Catch Up Time

With all the packing, moving, unpacking, getting to know the new area, etc., etc. I haven't been keeping up on my blogging; fortunately I have been keeping up on my running. I can't really say the same for my swimming and biking but that's not a big deal since I'm starting my marathon training and running should be my primary focus.

Let me try to catch up on the last month with some pictures and a few words (this should keep the post short in terms of words but will make it a bit long in terms of pictures):

Last day of work in CA:

Loading up the moving truck in CA - this was one of the hottest days of the summer - I think it was around 108:

My buddy Chris stopped by to help carry a couple of really heavy things down the stairs:

The truck is pretty much full at this point - it went smooth at first while we loaded up boxes. Once we started loading furniture and random crap the going got rough, but we managed to get pretty much everything but the plants in the truck:

Driving North - I was in the Uhaul, Jen drove the car with the cat:

We arrived in Portland around 5pm and unloaded the truck with a little help from a local friend:

After acquiring the basic unpacking essentials we started digging into the boxes and putting our new place together:

Finally after a couple of days of hard work everything was in place and we had a home:

We headed over to the ocean for the day on Jen's Birthday:


Checked out the downtown area around our place:

And spent plenty of time in the rooftop spa:

We've also taken the time to do some hiking - here we are at Angles Rest in the Columbia River Gorge:

We saw a snake (Rubber Boa) on the way down to the car:

So I picked it up:

We also headed down to Silver Falls State Park to check out some waterfalls and do some camping:

So far it has been great living in Portland. We really like the area and have already found some great running routes. I've been out on my bike twice and swimming once but for now the focus will stay on running. We are running a HM on Oct 19 and the marathon is in December. Now that I'm caught up on the last month I'll start posting about running and my marathon training. I start work on Monday after having a month off. It will be nice to get back into a routine and I'm really excited about the new job; however, getting up at 6:30 is going to be a big change from 9:30.