Sloan Tennant of Pendleton High School puts his ball up on the second green May 13 at the 5A state golf tournament in Corvallis. The sophomore had a combined score of 163 to finish tied for 35th.
Things are getting a bit out of order here, so if you're trying to get the chronology straight, I was in Ohio first, then immediately turned around and went to Corvallis, Ore., for the golf tournament. I blogged about Day 1 of the golf a few days ago.
The weather wasn't as nice on Day 2, but at least it didn't rain. Here are some of my favorite images from that day.
[below, left] Pendleton junior Kordd Thornton follows his approach shot on the ninth hole. [below, right] Bend's Andrew Vijarro pumps his fist after birdying the ninth hole at Trysting Tree. Vijarro and Nick Sherwood of West Albany tied for first with two-day scores of 143. A strong second day by West Albany put them first as a team. The Lava Bears were fourth.
You don't see a lot of photos of fairway shots, partly because you don't know exactly where the players will be. As I found out, it's also a bit more dangerous.
On this hole (left) the drives usually land near the top of a little hill right beside a huge tree, so I parked myself there. For the first group I photographed going through that hole, one of the guys I wasn't shooting ended up a bit short—on the right side of the fairway, but at the bottom of the swale, about 30 yards from me. Since the hole heads a little left from there, I figured I was pretty safe standing right up against the tree. I watched as he played his wood, and saw the ball coming straight at me. Yikes! I ducked as it whistled through the branches about 10 or 15 feet from where I had been.
The kid was cool, though, and apologized for sending the ball at me. I told him not to sweat it, it was my fault for standing there.
[left] Sloan Tennant of Pendleton High School winces as his chip shot narrowly missed the cup on the ninth green. (The Pendleton team started on the 10th hole on day 2 of the tournament, so this was his last hole.) [right] Bend's Andrew Vijarro reacts after narrowly missing his par putt on the 18. I don't think he knew it at the time, but he would have won the tournament if he'd made that putt.
OSAA 5A State Golf Tournament—Day 2 Monday, May 19, 2008
Ohio Trip—Day 3: flying home
[above] A dozen planes queue up on the tarmac at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) May 11, waiting for their turn on the runway. I think there were five or six more in front of my plane when I took this photo.
I've decided that I really don't like flying through Philadelphia. While it wasn't as bad as my first experience with that airport, the second go-around could hardly be described as a pleasure. (According to Flightstats.com, the two flights that I took out of Philadelphia—US 1156 and US 3915—have among the worst records for being on time: both 0.1 on a scale of 0-5.)
After a brief night's sleep in West Chester, Ohio, I headed back to Oxford only to realize that I'd left two of my three camera batteries in the chargers back at the hotel. Since it was 45 minutes to get back there, and not between Oxford and Columbus, I had them ship the batteries back to me in Portland. For the shoot, I used my spare battery and another photographer's spare. That was the extent of the excitement for that job.
From there, I made the two-hour drive back to Columbus for my plane home. As before the plane into PHL was on time (or pretty close), but my next plane was delayed. We boarded pretty much on time, but then sat on the taxiway for close to an hour before taking off.
For the next six hours, I had two views to choose from.
I got home around 11:30 and went straight to bed to get some rest before my next early morning call time.
Ohio Trip—Day 2: another long day Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The "new" Ulysses S. Grant Bridge spans the Ohio River between Portsmouth, Ohio, and South Shore, Ky. Originally built in 1927, the $38-million replacement was opened in 2006.
Saturday morning, after four hours of sleep, I was jolted awake by the alarm on my cell phone, which was charging on the opposite side of the room. I bolted upright, a bit dazed, trying to figure out exactly where I was as I leapt out of bed to silence the "Provincial" tone that was two steps too loud.
Once I had my bearings, I called down to the front desk to see if my suitcase had arrived. Sure enough, it was there and I would have clothes to wear for the day. Pulling on the jeans and t-shirt I'd worn the day before, I went down to the lobby and picked it up.
A quick shave and shower, and it was back to the lobby for the complimentary breakfast. Sausage, biscuits and gravy ... no doubt, we're in the South. (Did I mention that Portsmouth is about as far south as Ohio goes? "Appalachia" rhymes with "latch" here.)
Richard (my room mate, from Seattle) followed me down to the campus of Shawnee State University for the morning's shoot. The university has a very pretty campus right down on the Ohio River, but for whatever reason the campus planners have put the school's back to the river ... shame.
