The Weekend

Saturday morning began with waffle eating ber at Julia's. Then we were off for some berry picking at Sauvie Island. Our crew picked raspberries, marionberries, blueberries, green beans, and lettuce. Afterwards, we reaped some of the benefits of our labors with some freshly made marionberry crisps, vanilla ice cream and coffee. Delicious. Then it was back home for Tim and I long enough to cook and eat some dinner before we headed off on the MAX to the Oregon Brewer's Festival.

The event was held down by the river in the same waterfront park where Obama had his rally that 100,000 people showed up at. We got there with only an hour and a half until closing and by the time we met up with Julia's circle of friends had very little leftover to really check things out. The cost of entrance is free. At that point, you are free to explore and freely sample four different types of root beer offered by a group who is in attendence to speak out about the dangers of alcohol. Or you can buy a mug and tokens. A mug will cost you $4 and each token is a $1. 1 token gets you a sample of any beer present (a sample is about half the mug) or for 4 tokens you can get your mug filled. Obviously the system favors sampling which I would assume leads to the brewer's real long term goals of having new customers discover their drinks. There were long lines and then when you got to the front- informational displays detailed the specifics of each drink. I don't know if it was the time of day that we arrived or the general habit of the crowd but it seemed like most of the attendees were much less concerned with being beer connoisseurs as they were with partying with their friends. Such is to be expected I guess.

We came back and watched half of Into The Wild. This morning, we tried our first church, Imago Dei. The church meets in a neat, old high school facility. The skies were dreary and cold and inside the school's auditorium the congregation felt similar. It's a church which is very similar in style to RockHarbor but with more diversity in the age demographic. It'll be worth going back to check out again even if my first impressions weren't the most favorable. The rest of the day will probably be devoted to cleaning up around the place and getting ready for the week which will include a trip to see The Dark Knight, the first visit of our parents and, hopefully, employment.