Well I have been fortunate enough to have spent 2 of the last three weekends in Portland. It was great! Too bad now it is time for the nose to the grindstone and I need to get accustomed to Arizona, and working on Saturdays.
The last weekend in August I ran Hood to Coast with my mates from Nuclear Yellow P. We finished 7th is the men's sub masters category...because yes this is the first year that the whole team is over 30. Depressing I know. We are a co-ed team also but have 4 females running which does not qualify for co ed. I ran well, despite only training on the treadmill down here in Arizona, and had a great time up in Oregon, even if most of it was spent in a van and not at home.
The following weekend was labor day, and HM and I were fortunate enough to come up on Wednesday for work and just stay longer through the 3 day weekend. Thursday and Friday were fun, despite having to commute to Hillsboro for work. We did manage to see a lot of friends and even made it down to the Pearl for First Thursday. The rest of the weekend was mellow, relatively speaking, spent time at home and caught up with some folks. I also was frantically picking hops, which did really well this year. It was also nice to have a few other garden items to enjoy since I so rudely abandoned them!
So after that Han-Mei and I headed back to Phoenix on Monday for a busy post holiday week at work. It is amazing how quickly that restful long weekend disappears.
So this weekend is actually only my second weekend in Phoenix since I moved down here. I spent the better part of Saturday at work but squeezed in a nice dinner and a movie with Han-Mei that evening. Sunday however Han-Mei was studying for her last test so I had to get out of the house. I took advantage of the cooler weather up north and drove 2 hours to the Sedona area where I did an incredible hike. 16 miles up a canyon and then to the top of the canyon ridge where coming over the crest the entire red rock Sedona basin opened up. It was very cool. Sunburned and tired I still managed to make it back to our apartment by 4. The city of Phoenix may be bad, but I know definitely cannot trash this whole state.
