A Glimpse of Winter

January-February 2017 In late January, Chris and I were able to make a quick trip to Oregon to help celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday.

 

It has been about a year and a half since we last visited and it was great to see family and friends again, plus the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Not to mention, it was really nice to escape the heat and humidity of the Brisbane summer and experience what winter is like again!

One of the things I miss most about the Pacific Northwest is the mountains. There are no real mountains in Australia, at least nothing with regular snow and glaciers. Most of what we have in Queensland would be considered high hills in Oregon. So to help me get my mountain and snow fix, we rented a house in Sunriver (in the Cascade Mtns) with my family for a long weekend. It was a great time, getting to enjoy the snow with family!

 

Hanging out in Sunriver with the entire family. My nieces are growing up so fast! Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

Skiing at Mt. Bachelor, with a view of the Three Sisters and Broken Top. This was a fabulous snow year! Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

Skiing with my Dad, brother and Chris. Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

The Deschutes River near our rental house. Mt. Bachelor is poking up just behind the hills.

 

Out for a walk in the snow. Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Sr.

 

Exploring a super cool igloo someone built along the trail. Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Sr.

 

Later in the week, Chris and I did the tourist thing, visiting some of my favorite spots such as the Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon Coast. It was very cold, and most of the trails were closed due to ice, but it was still nice to see the waterfalls, the river and the rugged coast again.  And the next weekend, we celebrated my Dad’s birthday.

 

Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

 

Multnomah Falls

 

Starvation Creek

 

Along the Columbia River

 

Columbia River

 

Cape Kiwanda and Haystack Rock (one of two "Haystack" rocks on the Oregon coast).

 

View of Pacific City from Cape Kiwanda. It was a very cold, windy day and the clam chowder at the Pelican Brewpub never tasted so good!

 

We did the Three Capes drive and hiked to the end of Point Lookout. Later we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory for cheese curds and ice cream to make sure we got the full Oregon experience!

 

Later in the week, I had a girls' night out with my best girlfriends from college. Thank you Kristi and Melissa for making the drive all the way from Corvallis! 

 

For my Dad's birthday, we toured the Widmer Bros Brewpub, which makes one of his favorite brews. The best part was the tasting at the end! :)         Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

Happy Birthday Dad! Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

After Oregon, I traveled to Boston for a 5-day bootcamp wit h the Bridge to Mass Challenge Australia program; this was the follow-up from the national competition in Sydney we participated in last November. Ten of us representing our start-ups from Australia got another awesome crash course in running a start-up company at the MC headquarters. And as a bonus, we got to experience a real Nor’easter with Winter Storm Niko in the middle of the week. At the end of the week, we had another pitch competition where 5 of us were selected for the next round (Microba made it to the next round).

 

The top ten Australian start-ups at the Mass Challenge Headquarters in Boston.

 

Our visit ended much too soon, but it was a great break. And now we appreciate the warm Brisbane weather a bit more! J

 

 Photo credit: Karel Pribyl, Jr.

 

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