onfocus

Alsea Falls is a small waterfall about 30 miles southwest of Corvallis. Today we took some back roads we hadn't been on before to get there, and then we took a nice walk around the falls. Here's what the falls sounded like:

Corvallis has a great Farmers' Market and we try to go every Saturday. They block off 1st street by the river (view from above) and a few city blocks are filled with local vendors selling food.



Here's what walking through the farmer's market sounded like yesterday:



If you listen you can hear a guy playing a didgeridoo, kids screaming as they run through a fountain, a few guys playing jazz, dogs panting, and lots of snippets of conversations. The best reason to go to the Farmers' Market right now? Oregon Hood strawberries are in season. We made this fantastic strawberry shortcake with Hood berries from the market:



Best. Strawberries. Ever.

You're probably wondering what Chip Ross Park (view from above) sounds like in the afternoon. I can finally answer that for you.

Speaking of sounds, here's what my backyard sounds like around 5am.



Now that spring is here and I'm sleeping with the windows open I often wake up to this around 5. There's even one bird I call the alarm clock bird that I'd like to catch on tape sometime.

I'd like to talk with my fellow Corvallians for a minute. Everyone else gone? Good, ok.

We get so few new places to eat around here, that I thought I'd mention a couple of new options. I finally had a chance to eat at the new McMenamins on Monroe last night. It's a nice space, same good McMenamins food. The plumbing art on the wall is fun, but I'm not sure about the giant, giant TV screen. I suppose it'd be good for watching OSU games, but it seems a little out of place when you're there for dinner.

Be sure to check out Thanh-Hien, the new Vietnamese place by Winco. (It replaced TCBY.) I've been there a couple times for lunch, and it's been surprisingly great both times. They've done a nice job redecorating the place. Food places don't last long over there, so try it while you can. I hope they do well.

Did you know that OSU has a nuclear reactor? Neither did I. Somehow they forget to mention that on those safest places to live surveys.

If you don't already subscribe to Paul Turner's email list (he runs the Avalon and Darkside), go subscribe now! His movie synopses are worth the price of admission alone, and sometimes commentary about Corvallis and his experiences running the theaters creep into the emails. Here's part of his recent rant about the Whiteside hullabaloo:

At the risk of not being silly, I must tell you that the Whiteside is simply not financially viable as a movie theater...The memories of exploring one's heterosexuality on the Whiteside balcony while Indiana Jones dodges Nazis will not pay the bills, and will not excite investors to pay them, either. Frankly, I will be a wreck when they start whatever transformation takes place at the Whiteside...But how I feel about the old queen does not change the way business works. And that sucks.

I wish Paul Turner had a blog so I could link to the whole thing.

Hope your leaf pickup is going well. Let's have a good Civil War this Friday—Go Beavs!

The Bridge Pedal this weekend was quite a spectacle. It's amazing the city of Portland can pull it off—they close or limit traffic on 10 bridges that connect the two sides of Portland. Part of the interstate is blocked off, and 15,000+ bikers take to the streets to enjoy it. Frank over at Bike Hugger mentioned that it's one of the largest bike events in the country. Here's sk and I in full biking regalia on one of the bridges:



(I'm not angry here, just holding the camera funny and couldn't find the button.)

There was a band playing at the top of two of the bridges, and REI had "bike tech" stations everywhere to help people fix any problems along the way. (One REI guy helped me fix a front brake that was sticking.) It was a highly organized, very well-run event. It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect.

Even though the ride was festive, and people were nice, it was a bit dangerous. We saw a woman fly over her handlebars landing face-first on a bridge after someone in front her stopped in the middle of the road. And we saw paramedics in a few other places helping out after crashes. You really had to keep moving and be aware of everyone around you to avoid running into people. My only critique of the event is that they should provide a bit more safety instruction to the riders.

But even with the stress of riding with a large pack, it beats sharing the road with cars. Here's a look at the top of our last car-free bridge of the day:



Getting up to the top of a few of the bridges was a lot of work for us novice bikers, but I felt like we had a really good ride. We're both tired today, but there were no injuries, no major soreness, and a good time was had by both! I have a few more pictures at Flickr tagged Bridge Pedal. And then there's the global Flickr tag Bridge Pedal. And you can also check out other Oregon blog posts that mention Bridge Pedal via ORblogs.

Update: Check out this picture of the Fremont Bridge over at Portland Ground.

I've been light on posts lately, but I'm still alive. Last weekend my folks were in town and we went over to Bend for a few days. We happened to catch the annual Pole Pedal Paddle where contestants punish themselves with a few intense hours of skiing (both kinds), biking, kayaking, and running.



I found a great first person account of the event at someone's blog: Pole Pedal Paddle.



What I liked about PPP is that it turned largely solitary activities like kayaking, skiing, and running into a communal event. You wouldn't always want to kayak with hundreds of other people, but once a year it builds community. As I watched I thought about communal events in the virtual world, but couldn't come up with too many. In the early blogging days there was A Day Without Weblogs (now Link & Think) every year. But maybe weblogs are communal enough already so an annual group activity isn't necessary.

The scenic highlight of the Bend trip was Tumalo Falls:



Unfortunately, the Cascade Lakes highway is still covered with snow—which we found out the hard way. But the road to Tumalo Falls had just opened, and the falls is probably at its peak this time of year. There's a short path that lets you walk up to and look over the falls.

We saw plenty of these little guys at the Lava Lands Visitor Center:



I also saw the Da Vinci Code while I was in Bend. The movie is being universally panned, but I actually enjoyed it. (Maybe because I haven't read the book.) I think I enjoyed it because the hero of the story is a history professor. At one point in the film they're rushing through a city being chased by bad guys and Tom Hanks actually says, "I need to get to a library, quick!" Not your typical action hero line. We need more movies where knowledge is a more useful tool to the hero than a gun.

According to this MSNBC/Forbes article—Safety first: The best places to live in the U.S., "Every location in the country is exposed to one disaster or another..." But Corvallis, Oregon came in at #8 on the safest places list. A quake topped the list of dangers here, and there is a fault off the coast. Honolulu, Hawaii was at the top of the list. Of course now that Corvallis is on the safe list something is bound to happen. [via Chuggnutt]

It somehow makes sense that the high prophet of pastafarianism is from right here in Corvallis, Oregon: Corvallis man's parody is Internet 'monster'. You can read his original letter at his website.