The weather was fantastic for the outdoor shoot, which wrapped up around noon. We got out of there a little before 1, looking for some lunch. Something quick and not too expensive, and I always like to find something a little local—I prefer my food served by a restaurant with revenues smaller than the GDP of a mid-sized nation. Driving around the town of about 20,000 I thought I'd hit the jackpot at a roadside hut called "Dairy Creme," but they didn't take credit cards (Richard was out of cash) so we had to pass. Richard suggested that we get a couple photos of this really cool bridge (see above) and then get something along the way to our next gig. My instincts told me that this was a bad idea, but I went along with it.
Our next destination was Oxford, Ohio, a little north of Cincinnati. Now, as densely populated as Ohio is (compared to Oregon, anyway), the south is a relatively uninhabited section. There are roads everywhere, but they aren't the big, straight freeways you find elsewhere in the state, and eateries along the way are few and far between.
We wound our way west through the very scenic hills of OH-125 for about an hour before reaching West Union, where Google told me to head north on OH-247. We drove through the bulk of the town up to our turn without finding anywhere to eat. Since it was now almost 2:30, we decided to find something—anything—before heading any further. Just as I was about to give up on the town as the only place in the union with no dining establishments whatsoever, I spotted a tourist information booth. With their help, we found "the strip" a bit further down the road after it seems to leave town.
The intersection of Main St. and Cross St. in West Union, Ohio. I like single, four-way traffic light.
Wendy's ... no ... McDonald's ... no ... BK ... no ... Arby's ... yeah, right ... KFC ... no ... Domino's ... not enough time. Then, at the end of the strip I spotted something I'd only heard rumours of: a giant statue of an overly happy kid with a 50's hairdo and crazy checkered overalls. You saw it as Dr. Evil's escape pod in the Austin Powers movie. That's right, it was a Big Boy. A Frisch's Big Boy, to be precise. It may be a popular chain in some parts of the country, but they don't have any franchises anywhere near anywhere I've ever lived, so we pulled in.
I'd always thought it was more like a McDonald's, but they made us wait to be seated, and took our orders from the table. The salad bar was pretty good. The burger ... better than average, but I suppose that doesn't mean much. The fries were alright.
From West Union we drove north to US-52, a near-freeway that went straight to Cininnati. Skirting around the edge of the city, we got to Oxford with about an hour to spare.
Oxford is home to Miami University. Actually, I should say that Miami University is home to the town of Oxford, as the school was there first (1809). The town looks like a good place for a college party for a weekend—say, if your school had a football game there—but I don't know if I'd want to live/study there.
The shoot was pretty uneventful. We got out of there around 9:45, followed by a 45 minute drive back to our hotel in West Chester. After dropping our stuff at the hotel, of course, we were all hungry and looking forward to a beer. One of the guys found an O'Casey's or O'Flannigan's or something like that a couple miles from our digs, so we piled into my car and headed over there.
The door was unlocked, and our watches said 10:53, but the waitress told us it was 11:02, two minutes after closing. Grumbling and protesting, we drove back and ate at the Frisch's Big Boy next door to the hotel. They don't serve beer.
Back at the hotel, I plugged in all of my batteries, checked my emails for the first time in two days, discovered there was no job bag for me for the next morning's shoot, and hit the sack around 1. The alarm was set for 6.
Ohio Trip—Day 1: an inauspicious start Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Last Friday, my day began with a 6:30 trip to the airport. So far, so good.
Walking onto the departures level, I checked my itinerary for the flight—8:45 a.m. from PDX to PHL (Philadelphia) arriving at 4:53 p.m., followed by a 5:50 p.m. flight from PHL to CMH (Columbus, Ohio) arriving at 7:32.
Great ... but which airline? I couldn't remember! I thought I remembered a "U" logo, so I looked at the United Airlines board. Hmmm... no flights to Philadelphia.
One of the agents nearby sensed my concern as I searched through my papers for some indication of which nearly bankrupt corporation would be transporting me across the continent. If you're going directly to Philadelphia, she said, it's US Airways. Thanks, I said, as I hauled my gear a quarter mile down the lobby to the second-farthest ticket counter.
The airline personnel kindly told me that the price of the ticket only included one checked bag. Additional bags were $25 each. So I checked my suitcase—the lightest of the three items—and kept my backpack and camera gear with me.
Going through security with two large packs full of camera gear, a laptop, and various bits of electronica can be an adventure. Strangely, none of these tripped me up—nope, it was my toothpaste, the last ounce in my tube, which was promptly confiscated by the TSA. [I should mention, however, that I saw one of the flight attendants on that flight brushing her teeth with a full tube on the counter beside her.]
