even be closer at all. Distance to our destination is not the deciding factor. We choose Westport for a variety of good reasons. One reason is because we do not need to take a ferry to get where we want to go. This is not to say that we do not enjoy riding on the ferry, on the contrary in fact, we love riding on the ferry! Riding on the ferry is a mini vacation in itself. You have someone else driving you, someone else cooking for you and someone else taking care of the navigation for you. It is like a mini cruise! When the weather is agreeable you can even sunbathe out on the deck of the boat. You might raise a couple of eyebrows if you strip down to your bathing suit to do it, but I don’t believe there to be any rules against it. But like a nice luxury cruise you pay for the experience. It’s not enough to break the bank but it’s an added expense that does not go unnoticed.

A second reason for choosing Westport over Tofino has to do with the popularity of the location. Surf trips are usually reserved for long weekends, and when you are travelling within your own province you would have to have a very remote destination in mind to escape the crowds of other vacationers that share your idea of a good time. We have come to realize that going down to the States on Canadian long weekends let us avoid the crowds. This is not to say that we are all by our lonesome, with the entire Westport beach to ourselves, this is not the case, but it is not nearly as busy as it would be in Tofino. Tofino is crowded on a regular weekend, rain or shine, and its popularity only increases on special occasions. Seeing as neither of us are professional surfers by any stretch of the imagination, the more room we have to maneuver out in the water the better.

The third and probably most important reason why we choose to surf in Westport is because of the price. In the States gas is cheaper, beer is cheaper, food is cheaper and accommodations are cheaper. Whether you are camping or staying in hotel when compared to the prices you would be faced with in Tofino, you will always come out ahead by staying in Westport. All things considered Westport has been our choice for several years and in all likelihood will continue to be for years to come.

So our journey begins much like all of our other roads trips, with us trying to leave as quickly as we can after work on Friday evening. I once again was fortunate to have the ability to skip out of work early, though I think it probably would have gone unnoticed if I decided to not even show up at all. The office was a ghost town much like it had been for most Fridays during the summer. This gave me the chance to get all the packing done so that I could pick up Shannon from work and start our journey from there. If you have read any of my other posts, all our trips start out very similar so I will spare you the details.

Once on the road our journey was once again smooth sailing. From Vancouver to White Rock we were traffic free. Going across the border only took about 20 minutes, which is unheard of on most Fridays in general, let alone a Labor Day long weekend! We blazed through Seattle and Tacoma, only stopping for gas and for groceries and dinner once we hit Lacey. Apparently we have gotten really good at creating our only reality through positive thinking and expectation. Avoiding traffic on a long weekend road trip is an amazing feeling and does a great job setting the tone for the rest of the trip J.

After driving for a solid 4 hours it was time to do our grocery shopping and treat ourselves to a lovely Olive Garden dinner, especially enjoyable when you are able to take advantage of the buy-one-take-one-home promotion(http://www.olivegarden.com/specials). The Olive Garden can be so generous!

When we go grocery shopping in the States we try to do it at WinCo (https://wincofoods.com/). What makes WinCo so appealing? In the past we have gone to Walmart or Costco, both viable options but neither have the selection and the prices of Winco “The Supermarket Low Price Leader.” We stumbled upon WinCo by accident on time after having an early morning breakfast high caloric value breakfast at IHOP at the beginning of another road trip (we do not usually concern ourselves with calorie counting but the IHOP in the States, do to some law change I would imagine, have to tell you how many calories you are consuming when you order your meal….WOW!! I knew it was high but not that high!!). They were huge and packed with variety and best of all on their labels they show you how their prices compare to the other major supermarkets, just to drive home the point that you are shopping in the right place! They also have an epic beer selection which is something that will always catch Shannon and I’s attention J. Wooohooo!! Beee-eeer, Beee-eeer, Beee-eeer!!

