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.