Our departure from Portland was delayed by about 30 minutes due to some weather on the east coast. That's right—though we had a five-hour flight clear across the continent, we were delayed by something happening 2500 miles away.
I forgot to buy a book before I left, and the in-flight movie (27 Dresses) was clearly not worth watching. So I did every crossword, sudoku, and word puzzle in the in-flight magazine.
Having declined the $7 in-flight breakfast/lunch, I was a mite peckish when we arrived in Philly. But with only 30 minutes before my next flight I didn't think I would have time to eat. Of course I was a little bit happy to see that my connecting flight was delayed by an hour. I scarfed down some Chinese food and found a seat at the gate only to discover that my flight had been postponed for another 1-1/2 hours. According to the chatter in the waiting area, many other flights had been postponed repeatedly and eventually canceled. Needless to say, I was a little less than optimistic about my chances of making the 8:30 a.m. call time for Saturday morning's shoot. I bought a book to read.
We finally landed in Columbus a little after 11 p.m., more than 3-1/2 hours late. Cursing the two-hour drive I still had to make, I waited by the luggage carousel for my suitcase. And waited. And waited. Then the luggage handler guy shut the belt down and said that was everything from the flight. So my next stop was the luggage handling office—"For privacy, only one customer in the office at a time."—and filled out some paperwork as three or four other passengers did the same. Visions of my suitcase chasing me from city to city danced through my head as I explained to the airline personnel that I would be on the move over the weekend. They promised to call before sending the suitcase anywhere.
I picked up my rental car and called the manager for the shoot to let him know that I didn't have the requisite dark suit to wear for the shoot. Actually, it turns out I called the manager for the adjacent region ("Mid-Central" sounds like it would include Ohio, no?), but he was very helpful. As I drove south from Columbus he found a 24-hour Wal-Mart near my hotel and said that the company pay for whatever I could find to wear. Yay, I thought, clothes shopping at 2 a.m. in Portsmouth, Ohio! Does it get any better than that?
About half an hour later, still on my way to Portsmouth, I got a call from the airline who said they had my luggage at the airport in Columbus. I again explained my itinerary, and they said they would send it on to my Saturday night hotel in West Chester. But when I mentioned that I was about to head out shopping, they found a way to get it to my hotel overnight. I canceled my shopping trip, checked in to the hotel at about 2 a.m., got some toothpaste from the front desk and borrowed some contact solution from my room mate (whom I'd never met before), and went to bed.
At 7 a.m. (4 a.m. Pacific time) the alarm kicked me out of bed, disoriented and tired, hardly ready for a long day of work. But that will have to wait until the next post ...
OSAA State Golf Tournament Monday, May 12, 2008
The best high school golfers in Oregon took to the links today in pursuit of individual and team state titles. At the Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis, Wilsonville leads by three strokes over Bend after the first day of the two-day, class 5A tournament. Bend's Andrew Vijarro had the best individual round with 70 (-2).
Full results from the tournaments are available here.
[left] Crescent Valley's Tyler DeSpain winces as his chip shot just misses the cup on the ninth hole. DeSpain shot a 79 on Monday. [below] Jesse Salzwadel of Wilsonville shoots his approach from under a tree on eight.
I intended to post some photos from my trip to Ohio today, but I left them at home in the brief visit I paid there last night, so they'll have to wait for another day. Needless to say, it was a bit of an adventure. I'm here in Corvallis tonight (it was cheaper and quicker to get a hotel here than drive home tonight and back again tomorrow). One more day of golf tomorrow, then it's home for 48+ hours!
Queen's Alumni celebrate cinco de mayo Monday, May 05, 2008
The Portland branch of the Queen's Alumni Association celebrated cinco de mayo Sunday with a party at the casa de "Adamo" Green (Sc'94) and "Laurrra" Argalis. The celebration featured margaritas mixed by "Julia" (Comm'99) and "Roberto Jesus Salazar," Mexican food and beer, and a homemade piñata.
[below] "Laurrra" tries to avoid the camera.
[above] "Julia" unleashes her wrath on the piñata. [below, left] The piñata wore a Cheshire grin, but the humans had the last laugh. [below, right] "Adamo" (Sc'94), "Laurrra," "Roberto Jesus Salazar," "Julia" (Comm'99), "Heatherita," "Evano" (not sure which class), and "Mateo" (Sc'96) all adopted Spanish monikers for the day.
