Everything's Not Lost

We will just keep this picture sharing going, with a few less pictures than we should have, which will be explained later.

Julia wrote the last blog entry while I was watching some world-class disc golf in Emporia, KS. Since then, we have returned to our hometown of Portland, OR and life has not really slowed down that much. I will try to provide a brief description of each stop along the way, as well as some details about the adventures we have had back here in the Northwest.

I had an amazing time watching professionals play this game I love. The relative ease with which they can throw a disc 450ft and routinely sink putts from 50ft out; it was cool to see but also frustrating that I can't replicate it. The screenshot above is taken from a YouTube video of the tournament. The reason I included this shot is because we have the #1 player in the world, Paul McBeth, sinking a birdie putt on the left side of the screen, while Julia and I can be seen through the basket chains. If you are into this sort of thing, the entire video can be seen here: 2016 PDGA Pro Worlds Round 1.

From Emporia, we drove to Boulder, CO to visit with some of my extended family and got a nice tour of the University of Colorado campus from Uncle Bob. The next day, we rolled down I-70 into Utah and camped in Capitol Reef National Park. We picked some peaches, hiked around the rocks while the sun was going down, and saw a Bighorn Sheep.

After one night in Capitol Reef, we drove through the impressive Grand Escalante National Monument on our way to Bryce Canyon NP. It is a great drive and highly recommended for anyone in the area. Bryce was even cooler than I thought, with red rock spires and amazing views. That night we checked-in to a timeshare in Mesquite, NV, where we would spend the next 6 nights.

It was very hot in Mesquite, so most of our time was spent either in the pool or the casino. We played some blackjack, ate at the buffet, learned bingo, and did some cheap bowling. One of the days was spent in Zion National Park. Above, you see us doing the Narrows hike... you may also notice the lady hiking in a bikini. I am not judging, just pointing it out in case you missed it.

We watched the sun go down in Zion from the Canyon Overlook Trail before driving back to Mesquite.

I played golf at Wolf Creek Golf Club on our final day in Mesquite. With temps around 105, it was the low season and rates were too good to pass up a round on a course that is featured on the EA Sports golf video games.

We left Mesquite, drove along the extraterrestrial highway in central Nevada, and landed in Yosemite National Park for a quick 24hr visit. We got lucky to find a camping site and explored the main valley. The next day we hiked amongst the granite and enjoyed some quiet in the less visited northern parts of the park before we were off to our next destination.

The last stop of our month long road trip was South Lake Tahoe, CA. We spent 5 nights in another timeshare where we were joined by our friends Megan and Brock. The next few days were spent on the beach along with shuffle boarding and barbecuing on the resort rooftop. We also ate some good food and played a round at Zephyr Cove Disc Golf course where the views were spectacular, as seen above.

After Tahoe, we made the long drive back to Portland, where family was gathering to remember my Cousin Katherine, who passed away in August after a 10 month battle with cancer. It was a bittersweet reunion, catching up but always thinking about Katherine's husband and 2 young daughters.

On Saturday, August 27th, we headed up to the Seattle area for the wedding of Julia's good friends, Nick and Dayna. The reception was held at a tree farm in Issaquah and the live band and yard games made for a great evening. The next day was when the picture above was taken. We were being tourists in Seattle; shopping at REI and walking around Green Lake. After our short walk, we returned to discover our window smashed in and my suitcase and Julia's purse gone. Inside my suitcase was my iPad, my digital camera that was so good to us throughout the trip last year, and some clothes that I had become attached to. Julia lost her passport and wallet as well as my wallet which was in her purse. It just happened to be the rare time our favorite things were in the car and we didn't lock our valuables in the glovebox. It also hurt losing photos from Yosemite and Tahoe that I never got transferred to a computer. Oh well... we try to remind ourselves that they are all just things that can be replaced and that we can recover from the financial loss.    

After a week of being extra careful with what we left in the car, we attended another wedding, this time for Julia's friends Maria and Jens. Following the wedding, we drove out to northern Idaho to meet Julia's family for the Labor Day weekend. As I think we have mentioned before, her sister is back in the country to give birth to her 2nd child and she brought her guys with her. We did some camping and fishing, with a little rain mixed in to make things interesting.

We had a brief gathering with the extended Smetana family at Grandpa's ranch, just north of Moscow. That night, we camped in Lewiston, next to the snake river and rolled back to Portland the next day.

 The following weekend, we took advantage of the good weather and had a kickball and latino food birthday party for Julia. A great turnout of friends.

Julia's actual birthday was September 16th, so we celebrated with her family and cake.

A week or so ago, Julia participated in the Warrior Dash with Ashley, her brother's girlfriend. They climbed wooden obstacles, army crawled under barbed wire, and swam through a muddy swamp. The beer and shower at the end of the race were well earned.

Since I no longer own a camera, that is all I have for pictures. All of the later photos were taken with Julia's phone. Some other things to note here before I let you go; Julia has been doing some random fill-in work for her former company here in the Portland area, we have used our free time to go through all of our clothes and get rid of as much as we can, and we are also ramping up the wedding planning. The next blog post we put out will give details about the arrival of a baby and whatever else life has in store for us in the month of October. Thanks for reading.