Weekend of Endless Energy...

This weekend, marathon training called for a 20 mile run. I was mighty dismayed when I found out that BOTH of my training partners were going to be at the coast, thus leaving me on my own for a beast of a run... I was SO relieved when Anna told me they had room at their beach house, so Brian and I drove out to the coast on Friday afternoon to hang with that crew. Anna's husband Travis's mother invited us out to her home in Beaver, OR for a salmon dinner, which was amazing. :) Prior to dinner, however, we had another classic KP moment. Brian has officially decided that he is in charge of directions after this one... I say "OKAY!". :) To get to the Southern Oregon coast (where we were going), there is a bit of a bypass on highway 6 that cuts diagonally across the state. I, um, sort of missed that in the directions, so we drove all they way west to the coast, then took highway 101 all the way down. Neither Brian nor I minded the scenic route, especially since it was his first time seeing the Oregon coast, however, I felt like a total idiot. A drive that should have taken maybe 2 hours took us over 3. Oh, and to make matters worse, when we got there, we were greeted by Travis's stepfather saying, "Oh, so you are the ones that always get lost...". Nice. :)

Anyways, the next morning, we met at 7 and hit the road. We had an amazing day for a run - not too hot, not too cold. It was super peaceful to run out on the country roads... kind of reminiscent of home. :)


Anna, KP, and Michelle... post run and still smiling. :)

After the run, I was pretty ready to hit the road, so Brian, Anna and I headed out to the Pelican Bay Brewery in Pacific City for a well deserved burger and beer. :) It was actually my first time in Pacific City, so it was a little strange for me to see cars driving on the beach... not very picturesque to be honest. But, the drive afterwards was... :)

I actually put in about 22 miles on Saturday... we did a little hike out to Cape Lookout (okay, not all the way, as we decided that since things were so fogged in it was kind of pointless! :))


View of the Oregon Coast on the 3 Cape Scenic Route... This was the last thing I saw before totally passing out. :)


Brian and KP... we had such a nice afternoon. :)

After getting home, we had a couple of hours, and then the non-stop weekend continued with a concert at a smaller venue in Portland. We saw the Temper Trap, one of my new favorite bands, but I also really liked the opening band, Blue Giant. They are a local band and sing a lot about finding the sun and gray skies. hehe - go figure. ;)

Sunday was my maiden voyage on my new bike. It's much, much different than my Dutch bike, including the fact that it is WAY lighter. :) I went out with Brian and my good pal Allison on a little waterfront tour. They are both pretty experienced bikers, but were super patient with me. I kind of felt like a 7 year old all over again... but I guess you have to start somewhere. :) I was doing pretty well until a darn train track jumped up and grabbed my tire... um, or something like that. Anyways, I bit it pretty good, and have some nice scrapes on my leg to show off tomorrow. :) I guess the first crash had to happen sometime, so I'm glad to get that over with. :) I'm going to start riding in to work with Allison a couple of times a week, so training for the triathlon has officially commenced. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends!!! Lots of love from PDX! :)