If you called....

and you got the voice mail, this is why...

Symptoms:
- mosquito bites
- sand in shoes
- warm beer
- berries
- itchy kitties
- dinner outside
- farmers market
- sandals
- sunscreen
- water...lots of water

...it's properly Summer.
Spring made no appearance, but summer is definitely here. And where there is summer, there is busy.

We spent last weekend at the beach for the Brewers Games and a small charity beer festival put on by Pelican Brewery in Pacific City.


Joe participated with a hodgepodge of other Portland Brewers- competing against 12 other breweries/distributors in some whacked out beer olympics.
















I watched from the sidelines as this motley crew tossed, dragged and ran with kegs through obstacle courses and around the beach, threw active yeast in balloons to each other, moved mashed grain from barrel to barrel, and drank and obliterated macro-brews on a homemade iron-maiden.

It was quite a show and lasted pretty much all day. We retired to a small cabin across the way from the brewery and sat around the fire rehashing the best and worst moments of the games and planning for 364 days later when they could compete again.

It was a pleasant and pretty drive to Pacific City; we returned home and promptly recreated a beach environment by introducing half the beach onto the living room carpet.

This past weekend we took in the Organic Brewer's Festival which had many contrasts from our attendance the previous year. It was beautiful, sunny and packed with people. My only complaint is that I went in thinking I'd save my favorite brew of last year, Alameda's IPA, for last and as I approached the tent with my last ticket a pathway cleared in front of me showing the way...literally...people had gotten out of line because the keg was tapped. Lame.

Otherwise it was a pretty low-key weekend. Hung out at the Saturday farmers market at PSU. We stood-in for a friend, volunteering at a bike event doing helmet fitting-which I am very bad at and Joe is not. Biked to and from the bike event (seems only fitting eh?) in the 100 degree weather and spent the later evening walking around the garden and enjoying a beer. Sunday was a relaxing day, spent out at Sauvie Island picnicking and having a little bit of frisbee.

ah....summer.

On the Gorge...

On Saturday I thought home inspections were exhausting.

On Sunday I knew the true meaning of exhaustion as I tumbled out of the car when we arrived home after hiking 14 miles on Eagle Creek.

It was an incredibly beautiful day to be out on the Gorge, the trail was mostly shaded with some sun breaks and spirits were high all around.

This trail is a favorite of ours...we've enjoyed it in many different seasons and have back-packed it...each time the trail has something different to offer:

Chilly morning hikers

Throwing rocks into the gorge below

puddle jumping

wet feet

shoe drying

into the tunnel

Good Hike.

Creating a new stomping ground.

In the last few weeks, we've been making trips to Eugene for meetings, to have a look around and see about housing etcetera...

Yesterday, we booked Andy for the day and went to check out the Sasquatch Brew Fest.

It was about the same scale as the Organic brew fest in Portland, small. We hit the scene early and had no line to wait in for ID check and no lines for beer. Even as the festival grew more crowded, there was rarely a wait.

Highlights:

Actual souvenir glasses, generous pouring by the volunteers, the India Pelican Ale (twice enjoyed), the unabashed and loquacious nature of the locals and, of course, the good company.

Having arrived a bit early, we also had opportunity to wander the farmers market, which occupied quite a bit of space, was fun to walk around and made my heart swell, in thinking of future visits.

I think we're going to like it here.

49 nifty United States...wait that doesn't rhyme

While enjoying a quick walk around our yard and sitting down with a beer to watch the rain clouds roll in last night we witnessed the disappearance of a state.

Our next door neighbor has a car parked outside with an Arkansas license plate, he's 'car-sitting' for his brother.

While sitting on the concrete in our side yard completely hidden from the street, two chatting teenagers strolled by. One stopped at the foot of our driveway and as I peeked through the cracks of the fence, she looked at the neighbors car and said very pointedly "how rude, Arkansas isn't even a state!"

Maybe it was a joke? Or, maybe it was a flashing red light in the face of their education...

...sigh.