Oregon Coast

At the end of August the three of us were able to take a trip to the Oregon coast. We had a wonderful time and the weather cooperated the entire time. It was cool, but sunny. We started our trip in Pacific City and then drove north to Seaside and Cannon Beach.

The first half of our trip - Pacific City. This is a view of Kiawanda, the largest haystack rock on the Oregon coast

Self portrait at sunset

The sunsets were beautiful every night

Cape Kiwanda's giant sand dune and beautiful beach

Another view of the dune, the people climbing it provide some perspective to its size

Eric and Carmen bounding down the dune toward the ocean

This is what happens when you park on the beach and high tide approaches. They were able to get the van out but not without two tow trucks and a lot of effort

Eric talking with the lone stand-up paddleboarder in the surf

Heading north to Seaside we had to stop at the Tillamook factory...mmm espresso chocolate chip and Till-a-mint

On the lanai in Seaside at the Cove - thanks Aunt Barb and Uncle Jerry!

We were there less than ten minutes when we first spotted gray whales. They were feeding close to shore in the cove. Apparently they were spending quite a bit of time there to feed. By the evening we think we counted close to a dozen whales

"Show me your flukes!"

From Ecola State Park looking south to Cannon Beach and its haystack rocks

Self portrait

Playful on the beach; Carmen loved the sand and ocean

At the confluence where the Ecola Creek flowed to the sea; Carmen braved the surging tide to cool off with a little wading

Carmen's new friend, Duke, who is a corgi-German shepherd mix. His personality was amazingly similar to Carmen's

Breakfast on Seaside's Promenade and our last day on the Oregon coast

State Champions

On August 8th, Brandee's Category 4 women's team won the State Time Trial Championship for their category. It was 32 miles, 1 hour 23 minutes, and pure focus and effort. We were exhuasted, but we rocked it, beating the second place team by almost a minute! The cool thing is that we didn't have any of that fancy time trial gear...no skin suits, no aero helmets, and only two of our bikes even had aerobars.

Here we are very serious listening to our race instructions

This is our official photo finish. They stop your time when the front wheel of the 3rd bike crosses the finish line.

State Champions: Ann, Brandee, Camille, and Erica

Moody Blues

We survived the worst of the heat wave - though it's still going on! I think we got up to 101 & 104 for two days! On one of the hottest days we went with Dad to see the Moody Blues at Chateau St. Michelle in Woodinville. It was a really good concert and those old guys still rock!

Hot, hot, hot

Okay, we are once again behind on our blog...but since I'm home with a headcold, I can put a few pictures on the blog and show what we've been up to. It's been so hot this week that it's actually kind of scary. It's 7pm and still like 97 deg F. We don't have AC in our little cottage so we've been on serious heat management....

Here's a picture of a weather model from Cliff Mass's weather blog...

Happy Solstice

Happy Solstice! Where did the Spring go? Once again we are way behind on our blog, so I'll try to catch us up to date on this posting...

Summer is here, though it's been dry and warm since May! This is really unusual weather for us Western WA folk. Most of the road bicycle racing season is now behind us and we will be transitioning to training for the fall cyclocross season. The transition period will give us more time for other summer activities like camping, hiking, paddling, and some small road trips. We've also been working on our house and back yard a lot. It's fun to see it coming together now after two years in our little cottage.

A few Road Pictures and a video:

Brandee leading at the start of the Enumclaw Criterium.

Brandee at the Capital Criterium in Olympia. Mom and Doug even came to watch.

Check out this video recorded by one of our team mates. It's really good!

http://vimeo.com/5282092

The back yard project:
It all started with a huge pile of rock... Eric moved and placed all these rocks by himself! He did most of the backyard landscaping this spring. It's pretty impressive.

Rock under the deck and storage for paddle boards.

New path along side of deck

New path along side of house.

Here's the proud landscaper.

Finally, dinner on the new deck and the first of many to come...

A boy and his dog...

Spring Update

Happy Spring 2009! We are way behind on our blog because we've been so busy this Spring. We've been working, cycling, paddling, and doing house projects. We'll try to keep the blog better updated in the coming months.

House projects...a new screen door for the front door. It might seem easy, but nothing in an old house is square!

Eric and Dad built an awesome arbour for our kiwi vines.

Our newest hobby: Stand up paddle boarding! We bought some old wind surfing boards and paddles. We've already been out on the Sound several times.

Photo finish of Brandee's 2nd place finish in a 30-mile road race. Her best finish to date for road racing!

Some Cold Bike Racing

Eric and I have been training and racing road bicycles this year. This is different for us as we have dabbled in road before, but really only focused on the fall sport of cyclocross. We are having fun and doing pretty well, but many of the races have been COLD!

Check out this 5-minute video from our race last weekend. The video only shows the women's Cat 4 (my race). At 2 minutes into the video, we start our epic snowy climb over Manners Hill. I'm the 11th rider to cross the top of the hill and 4th in the pack sprint (second group to cross the finish line) at the end of video. Look for our green jerseys...

http://vimeo.com/3914371

Ann, myself, and Erica: some of the survivors of the coldest road race ever!!!