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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: Fingers Crossed

Rambler: BethDrink at Hand: Scheid Reserve Chardonnay (Tied for 1st on my chard list)

Hey Welliver Photography fans! Welcome to another addition of Thirsty Thursday...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. We are headed off to backpack this weekend, or so we hope!

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed up to backpack to George Lake in the Kaiser Wilderness. The in-house meteorologist blew the weekend forecast, and long story short, without a four-season tent, we were snowed out of our first backpacking trip of the season. So much for the unofficial start of summer! So this weekend we'll try again, and hopefully the trail doesn't look like this... But we definitely can't say it wasn't beautiful, even if we didn't camp in it. Get out there and doing something this weekend...and hope you get a good weather report before you go!

Thirsty Thursday: Snow Yosemite

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: 2008 Yosemite View Chardonnay...well that worked out rather fortuitously!

The last 2 weeks have been anything but "springlike" around California. Here on the coast we've had some serious rain and a some wind to go along with it, while the Sierra is getting pounded with storm after storm, each dumping feet of snow up there. This week has been so bad in the high country that all the roads to Yosemite are closed from snow, ice, flooding, rockslides, downed trees/power lines, or a combination there of (though I just heard that the main highways will be open again tomorrow). All this talk of a snowy Yosemite Valley made us think back to our own snow-venture we had up there back in 2008. Terry's parents came out to visit for Christmas, and on Christmas day we headed up to the national park, dragging a lovely winter storm along with us that dumped roughly 18" of snow over the course of 2 days.

The great thing about visiting Yosemite in a snow storm on Christmas is that you pretty much have the place to yourself. Unfortunately all the snow made a lot of spots inaccessible, but we were still treated to some fantastic scenery. We all wished we had snowshoes to get off the roads and out of the parking lots for a bit, but it was still beautiful. The snow stuck on the trees for the duration of the three days we were there, which accordingly to locals, is a rarity...it normally falls off or blows off as soon as the sun comes out. Blue skies and snowy trees...doesn't get much better. Enjoy this mix of photos from both of us.

Our first hike shortly after arrival (and chaining up!)

See how hard its snowing?!

Trees and snow...made for black and white.

This is one of my favorite shots ever. Deer butts!!!

It was so cold that Bridal Veil Falls was just barely flowing.

But the Merced River still had plenty of water running.

The next day the sun came out and made everything spectacular. Terry was on fire capturing some dramatic light throughout the Valley.

Two photographers = two perspectives on the same subject.

Clearing storm.

Unfortunately we won't be making it to Yosemite any time soon. I can only imagine how incredible the park must look with all that fresh snow. Perhaps next winter. And next time we are taking snow shoes!!