This summer was an unusual one for me. As previously mentioned, I studied for and then took the California Bar. It was a horrible experience, as you would expect, but what I didn't expect was how quiet everything felt afterwards. After weeks of studying and cramming, I suddenly had nothing to do. Which sounds nice, in theory, but I found myself feeling a bit lost. Understandably, whining about all the free time on your hands is not something that gets you a lot of sympathy, so I decided that I may as well go about actually enjoying my leisure time.
A few months back, Daniel was invited to give a talk in Portland in August, and I jumped at the chance to tag along. We stayed in the southeastern part of the city and while he attended the week-long conference, I played. I drank countless cups of excellent coffee (Coava! Stumptown!) and ate dessert every day (ice cream at Salt & Straw! cookies at Maurice!). I bought a used copy of Lolita at Powell's and read on a bench in the Lan Su Chinese Garden. I walked through Ladd's Addition and marveled at the pocket rose gardens. I saw the Ai WeiWei exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. I had Indian street food at Bollywood Theater and Vietnamese spring rolls at Luc Lac. It was terrific.
After the conference was over, Daniel and I went to stay with our friends Evan and Marissa. We enjoyed our customary seafood feast and over the weekend, we drove out to the coast.
Because the wind was blowing smoke from the massive Washington fires into the area, the air was acrid and the sky was gray. Braving the smoke, we made the drive out to Short Sand beach and spent the better part of the morning walking around and inspecting the tide pools. Though the beach was hazy, it was still beautiful with the wide expanse of sand and the multi-hued cliffs.
Afterwards, we drove out to Astoria for a late lunch and then picked up seafood for dinner.
I didn't end up carrying my camera around for much of the trip - it was so hot and I was walking everywhere, so the idea of lugging heavy equipment around didn't sound so good. But I've missed being here and missed having a place to share pictures, especially of places I'm visiting. With a few more trips planned before I start work in October, I hope I'm able to spend a little more time on this space.
