3-day weekends are good, but not as good as 4-day weekends.
We’re off on a 3-day weekend to the Olympic Peninsula. Home of driftwood covered beaches, rain forests, and vampires. Yes… vampires.
We were headed back to Whitefish, MT, through Glacier National park. We came around a bend when I thought I saw something behind a rock wall on the right side of the road. I stopped and Black Bear (assuming it was a mother, and her husband was back at the cave watching Saturday baseball on TV) crossed the road, her two cubs following.
The mother scaled the steep cliff, as did cub #1. Cub #2 accidentally climbed underneath a chain link fence used to control falling rocks. It sat there screaming for a few minutes until the mother returned, which is where the video ends.
Don’t worry… we came back by 5 minutes later to find that the mother had freed the poor cub. It made Chelsea cry.
Here’s a video of Chelsea pulling in her 14 inch Cutthroat Trout. 5 hours of fly fishing in the Flathead River produced a mere 2 fish, but it was a blast. I even managed to hook the hat I was wearing (read: would’ve hooked my scalp if not wearing my hat).
Yes, I know it’s Wednesday… but it’s our Monday.
It’s a 4-day work week, you know.
Yeah, so, sorry I lied and told you I’d blog this week. It was my first visit to Las Vegas and I’m convinced that our group was one of the few to visit Sin City for 4 days and remember every minute of it.
The rundown of what my out-of-shape body was able to force itself to do during 21 meetings over 4 days:
…did I mention I was in Vegas through Thursday morning? Send me any tips/suggestions to me via Facebook.
Mad that I’m not at SXSW. Any of you who were able to make it, feel free to text me and rub it in.
[Like the photo? Buy it. It's easy to drop coin at the Games and the wallet is significantly lighter.]
We drive up to Vancouver every few months, so we’re familiar with the “feel” of the city. This time we knew the feel would be significantly different for the obvious reasons, but there’s no way to describe how a city feels when the Olympics are in session.
Lines were much shorter than expected (we walked right up to the Cauldron). Everyone was incredibly nice (they’re Canadians). You can have a blast for free (or overpay for gyros). We also made it on TV (my second Olympics to do so.)
It was a blast, and if you’re ever within a 12 hour drive of any Olympic host city, go… even if you have to sleep of the floor of a train station. It’s worth it.
We’ll hop the train to Vancouver today for 7 hours of Olympics. I’ve spent more hours swimming than we’ll be spending in the Olympic city, but the Winter Games (or any games from that mater) will most likely not be this close again. Tickets to any event are $200+ per ticket for the worst seat at the least popular event, sso it’s safe to say we’re not watching any in person. We hear of long lines and $15 bottles of water, but we’re simply looking to wander and observe. I did it 4 years ago in Italy, and I got to make fun of this kids slap shot.
Yes, we’re headed to Vancouver Friday. No, we don’t have tickets to any events.
However, I took a day trip to the last Olympic games in Torino and had a blast, though this time I won’t be sleeping on the floor of a train station, and I doubt we’ll make it on TV again.
Chelsea and I are taking the Amtrak train across the border for part of the day Friday to visit the venues, watch events LIVE, and tell NBC how terrible their coverage is.
It was cold, raining, and I hadn’t eaten in 7 hours, but I was bound and determined to get a shot of the Eiffel Tower with those pretty clouds cutting diagonally in the background.
It’s still one of my favorite moments from Europe.
Yeah, it’s the Winter Olympics. No track & field, no nail-biting gymnastics. But hey… you know you’ll end up crying at least once during a medal ceremony.
Chelsea and I are taking the train across the border for one day, visiting the venues and entertainment spots. The tickets are ungodly expensive unless you want to spend an entire day and $90 per seat to watch curling… and quite frankly, curling isn’t my style.
As you may know, we visited Mikey’s house from The Goonies while passing through Astoria, Oregon a few days back.
I was about to attempt the Truffle Shuffle on camera when 1) another couple started to walk up the drive way, and 2) the neighbors were looking out their windows.
Over the weekend I sent a mobile upload of our experience at Portland’s famous VooDoo Donuts. We hoped in line to find a stoned and/or drunk homeless woman approach me, staring, standing with her mouth open, just a couple of feet away. I asked her if she needed anything… if everything was alright. That’s when she proceeded to ask me (multiple times) how my “first time” was. Seriously. And no, she wasn’t talking about my first ‘donut hole’. [Insert joke here.]
After asking me 10+ times, she went down the line asking others the same question. I was the only one who talked to her. I genuinely tried to engage her in conversation, even asking if I could buy her breakfast. The fact that I talked to he is probably the reason she came back to me and stood starting, just like this, for the better part of 20 minutes.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade and offer it to a homeless person. Should that homeless person deny your lemonade and ask you about your first time experiencing sexual intercourse, take a video of them and put it on the Internet. They’ll never see it anyway.
So there I stood, cellphone by my hip, hoping to catch a clip of her creepiness in action. I was quite pleased with the result.
When we got to the front of the line the cashier told us that the people in front of us had already put $10 towards our donuts. They snuck out before we got to thank them.
We took an impromptu trip to our friendly neighbor of the south, Portland. Home to Donald Miller, one of the best public transportation systems in America, and more hipsters than you can shake a stick at.
It is truly one of my favorite, and most relaxing cities in the world.
[Home for the first time in 12 months.]
Feels like it’s been a while. Happy 2010 to you all. Now get to work… it is Monday morning.
I’ll assume we’re all back at work, home safely from multiple vacations and excursions. Needless to say, it was quite interesting being in Alabama this year.
You don’t realize how much you miss home until you leave home for an extended period.
2009 was an odd year. One new place for Chelsea and I (Victoria, BC) and one for myself (Las Vegas).
Victoria, BC
Los Angeles
Vancouver, BC
Orlando
Las Vegas
New Orleans
Hattiesburg
Birmingham
Jackson, MS
Seaside, FL
Here’s the list for 2008.