More fencing Friday, May 02, 2008
Courtney Hurley (right) can't evade the touch of Hannah Safford as they joust in the women's team epee event at the USFA National Championships Apr. 28 in Portland. Hurley, currently ranked no. 1 in the U.S. in women's epee, led her team from the New York Athletic Club to victory in the team event. The 18-year-old from San Antonio Texas also won the gold medal in the women's individual event. Safford, 17, was second.
With her Uncle Frank watching, Beaverton's Mariel Zagunis explains the scoring area to Kathy Woodman of Portland Apr. 28 during the USFA National Championships in the Rose City. Zagunis, who won the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, competes in the women's sabre event, where fencers score by touching their opponent in the arms, chest, neck or back.
Daria Schneider (right) goes on the offense in her joust with Mariel Zagunis in the women's individual sabre at the USFA National Championships in Portland. Zagunis scored four of the last five points to win the bout 15-14. The left-hander, currently ranked third in the United States, finished tied for third at this weekend's championships. Schneider was 14th. [below] Zagunis and Schneider both celebrate and look to the referee after a near-simultaneous touch. In these cases, the referee decides who gets the point.
In the fencing world, sabre is considered the polar opposite of epee: in epee, fencers have to connect the smallest part of the sword (the tip) with a fair amount of force against the largest target area (any part of the opponent's body). In sabre, the athletes have a smaller target area (basically the torso and arms), but the slightest graze with the tip or blade counts.
In epee, the action is (relatively) slow and deliberate. Sabre action is so fast, they don't even run the timer—on the "allez" command, the fencers attack each other in a flash and within about three seconds both lights go on indicating that both fencers have touched their opponent.
Unlike epee, though, only one fencer can score in sabre. So as soon as the lights go off, both fencers scream and pump their fists in celebration in an apparent effort to influence the referee's judgement. (In foil, if both fencers score a simultaneous touch, no points are awarded.)
[right] Mariel Zagunis (left) celebrates a 15-14 win over Daria Schneider in the women's individual sabre competition. The first fencer to 15 points wins.
Links:
USFA Current point standings
Final results for the 2008 USFA National Championships: ME, MF, MS, WE, WF, WS,
The Nehalem Experience (Part 5) Saturday, April 26, 2008
[left] Sunday morning, Pierce Henley was back in the kitchen again. [below] Joe and Kate Mitchoff enjoy breakfast in the sunshine.
On the way home, Ben, Todd and I stopped at Oswald West State Park (right), just up the coast from Manzanita. It's another nice place to camp (more primitive than Nehalem) and the beach is popular with surfers.
I don't know why the "west" is in the name—there isn't any "Oswald East State Park."
And we were back in town around 3, just in time for Ben and Todd to head off to Footy training.
The Nehalem Experience (Part 4)
Back to the Nehalem saga (see also parts 1, 2, and 3):
After dinner on Saturday night, many of us headed down to the beach to see the sunset. The weather was relatively good (i.e. neither snowing nor raining) but the sunset was pretty blah. Nevertheless, it did seem to put people in a contemplative mood ...
And then it was back to the meeting hall where a couple of the DJs in the group kept the tunes pumping well into the night.
US Fencing National Championships Friday, April 25, 2008
Weston "Seth" Kelsey (left) of Brush Prairie, Wash., parries Eric Hansen's attack Apr. 25 in the men's individual epee championship at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Kelsey won 15-7 to capture his third individual title.
Fencing is one of those sports where everybody knows what it is, but no one knows anyone who does it. Portland, though, is a bit of a hotbed for American fencing. Portland-area fencers include Mariel Zagunis, the first American to win gold in 100 years at the 2004 Olympics (women's individual saber), Cody Mattern and Seth Kelsey, both of whom also competed in Athens, and others.
[left] You can almost see Kelsey's face in this one. [right] Kelsey goofs around with the trophy at the awards presentation.
I'd never seen fencing live before, let alone tried to shoot it. In addition to the typical challenges of dim, flickering fluorescent light and horribly cluttered backgrounds, I struggled with the unfamiliar sport where hardly anything happens for a while and then a flurry of activity happens so quickly you can't even see it. Add to that athletes that (for obvious reasons) wear a mask that almost completely obscures their face and were surprisingly nonchalant after winning a national championship, and you have a real challenge.
The youth division championships are also being held at the convention center. Mason Speta of Chicago (shown here, at right, in the semifinal round) beat Mandeep Bhinder in the Y12 girls epee championship.
The championships continue at the convention center through Monday.
I can't believe they made that!
OK, we're taking a brief break from the Nehalem Experience (there will be one or two more posts in that series) to bring you:
Today's products:
- Humpty Dumpty Sour Cream & Clam Ripple Chips. Made in Maine ... "a taste worth fallin' for!"
