Walk, Race and Great Company

I was really looking forward to this weekend, not only was I doing a 10k race called the Bridge to Brew on Sunday, but Nik's parent's, Gail and Steve, were coming to town as well. We started off the weekend with a walk for MS Saturday morning. The walk took us from Pioneer Square (downtown) to the river and over two bridges (totaling about 3 miles). There was a band at the beginning motivating the crowd, which was nice, but we decided to fall back a bit to hear each other talk. We had a lot of fun, using it as a time to catch up and talk with one another.

Afterwards we headed to University of Portland for a baseball game. Gail and Steve used to come up here all of the time when Nik was in school to cheer him on during his games. They became really close with his coach and still are to this day. We enjoyed the game watching the Pilots beat LMU 5-1. Later that evening we were invited to his coaches house for dinner. Chris Sperry, his coach, is someone Nik has always respected and admired. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Greek Gyros, Chris made, and spent some quality time with his family reminiscing about old times. Chris has a great family (wife and 3 girls). Even though he is a busy Division 1 coach, he still manages to have a successful family life. I now see why they all have kept in contact with him over the years. What a wonderful guy! He complemented me saying, "Nik is way over his ski tips with you and he better not screw this up." Meaning Nik scored big time. I was flattered, but feel like I scored big time as well.

The next morning Martina and I got up early and headed to Widmer Brewery for the annual Bridge to Brew Race. It was a 10k (6.2 m) race, running over two bridges (different ones from yesterday), along the river, through the industrial area and back to Widmer. Beer and food was provided at the end, but for some reason a beer after a race didn't sound appealing to me so I passed. It was fun running in a race again though, something about the motivation and the excitement in the crowd makes me want to try hard and push myself.

Later that day Gail and I went shopping for a new Macbook Pro (for her of course). It was very exciting for her to get a Mac (all of her kids have them) and the first thing we did was Skype Nik. She loved it! Steve even got on for a while for his first Skype experience and thought it was great. For dinner, we met up with Andrew, Wanda and Martina and headed to a Mediterranean restaurant called Nicholas. Haha, spelled differently but I had to laugh! The food was exceptional, definitely one I will go back to. Pitas larger than anything I had ever seen and food to die for. Andrew is very close with the Kosach family because of the college baseball days playing with Nik, so they were excited to see each other and catch up. We had a ton of laughs and amazing food. It made for some memorable times.

Before the night was over we decided to stop at Veritable Quandary for an after dinner drink. The weather was fantastic so it was a no brainer to sit outside. It made for a perfect ending to a near perfect weekend (Nik, you were missed).

Thank you Gail and Steve for everything. I am so honored that you came to Portland for a visit. I truly enjoyed every minute and I look forward to many more memories.