Solstice Celebration in Copenhagen

In Denmark, the solstice celebration is called Sankt Hans aften ("St. John's Eve"). In accordance with the Danish tradition of celebrating a holiday on the evening before the actual day, it takes place on the evening of 23 June. It is the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people.
It has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings making a large bonfire to ward away evil spirits. In Christianhavn, the bonfires is on the beach, and there is a community event with a band and beer tent. The celebration was complete with the tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth on the bonfire to recall the witch burnings from the 16th Century.

The bonfire on the beach was impressive.

Amelia napped on the way to dinner.

Breakfast on the Bridges

A great way to start a Friday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=je4hzlw5K8g , VERY Portland!

I attended this month's and the camera crew must have gotten there after I left. I didn't get a late to work slip.

Lexington Street Block Party

Why on earth didn't we do this the first year we were here! We finally got around to having a Block Party. We had a great time with our keg, the band, and games for the kids that we didn't play because they were too busy enjoying having full range of the street. It was such a great way to spend the Saturday.

Tour De Lab

 
This is the ride that got Susan excited about road riding. She participated last year and the terrain was challenging for anyone that hadn't prepared with some training rides. This year, she was ready with her Trek Madone and the training we did for Tour de Blast. Still, it was a good ride with effectively three 400' climbs in the 30 miles of the route. We also added the trip from home to the Lucky Lab's NW pub on 19th/Quimby.
 
The tour visits all three of Lucky Lab's three locations, hopefully they get a fourth pub so they can make the ride a little longer next year. In this economy, it might take for a few more years.
The view from Council Crest was especially sweet, considering that was the top spot on the route and it was mostly downhill from here. The route took us down SW Vista, which was past the school I went to prior to middle school (Ainsworth).
 
We did the ride with Tina Farley, her friend Chris (pictured), and Chris' friend. The ride was well attended and the Lucky Labs were'nt meant to hold that many people at one time, but they did okay and we weren't there that long.  

Peter's Birthday Eve

7 AM - Woke up late, and went out into the yard to work on weeding and planting strawberries that Grandpa gave us awhile back. I finally got around to filling up the planter I made, so hopefully those strawberries will flourish next year. Started laundry.

8 AM - Had breakfast of waffles and apples with the kids. Susan made coffee. It was a birthday request. Hung laundry on the clothes line, one of my favorite simple earth saving techniques.

9 AM - started listening to OPB's Weekend Edition Saturday and cleaning up a little. Began to pack for the trip to Raleigh, NC for the TRB Signal Systems Meeting.

10 AM - walked to the park with Abby and Wally. We're dog sitting. Planning to head to Kurt's to borrow his truck to pick up patio furniture at Paul's house.

11 AM - Had a snack and started blogging a bit to recall when I am 90 what I did as a younger man.

12 PM - Started getting the kids ready to head over to the Kruegers. It is amazing to consider how long it takes to get them ready sometimes. Kurt is going to help us pick up some patio furniture.

2 PM - Had a scary moment on the Sellwood Bridge, we were on it at the same time as a fire truck. The weight limit for the bridge is 10 Tons and it is rated with a structural integrity of 2 out of 100. The bridge shook as the fire truck moved across it. Yikes!

3 PM - enjoyed some time with the Kruegers and reflected that we need more time with friends.

4 PM - Went to New Seasons Market to prepare for dinner in the bakfiets. Had to take the bakfiets to haul the bottle return in.

5 PM - Dinner Prep. Always a chore to get the kids to help set the table, but at least we're not breaking things as much as we used to.

6 PM - What was your favorite part of the day? Kurt and Monicas! is what the kids say.

7 PM - Watch Stage 15 of the Tour de France. Hincapie almost gets the yellow jersey, it was a good stage. Grading midterms from the PSU class.

8 PM - Bed time and snuggles with the girls.

9 PM - Folding laundry and packing. Getting ready for my birthday flight.

11 PM - Leave for PDX

12:25 AM - Fly to Houston and then onto Raleigh, NC for the TRB meeting.

Multnomah County Bike Fair

We dropped the kids off with Grandma and Grandpa so we could attend the Multnomah County Bike Fair. This year was the first time, there was a kids tent but alas a mixture of overly progressive folks, with 12 kegs of beer on a hot day is probably not the best environment for kids.  
Patrick McMahon joined us and was brave enough to bring both kids, so I guess we missed out.  
The event was good overall except for the chicken jousting, where on the first heat we saw a participant (the one with a straw helmet on) go down with a skull fracture. This made the event seem misguided in the worst way, but the rest of the activities on the tennis courts were tame considering the crowd and some of the participants.
 
