Labor Day Weekend

Boy, was it nice to have this weekend off. My first week of work was loooooong. Ok, that probably sounds stupid to those of you who have been working for awhile, but it's a huge transition from college, where you are kind of working all the time and don't really have weekends to 8-5 with real time off. Working that early in the morning isn't SO bad, really...especially since it's only a 10 minute bike ride to work on great bike lanes. I didn't really do too much this week except have a few meetings, create a few spreadsheets, and do some research. I spent a lot of time wandering the internet, learning about mortgages, and trying not to fall asleep in the mid-afternoon lull of drowsiness. I'll write more about my job later I think, because this wekeend was reallllly busy and worth writing about.

First of all, on Saturday morning I rode my bike down to the Farmers' Market, which was really cute. Better than Ann Arbor's, I have to admit. For one thing, there's a wider variety of things just given the environment/growing climate. Also, there were three different folk bands playing, a cool fountain set into the ground so that little kids could play in it, nice benches in the shade along the riverfront walkway. I wanted to take pictures but I forgot my camera, so I'll take some when I go back in two weeks.

The next afternoon we headed up to Portland for a potluck dinner with our other VISTA friends. We ate some good food (we brought cookies) and played Apples to Apples so that was really fun. The next day Aaron and I and two other VISTA-types Kris and Becky went hiking in Mount Hood National Forest. We drove 6,000 feet up the mountain to the Timberline Lodge, parked, and hiked a little bit up the Pacific Crest Trail.






For the first part of the trail, it was pretty desert-y and rocky. There was smoke in the air from wildfires on the east side of the mountain. Mount Hood is only about an hour outside of Portland, but it was pretty desolate once you got up there.















Kris and I hiking down the little Zigzag Canyon.





Here I am at the actual Zigzag Canyon, with Mount Hood in the background. You could actually ski at Timberline Lodge in the summer - we saw lots of people with skis and snowboards getting hauled way up the mountain to ski. It wasn't quite as far as the snow you can see in this picture, but it was pretty far away.









Hike hike hike across part of the Pacific Crest Trail.












So, here's the whole Mount Hood, in all its snowiness and tallness.
















Kris and I hiking down into Zigzag Canyon.



A view of Mount Hood from down in Zigzag Canyon.
Zigzag Canyon from up top.

Fuzzy trees! All the trees had this fuzz on them.


Thanks to Kris, we also have proof that Aaron was there. Here we are, filling out our card to enter the wilderness area.

The obligatory cute couple shot with breathtaking view.

Well folks, it's time for bed. Aaron and I just finished watching "A Fish Called Wanda" - great movie. Work tomorrow and only a four day week!