Super Skibowl Sunday

Woke at 7am Portland time. Started coffee then soon joined by Darwin. Enjoyed coffee with others ahead of a run. Except for Glenn, everybody was up and sitting around the breakfast table ahead of my run. Near 8am as I headed out down Columbia Ave towards town and the Columbia River.

Ran through Ester Short Park tapping the bronze  'rose giving girl' on the head and then along the river hoping to take the path and deck behind Joe’s Crab Shack. However, its entrance was barricaded. Unsafe, I presumed. Has felt and looked a little suspect for the past ten years. Ran along the river not going quite as far as in years past. Ran for 30+ minutes working up a pretty good sweat. It was a nice run – sunny, chilly, but not too cold

Back at Glenn's place folks started getting showered and dressed for our trip to the mountain. I think Mindy first. Glenn might’ve been up near 9am.

Called Tom Shepherd mid morning to detail our plans for heading to Hood. He spoke of leaving a day ahead of us so it made sense for him to drive separately. That would work great since we really needed a second rig anyway. Talked about meeting at Council Crest or Bridgeport Brewery in downtown Portland, would play it by ear.

Packed up the minivan and left Glenn’s near 1030am. It was Sunday so traffic was light. Made good time heading to Council Crest, the park where Mindy & I were married. Several others visiting the park as well. We took a bunch of mountain photos and then exchanged “I love you” at the very spot where we exchanged vows 5 years prior. I’m guessing we were up there for 25-30 minutes.

As planned, we called Tom S. again as we wound our way down the hill to the Bridgeport. Tom said he’d meet us there. Got the same table we sat in two years prior. John was our server. I ordered their double red ale. Mindy, I think, ordered their stout. Everybody ordered a beer. The menu looked good. I ordered the Cuban-type sandwich. Mindy had the Mediterranean platter. Tom & Tommy each ordered meatloaf.

The plan was to take the gorge to Hood stopping at Multnomah Falls. By the way, the plan was to stop at Les Schwab for tire chains but they were closed on Sunday’s. The weather forecast called for sun all week, so we weren’t too concerned about it.  

The drive through the gorge was nice. It was really windy and brisk at the falls. Darwin first such visit. Mindy and I opted not to make the walk to the bridge. The others did. I was anxious to get back on the road. Must’ve been about 245pm when we pulled out onto 84. Made good time exited at Hood River onto route 35 winding our way through the apple/pear orchards. As we neared our destination all of us were excited. Lots of folks leaving town as we were coming in. That pleased us much. We were the party!

Checked in the office with Shannon near 345pm. She was kind, cute, and accommodating. Felt awesome to be ‘home’. After lugging everything up the stairs and then stowing our ski gear in the garage, we flipped on the TV to the Super Bowl already in progress. The Giants were ahead.

The plan was to ski Skibowl after a little break. At first it was just Darwin and I who planned to ski, but I talked Mindy into joining us too. We picked up lift tickets from Shannon just before they closed the office – near 5pm.  She reminded us that we had 10 free Skibowl lift tickets to use during the week, but couldn’t use then that night. No biggie!

I was excited but also a tad nervous, having only skied Skibowl on other time and that was during a big snow storm. Unfamiliar trails. It’s not even a quarter mile to the Skibowl parking lot. 15 minutes later we were heading up their rickety blue double lift. The lifts are downright spooky but the trails nice. I think we did 7 or 8 lift rides up. That might not seem like a lot but considering the length of the runs, it was plenty. Besides, the idea was to get our ski legs. The clear, moon lit sky was incredible. We could see hood shrouded in darkness but still visible. Breath taking!

We headed back to the condo around 830pm. The others: Glenn, Tom & Tommy were at the hot tub. After checking the outcome of the Super Bowl we changed out of our ski gear and joined the brothers at the hot tub. The Giants won, beat the pats. Can’t recall the final score. Might’ve stayed in the hot tub for 30 minutes until we were pruned.

Back to the condo, we hung out, talked, and drank beer until 11pm Oregon time. Most of us were dog tired.