It was another excuse to bike around the City going on different routes, so all in all we enjoyed the unseasonably warm day in our fine City.
 

Sunday Parkways NoPo - 1st of 3 in 2009

I love Portland. The bike events in the summer can not be beat by any community. It used to be that there were a few here and there, now there are so many that you have to make tough choices.
We chose to do Sunday Parkways the day after Tour De Blast, which was a bit questionable, but Susan and I decided that it might be a good idea to get our legs moving again, so we didn't just bike from Dad's house in Overlook, we biked from Sellwood to the event stopping to pick up the folks for the ride.

We got a bit of a late start and it was fun to see so many people on the way there. We ran into Greg Raisman who works at the City and he wanted to show us the new park that's going in next to Beach School, part of my old stomping grounds.

We took it slow with the girls (Abby on the trail a bike and Mia in the Bakfiet), but still got to Pennisula Park to see the Sprockettes. Abby said she wanted to be a bike dancer and that one of the girls was dangerous because she was standing on an upside down bike.

We ate a quick bite to eat and then ran into some friends (Jamie and Annie Parks and Carl Sundstrom). It was good to see Carl and we kept bumping into him throughout the ride.

Susan remarked at how many people I ran into on the ride. I saw Ellen Vanderslice, Mia Birk, April Bertelsen, and a few others from the transportation world. Susan also spent a little time talking the our friends at the Bike Gallery, it's fun to hear her talk about her bike and how much she loves it. (That's the third birthday in a row we've bought her a bike... and she thinks I have too many :)

On the way home, I asked the girls to pose for a picture before we headed back home. It was a combination of my favorite things... my family, biking, and Portland. It's a wonderful world.

Tour De Blast

Susan and I did Tour De Blast with our neighbors Matt and Tina Farley. Tina's friend Chris and her Dad joined us. Little did we know that we would meet up with friends along the way as it was a popular ride with almost 1,700 people tackling the mountain. The ride goes from Toutle High School up State Route 504 (Spirit Lake Highway) towards the national monuments on Mt. St. Helens.

The Tour De Blast website has a video summarizing the pats of the course, I think this picture of Susan is of the bridge that they highlight in the first minute.

Tina Farley and Susan at Mile 20, pounding on the pedals and taking it to the road. It was a chilly morning for the ride. We started about 8:30 AM after leaving Portland about 6:45 AM. It was a nice drive up to Toutle and the miles in the car flew back because of my excitement about the ride. This was the longest either of us had attempted to ride and while we had been training pretty regularly, it was a lot of elevation.

Details on the event include:

• 87K (54-mile) round trip to Elk Rock. (we cruised by that!)

• 132K (82-mile) round trip to Johnston Ridge viewpoint.

RIDE PROFILE:
Mile 0: 500 ft. (Toutle - Starting Line)
Mile 11: 1,000 feet (Sediment Dam)
Mile 16: 1,400 feet (Hoffstadt Bluffs - Pit Stop)
Mile 24: 3,000 feet
Mile 27: 3,800 feet (Elk Rock - Pit Stop)
Mile 34: 3,159 feet (Coldwater Ridge - Closed)
Mile 41: 4,314 feet (Johnston Ridge - Pit Stop

We encountered Jen Bachman, a cohort from DKS Associates and Lynn Petersen, a Clackamas County Commissioner and Current Chair and a few others.

It was a fun time, except for the last 10 miles.... I don't think the training prepared us for the downhill tucks that we did. We were trying to get back to the kids who were staying at Mike and Sara's.
They had a big sleep over at their house, which was a fun event for them. They didn't nap during the day on Saturday, so while we were exhausted, they were too, which made for a fun evening. It was for the best, we all went to bed about and hour earlier than usual.

Thanksgiving

Lots to be thankful for this year. We had a great Turkey Day and hosted the McConnell's including both sets of grandparents and my sister and her family.

Susan cooked a marvelous 22 lb. turkey that was from New Seasons. We had a busy day of getting the house ready and catching up on the housework since Susan was gone. James was the official photographer of the event and I am looking forward to getting photos from him.

Skyping with Mommy

We're talking to Mommy on the internet this morning. Skype is a very cool application. Susan is talking about her adventures snorkeling and seeing eels and octopus. It sounds like most of the time has been spent on the beach and checking out the natural wonders of Maui. She's describing the colors of the fish that they have seen.

Susan is enjoying her vacation, but misses the kids.

Today, Abby was invited to a birthday party during the Beaver game, which makes me Dad of the Year for giving up my rights to watch the Wildcats get beat by the Rose Bowl bound Beavs (fingers crossed!)