It did not take us long to fill up our cart. This usually happens when we are in the States shopping for beer. If I could think of one possible down side to buying beer it would have to be the sheer volume of the cases. It really is a double edged sword if you think about it. Sure it’s heavy, and takes up a lot of room in the cart and the car, but that is only because you have so many bottles that you will enjoy later. I would say it is worth it…..but that’s just me ;) We did a good job filling up on the items that we want and need, so check that off the list. Then it was time for stage two. In my experience you can never really accurately predict how much space you will need to save in the trunk for groceries. On the other hand I have never, not been able to find the room needed for the groceries either. Sure your hot dog buns resemble something closer to tortillas after they have been flattened by a case of beer, but is that not just one of the joys of camping? Believe me, you will still be craving a late night hot dog around the campfire whether or not that it’s settled nicely in a soft, fluffy bun or wrapped with a flattened pancake-like bun substance. You will also be thanking the beer for how great your night is going rather than blaming it for doing unspeakable things to the hot dog buns. I would also say that the packing experience is a bit more cramped in the Mazda than the Sebring convertible that I used to use on our previous road trips. The lack of a roof makes things that much easier to pile in the back. This doesn’t always mean that they will still be there once you reach your destination. I do admit this has never actually happened to me, but you can see how it could happen and that was enough to make me ultra sensitive to every noise I heard as I was driving and it had me checking the rear mirror more often than a narcissist checks his reflection. I had other metaphors that I considered using for the example but decided this was the safest and most politically correct lol. There is a lot more peace of mind when you are not worried about all your groceries getting blown away, even if you means having no visibility out your back window.

At this point we had a full car, and a lot of great food, but none that we could indulge it at the current time. For this reason we set off for our next stop, The Olive Garden! What can I say about the Olive Garden, you come hungry and leave full. They just keep bringing you more salad and more bread sticks. After every bowl of salad and every stick of bread you think, I still have a huge portion of pasta coming, maybe I should slow down and make sure that I still have room when my meal arrives. I guarantee that this happens to 95% of their customers, and I will also go out on a limb and say only 5% actually listen to the sound logic that is going on in their heads and the rest throw all caution to the wind and gorge themselves! But I do not blame anyone for doing exactly what they know they shouldn’t because I do the same. I do pride myself on my will power, but I choose not to exercise it at The Olive Garden because unlimited salad and bread sticks are not something that is offered to you very often and if it is ever offered it would be a tough task to match the quality the that Olive Garden offers for those two items. Say what you want about their entrees but The Olive Garden is the King of the salad and bread sticks!

The meal was not much different than any other meal that we have had there in the past. We ate too much bread, too much salad, and accompanied it with a free appetizer offer my wife was able to stalk down on the internet (The Olive Garden and Montana’s seem to have these types of offers all the time…not that you need more food on the side of their already generous portions lol). The entrée was better than some but not quite chart topping. I have never left The Garden unsatisfied and this time was no different….not to mention that they gave us a second to-go portion to take home with us. It was a unique idea in the sense that it was not a second portion that comes fully prepared. It is The Olive Garden’s equivalent to a Michelina’s microwave dinner (it even had microwave heating directions printed on a sticker that was slapped on the lid!). I have never seen this before and may never see it again but it was a perfect take-away for our camping dinner menu. In fact once we arrived we found out that my sister and her friend also got the same deal from The Olive Garden and we ended up blending all of our second portions into one big pot for a lovely dinner the next evening….actually I believe it was more like a late breakfast lol.

