Portlands MAX line from the airport.
Date: 07/15/2006
Yay I am here! Blue Skies! Their 'metro' is free into the city... at least I think it is. I know it was free INSIDE the city, in addition to their buses and trolly line.
Neat hill with pine trees
Date: 07/15/2006
This was taken from inside the max train (you can see the reflection slighly), but it is a good example of the terain out there. Hilly and green.
Marriott bathroom
Date: 07/15/2006
This is a pic of the luxurious bathroom I had at the conference in the Marriott! It was made of all marble and glass. I want my future bathroom to look like that!...yeah right :-p
My techie stuff
Date: 07/15/2006
I think I originally took this in case anything went missing or I lost it.... exciting, i know.
Sandcastles in Pioneer Square
Date: 07/15/2006
There was a sand sculpting contest when I arrived and for the entire weekend! Pioneer Square is the center of the city and there is something going on EVERY day and evening in this square. I must have heard 5 bands on diff days as a I walked by this square all the time.
Me on Pioneer Square
Date: 07/15/2006
A neat photo of my shadow looking down over a ledge at Pioneer Squares bricks.
Where the wild things are!!
Date: 07/15/2006
OMG! My favorite book asa kid.... in sand sculpture form! It was really weird at pioneer square with these sand things... it was meant for kids and families, but there were punk teenagers that still were hanging out there, it was a good mixture of people.
Saturday Market in Portland
Date: 07/15/2006
The Saturday market is actually over the entire weekend now, but it is a huge gathering of hand crafted trinkets, paintings, photos, and international food. I think I had some chinese that was supposed to be extra healthy.
Riverside fountain with sun
Date: 07/15/2006
I saw this fountain and photographed it really good last year, so I tried to get a different view of it. There were always kids playing in it.
Fountain with bike
Date: 07/15/2006
After I went to the fountain, I went to rent my bike for the week. It was $100 but worth it. Portland is THE biking town. PS: I remember having to wait around for a good 3 mins to get that biker framed JUST right ;-)
Eric in car on way to breakfast
Date: 07/16/2006
Next morning in the car with Eric. We went to brunch before a rock climbing excursion at Lewis and Clarke park.
Mancakes and friends!
Date: 07/16/2006
Eric, Kelly and their friends eating lunch with me. I regret to say that I do not remember their names despite me asking and reasking. Sorry! PS: look at my "mancake" pancake in the foreground!
Mt hood while driving
Date: 07/16/2006
Driving on the way to rockclimbinb viewing the awesome Mt Hood. That mountain is about 50 miles away at this point...it is HUGE. I rented a car for $20 bucks for the day so that I could leave rock climbing early for a meeting. I regretably have no pics of rock climbing but it was great! We went to a park called Lewis and Clarke park that was just before the columbia river gorge. When I climbed to the top of our climbing cliff it wasa good view of the columbia river and the start of the gorge.
Greek octopus!
Date: 07/17/2006
This was a from the next day at lunch with some people I met at the conference. We went to a greek place that had this huge octopus on the front! It was GREAT authentic greek food.
CollegeNET lunch budies
Date: 07/17/2006
This is the group of people from various Universities that I ate lunch with this day. I think I ate lunch witha different group of people each day. The collegeNET conference is really great for meeting others in my similar work position and talking to them about their experiences.
Cool skyscraper (as skyscraper as you get in Portland)
Date: 07/17/2006
After lunch I had to return my rental car from the prior day. I was filling up for gas and saw this neat building with a reflection half way up it. I couldnt figure out for the life of me where the reflection came from.
ETH lunch friends
Date: 07/19/2006
An unclear picture of 3 of some of the most interesting people I met in Portland. They were actually from Swizterland though, some of the only international customers at the conference! They attended my presentation at the conference and they treated me to a superb thai lunch. I was told later that their university (ETH) is considered very upscale and progressive in Europe.. possibly equivalent to our MIT.
After conference drinks, pics, and convo
Date: 07/19/2006
After the final dinner at the collegenet conference we went to the hotel bar and got drunk with attendees and employees. Afterwards I went on with some others to a karaoyokee (sp?) bar that was fun.
Ghost conjuring Mike
Date: 07/19/2006
That is my account manager, Mike, at collegeNET, hah. I think he is conjuring a spirit from the other side. Maybe that is how he works his magic with us when at work!
More hotel drinks
Date: 07/19/2006
Two of the ETH swiss people enjoying some drinks. I tried to convince them to do karaoke, but it was against their ethics . Understandable :-)
Smiley Rebecca from CollegeNET
Date: 07/19/2006
Thats Rebecca, another account manager at CollegeNET. She started last year when I came last year. Right before this photo, we enjoyed a very interesting conversation about how she wanted to jump an amish man with an uncanny sparkle in his eye. A story indeed.
Bridge into the city - Willamette River
Date: 07/20/2006
I headed to Erics house the next day and then went a biking (eric was in school for the day). This wasa bridge that goes back to down town while i was biking. Really pretty cityscape.
Boat on Willamette
Date: 07/20/2006
A boat from the bridge. I tried to be artisitic but the limitations of my PDA camera phone didnt make it what I envisioned.
I will conquer that hill and make it my beotch
Date: 07/20/2006
My goal in biking was to make it to the top of these huge, pretty, tree filled hills RIGHT above and next to the downtown. I KNEW it had to be an excellent view. Here is me looking up at the hills while I had some Quiznos.
