Chillin in the Northwest

I went out with my wife and a friend recently to take a few pictures up around North Bend an Snoqualmie. We stopped at an old Mill pond and got some great shots of the mountains reflected on the water. At Snoqualmie it was amazing to see the moss covered trees down by the river. Just goes to show even the damp of the Northwest has it's own rewards.

 

And yes, we stopped and had lunch at Twin Peaks cafe in North Bend and tried some of the famous Cherry Pie. I've added a couple of pics from the day in the photo album and one below as a taster.

 

Got a new phone over the Christmas and decided to upgrade to a Smartphone. Have been trying to sync it with my mail etc for the last week or so. They should put a warning on the damn box that the phone requires a smart user! As it is the name is a bit misleading. I got the impression that it did the stuff that I am too dumb to do, but apparently only if I solve the riddle of life and figure out how get it working.

 

Do you hear that????? It's laughing at me....

Took a trip on the bike with some friends to Montana last week. Had a great time. We took highway 20 over the Cascades on the way out and stopped off in sandpoint Idaho for the first night. Beautiful ride and great roads. day two we headed for Whitefish Montana where we set up camp for a couple of das. Day 3 we headed up to Glacier national park and hung around there for the day. Day 4 we headed out of Montana, crossed Idaho and stopped in Grand Cooley in eaastern Washington. We hung out there for the afternoon/evening and visited the Grand Cooley dam after finding a campsite and pitching our tents. Day 5 we heaaded out for home taking 2 up over Stevens Pass and on home. Great trip! Photos posted in the Montana trip album...

Went on my first ever "Man Weekend" last weekend. Now ordinarily I would think there are many ways to interpret such a thing, but it turns out this is kind of like an extension of the Irish "Lads night out" but lasts longer. A friend has a cabin in Leavenworth and so 5 of us went up to spend some quality time drinking good whiskey/beer, eating plenty of red mead and smoking cigars. This also coincided with the Oktober fest that has been hosted in Leavenworth for the last few years (who knew!) 

It was also a great excuse to take the bike over the mountains. Something I've been meaning to do for a while but never got around to it. I left work at about 4.00 and set off on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Since I travel light on the bike, my contribution to the proceedings was the very space economical large bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey. I arrived at 6.30 (the rest of them were already there enjoying a couple of beers on the deck) and was handed a cool refreshing beer. After that Blake cooked up some incredible Rib eye steaks on the grill (this man has a serious talent). Having downed the largest piece of steak I have ever seen it was time to retreat to the fire pit, talk shite, drink good liquor and smoke cigars.

Rest of the highlights (that I am permitted to speak of) included a great afternoon/evening in Leavenworth at Oktober fest, plenty more red meat and alcohol and a very enjoyable ride home on Sunday afternoon. Today, Tuesday, my system is still recovering from consuming that much red meat and alcohol in such a short period of time. I'll post a couple of photos taken at Stevens pass on the way over just to chronicle the first crossing of the Cascades. No other pictures were permitted in order to preserve the mystic that is the 'Man Weekend"