Back to something that I mentioned in the paragraph above “I have not ever left an Olive Garden unsatisfied” but I have left insulted. Last year Shannon and I were going to the same place for a surfing vacation. We had the same idea that we would go to the Olive Garden for dinner and WinCo for groceries, but in reverse order to what we did on this trip. The promotion that was going on at the time at The Olive Garden was the unlimited pasta bowl. We had full intention of getting the most out of this deal and decided that we would order our second portion before we finished our first so that we would not have to wait too long since we were in a bit of a hurry to get to our site and set up camp. This idea backfired because it did not seem to have any effect on how long it took for us to get our round two’s. Then what happened was when the waiter brought our new plates we asked her if we could get them to go. I realize that this looks a bit cheap, like we had no intention of eating any of it there and just wanted to take a full second portion home. If it was a different type of restaurant, and if we hadn’t seen other customers do that exact same thing as we did without even trying to pretend they were going to eat it there, than I would understand if she thought we were cheap or unclassy. Even if we were unclassy and cheap (which we are not!!) then it still does not justify her complaining about us to her fellow waiters and insulting us within ears distance of our table. It should be said that both Shannon and I have pretty thick skin when it comes to others being rude to us. More times than not we end up laughing rather than feeling any degree of disrespect BUT how unprofessional is that! Something else to be taken into consideration for this situation is that earlier in the night Shannon had ordered a glass of wine from the same server. She poured the glass, which to our eyes did not look disproportional, but the waiter said “sorry” and said she would be back to fill up the glass the rest of the way. How generous we thought! How unexpected and generous! But is appears that she was too busy having a bad day and bad mouthing her customers because she never came back with the wine she had promised.

After all of this we decided that we did not feel the need to leave any of our hard earned money as a tip for our poor service. The dilemma was, if we leave a small tip than it will just give her more ammunition to classify us as cheap and unclassy. So I decided that I would go ahead and not leave a tip and write a little note next to the empty space where a tip amount usually goes telling her that she forgot our wine and that we heard everything she said about us as she complained to her coworkers to explain why there was no tip J. Then we up and left before she could confront us lol. Problem solved!

Then later in WinCo we realized that we needed some ice, as we were going through check out. Instead of going with the usual bagged ice we were drawn to an advertisement up front for dry ice. The sign was very misleading and made me think that we could buy a couple small portions for a reasonable price. This was not the case, if fact you could only purchase large amounts at a big price. I sheepishly had to say that we didn’t actually want to buy it after they had to call a special person to unlock the freezer and put on special gloves to get the dry ice I had asked for. I felt bad, but how was I to know when the checkout woman herself didn’t even know. As I packed up my groceries a number of other workers crowded around the cooler and started asking about the ice. “Did some asshole customer ask you to get the ice out for him and then change his mind after you did all this work” is what I heard from their conversation. Little did they know that the “asshole customer” was standing right there as they were unknowingly ripping on him. I don’t think that sort of thing has happened to me all too often in my life let alone twice in an hour lol. I guess I can consider myself lucky that I do not offend easily J.

The conclusion to this story is that Shannon wrote a letter of complaint to both establishments. The Olive Garden sent us a $50 gift card as an apology and WinCo responded asking us if we could tell them what the employee looked like and what time the shift was….so we possibly got him fired. Not the first time this has happened to me. I believe I got a phone sales man fired after he mistakenly told me that I had one month free calling when I signed up for my first cell phone plan. I then proceeded to rack up a $500 bill that I refused to pay since I never would have made so many calls if I had not been told it was part of the deal I was getting. Rogers rectified the situation by wiping out the bill and giving me the equivalent of three months worth of coverage as a credit and……..most likely fired the salesman after asking me the same questions as WinCo asked Shannon. But life goes on J.

Once we had done all that we needed to do we continued along the final leg of our journey. By this time it was 11pm when we left Lacey and close to 12:30am when we arrived at our campsite. The drive was very ordinary and the only thing really worth mentioning was how hard I was struggling to remain awake along the pitch black highway to Westport. Driving along dark, deserted highway with no visibility out the back because of the packed to the gills back seat it is extremely easy to get pulled towards a state of slumber. But I held on and made it all the way without incident. Then we drove a couple of laps looking for our site….this is what happens when you forget the order of the numbers of the campsite (http://www.parks.wa.gov/292/Twin-Harbors). Was is 137 or 173? Or was it 731 or 371?? It did take some time to find….but not too much. At that point, being so late in the evening we decided to do the least amount of set up, so basically just the tent and the sleeping bags. No need for an air mattress, we will be just fine on ground. Famous last words….