Old brick wall and stairs
Date: 07/20/2006
A neat little forgotten brick cubby while I treked up the mountain on my bike. You can see the many steps I had to walk mybike up in the background. Little did I know, that was just the start of my 4 hr bike rendevous.
First city view
Date: 07/20/2006
I made it to the top! Sike. This is about half way up, looking out on the city. So beautiful!
Flowers 1
Date: 07/20/2006
If you look hard enough you can see Mt Hood through the flowers. My camera phone was NOT working with me here on this artsy siloutte photo that I wanted. I never got it to come out right, even with ~6 tries. I need a mini cam :-p It sure was convenient tho.
This Cityscape gave me asthma
Date: 07/20/2006
So, I biked up and up and up. It was a constant uphill in 100 degree weather with limited water. It got so steep that I was forced to bike up off my seat in a standing position, which I stubbornly kept up for about 6 mins straight. I got to the top and didnt realize that my body was in a heat stricken panik. 5 mins later I got a severe excercize asthma attack and had to sit and eat and rest for about 30 mins. Someone even offered to take me to the hospital :-/ I was good after a rest though and cludged on. This day was a WORKOUT.
Highest viewpoint!
Date: 07/20/2006
My goal is acheived! I beleive this was the highest point where you could still clearly view the city. The building that CollegeNET was in is the second biggest on the left.
I am Eric der wolfenheimer
Date: 07/20/2006
Eric looks like a german muscle man. Kelly needed glasses so we were having fun with the rediculous ones.
Ferret in a suitcase
Date: 07/20/2006
Hard to see, but there be a ferret in that yar suitcase! I think that that is Odo (otto?). Their ferrets are so cute and get in trouble. They kinda stink of musk tho, but you get used to it.
Throw that frisbee... right handed
Date: 07/21/2006
Eric posing during frisbee golf. This was the start of our long workout of a day in Estacada park. This was on a real frisbee golf course on state park land. really nice, but it was about 105 degrees or so. :-o
Nick tossin da disc
Date: 07/21/2006
Me actually throwing it. Look hard for a yellow disc in the air and you can tell I was WAY off of my target :-p Eric beat me right handed and left, but it was a close match both times.
Dicks quick lube
Date: 07/21/2006
Could NOT pass up a picture of this. They had to have known when they made the name... at least i hope.
Eric peeking the cliff
Date: 07/21/2006
After frisbee golf we needed to cool down. We headed to a rock cliff that eric knew of for us to jump off of into the frigid waters below. Eric is peeking around the smaller height of the cliff. He did a flip off of there that I got on video and that I will be adding later. The cliff was about 45 feet tall.
Nick jumping the cliff
Date: 07/21/2006
Me doing a 'simple' straight jump off of the cliff. Um yeah, simple, except that the cliff was 45ft high and you have to clear some rocks! It was scarrier this second time that I jumped, but i landed it more perfect this time around. The water felt soo good and it was crystal clear clean.
Valley on way to the lake
Date: 07/21/2006
We drove off to the east (maybe?), to a lake that Eric likes to goto in the same park. The lake supplies the water we were just in at the cliff jump. Eric brought skateboards to have an easier 1 mile venture from car to place of embarcation.
Sally the salamander!
Date: 07/21/2006
Eric found a couple of salamanders that were quite large, between the logs on the lake. These logs stretch the entire length of the lake and people are out on them partyin and basking.
Nick with sally
Date: 07/21/2006
She was a lazy, or sick, little salamander. It didnt move a whole lot until we put it back int he water and swam away. We were even able to put our towels and gear on the logs in a non-wet spot. I was afraid the phone (and camera I took this shot with) would get wet :-o ....obviously it didnt.
Light lake
Date: 07/21/2006
Ahh, much better. You can see some of the ppl partyin and also some jetskiers.
Eric and Kelly
Date: 07/22/2006
I thought the scene looked romantic when i first saw it, but eric moved his arm, i told him to put it back up and instantly it looked contrived. I think they were reading a sign about a Bud Clarke, old mayor of Portland that did a lot for the city.
Musical fountain
Date: 07/22/2006
Its not really musical, but it looks like trumpets or something. Neat fountain. To the right of it and less easy to see (luckily) someone was shooting up some drug and two bums took a bath. A contrasting city indeed. Eric and Kelly felt no need to sit anywhere else tho, so I guess at least those types of ppl are not obtussive.
Fountain 2
Date: 07/22/2006
Cool artsy shot of the fountain. My camera phone really did a decent job of this with the lack of light and all.
Ferret yoinking a raisin
Date: 07/23/2006
They loved the raisins and this was just too funny. They are so mischevious and will do whatever it takes to get what they want.
Bridge over the river kwai
Date: 07/23/2006
On the second to last full day that I was there, Tom Stott flew in from MD to visit with Eric, but we didnt have any time to hang out. They went on a 3 day car trip, so I stayed behind. On the last day I went on a bike ride on their Springwater (??) cooridoor. On google maps I saw that there was a arboretum, so this is it, along with the next few shots.
Arboretum trees path and foot bridge
Date: 07/23/2006
I hid Erics bike in the bushes and walked in under the bridge. The arboretum was closed early on sunday so I had to go at it mission impossible style.
Arboretum house between tree trunk
Date: 07/23/2006
There must have been neat stuff inside the grounds main building/house. Unluckily it was closed.
