Sunday, July 24th, 2011
A beautiful day in the Columbia River Gorge. We went to Viento State Park for a repeat of last year’s visit. Afterwards, we went to Hood River for an early dinner at Horsefeathers, followed by a viewing of the kite surfers down by the river. On the way home we witnessed a nasty truck rollover that had shut down traffic on I-84 in the opposite direction. Final stop, Marine Drive, parallel to the runway at Portland International Airport.
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Sunday, June 26th, 2011
Yesterday, we took the kids on a bike ride along the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, which none of us had tried before. We started at the Beaver Creek Trail Head and set off toward Vernonia Lake.
Navy did very well. Over 10 miles on a small bike. Not bad for a 5-year old!
Above: Vernonia Lake. For all images, click here.
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Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
Pictures HERE.
The last couple of days have been very hectic and borderline chaotic, but also very good. On Monday and Tuesday I visited customers in Belgium and Holland.
After my last appointment outside of Brussels on Monday, I drove up to Antwerp and checked into a hotel in the middle of the city. I’ve never seen Antwerp before but have heard good things and wanted to check it out for myself.
It didn’t disappoint. A very nice city with lots of neat architecture, good restaurants, pubs, shops, etc. For some reason I hadn’t expected it to be filled with many foreigners, but it was. There were tons of Americans (who are hard to miss since you can hear them above the din of conversation at any restaurant they go to). There were also immigrants of several ethnicities. I was approached by two beggars, neither of whom were Belgian. One was Irish (or so he said) and tried to fleece me on two different occasions, which I kindly pointed out to him.
I managed seven hours of sleep during my second night. Not bad, and further proof that you don’t need to stay up to a normal bedtime the first night to get into a rhythm. It works the other way around for me.
Put Antwerp on your list if you’re thinking about a visit to Europe.
Yesterday was odd.
My first appointment turned into a guided tour of the Westmalle Trappist Brewery. This was an exclusive opportunity, since the abbey and the adjoining brewery are not open to the public and don’t do tours, but had made special arrangements for this occasion (I was not the occasion, but there were other things going on).
It was fascinating to learn about the abbey’s history and role in society over the years. The brewery is a non-profit entity and revenues in excess of expenses go to various charities. The exclusivity of the the Westmalle brand (they limit their production on purpose) is why it’s so hard to find outside of the country. I could go on and on about this. Just a great experience.
Yesterday afternoon/evening was not so great. The plan was to drop off my rental car at Schiphol and roll into Cologne on in ICE’s first class around 9 pm after a nice meal in the bistro. Unfortunately, I missed the connection in Utrecht and had to hop around on four different regional trains in Holland and Germany.
I got in at midnight, starving hungry. A quick cab ride to the hotel, and a brief visit to a Turkish kebab house to pick up a gyro, which I brought back to the hotel, and then into bed.
As I write this, I’m on a train to Münster to visit a customer. I made some last-minute changes to my schedule and will be at the Interzum in Cologne tomorrow and Friday. Love the Rheinland. This will be uploaded tonight.
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