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Thirsty Thursday: Exploring Forest Park

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Anchor Distilling Co. Junipero Gin & Tonic (I'm so hooked on this gin)

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Regular WP Thirsty Thursday readers may remember my Portland urban wandering a few weeks ago. That was fun, but I'm more in my element when I'm out in the woods.

Fortunately, Portland has this amazing forested oasis right in the city. At the time, I was training for a crazy epic mountain bike / ultramarathon event (which I am no longer training for, but that's a whole other story), and I needed a nice easy 10-mile trail run while in Portland. Some friends gave me directions from the streetcar to a trailhead and off I went.   

I have to caveat these photos.  First, I was in a weird mental state when I went there, given that I'd spent the last day and a half in class and I'd just received a funky work email before I headed out to the trails. Distracted and in need of deep thinking for sure! Second, a light, PacNW rain was falling...my favorite conditions for running long and slow. And third, all I had with me was my iPhone, so all these photos are from my phone's camera. So while I should have been more focused on quality training time, I so needed this romp through a new-to-me trail through Forest Park in the drizzle and with a camera in hand. It was like all my favorite things all at once. If only I'd had Terry and the dog with me...that would have been the perfect afternoon. 

It was a great, albeit very unproductive run from a fitness perspective, but I enjoyed the trail and playing around making photos with the iPhone. Forest Park is a must every time I go to Portland from now on. 

Get out there and explore your own new trails this weekend! We will be! 

Thirsty Thursday: Portland Wandering

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Tablas Creek 2011 Mourvedre 

Thirsty Thursday here again, time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans! And if you are thirsty and you like Rhone varietals, I highly recommend anything from Tablas Creek. Great winery outside Paso Robles. Now, back to the photos...

I had my final Portland State MBA residency weekend last weekend. Yay for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (I'll finish in December), but boo for no more required trips to Portland. I've had fun exploring the city and enjoying its quirkiness. Its an urban wilderness for me...a place I can wander and be in my own head without anyone bothering me, much like being out in an actual wilderness. 

I had a flight to catch at 10, but when I woke up and peeked outside, I wanted to go wander with camera in hand. It wasn't raining too much and the soft light was calling me. 

The view from my hotel room that coaxed me outside. 

I had about an hour, so I quickly grabbed the camera and headed out. I just wandered, slightly rushed with only an hour so I didn't have time to immerse myself in many scenes, but I found a few interesting sites. I only had the 40mm f/2.8 with me, and the fixed focal length forced me to work for the compositions I wanted. 

So, after finding food carts, a bubbler, Voodoo doughnuts, and people on bikes all in an hour (and not knowing that I'd find any of those things), I think I had a pretty successful Portland morning photo walk. Someday I'll get back to do a few more photo walkabouts in Portland. 

Thirsty Thursday: It Rains in Portland

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Ventana Pinot Noir

Thirsty Thursday is here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Tonight I'll share some photos from a recent trip to Portland.

This fall I decided to be ambitious and get myself one of those MBA thingies. I signed up for the Portland State online MBA program. This program requires the online MBA'ers to participate in an on-campus residency weekend each quarter, so once a quarter I have to go to Portland. When we were here in August for orientation I fell in love with Portland...it was warm and sunny and green and just plain beautiful.

Then I came back at the end of October. It rained. A lot. The whole time. I finally squeezed a little bit of free time out of the busy weekend on the final day of the residency weekend and wanted to go wander with camera...but it was pouring down rain. I went anyway. I got soaked. Luckily my camera has a rain cover.

Here's what I came away with. I can tell I've been busy with school. My skills are rusty. But its always nice to have the opportunity to go wander around without any distractions, just me and my camera.

All in all, it wasn't so bad. I didn't melt. Portland is still a cool city, even in the rain.

Get out there and wander in the rain (or sunshine if you're lucky) this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: Dinner Date

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Deschutes Jubilation Ale...on a brown ale kick

Hey Welliver Photography fans, thanks for joining us for another Thirsty Thursday...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Today is a special day here at Welliver Photography. We've been married for 10 years! I really can't believe that its been that long, but its all been pretty awesome so far!

In honor of the day, I figured I'd share some photos of us on a date. Well, sort of a date. When we were in Portland back in August I had my camera along at dinner. Highly recommend the Irving Street Kitchen. Cool place, good food, nice light, cute boy. Pretty much perfect.

Thanks for 10 amazing years T. Here's to 100 more.

Thirsty Thursday: Beauty is all around us

Rambler: Terry Drink in Hand: 2007 Le Mistral (quite possible one of the best red wines around)

What can I say this week. . . it's been a rough week. We both seem a bit overly busy and can make progress on the little things that are supposed to be easy and quick but it seems like the bigger (maybe more important) things seem to elude us (me). Perhaps both of us have stretched ourselves a bit too thin, or maybe we need to manage time better. Most of these issues are at work, but keeping them separate from everything else is always tough. A delicate balance of work and real life. To complicate things, we also have a dear friend fighting perhaps her final battle with cancer. Through all the noise this week, our hearts and hopes are with her and her family. Sometimes it feels like you want to lock yourself away from the world and wait for it (whatever it is) to pass. Thinking about these things makes me appreciate the little things a little bit more. The music you listen to while driving to work, the feeling you get from a good run or workout, the good food and drink you share with friends (the tomatoes, the wine, the fish, the ice cream...), the dog that always makes you smile, the falling asleep next to that one person you always fall asleep next to. I think I could probably keep going, but for this short post, it's the walking around a city (Portland, OR) with a camera finding the things that most people just pass by. So, instead of locking yourself away from it all, go find those average things and take them in. Take it all in. Time is against all of us. Go enjoy.

Thirsty Thursday: Veggies

Rambler: Terry Drink in Hand: 2010 Montoya Pinot Noir

Not a lot to say this week. It was suppose to be a regular week, but all I can seem to do is think about wandering around Portland. Here's a few shots from the Portland farmer's market...which I wandered around for about three hours while I was there. The produce was awesome!