Headed out!

So, now that summer is here, I have been working on my RA work like a crazy mad woman. I am attempting to make an interactive mapping website, something I have never done before, and I feel stumped! Needless to say, I feel like I have been banging my head against the wall to even find a starting point. But at last I am making progress, slow progress, but progress. I have also been spending a lot of my free time with all my graduate friends who are still around, between barbecues and a few road trips to surrounding wineries or five guys burgers (hey, when you have a craving you have a craving)...

Here's the beautiful view from Redhawk Winery, you can even seen the snow capped peak of Mt. Hood on the left side! P.S. all you OR haters who say it rains all the time... check out the beautiful blue skies that lasted all day!

Tomorrow, David and I head out to visit my family and celebrate the Fourth of July! I hope that everyone is enjoying the nice weather and will get to relax and enjoy their long holiday weekend! Happy early Independence Day!

Anniversary Adventure

So, on June 11th David and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. Deciding that we hadn't had much time to explore the state of Oregon together, we set out on a mini adventure. We headed to Portland for the night, and just happened to be there during the Rose Festival. We got to see the parade of flower floats and than strolled past the carnival rides, carnival food, free music down the waterfront on a beautiful sunny day in Portland.

 
The next day, after wandering the streets of Portland to find a particular breakfast food cart, we headed towards the Columbia River Gorge and it's many waterfalls (to kind of remind us of our honeymoon in Kauai with lots of waterfalls as well). I have already been to the area for the field trip at the beginning of the school year last September, but this was David's first trip. The sun was shinning and due to the 'warmer' weather the waterfalls looked spectacular! We followed the historic scenic highway, stopped at a few waterfalls and the View House at Vista Point to look at the view over the Columbia River. Our final stop was Multnomah Falls, which was packed with people enjoying the nice day.

After the strenuous hike to the top, we returned back down, chugged our water (which we left in the car) and left. We got lucky, because as soon as we were done, it began to rain, pretty much all the way home. We stopped and had lunch at Tad's Chicken and Dumplings, filled up on the delicious food (which I forgot to take picture of because I was so hungry after our hike, that I ate my food before I even though to take a picture). We drove home, thoroughly tuckered out, and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was great to get to share that with David, and make another memory for our anniversary.

End of Term Blues

OK, so I was living in Texas for majority of the last 10 year of my life before we moved here to Oregon. Everyone promised that it would be rainy, but by Memorial Day the rain would dry, the temperatures would rise and the sun would come out. I must admit I don't miss the Texas heat and humidity, but I do miss the sunshine. And for the most part Memorial Day wasn't an entire washout and the sun did appear periodically throughout the day. But now I am in my last week of classes and have two finals on Monday. The 'bummer' is that this weekend is supposed to be the nicest that we've had, well, since September. Sunny days with blue skies and highs over 80 degrees! And instead of being able to relish in the sunshine like I really want to, I have to be inside studying for my finals and writing my last ecological policy critique on marine protected areas. Can anyone come up with an excuse to be outside Saturday instead of inside? Please? Anyone...