Baseball in the Northwest?

Even though Portland has no professional baseball to speak of, what is a Krake roadtrip without baseball?!? So after our Goonies pilgrimage, we trekked up north to catch some minor league ball. We watch a AAA game in Tacoma (along with a fire works show) and then ventured into Seattle on Saturday to do the classics (Pike Street Market, the first Starbucks, the Seattle Underground Tour). We also strategically parked in front of Safeco Field, and conveniently caught a Mariners-Tigers game. It's a beautiful field, and they had a cool museum-esque area where John and I recorded play-by-play in a mock broadcasting booth, and John's masterful photography captured this amazing moment:

We then made our way back to Portland where we saw the Salem-Kaizer Volcanoes (the A club for the Giants) and we even caught a ball!

Finally, Portland has a AAA team: The Portland Beavers (San Diego's minor league affiliate) and even though there wasn't a game while we were there, we managed to sneak onto the field... and into the club level restaurant... and into the locker room (talk about lack of security!?!). Despite my anxiety, John also perused through the training room and on into the sports medicine room, laundry room, etc... Is anyone really surprised?

Goonies Pilgrimmage

For John's 30th birthday, we surprised him with a trip to the pacific northwest. How do you surprise someone and convince them to get on an airplane? That's another story entirely. Well, we had several adventures ahead of us. Despite arriving late Thursday, we left bright an early Friday morning to take advantage of all the day-time possible. First destination: Tillamook and the Tillamook Cheese factory. (yummy samples, yummy ice cream... too many choices).

Despite a slight detour (after an hour down the road, we realized I left the camera at the Ice Cream counter pictured above), we arrived in Astoria, home of the Goondocks. If you are lost right now, stop what you're doing, rent "The Goonies" and continue your life now enlightened. So we re-traced the steps of our beloved Goonies:
(John watching Chunk's car chase from the opening credits)

(Posing in front of the famed County Courthouse... which though currently out of operation, remains nestled next to the police station, so recreating the gasoline fire column was out of the question)

(And finally, the ultimate in Goonie-lore: Mickey's house. Here I am doing the truffle shuffle... classic).

Professional Pyrotechnician

Yes, I am a professional pyrotechnician. I was on a barge on the Willamette River in downtown Portland shooting off the largest fireworks show in Oregon on the 4th. Pretty cool stuff. Rob and I went down at 8:30 Wednesday morning, and spent the entire day prepping mortars, loading shells, running electric cabelling, foiling and securing triggers. Good times. I love the sweet smell of gunpowder in the morning. (sorry, no napalm). At times throughout the morning, we nearly passed out due to the heat. Despite warnings to lather up with sunblock, which I did, we worked non-stop from 8:30-4 before stopping for lunch and reapplication of sunblock, I missed a couple of spots, and am sporting some nice burn spots on my ankle, neck, etc. While it has a tough day of hard work, it was worth it as we were able to cruise down the river on a barge full of explosives. Then to see the crouds of cheering people as we passed under the bridges was pretty cool. The show was pretty amazing... especially sitting behind some safety shelters on the back of the tugboat. The show was for the Portland Blues Festival, so what seemed like the entire city lined the banks of the river to watch the show. Sadly, the shells were just a tad too loud for us to enjoy the music choreographed to the show. Shucks. Maybe next year, I'll bring a radio. Which reminds me, Rob and I had a fun conversation topic: if you could choreograph a fireworks show to any song, what would it be? My current top choice: Remy Zero's "The Glorious #1"... epic