What was I thinking?

I'm sitting in the house on Friday night thinking about my Saturday ride and I say, "hey, Rick (a cyclist from work) said the Bald Peak ride was a good one." Well, it was a challenging ride with about 1600 feet of climbing over 8 miles. It felt a lot like a day I've described earlier when Jens and I went for a "7" type of ride day up Mulholland. I made it work though and plan on riding it again this coming week. Something I learned is that it might be 40+ in the valley but after 1600 feet of climbing, the temperature is quite different. The view from the top was incredible. I could see four snow covered mountains. In consulting with the experts, they must have been Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Bachelor, and Mt. Rainer. It is hard to put into words the beauty of the scene. These snow covered mountains with a little clouds, some blue sky, evergreen trees all over, looking down on farmlands in the valleys. I would have hung out a bit longer but it was too cold. I started my descent, pedaling only to stay warm but really cruising.



Although the ride this week was great, there was two other things that were much better. First, we drove out to Lincoln City yesterday to have lunch. Lincoln City has a special place with Christine and I since we spent our honeymoon there. We ate lunch across the street from the hotel where we stayed after our marriage. The food was great and the ambiance better. I could not help think about how different the circumstances were yesterday than they were some 15 years ago: two college students with no kids and an unknown future. After lunch, we drove to see the "Spruce Goose" at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. It was a nice day.



The highlight of the week was going to the Portland Temple with Christine, revisiting the spot where her and I got married. It was a magical night then in 1992 and it was again this last Tuesday night.



Portland is proving to be all we had hoped it to be.