The last few weeks have been solid in their awesomeness, if not a bit busy.
Two weekends ago, Jane and I finished our 4th annual Seattle to Portland ride with some good friends. I made a promise on twitter that I would take photos of all of the scenic sections of the ride. I can’t remember if I saw any. Maybe I am a bit jaded after the scenic tour de force that was the Cascade 1200.

It is funny how time slips on by without much notice though. 4 years ago, STP was the event on my calendar as I was coming straight out of chemo. We had literally 3 months to train and get my body back into shape for it after my stem cell transplant. Perhaps needless to say, but it was a bit easier this year.

Saturday night, we took a detour off the course in order to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound (just north of Centrailia). The water slides were killer and a hot tub after a day in the saddle is something to be cherished. The Great Wolf will be a destination from here on out. Big thanks to Chris for ferrying our bags around for the weekend (and having time to hit the waterpark with us).

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. We made sure to take plenty of “real food” stops that I think everyone appreciated. We weren’t the fastest group ever, but it didn’t matter. While we were actually on the road, we kept a pretty quick pace.

Once we made it in to Portland on Sunday,  our friends Joshua and Brit were amazingly gracious hosts to Jane and I. It was almost over the top in it’s awesomeness getting served beer and steak while watching le Tour on actual cable TV (I’m pretty cheap at home). I really love Portland more and more each time we visit.

We had a chance to repay them this weekend when they came up to Seattle. Jane and I made a list of all of the joints that we wanted to take them and attempted to get to most of them. It was ridiculous just how much money we spent over the course of 2 days on food and drink. I’m pretty sure it was worth it, but it is all a bit hazy now.

I need to go on some sort of diet now. All of my fitness from Cascade is probably shot already.

The whole weekend lead up to an over the top feast with a bunch of Thundering Hooves porterhouses purchased from Capitol Hill’s new butcher, Rain Shadow Meats. We pulled fresh carrots from the garden and roasted those as well, with a pesto made from the greens. Josh and Brit pulled together a massive salad and some stuffed portabello mushrooms for Chris and Emily.

I’m still annoyed that I had to go back to work today. Some weekends just don’t deserve to end.