blue skies to full moons

It's always hard to stay inside when you look outside to a beautiful blue-sky day. So as soon as we got home from work last Tuesday we made sure to take advantage of it. We jumped in the car and drove up to Columbia City to grab some Jones' BBQ to go, then to Seward Park, which sits on a peninsula on Lake Washington.
We missed most of the sunset (it goes down so quickly this time of year) but were able to enjoy the soft glows of pinks and oranges as the sun faded into night.

Mt. Rainier rising so eloquently on the horizon over Lake Washington


Brooke, taking some quiet out of a busy day to enjoy God's serene creation


I love every minute spent with this man...


It's always a good day when BBQ is involved!


Grubbin' hard on some Jones'


A perfect 70F day for a kayaker to be cruising by at the base of Mt. Rainier


The alpenglow of the mountain....awesome


After the sun set, we took a night hike/walk through the park. Much of Seward Park is Rainforested, and has many hiking trails that take you throughout the park. The nearly-full moon lit most of the surrounding landscape, and created a beautiful glow upon the lake.

Run Like Hell / Portland

this past weekend we headed down to portland, oregon. andrea found a half marathon [13.1 miles] that sounded like fun. every year portland puts on the 'run like hell halloween marathon.' costumes were encouraged, though seldom were seen. as andrea ran, brooke rode his bike around this beautiful city to cheer on the runner in the family. once again, andrea conquered the pavement and finished ahead of her 2:30:00 goal by finishing in 2:11:54. CONGRATULATIONS wonderful wife!

leaves on the ground, crisp air, good running weather.

sporting the marathon bling!

look at the smile. still upbeat after 13 miles!


run like hell scott ryan...run like hell.

we spent the day before the marathon checking out the city. portland is a nice town with colorful flavor. we could have spent longer after our recent finds!

while in pioneer square, we rounded the corner to find people hanging
out of this building and yelling. hip-hop was blaring which could
mean only one thing... i snowboarding contest in downtown portland!
brooke searched the crowd vigorously for mike weyer; sensing that he
would be present at a downtown snowboarding competition. mike,
were you there?

this is what downtown portland and snowboarding have in common.
there was a little ski shop that threw up some jumps and covered them
with snow behind their building. very entertaining....very portland.

we even saw some "Benson Bubblers." installed during the logging-era by
timber king Simon Benson to keep loggers away from the 'evils of whiskey.'

brooke found two new friends.

and another friend who likes salmon almost as much!

she said she wanted a family of river otters.

three of a kind. [still sporting the marathon bling.]

after we got cleaned up from running and biking, we headed over to
the 'hawthorne district' to meet up with brooke's friend josh who has also
recently relocated to the northwest to intern for portland fellowship. brooke
and josh went to college together and were both involved in campus crusade.
it was great getting reacquainted over brunch at 'jam on hawthorne.' we
hope to be seeing a lot more of josh in the days to come...what a quality dude!

a great end to a great weekend!

salmon and skateparks

when you live in the midwest, the seasons are told by the changing in the leaves' colors. from green to red, the weather begins to settle in around you and lower temperatures shove you deeper into your jacket. the chill in the air, the crunch of the leaves beneath your feet let you know that fall is indeed here to stay for a while.

the pacific northwest is much the same...although they don't gauge the season's change by the leaves [although there are plenty of leaves to crunch]. they chart the season's change by the salmon run. what a beautiful display of tragedy. on a four year cycle, hundreds of salmon return up stream to their birthplace to mate, lay eggs, and die. we are lucky enough to live three blocks away from the cedar river. sockeye salmon were transplanted to the cedar river about eighty years ago and have flourished.

how cool is the renton public library?

the view up the cedar river from the renton public library.

from the salmon lookout at the renton library.

as we walked the bike path up and down the river we could see the
sockeye salmon's display of purpose.

these salmon were about 24 inches long.

my beautiful wife!

as we began the trek back home, i couldn't help but notice that the renton city skatepark was in our path. i love sitting and watching folks of all ages and ethnicity skating and biking among the mounds of concrete. note: if you are on a city council, do your neighborhood a favor and build a skatepark for the kids/adults!

right.

center.

left.

i feel the sentiment. i always wanted to make a sign with this same
message and hang it at the put-in-bay ferry dock.

we've seen forty year old guys riding the bowl reliving their california
glory days all the way down to six year olds showing off for their moms.

these guys were smooth!
i could've watched for way longer than an hour!

this guy makes we want to buy another skateboard and learn to ride again.

my lovely wife playing in the leaves on the way home!
one of her favorite fall activities!

cartoon husband

there's my cartoon husband...just hanging out on a thursday evening. not up to much good...just reading up on 'Into the Wild.' Have you heard about it? Read the book...see the movie. we're heading up to Bellevue tomorrow night to see it. Should be good stuff.

www.intothewild.com

willamette valley, or

Time for a change of scenery. Our favorite destination (Mt. Rainier) now has about 10-18 inches of snow, and, well, we're just not fully equipped with our snow boots and coats and stuff quite yet. So we decided to get out to a place where the trees are a burning color of fiery red to the Willamette Valley, located between the Coastal Mtn. Range and the Cascade Mtn. Range in Western Oregon.
We took a few detours on our already-unplanned-route to check out the small towns of McMinnville, Corvallis, Philomath, & Silverton, with many local wineries and farm stands littered along the course.
All in all, it was a beautiful weekend in a new area.
Enjoy:

the largest airplane ever built in the world. howard hughes called it 'the hercules;'
the majority of the world calls it 'the spruce goose.' to tell you how big it was,
if you know anything about airplanes, that's a silver DC-3 under the wing on the right.
under the other wing? a lockheed SR-71 blackbird. yes, under the wing.
this thing is a monster! you might have seen this beast featured in the movie, 'The Aviator'

boy did brooke's eyes light up when he rounded the corner and found a
ford tri-motor. he's not an aviation buff, but the ford tri-motors hit his heart
in the childhood spot. flying home over ice-covered lake erie in planes like this
just warms his heart!

big, old, orange trucks warm andrea's heart!

what would a visit to a museum be with out raiding the kid's exhibit!

the kids were giving us strange looks!

fall is officially here. time to change your desktop to this!
send us a picture of you with your [this] desktop and we'll post it,
and send you something cool from washington!

andrea found a new friend at the corvallis river park. a little river otter!

brooke found a friend the next day. we're going to move to a farm
and raise goats and alpacas. did you guys think washignton was the
final destination? you were all wrong...
alpacas are the final destination!

talk about confusing road signs!

oregon boasts more covered bridges than any other state.
after a while, they all look the same.

see?! the same. just taken from a different angle.
this one had a nice little wayside park. the perfect
place for fall photos!

so happy together!

my beautiful wife!

isn't this a great autumn picture? great lookin' guy next to a beautiful bridge?...sigh...

look at that sly grin!

the last bridge was a little different.

if found, please return to the open road.

ps - read all about a couple's adventures and lives in pensecola, fl. tell O Rustypants, My Rustypants that the trisler's sent you!