The pictures that I sent here are here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/peter.koonce/081124SusanOnVacation1#

Amendment to the post....
Maybe Skype isn't so great. The talk may have depressed the kids a bit. Abby has been a little down today and was pretty pouty when we went to the store and didn't get to bring home a toy (she wasn't listening very well, otherwise it would have been rubber lizards for everybody!) and Amelia was in tears when she was being put down at 1:45, which is early, but she definitely needed it. It looks like Abby rallied from the walk home from the store and is having a nice play date with Natalie.

Play Date at Sellwood Park

  It is rare to get a weekend day at the Park in November. I say that and it is so cliche, this weekend is supposed to be great and today was amazing (60 degrees and sunny in mid-November!
 Last weekend we jumped at a misty day to spend some time at the park with Julia and Natalie. We had a great time playing on the structures and walking around the muddy parts of the park.
  We had a little trouble getting the kids to stop for photos, but it wasn't too hard to get them to say cheese once they were stopped. Susan joined Sara and I a little later bring Parker down for a little walk.

Halloween 2008

 
Abby and Amelia went trick or treating with Katie and Lucy and Brinna. I joined up with Matt and Tina and Dorie and Eric. We had a great time and it was a beautiful night for walking around through the hood.

Highlights included Amelia being scared at a well decorated house. Abby being scared at one a few doors down, but showing resilient spirit when we challenged her to become a dragon and scare the house and its decorations back. Finally, being offered spiced wine was a nice gesture from one of our neigbhors, it was a cold night.

Lowlights included Amelia falling after stepping on her princess dress, recognizing that we don't know as many people in the neighborhood as our friends (they get out and walk at night a whole lot more than us), and having Susan stay at the house as opposed to walking the neighborhood with us.

4th of July Fireworks

 
 
 
 

080622 Sunday Parkways

  Portland shut down six miles of streets in North Portland including the Overlook neighborhood for cycling, walking, rollerblading, anything but cars.
  It was quite an ending to the Carfree conference which was held in Portland that week. What a great way to start a Sunday.
  Susan took Amelia and I had Abby on the trail-a-bike. The kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed the stops at the parks. We started a little late and they ended the Parkways a little early, we could have played for a lot longer with Patrick and Sadie. Patrick was visiting from Baltimore.
 

Breakfast in Westmoreland with Selman

We biked over to Fat Albert's (about a mile) away to have breakfast with Selman. It is one of the restaurants that made us want to live in our neighborhood. It is always packed, although it seems they just recently raised the price and that was keeping the line down a bit.  
We enjoyed Selman's company during breakfast and the girls behaved themselves marginally well. Selman took these pictures of us, I rode the kid pusher and puller bike which includes the Bobike seat and the trail-a-bike. It is a pretty good setup, but not quite as good as a bakfietsen.  

080503 New York Trip - Look no Bikes!

 We visited New York City with friends Kevin and Heather. They were great travelling companions, it seemed they got tired as we got tired and they did not want to stay out all night either. I wasn't sure if us older folks could keep up with the newlyweds, but we did quite well. We did a lot of walking throughout the few days including walking from around City Hall in Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge over to Grimaldi's pizza. There was a 35-minute wait for pizza. The pizza pies were good, but not that good. Brooklyn's downtown was a little sleepy on Saturday, I guess sort of like the financial district across the river on the weekends.
  Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, we had a nice stop for photo opportunities and Kevin kept clicking with his camera. All told, I think I got about half as many photos as he did, he had a lot of fun and I look forward to getting his pictures.
 
Susan arrived late (originally at 3:45), so getting into downtown was a little tricky with all the commute traffic, but it worked out okay. We raced over to the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for the pay-what-you-wish Friday. We got there at 7 after taking a cab through central park, which only allowed us about 30 minutes. Luckily that was all we needed as the exhibit was a bit odd and while it was good, I am glad we didn't pay the full pice admission of $18.

On Saturday - we went down to get our bikes and then we biked up the Hudson River waterfront path which was great. We then took the subway so we could walk through Chinatown and over to the Brooklyn Bridge and the South Street Seaport which encompasses a cobblestoned historic district.

After lunch we made our way to the the Brooklyn Museum of Art which was free 5–11pm the first Saturday of every month.

Sunday
The RIDE!
Monday

Eat somewhere for brunch (we found a good place that's open on Monday near the bike shop, so we biked down to return the bikes and then ate a breakfast).

We tried to stop by the Empire State Building, but the line was longer than we wanted to wait, so we ended up walking through Central Park back to the hotel so we could take the Subway up to Penn Station for Train to Newark Airport.