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If our brief respite in Chicago after the wedding was the first half of the honeymoon, and the Niagara trip was the second half, then our recent trip out Northwest was the third half of the honeymoon. Last Wednesday Adrienne and I flew in to Portland, where before heading out of town, we spent a few hours in the city. It was what one might think of a classic day in the Rose City, at least weather-wise: cool, windy with a bit of rain. Here’s a pic of the Multnomah County library that we saw downtown.

We soon left the city and traveled west, to the coast, where we would stay the next two nights. It was a nearly full moon… (more…)

Here’s the math problem: David has a couple vacation days he needs to burn. Adrienne has never been to Niagara Falls (or many other places on the East side of the Mississippi). What’s that equal? Roadtrip!

This past Saturday morning we took off in our rented Ford Focus for 4 days of, well, driving. Who knew New York and Pennsylvania were so big? This is the quick version of the journal (since the real journal hasn’t yet been finished – or started) – but it’s got pictures. Here’s one:

Here is our new friend at Soon’s Apple Orchard.

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…to the Borough of Brooklyn we go.

The promise of a big breakfast (and a beautiful morning) was enough to cajole Adrienne out of bed at the early hour of 6:30 this morning. I had been up since just before 6am, giving me time to grab a shower and lube the bikes, which had received a washing the previous evening.

Sunday morning is one of the rare times when it’s actually peaceful in New York City. We took the opportunity to take the bikes under the Hudson river (via the train) and into Manhattan. From the World Trade Center it’s just a few short blocks to the Brooklyn Bridge, which we can ride across the East River and catch some great views of the city.

Once in Brooklyn, we biked to Prospect Park (sort of the Central Park of Brooklyn – and designed by the same people) and rode around a bit. Then we turned off in search of breakfast. We’ve long known this aspect of NYC, but were still surprised at how hard it was to find a place open for actual breakfast at 9am. Sure, there were bagel places. And coffee places. And brunch places (that don’t start serving until around noon). But it took a while to find an actual breakfast place, serving a substantial meal. We finally did in downtown Brooklyn, then made our way back home. Nice way to spend a beautiful morning.

We did a “big square” around Liberty State Park:

About halfway through we stopped and attempted to get a decent picture of us for the wedding page. Apparently it’s the thing to do. And no, I don’t normally have bangs, it’s just the wind… A decent sunset on the way out of the park:

On our way home we stopped by Van Vorst Park, where there was to be a gypsy Jazz concert, ala Django Reinhart. I attempted to capture a little bit of audio to try out my new plugin trick to add audio to the blog:

And here’s a little panoramic shot from where we were sitting. Click for a larger size:

That’s our night, at least so far.