Saturday, August 16, 2008

A little different commute


Yesterday I decided to do a little something different on my commute back from Shelton. Rather than head east to I5 I went west and headed up into the Olympic mountains. I have had a few routes on my gps for a while that I was wanting to try out that skirt around the edge of the park on gravel. So on with the pics:


















I had to alter my route a little when I came across this. I was willing to give it a shot getting around the pic below...



















...but when riding solo, with my work laptop and other gear in the bags I was not willing to keep going past the spot below.



















This was heading back down to the highway. I had to cut out a little early so I could catch a ride home on the ferry.















Here is the ride back on the kingston to edmonds ferry. In the end it ended up being about 40 miles of gravel. If the weather holds out next week I am going to hit another section on the way home.




Friday, August 15, 2008

Daily Ramble -Found a new site to suggest who I should vote for. Guess there is not too much question there. Check it out...

Who should you vote for?
Barack Obama78
John McCain-6
You expected: Barack Obama
Your recommendation: Barack Obama

Party: Democratic
Born: 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii
Family: wife and two daughters
Career: Business International Corporation; NYPIRG; attorney and constitutional law lecturer
Political career: Member of the Illinois State Senate from the 13th district, 1997-2004. Incumbent Junior Senator from Illinois since 2005
Hot topic: Universal healthcare
Did you know? He is the only African American currently serving in the US Senate
Supported by: Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, George Clooney, Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ed Norton, Jennifer Aniston, Zach Braff, John Cleese, Leonard Nimoy and Brooke Shields

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Boston

Summary: It was a great long weekend in Boston. Boston, Cape Cod, Weddings, Friends.
Link to all the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/straughn/Boston_2008?authkey=HtA8G-mnisA


Well it was another great weekend this past weekend. I am a little groggy today after all the travel but I wish we were headed back out this weekend. I took Friday and Monday off and Natalie and I headed out on a red eye Thursday. We flew out of Seattle at 9:30ish and landed in Boston at 9:30 in the morning.

We kicked off our adventure in Boston by catching a cab to Natalie’s sisters place and promptly going to sleep. We got up around 1pm when Monica (Natalie’s sister) got home. We all caught up and then headed downtown to meet Natalie’s old room mate for a few drinks. Monica came along and her boyfriend Dave, who works downtown, met us down there. It was fun catching up and trying to get our bearings on what time it was.


After hitting a pre-wedding party where a bar had been rented out we headed out to Dave’s parents place in Cape Cod.


We woke up a little late the next day and spent the entire afternoon hanging out by the pool. I think my biggest decision that day was what float to get in when I hopped into the pool.

We finished the day off playing trivial pursuit with a good group. Never have I ever completely made up an answer and had it be correct. I have one word for you, “Robocup”….

Sunday was a rough day of packing up and heading back into Boston. It was tough to get motivated to head to the wedding that night but we rallied and were all glad that we did. The wedding was downtown and everyone had a great time. It was a great crowd and by the end of the night everyone was out dancing and having a blast.

We went out to the post party and then the post post party and ended up getting home about 3am. The beauty of visiting the east coast is that 3am was really only midnight our time. So… I can be an old man and still act like I am staying out late. All I have to do is fly to the other side of the country.

Here are a few pics of the later parts of the night.






Monday was a sad day. We woke up a little late and then met Monica downtown for lunch. After dragging out lunch as long as we could we could we hopped on the T and headed for the airport.

It was a great trip. It is funny how after we got back I remembered how much I love to travel. So now it is time to recover some funds and figure out where the next trip will lead. Hoping to head out to Mancation 2008 in the next few months.