another grouse grind

Did another round of grouse grind earlier. So far, for my 3.5 months stay here, I've done 6 total. 2 of them I didn't record in my grind timer.



My target before I go home is to have my time trimmed down to less than an hour. But based from how I did earlier? It's very very hard to improve 9 minutes! Doing grouse grind is like climbing stairs all the way up. Too hard. Too tiring.

Looking on the stats above, I can't believe I'm just in the middle of the thousands that go up. I'd like to think of it as - that only those that really want record their time, buy a grind timer. The rest don't use the grind timer.

My friend said that my time in doing grouse grind will roughly equate to my time when I do a 10km marathon - and it looks pretty accurate. I did my 10k last time at around the same time.

Tried out the new Canada Line

So my aunt and I joined the crowd and tried out the new Canada line which links downtown Vancouver to Richmond, and the Airport. It was the first day, so the trip from 1pm to 9pm was free. We went to King Edward / Cambie station, rode until Bridgeport, and back. We were supposed to go to Vancouver Airport, but apparently the line was so long that it'll take us around 2 hours to go back to the train, so we decided to just hop out at Bridgeport station, and hop back in going back to King Edward station.

It's really nice how they invest in something that will help everyone. Their 3 train lines pretty much go around Vancouver/Surrey/Richmond now. You can go from downtown Vancouver to Airport in just 30 minutes!

I wish Philippines would have better planning in terms of metro development and its public transit. That way, less traffic, less pollution, and more convenience for all.

Oregon Coast Vacation

This is a way long overdue post regarding my trip two weeks back to Oregon.

Oregon is a big state and we decided to stay put at Lincoln City, to be near the Oregon Coast area. From Vancouver, we drove all the way down to Multnomah Falls (out of the way to Lincoln City) to check out this really nice tourist spot in Oregon. It was well worth the detour.



It's a better view from the top, though I wasn't able to take pictures there. The nice thing about this area is that it's maintained, very clean and vibrant. Because I remember the falls in Camiugin, would've been better to have it developed to attract more tourists.

Anyway, after Multnomah Falls, we made our way to Lincoln City. We drove by Interstate 8 (I think) and what a beautiful area that is. It's a scenic drive amongst farmlands, and vineyards. Wasn't able to take any pictures but it was truly beautiful. We drove there for around 2 hours before we finally reached Lincoln City. Would you believe, we departed Vancouver around 6:30 am, and after couple of stops and detours along the way (and getting lost), we finally arrived at the beach house we rented at just about 8 pm that same day.

For Day 2, we decided to drive down to Florance, along the coastal highway 101 to enjoy the scenic view as well. Who gets bored driving with a view like this along the way?



We wanted to check out Florence down south because it was famous for its sand dunes. I didn't expect that area to have that much sand! According to the driver during our sandland adventure, the sands are actually river sand, not because sand. And it spans thousands of miles. In fact, it's a haven for atv, 4 wheel drivers because you pretty much have a vast land of pure sand dunes.



From Florence, we made our way back up, passing by Sea Lions Caves first. I wanted to go in, but my companions didn't want to (well, preferred not to anyway). Too bad. But luckily, I got to see some sea lions for free at Newport City, which was our next stop. We were supposed to go to Ripley's Believe it Or Not, but did not as we ended up getting parking ticket - cost us 40$! We parked on an unloading/loading zone. Who knew that??

Driving back up to Lincoln City, we drove by Heceta Lighthouse but did not get to go as well cause well, we had to do quite a hike and most of the people I were with were not as willing (oh well)... but good thing we got to drop by Yaquina Lighthouse. Finally!



This is probably one of the best places I've seen during that trip (and coldest by far). I was wearing only shorts thinking that weather will be in the early 20s that day.

Anyway, after a long day 2, we finally got back to Lincoln City, where we prepared for the next day's shopping day plans.

Day 3 was just purposely setup as shopping day. It's nice to shop around Oregon because it's tax free! Meaning, what you see is what you get. I didn't buy much, just some stuff my mom wanted me to get for her to give away as Christmas presents. So not much this day.

Day 4 is the last of our 4 day vacation. We departed early morning and decided to drive by north thru coastal highway just to see the scenic coast line, and drive by small towns along the way. And good thing we used this route cause I was able to finally make it to Tillamook Cheese Factory. These guys didn't even want to come here in the first place! But we ended up spending an hour there. It's basically a cheese factory, and they've set it up in such a way that you can do a self tour and see part of the assembly line of cheese making.



That was our last stop, but we stumbled upon a Cosco branch where one of our friends needed to buy something. And guess what, while there, I ended up buying the netbook I've been looking for! Well, it's for my mom. Gift from me and my brother. I was suppose to get one during our shopping day, but no stock left at the place we went to.

There's too much detail for this vacation. But all in all, it was a blast and I truly enjoyed it.