How many beer festivals are here?

On the afternoon, we attended a sweet organic beer festival with all kinds of yummy fresh beers and ciders. Plenty of goodies to try and people to chat with. Afterwords, our friend Ashley told us about clothes sweep at Bridgeport brewery, where you bring in some gently used clothes and for few bucks are able to roam piles of clothes that others have brought. Granted I'm not big on clothes (even though I'm big on reusing), i know a girl who loves this stuff - Michelle. She got a nice bag of pants, shirts, and jackets and was quite a happy camper. Little shopping afterwords for dinner and we are now relaxing at Marcs, watching some TV. Going to have to wait few days to see if we qualify for the 1bedroom place we applied for yesterday.

In other news, we watched a movie yesterday and played some board games in the park. Then, unexpectedly got us, the park transformed onto a stage for aerial acrobats, which were very cool. Thank you, Portland, for free fun entertainment :)

Portland, day 2 and a half.

After the first day of not so lucky apartment hunting, we have gathered good amount of information and learned few things. We also got library cards  which is extremely exciting for those of you who know anything about Michelle and i :)
Information desk also helped us our about some resources of apartment hunt and general Portland info. Libraries are gold mines of information, and we will take advantage of them like ants would of cubed sugar - swiftly, and with no reservation!
Day two, we were more prepared and jumped at a potential 1 bedroom opportunity, which was under or budget and is located in the North East. Now waiting for all the paperwork to go through, and we expect to get a "Yes". How to celebrate our potential victory? Thai food truck, that's how. Great good, under $6 that filled our bellies with nutrition, flavor and warm hope.

Once things start happening, more updates about or lives will be coming soon :)

Muir Red woods

We did check out red woods. Here is the proof.

In the Library, researching for appartments

After arriving to Portland yesterday evening and enjoying our first night with local brews and food, we started the day today with proactively searching craigslist, calling up peoples and setting up appointments. Not long after, we went to the library (it was raining, can you imagine?) got our library cards, lots of more information and printed out sheets of places to visit. The next few days will be filled with walk throughs, applications, and depositing directly, but we will certainly find a place we like for the price we can afford! With two people doing all the leg work, I bet it is twice as easy to find something reasonable and Michelle and I are determined to do just that.
We are looking at South East primarily, but also in North East and Central Portland. Public transportation is very good here, so we will mostly be biking, taking the MAX and doing short bursts of jogging between buildings and bus stations during frequently infrequent rain sessions.

Once we have something substantial - pictures and address will follow.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone :) We will do just that as well!

Yes, yes. Snapshots.

They are out of order, but i figured better this than nothing :)

San Fran

By chance we stayed right on famous route 66 in Arizona and after 9 or so hours of driving we finally arrived into Berkley.

Spent a fun evening with Amy and her roommates who play super smash brothers, are all in the band and take summer classes. So young, just finished their first year,  it was fun to chat with them about cooking and classes and college experience, all while Michelle and Amy went to grab few groceries and beers. Amy was so hospitable, she even insisted on sleeping on the couch while we rested in her own bed.
She made us a map if things to check out in the city but our adventure led us to other places. We checked out pier 39, a popular tourist area, had some beer samples in the afternoon, got a caricature of our beautiful faces and went onto many other little shops. One was a puzzle store where we played with brain teasers and logic puzzles. There was also a cool game where electrodes are attached to the forehead of a person and brain signals and heart beat is recorded. Whoever is most relaxed, moves a ball into opponent's corner. With your brain. Very cool. Seeing how relaxed i usually am and how excited Michelle is, the game should be a no brainer, right? WRONG. she schooled me on the relaxation three times in a row. I didn't have a chance. Goes to show you - never underestimate the lady with her brain.

When in San Fran, ride the bike and oh we did. Whole 5 or 6 miles of wrong turns with crazy winds and heavy bike frames and an insane amount of obstacles.
We did make it to the place to eat only to find out that it was closed for 2 hours. Hungry and tired we got a lyft to Chinatown and devoured some hunan goodness. Things started to look up. Or car was parked sind distance away and we had to rush to avoid the ticket. Another success - no ticket!

Nathan was getting out of work and we spent a lovely evening at his place enjoying stouts, music,  and book conversations. In the evening he even brought us atop of a hill from which you can see the whole city. It was cold and rainy and foggy, but we did anyway. But only after he showed us a ridiculously yummy burrito place, with which our bellies were stuffed. Yum.

One last thing to do in California was top check out the golden gate bridge. We left the activity to the last leg of our adventure.
Turns out, fog is a bitch :) but we did it anyway and even snapped some sweet shots.
Few hours of driving to a winery and a lavender farm concluded this phenomenal trip.

Or was that the conclusion?..

More pictures

Some slices of ducks and road views.

Summer solstice weekend

At a hostel, we met a German couple who was traveling with their 7 month old baby. They were fine, taking their time visiting different national park. The reason i say this is that if you really want to travel, then not even your own baby can stop you; babies are weak, after all.

Saturday was filled with an amazing drive through beautiful Utah. While it took us way longer to take scenic routes, it was immensely rewarding because we stopped at Kiva coffeehouse for tasty grilled cheese and lentil soup, and, of course, coffee. It was my first time to have just black coffee.

Bryce canyon visit in the second half of the day. Lots of pictures. Ducks had fun. Utah truly is a beautiful place, something i did not think about since Michelle was the one planning all the national parks. Boy, was i enjoying the surreal landscapes: from desserts to mountains, to an oasis gently tucked away between hills, to forests to flatlands.

We camped overnight right near zion national park. While i set up a tent, Michelle built a sweet sweet fire. Soup, salad and wine before we passed out with ease.

