Before you ask...

YES, I've started to pack.

But just barely. We've been busy in the garden, on our bikes, drinking good beer and hanging around town.

The garden has surpassed my predictions and produced more peas and beans than we could possibly ever eat:
We hit the bridge pedal again this year with Laurel at our side and had a marvelous time. The greatest highlight once again being the Marquam bridge...and this year we had opportunity to ride it twice. A close runner up, however, was the new route that opened the whole of southbound 405 from the Freemont bridge to the Marquam.

Laurel snapped a shot of the Freemont overrun with bicyclists and said that she was going to to call it "the future"....brilliant. I had remarked about how fabulous it would be if this same route was opened up for the daily commute. What a blast eh?

We had a nice day for it, warm enough for short sleeves and little wind. And oh my goodness, the crappy little ice cream bars they give you at the end are most delicious after crossing the finish line...

-Ride Stats-
Pedal Mileage: 48
Average MPH: 12

Max MPH: 32

A couple weeks prior, we took in the OBF and sampled some excellent beers. I must say that the Saturday crowd wears on my nerves and I will make every effort to try to go on Thursday to try the beers at the top of my list. This was our method this year, we had a few tastes after work on Thursday night and then went for round two on Saturday morning with the out of town people. After a few hours of swimming through people I was spent. That said, I did get to just about everything on my short list either by my cup or a sip off another.
Favorites this year:

-New Holland's Oak Aged Ale, Dragon's Milk
-Lagunitas Imperial IPA, Hop Stoopid
-Green Flash Red Ale, Hop Head Red

...ah beer.

...ah Portland.