It certainly took long enough this year, but it is summer! I know I am supposed to be a snowboarder, but I have no complaints about this season. I’ll take the heat, the sun and happily trade dirty mountain condos for luxurious lakeside houses any day. I did attempt to snowboard, twice, before deciding I’d rather save it for winter. It seems now that I’ve retired from stunts, there’s not much for me to do up at summer camp other than leg burning laps through slushy snow. Plus, there is plenty to do down here.

Summer Fun idea #1: Oaks Park

You know those scary-looking carnivals that pop up on the side of the road in the summer. The ones with rides that may fall down at any minute? Well Portland has a permanent one! Jared and I went down to check it out last weekend, got nauseous on a couple rides, and then he won me a candy necklace by throwing a dart. I had my choice between the candy or a plastic hat, and while I may have gotten more long term use out of the hat, I feel good about my decision.

Summer Fun idea #2: Wakeskating

After more or less retiring because I was too lazy to ever drive to Salem, I discovered a friend with a boat 15 minutes away. Yes, the water is downstream from downtown Portland, and it’s sort of cold, but man is it fun. With enough evening sessions, after the kooks have gone home, I might even get good at it. But probably not.

Summer fun idea #3: Eating!

This morning I rode my bike to the fruit stand and bought raspberries to put on homemade waffles. If that doesn’t scream summer, I don’t know what does. In the last week, I’ve also made a cherry pie, cherry stuffed grilled chicken, fresh pesto with the basil plant you can buy at Trader Joes for cheaper than you can get a package of the stuff at Safeway, etc etc etc. I always make sure to eat well, but in the summer it’s even better.

Summer fun idea #4: Gardening

The cold spring was not really that nice to my garden. My beans didn’t come up, and my cucumbers died before they even started. I did harvest some peas (made shrimp with pea pods and a pea pod salad that were pretty good) but those have died off in the heat now. The zucchini are looking promising though, and even though I have spent way more money on plants, fertilizer, etc then I would spend on produce, it still feels like free food when you pick it and eat it.

Summer fun idea #5: Outside Time

I realized recently that this is the 4th summer I’ve been in my house. In that time we’ve managed to take the yard from useless, to fricken sweet, so one of my favorite things is to just sit on the back deck. Today, Tyra mastered fetch, which was probably the most productive thing that’s happened back there this summer, to give you an idea of what goes on. I’m into it.

Of course, there are other things too. Skateboarding is cool, I do that sometimes. Yesterday we floated the Clackamas, which is a good once-a-year occasion. (I can only handle so many bad tattoos…) And there is no better way to spend an evening than a BBQ. Seeing as the CW is already advertising it’s new September shows, summer will be over before we know it, so I’m gonna quit this blogging crap and go work on my tan!

June 19, 2010. Portland, Ore. A fairly typical Saturday night. Temperatures were hovering in the low 60s and the moon was peaking through the clouds. Perfect weather for an estimated 10,000 people (or more) to strip off their clothes and ride bikes in a giant pack through the city. It was my first naked bike ride (and if you know me you know I’m not big on bikes) so I took pictures.

The onslaught of the Burnside Bridge.

The intersection of 2nd and Burnside, and a bunch of naked people.

What, you don’t want to get naked and ride your tall bike through the city sometimes?

Another night on the job for PDX police.

Many participants yelled for spectators to get naked. Eventually, these guys did.

Pretty sure these spots were all natural.

See ya next year…

I don’t often take enough advantage of this city I live in. It’s got all the immenities of a big city, with that small town feel, or so I find myself telling people on planes when they ask me about Portland. But like anywhere you live for awhile, it’s easy to get into a rut and forget to even try to do different things. Such was not the case this past weekend however! I was really proud of myself and here’s why:

Friday night I went to a Vegan rock show. Ok, well it wasn’t very rocking, since it was just three dudes playing acoustic guitars, but it was still out of my comfort zone by a long shot. Ahron, my favorite vegan from the bakery, asked me to come and shoot photos for his myspace or something. The show was at the Red and Black, which though right around the corner from the office, I’d never actually been to. The place is a vegan bar full of more militant-looking Vegans than the bakery and smelled sort of funny. When I got there Ahron said, “Wow, I didn’t think you’d come.” So yeah, I blew it. But it turned out to be sort of cool, and when Nate asked if I wanted to go get drinks, I was already out so I did it.

Saturday was even better. Nate and Tim decided to get a keg at the Dude Plex to celebrate the end of summer (or mourn the beginning of fall, whichever you prefer.) So I whipped up some cole slaw and headed over. Since there weren’t many people we tried to figure out how much beer we’d each have to drink to finish the keg. Using my journalism math I approximated 10 beers each and would adjust the number accordingly whenever someone showed up. Like trying to figure out how many licks it would take to get to the center of a tootsie pop, I have no idea if I was right. And I had to leave the BBQ early for my next engagement. It was a good time though, complete with beer pong and foosball. I felt like I was at college, you know, if I had been in a frat when I was in college. I guess the keg was empty by 9, but by that point I was well into stop 2 of my tour.

I had intern Nick pick me up and bring me downtown, where Forum snowboards was hosting a star-studded, invite-only premier of its new movie. I love Evan Rose and since he invited me I figured I should be there. It was fun, there was free food and beer, but I may be too old/jaded because I saw right through the whole trying to woo the media thing. Good thing I have Nick, who wrote this wonderful story about the evening for YoBeat and everyone’s happy!

I ended up taking a cab from downtown (keg + free beer = me not driving,) which was un usual in and of itself. I felt like it was really late and I’d been out forever, of course, when I looked at the clock it turned out to be 10:30. Well, I guess some things never change.

So I have big things in the works this week, but I may have promised someone the “exclusive.” Yeah, it’s that big. All will be revealed tomorrow, but for now, here is a picture of the Vegan Bakery employees in short shorts. Apparently they just all decided to wear their shortest shorts today, or something. I thought it was a joke, but last time I went downstairs they were still wearing them. Man, living in Portland is great.

PS. Sweet Pea Bakery is really yummy and everyone should eat there and have Allan (not pictured) make you an iced Americano.

Now that I’ve finally made it (please see my interview referenced below) , I feel like it is only right to pass my success on to others. Yesterday intern and I went to Glenhaven to do “research” for the go211 spot checks we are working on. I had my little point and shoot camera and was randomly snapping shots, when i suddenly realized one of the young kids who was ripping seemed to be purposely doing so for me to take photos of him.

The photoshoot turned into a video shoot and intern said he “was going to get all Jon Holland on this shit!” Our new friend Kyle was shredding, and we got some ok footage. I figure a Youtube video was in order. Maybe he can use it to get sponsored!