3 day freedom weekend

3 day weekends are great. Mine started with post-work margaritas on Friday (which put me in bed well ahead of schedule)but the weekend kept rolling from there. It's a bummer when the forecast calls for rain the entire time but Saturday turned out to be sunny and muggy. So we made the best of it with some skating. The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. Nothing too exciting but fun all around. I'm sure there will be stories from the crew that went out to the coast.

This blog is almost entirely filed with shots from my digi point and shoot. But I love shooting film. I actually broke out my crappy old scanner so I could scan 2 photos of Conor from a road trip to Albuquerque in 2002. It was, hands down, the best road trip ever. Conor, I finally did it for you! Since I had the beast out I scanned a couple recent prints for the enjoyment of all.

Nothing like burning cans.

From the University in Mexico City.

Another amazing mosaic.

My little pony and friend.

On I-84 in Central Oregon there is this weird tree farm with endlessly straight rows of trees. Mackenzie and I had a photo shoot on our drive. She's pretending to be a tree.

Expect the blog to contain many more dog pictures now that Diesel lives with us.

Jumping gaps.

Brooke repping PDX airport.

Obviously lots of skating going on.

Caught between 2 blogs.

Essentials - beer and water.

Jonah picked himself up a choco taco.

This is a horrible skate shot but the only photo I took that shows how awesome this spot is.

Blog wars with Brooke.

Old computer shredding.

Blog device + beers = fun.

Nate rocks them tight.

Off to watch Portland and Vancouver. Thanks to work we got the box seats. There was a little rain falling when we left to ride bikes home. About halfway home the skies opened up and unleashed a downpour unlike any in recent memory. The funny thing was that I had pulled my rain pants out of my bag earlier in the day thinking I wouldn't need them. This was Saturday and my shoes still aren't dry today.

Amy and Diesel dancing.

I told you there'd be dog photos.

Verg just got a job working with Shimano as one of their road mechanics. It's rad for him because this is the job he's been working for. For those of us in Portland it sucks because this dude is a blast to have around.

And of course some footy from our session at Portland's best bank to ledge.

My neck is a fine shade of red

Edit: I made this video last night and thought it should go with this post so here it is:




95 degrees, mid-May, in Portland is just unheard of. Especially when the last few weeks have been topping out in the low 70s with lots of clouds and rain. That sudden change gets everything crazy. People are out all over the place, suddenly co-workers are talking about their tans, I don't know if I should be wearing shorts and if so where they are. But all that aside, it's great for skateboarding. PJ (who does Excess zine, see the link on the right) and his friends Cody and Sean rolled into town for a skate excursion. They could not have picked a better time. I did some tour guiding after work and they made an trip to the Coast to check out phase 4 of the Lincoln City park. All in all a great time with those guys. And they couldn't have come at a better time. I think I've only eaten BBQ for the last week because everyone's been so hyped on the weather. Enjoy below what sunny Portland has to offer.

Fremont Bridge.

Tower thing in the Willamette River.

Underwater graffiti.

Ledges for days...

Yeah, Brandon's got blunts.

PJ butt board bomb drop into the ramp.

Kara and Pat.

Yuji and Yams.

It wouldn't be the dudebarn if this didn't go down.

Belly rolls.

The next day was so hot Yuji couldn't keep his pants on.

Then the shirt came off too and he tore the ramp apart. I wouldn't want to fall on hot skatelite and any bare part of my body.

That took a lot out of Yuji so he had to nap on some plywood.

Street cat chillin.

Kyle likes to party!

This photo would be better if you could see the fork Pat is holding to his throat.

Dan and Leslie.

Johnny and Amy.

It was so dark that we couldn't see the food on the table. So I snapped a shot and used zoom to figure out what I wanted to eat.

More of this...

Reagan, yeah she's got the ThumbGun down.

ThumbGuns are messy so it's a good thing Tux was around to mop up.

Phone blogging.

Gimme that beer!

What's in there?

Think about the baby!

Hi fives!

Again, the Japanese way ahead of us with air conditioned shirts.

Weiners!

Let me mustard your hot dog...

A weeping willow tree plus drunk people turns into a George-of-the-jungle scenario with broken branches real quick.

This guy was chillin on the way home.

Off to Hood River for skating.

Enough of what?

Old shoe tree.

After a long, hot day of skating there's nothing like a big thing of milk to really refresh you.

PJ medicating his swellbow with a Hamms.

BBQ.

Beer is good for hot dogs and sausages.

PJ's rat tail.

Christina came all the way from Canada to taste the freedom in some of our finest beer.

Bikes everywhere.

Let's blow up this pineapple.

This is what happened. M-1000s suck.

Doug got a new bike.

Canadians.

A couple bottle rockets to round off the night.

Shaun skidded out and popped his tire. He got it all fixed up but the tube was still peaking out. We did a layered wrap of packing tape, masking tape, and more packing tape that got Shaun to the bar and then home.

Sunday was spent building this little fence to fully contain our yard. Why you might ask...

To keep this guy inside!

Full moon and late night flights.