We went to Tucker Park campground, just outside of Hood River, on Saturday. Had dinner in town and slept at the park. Spent the next morning bumping around Hood River. Very nice Father’s Day…thanks, family!

We’ve got this old running joke that Amy is “not a wilderness girl.” (You can ask her about the genesis of the phrase) It’s not as true as it used to be, but it’s still funny. Especially at times like this little clip.

Google maps are such a boon. And their ‘street view’ feature has helped me out on more occasions that I have fingers to count. Portland was one of the first cities to benefit from the feature, but I figured smaller towns would be waiting a few years. However, the other day I noticed that much of Newberg has been photographed and mapped.

I looked around a few familiar places and found a fun little treat outside Grammy and Pappy’s house. Apparently, when the Google photography van was driving by last fall, our family was walking over to Grammy and Pappy’s. The ‘street view’ show Truman on his bike, just going up the walkway to their house. Amy and Asher and I are just down the street. Pretty fun!

Click the image above to be taken to the relevant portion of Google Maps. Once there, you’ll see a popup-style box overlaid against the map. The top right corner of the popup box says, “Full-Screen”. Just click that and use your arrow keys to move the point of view around.

Wow. Caminito del Ray looks like fun. If you’re crazy.

I’m in Wenham, MA at Gordon College. I’m here for a week at a conference. Before I left home, Asher was just getting over the flu. The morning I left (Thursday), Truman got it. Today Amy got it. And I’m here. I don’t like being away from my family when they’re not well.

I’m doing pretty well, all things considered. Here’s the email I sent to my office about my drama in the sky on the way here:

Greetings from the future..

Just a quick note that I’m safe and sound at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. Nice place, though it looks like we’re in for thunderstorms later today. (pic from my room: )

Here’s my gripping Friday story: As our flight took off the runway yesterday, and began climbing to altitude, one of the passengers rang the flight attendant button. He was passing out in his seat, and they had to ask if there was a doctor on board (there were TWO doctors on board). They called the on-ground medics for updates and they gave the guy an oxygen thingy to breathe into and one of the doctors was all over the guy with the stethoscope and the blood pressure cuff. It was better than the in-flight entertainment!

Guess what? It was me!

I hadn’t had much water the night before, plus I accidentally doubled up on my high blood pressure medicine (it’s a diuretic), then I drank a big old coffee at the airport. By the time I sat down in my seat on the plane, I was tingly all over and and super lightheaded. I REALLY HATED ringing the flight attendant button, especially right as we’re taking off, but something was definitely wrong with me. I was getting closer and closer to passing out. Anyway the docs really helped, once they figured out what the deal was. The cure: eat pretzels and drink a ton of water. I set the in-flight record for bathroom breaks, that’s for sure.

Moral: don’t fly dehydrated!

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I visit Boise, ID roughly monthly for a couple of days. I used (grudgingly) get coffee at a local chain called Moxie Java. Recently, an Oregon-based chain called Dutch Bros. has entered the Boise market, and they’re rocking it.

Moxie seems to be primarily a walk-in joint, though they do good drive-thru business as well. Dutch Bros is all drive-thru, all the time. No store space whatsoever, though some shops do have little seats outside a walk-up window. The biggest difference, though, is the quality of coffee. Every single Moxie store I’ve been to has served up coffee that’s barely palatable. For the longest time, I thought that’s just what Boise people liked. What else could explain the proliferation of Moxie Java joints all over that town? Then I visited Rembrandt’s and realized that good coffee did exist in the Boise-metro area (Rembrandts is in Eagle).

Since Dutch Bros started popping up in the Boise area (there are at least three that I know of), I’m guessing that Moxie is scratching their heads, wondering where all their drive-thru business has gone. I bet they have no idea how much people enjoy decent coffee.

Here’s my prediction: Within 2 years, Moxie will either:
1) close 50% of their stores
2) go out of business altogether
3) fix their coffee and save their business

Personally, I hope it’s #3. Moxie has a cool name and a great vibe in their stores. They’re locally owned, too. But I really think they won’t turn it around in time. I’m guessing they’ll reduce the number of stores by half within two years. I hope I’m wrong, but they’ve got to execute some heroic maneuvers to get out of this fix and salvage their brand.