Julian Kegel

The past weeks have been time for me to explore the city by bike. With all the beautiful weather we’ve had, its no wonder I haven’t missed going to work yet. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Katie and I both have school at the same time, we both roll out of bed, make a light breakfast, usually cereal or toast, and are off on our bikes. The ride to school is about 3 miles and winds its way over the bridge over the river and through the hustle of morning downtown traffic. Some days it rains, but not for very long, usually only a couple minutes. Rarely does it rain for more than an hour in one spot and the temperature hasn’t dropped below 55 yet to date. Monday Wednesday, Friday, and the weekend I have off, but Katie has to work on Mondays, Fridays and the weekends. Basically, i have a lot of time on my hands. So discovered a bouldering gym called The Circuit. Its 10,000 sq feet of rock jungle gym fun. The gym provides a great atmosphere of young, like minded outdoorsy folk who mingle and interact while testing mental, physical and emotional strength on the wall. Its great when you see a guy hanging from the ceiling and his little infant is nested snugly on the floor in a cradle. (parents with priorities).

In any case, I had a good friend from highschool come visit portland last week. Kyle Hoppe got a job working for nestle power bar division. Its based out of Boise so he strolled on down for the weekend with his girlfriend Jacole. They both had friends here in portland so we all ponied up, and took the train to the Japanese garden.

From Left to Right: Jacole, Kyle, Julian, Laura, Annie

Bamboo Fences

Beautiful Woodwork

On wednesday, the only day we both have nothing to do, we decided to get some pumpkins and carve them up for Holloween.

Here is was the evening contained.

Later that weekend i hitched my first ride out to the Columbia River Gorge. reaching depths of 4000 ft and dumping fresh runoff from the face of Mt. Hood, the gorge is home to some of the best waterfalls in oregon, some are even viewable from the freeway. One such behemoth; Multnomah Falls. At over 700 ft, it’s waters plunge down the second highest drop in the lower 48.

Multnomah inst the only gem on the gorge, Bridal Veil falls also weighs in at one of my favorite so far.

This past weekend, i had my first ever outdoor climbing session. I went with this guy Frank, i met at portland rock gym. He guided me through traid Climbing Beacon Rock.

A massive 500 ft volcanic eruption that somehow made itself a perfect climbing spot. It also happens to be closed during the summer due to it being a nesting ground for peregrine falcons. So anyway, it took 4 pitches and 4 hours to climb to the top, and the sunset at the top made it all worth it. 3 sections were 5.8 and one was 5.9. Overall pretty modest climbing but definalty a lot of fun for a first timer.

On the way home from Beacon rock, Frank took me to a parking lot where the local indians were selling freshly caught sockeye salmon. We both bought 4 lb’ers and headed home. As i was riding my bike home i started laughing to myself thinking that when i got home i was going to randomly pull a 2 foot long fish out of my backback and slap it on the table.

Anyway, katie took over and choped the head off and cut off the meat. i grilled it on the stove and stir fired some Teryaki vegetables to complete the most excellent dish.

Speaking of a most excellent dish, 2 nights ago i decided to buy sweet pumpkins from Trader Joes, in hopes of making pumpkin Pie. The final result was a complete masterpiece of low fat pumpkin custard, with a crust made from just graham crackers and honey. i used a cusinart food processor and some love to make it, and has fueled my baking spirit within.

Pictures Around Portland

Published by Julian October 4th, 2007 in Newest stuff!!!. 2 Comments

Its been 2 weeks since we arrived and school is going very well. Katie and I even have a Sociology class together. This is a picture of what our Studio apt. looks like;

Its a bit messy, but its what we call home. It is surprisingly large for how much we pay. It includes a full bath, well sort of, we had to modify the tub to put a shower head on, and a curtain (which uses a lot of plastic and string knots to get it where it was functioning properly.

Last week we had Dinner with Ashton Chase, a big contributor for the JDRF foundation. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the foundation and continues to be one of Wheel & Sprockets most loyal customer.

These are a couple of the pictures i took at the Portland Rose Garden last weekend. It is set right on the western cliffs of downtown and on a clear day, over looks all of downtown and in the distance you can see Mt. Hood.

I’d like to add that Katie and I have not seen the Mt. Hood since we have arrived. Not to say the weather has been bad, because its just the opposite, most days are in the 60’s and we can usually expect it to rain a little, but by no means does it rain all day.

Here is a picture of one of the many bike routes in town. This one in particular has a great section that flows alongside the river about 2 miles from where we live.

Here is a great view of Downtown Portland taken today. We had great clouds all day today and no rain. Portland has an very diverse cityscape and doesn’t boast the most bustling city, instead it boasts the functionability of all the resources available for public use. Such as; in all of downtown area, there is a light rail system that is free for all passengers. If you go across the river, or over to the west side, train fare is a measly 2 bucks.

As with all great cities, i think Portland does a fantastic job incorporating old architecture Like the building in the forefront, and the new buildings of the modern age. there are much better examples of this, i have yet to photograph them yet.

And finally, here is our closet. Just enough for two people and minimalist enough where we realize we dont have enough stuff to keep us dry in this climate.

Alrighty Enough for now.

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Julian Kegel

While Katie’s at work

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