On Thursday night I drove down to Portland to visit family and do some research for my MBA final project. The weather was incredible (for western Oregon): sunny and mostly warm. I spent Friday in downtown Portland, interviewing and getting fleeced by downtown parking operators. I stopped in at my favorite bookstore, Powell's, but I couldn't find the Russian grammar text I was looking for. I have to say that Amazon has completely changed book buying for me. I love to sit and read in a place like Powell's, but in terms of getting specific books quickly and painlessly, the Internet wins hands down.

I stayed at my brother's new house in Gresham. They live on a dead end and I played football and basketball with my nephews on the street. We also went down to a nearby wood where there is a pond and some trails. Gavin and I went on a bicycle ride out toward Boring (that's the name of a town, believe it or not) and my foldable bike performed flawlessly. Tawnya also took me out to Portland to meet my brother on his break from work. We had pizza at a little place that was jammed with customers. It's always a shock (though fun at the same time) to go from my tiny town to the city, where you see more people in ten minutes than I see during an entire year in Bonners Ferry.

On the drive home yesterday I stopped at Multnomah Falls. I hadn't been there since high school, and it was a good break to hike up to the top and get some exercise in an otherwise dull day in the car. The wind was tearing through the Columbia Gorge and leaves were flying everywhere... a great memory.