Car Update

I haven't seen the car since June, so I thought I would go take a look. There has definitely been some progress. It is now prepped and ready to paint. All the dings I got on the hood in a 1984 hail storm have been popped out and sanded, as well as most of the other bad spots. Hopefully it will hit the paint shop this month and I'll be driving it before we run out of good weather.

36 Holes in Chicago

I played more golf on Friday than I have played in the last couple of months.

The day started with a round at Old Elm Golf Club in Highland Park, a suburb north of Chicago. This is a very old school place. It is a men only club with a couple hundred members, most are 70+, so it doesn't get a lot of play. It's a pretty short course measuring 6,465 yards from the longest tees for a par of 73 . The course rating is 70.7 and it has a slope rating of 123 on Bent grass.  Designed by one of the great American designers, Donald J. Ross, the Old Elm course opened in 1913. There are no golf carts or trollies here, you have to take a caddy.

There had been a torrential downpour the night before we played so the greens were playing slow, which is a shame as the small, fast greens are really this courses only defense. There are plenty of bunkers, but they were all casual water hazards due to the rain. Old Elm is a great walking course and fun to play. It would be great to play it again when the greens are in shape.

The second round of the day was on the tougher Onwentsia Golf Club course, in Lake Forest. Onwentsia celebrated its centennial in 1995, and is one of the oldest golf clubs in the country. The course was designed by one of America's most outstanding golf course architects, Charles Blair MacDonald in 1895, and was renovated in 1997 based on the design plan of Tom Doak. It was the home of the 1906 US Open and has hosted many prestigious events over the years. The course is 6,645 yards from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course rating is 71.9 and the slope rating is 127 on Bent grass.

Once again we were treated to caddies only and a guest locker with my name on it. The course had drained well and the greens were a lot faster than the morning round. It is a beautiful layout with an internal nine and a second nine running on the outside. It reminded me a lot of my home club CECC, with a much nicer clubhouse.

The Dark Knight Rises

I am sorry for the cliche, but The Dark Knight Rises is why movie theaters still exist. In a world of 60" TVs and surround sound, this is the kind of movie that is worth getting off the couch for.

Rises is the last in the trilogy of Batman films written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucias Fox and in the only misstep in this film, Anne Hathaway as a cat burglar.

The star of this film is the aptly named Bane, the scariest of Batman badmen so far. This is a guy you really believe could wipe out the world, never mind Batman.

The story is pretty simple, but it is well told and there is plenty of amazing action to keep you glued to your seat. Thank you summer blockbuster.

Fun Birthday

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. It was a great day filled with a lot of eating. I had a great lunch with the work folks at Corazon (1205 SW Washington St., Portland). The food is great, they have several different kinds of tacos as well as great guacamole, corn on the cob and spicy peppers. The location has not been successful in the past so I am a little worried for them, but hopefully they will survive.

 

Then it was home for a great dinner and my favorite cake, German chocolate from Helen Bernhard Bakery with some vanilla ice cream. It doesn't get any better.

Serious Yard Work

It's Monday and I am still really sore from the yard work I did on Saturday. 

Here in Portland we are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks around our house, so every few years I have to remove all the erosion and plant life that has covered it up and cut it down to one lane.

Hopefully you can see in these pictures a little of the before and after. My neighbor who doesn't do much to maintain his yard actually cleared up his area, I suspect he got a warning from the city, so that started the chain reaction of everyone else needing to clean up.

I went the extra mile and edged the grass around the curb too. It's the little things that make a difference.

Kauai Vacation

For Barbara's 50th birthday we spent 10 days on the beautiful Garden Island of Kauai. This was our third trip to the Island, and the first time we were there in the summer. We were expecting a lot of sun and surf, but we did have to put up with a little rain as they are having a pretty wet summer.

The other two times we were in Kauai, we stayed in Princeville. This time we rented a great little cottage between Hanalei and Ke'e Beach. The Hale Makai Cottages are three one bedroom and two two bedroom cottages on a beautiful, secluded area only a few steps from the beach. They are a little expensive, but worth it.

The beach was great, it had a reef that made for great swimming and snorkeling. There was also a trade wind breeze that made the hot sun very bearable. We saw a kite boarder and some fisherman out there as well as the folks staying around us, but it was never crowded.

 

After a few days we decided to challenge oursleves a little and hike the Kalalau Trail from Ke'e Beach to the first waterfall along the Nā Pali Coast. The trail is 11 miles; we did the first two miles then broke off and hiked two more miles to the waterfall. The larger trial is ranked one of the 10 most dangerous in the US by Backpacker Magazine and the first two miles are pretty challenging. The beach at the two mile mark is also very dangerous, with a terrible undertow, so don't think about cooling off in the water. Speaking of water, we should have packed a lot more and a few energy bars. We were pretty tired when we got to waterfall, but the water was freezing and very invigorating. It gave us some energy to head back but we ran out of gas and limped in the last of the eight miles.

The highlight of the trip was the helicopter trip we took over the Island. The helicopter did not have doors so we had a great view, but it was pretty scary when it banked to the side I was sitting on. The helicopter ride is pretty expensive, but it is well worth it. It is a great way to get an overview of the Island and see stuff you can't see by car as the road only goes half way around the Island.

I highly recommend visiting Kauai if you are thinking about going to Hawaii. It is still a very laid back place that is not was built up as the other Islands. There are a few big resorts if you are into that, but there are many more great small places and all the beaches are state parks. There are also lots of great restaurants and plenty of amazing activities.

If you want to see more pictures check out my flickr page.

The Parish - Pearl District

Why Don't Cajuns Work at NASA? Because when they say launch, they go out to eat.

And now the transition, I had a great lunch at a Cajun/Creole place in the Pearl by my office today. They have all your New Orleans favorites on the menu: seafood gumbo, turtle soup, jambalaya, BBQ shrimp, oysters, ettouffee, and several choices of po'boy. I had the Debris Po'Boy, which was amazing roast beef, with a rimoulad sauce (or comeback sauce as they call it) fully dressed with fries, which were a little soggy. My colleague also enjoyed his oyster po'boy.

The service was great and the prices were very reasonable, so I will be coming back for dinner.

The Parish

231 NW 11th Ave
Portland, OR 97209  
(503) 227-2421


Mon-Thurs: 11:00am - 10:00pm 
Fri: 11:00am - 12:00am 
Sat: 2:00pm - 12:00am 
Sun: 2:00pm - 10:00pm 
Sat-Sun Brunch: 9:00am - 2:00pm