Sunday
Write up early, at 5.30, and were driving through Zion national park on even an hour later. Indescribable beauty, so pictures will suffice.

Stopped by a ranch where Michelle was able to pet bunnies and ponies and look at baby ducks and baby chickens and a baby pony. She was exceedingly exited, not because she had a tasty coffee earlier but because she is just that kind of a person- exited about life and animals. I mean, come on - baby animals :)

On our agenda today: antelope slot canyon tribal park and a slice of grand canyon.
Both are mesmerizing wonders of nature that makes a person feel so small. I did imagine grand canyon to be bigger though :)

Kiva coffeehouse

Escalante, Utah

Guest Post! Hot springs, camping and Utah.

So, this is Michelle here. I have a very good reason for writing this post. You see, Dima had written and very long, lovely post full of pictures and his silly jokes, but, unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in  cyberspace. He was very disappointed about it, because he worked so hard and re-writing was so daunting. So, he suggested that I write a guest post. Since he's been working so hard making sure you all are updated on our adventures here and doing such a great job, I thought I'd help him out :)

We had a great time in Denver. I made challah french toast with the leftover challah bread from the Shabbat dinner the night before, then our first stop was... an oil change for my car! But that's okay, Dima used the time to plan out our day and research some options for food and activities.

Our first (real) stop was Falling Rocks Tap House, which was fantastic. 92 beers on tap, enough said! I had a delicious sour red, and dima loved a pear cider aged in tequila barrels.

"No Crap on Tap"

Next, we wandered for a bit looking for lunch and found the big bear statue called "I Know What You Mean," and I found some fellow Bruins fans, turns out the guy also grew up in Milton MA! Small world.

We then met up with dima's friend Jaeda at Snarf's Sandwiches, which was super delicious, and I appreciated the choice of white or wheat bread :) Jaeda brought us to a couple different breweries, first The Denver Beer Company, then Wynkoop, and finally Breckenridge. It was nice wandering the city, even with the sporadic rain, and Jaeda was excellent company. I made a friend at Wynkoop because I liked his tie, and he bought us a round of "Grasshopp-ah," a delicious cider with hops and lemongrass. At Breckenridge we sampled flights of beer, and had some French Onion soup- yum! Anyone who knows me -at all- knows how much I love the stuff.

Dima and Jaeda at Denver Beer Co.

After all that beer, our next logical step was- Pizza! Ian's Pizza was really good, I'd never had Mac n' Cheese pizza so of course I had to try it. Then we went to 1Up which I LOVED. Dima was a good sport, he was tired but put up with me because I was getting really excited about all the old school videogames. I got to play Super Mario Bros, Paperboy, Donkey Kong, House of the Dead II, and of course, Buck Hunter. Oh, and South Park Pinball! That one's the best. It was so fun.

(Yes, I get to write more than Dima because I'm on a computer, and he's been writing the whole thing on his phone. So, sorry!)

The next day, we (I) decided we'd spend an extra day in Colorado instead of heading straight to Utah. We went to Red Rocks, which was fun to see, a bunch of people have played there from the Beatles to Bob Marley to Jimi Hendrix. On our way West we stopped in Evergreen, a small town that my mom said she remembered being really nice, which it was! Thanks, Mom! The best part was a woman named Joanne that I met in a glassworks gallery, she was making glass art in the corner as we walked in. She was really cool, and told us about a festival in Oregon that we need to visit in July. I bought a glass hair noodle for my hair. What's a hair noodle you ask? Ask away, I can't explain, but I can show you when I see you next.

Red Rocks Ampiteatre

The lovely town of Evergreen, CO

After driving through the Rockies, which was amazing, we finally stopped in Glenwood Springs CO, where we made camp at Ami's Campground and then went to visit the Hot Springs. These springs and bathouse have been around since 1888!!! You could tell, the pools were all made of slate, it was very awesome and relaxing. Back at the campsite we heated up some soup over our small propane stove and got to have a small fire and some wine. We sliced up some potatoes and folded them into foil packets and put them in the embers, which we covered with rocks so we could have them for breakfast :)

"I want to see mountains, Gandalf! Mountains!!"

In the morning we broke camp in record time, and it was on to Utah! We stopped first at Arches National Park, which was breathtakingly gorgeous. It was very fun, we hopped around rocks and took a lot of pictures. We got a room at The Lazy Lizard Hostel, and after all our adventuring, we were pretty tired, so we decided to just get lunch and hang around Moab instead of continuing onto the Canyonlands. I know, it would have been amazing, but we are going to be seeing some amazing things in the next few days, and we needed a rest! So that's where we are now, and this is where I leave you. Dima has made some chicken in the kitchen here at the hostel, and I have a nice cold cider next to me that needs drinking. So, goodbye friends! For now.

Traditional shabbat dinner in Denver

Stopped by a little town of Brewster for a break in between and for some ice cream.
At one of the ready stops, an old Ford model (still drivable) was parked along with few other old cool vehicles. It was a museum. The ducks felt at home, our at least in their time frame.

Driving toward Colorado wasn't as bad, only about 650miles from our Kansas stay. Fields of corn and cattle came and went, wind turbines turned, audio books shuffled and snacks have been munched on. Once the border was crossed, and Michelle saw the  mountains- she became very excited since she hasn't been in Colorado since she was 2 year old.
Our hunger for excellent beer and food was insatiable but we attempted to satisfy it anyway with some gourmet hot dogs in Denver: I got rattle snake + pheasant and Michelle enjoyed wild boar. All while drinking craft beer at the brewery.
With our bellies happy, we arrived in Thornton, where our friends made a whole shebang of food and prayer and candles with wine and khallah. It was super cool to see great friends from Israel and catch up on life.
Amazing sleep on super comfy bed and we see ready to take on a full day in Denver.