Tuesday July 1st, 2008 6:04 p.m.

So I unfortunately do not currently have internet at my apartment. Hmm...let me re-phrase that. I am currently not paying for internet in my apartment but when available, am stealing it from my neighbors. haha. So that alone is a great reason why my blog has been neglected. There are other reasons as well but I’ve decided to just write in my Pages like I would in my blog online and then copy and paste when I have internet...hence the date and time noted at the beginning of each entry. I joined a gym right down the street from work and so I think this will be my new weekly routine. To get up, work out, go to work, after work hit up Starbucks to work on freelance stuff and then go home. I think I just lied, I probably won’t be able to do this every day so maybe it’ll be my half-week routine. There, I feel better. :) So this weekend was Rachael’s 24th Birthday and for her birthday I planned a small road trip down to Portland, OR to camp for the weekend. The itinerary was as follows: Friday: Pick up Mark and leave Everett at 11, arrive in Portland around 3, go to Powell Books for a couple hours, eat dinner at Virginia Cafe, catch the movie Wall•E and then head to our campsite an hour east from Portland on the Columbia River in the Cascade Locks area. We set up camp and just hung out until it was time for bed. Saturday: Primarily planned as a hiking day in and around the area. We’re right near Multanomah Falls and also Beacon Rock State Park so there were plenty of choices. Originally it was going to be Beacon Rock SP but the previous night we drove past Multanomah Falls and were amazed at the HUGE waterfall so we decided to go there first. It was like 95 degrees out and SO HOT...compared to our usual 70 degrees that we’re used to. We hiked about 1.4 miles up to the top of the falls and in the heat it felt like we were going to die...or at least I did! But the views were great and the waterfall itself was beautiful and majestic. We went to Starbucks after that and played some heated Scrabble and then hung our at Borders for a while because they all were air-conditioned. We went back to the campsite where we played a games of Settlers of Catan and then started to put together dinner. Before we left Everett we cut up potatoes, red peppers, pre-cooked meat, green beans, and onions to put into tin foil with seasoning and BBQ sauce and placed it in the fire to cook. It worked really great and we had a nice warm cooked meal. We ate with chopsticks and it was kind of hard but we managed because we’re pretty much pros with the things. haha. After dinner we made birthday smores for Rachael (which were melted along with everything else but still yummy) and sat around the fire. We sat around after that for four-ish hours just talking and it was really a good time. After Mark went to bed (and started snoring really loud) Rachael and I stayed up for a while longer in our tent talking and sharing our thoughts on anything and everything. It was probably the highlight of my weekend. Sunday: We got up around 8 a.m. and packed up, took showers and headed for Portland to hit up Stumptown Coffee where they are named in a Roasting magazine as one of the best coffee roasters in the NW. We got some coffee beans to take home for my french press. The experience of going there was great because I asked them if they have anything they recommend to drink and the guy (which was one of the most attractive men I’ve ever seen! ) who was taking my order looked thoughtful for a moment and then said he really likes that I asked that, recommended a special take on a carmel macchiato and then told me that it’s on the house! Awesome. I was ready to accept a proposal on the spot. :) After coffee we went to Imago Dei Community Church, which is a church that the author Donald Miller helped start and is currently his home church. We LOVE Donald Miller’s writing style and the things he has to say so we were so excited to attend a service. It wasn’t really how I imagined it but satisfying. We got on the road with the air conditioning and music blasting and headed back to Seattle concluding a great trip!