- Why Wii™, when you can pii? Those crazy folks in Japan will do anything with high tech. It's not as easy as it looks, ladies.
The Nehalem Experience (Part 3)—Paella!
Pierce and Kate sautee onions and tomatoes for Saturday night's paella.
The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly Saturday night's paella feed. As they do every year, Pierce Henley and Kate Mitchoff cooked up a huge amount of rice, shrimp, scallops, crab legs, vegetables and—new for 2008—chicken and sausage, into a gargantuan feast for everybody. There were about 24 of us at the table, but food enough for 50!
[right] Pierce demonstrates how not to add the rice.
With the precision, coordination, and urgency of a cardio-thoracic surgical team—and a little help from a couple of sous-chefs—Pierce and Kate sauteed, steamed, boiled and baked the concoction to perfection in a pair of garbage can-sized paella pans. The heat was provided by a pair of Pierce's homemade grills.
[right] The chef tests his product. [below] Pierce and Kate check for "socarrat," the caramelization of the bottom layer of rice that is indicative of a perfectly cooked paella.
[left] Monique pulls steaming crab legs out of the pot. [below] Kate and Pierce show off the final product (the crab was added to each plate).
Sorry, no pictures of the crowd enjoying the results—my hands were full of crab!
The Nehalem Experience (Part 2) Wednesday, April 23, 2008
[left] The early risers—Erin, Kate, Paul, Pierce and Jocelyn—chat in the meeting hall Saturday morning. [below] Saturday morning's agenda included a trip into town for brioche from the Bread and Ocean bakery and deli ... and not much else.
The brioche is highly recommended. They make it with cinnamon (which I had), chocolate, almond-poppyseed, brie, and sometimes brie with ham or bacon. But they only make it on Saturdays, and they go fast!
[right] There was a short sunny break around noon on Saturday, and I had a group of about four ready to go for a walk on the beach. But one person had to finish a Scrabble game first, so we waited. Then another had to pick up something at the yurt. Then a couple others wanted to join, as soon as they cleaned up their lunch stuff. And then the original three decided not to go at all. About 90 minutes after the idea was proposed, the revised group—Ben, Todd and I—started the quarter-mile trek to the beach. Then Todd stopped at the bathroom, so Ben and I waited. Then it started snowing again. We went to the beach anyway. We only stayed about five minutes.
[right] While others look on from the warmth of the meeting hall, Ben makes a graupel-man on the picnic table. [below] The rest of the afternoon consisted of playing cards, Scrabble, Connect 4, reading, and drinking beer.
The Nehalem Experience (Part 1)
Camping gear sits outside Ben Cyphery's car Apr. 18, waiting to be loaded for a trip to Nehalem Bay State Park.
Every year, a group of my friends celebrates Joe Mitchoff's birthday by camping at Nehalem Bay State Park. The park is on the Oregon coast by Manzanita, about two hours' drive from Portland. After missing the chance to join them the last couple of years, I finally got to go last weekend.
It's pretty cushy camping, really—yurts with beds, lights, and heat; a group meeting hall with more of the same (no beds); hot showers and flush toilets. But this year, at least, we were all glad for the comforts because the weather was awful. 
Ben and Todd take in Cannon Beach from a highway lookout en route to Nehalem Bay State Park.
As we drove out to the coast, there was snow in the air over the David Douglas Summit (about 1600 feet). Saturday—on the coast—was marked at various times by mist, rain, snow, thunder, graupel, wind, and a couple of brief sunny breaks. Sunday morning was sunny but cold, and it rained again later in the day. The temperature never got above 50F.
I rode out there with Ben and Todd. We arrived at about 6:30, with just enough time for a quick beer before heading into Manzanita for pizza.
From the archives Monday, April 21, 2008
Carey Price follows the puck in goal for Tri-City as the Americans defeat the Portland Winterhawks 3-2 in a shoot-out at the Rose Garden on Mar. 10, 2006.
One of the disadvantages to living out here in Portland is that I don't get very many Montreal Canadiens games on television. So I had mixed feelings about the Habs going to seven games against Boston in their first-round series—as a longtime fan, obviously I want them to win. But since they lost on Saturday, tonight's game was on TV here. And we got the right result—Montreal beat the Bruins 5-0 to advance to the next round.
The NHL hardly gets a mention in the local sportscasts, but highlights from the game made the evening news here tonight. To tie it in to the northwest they reminded the viewers that just two years ago, Montreal's star goalie, Carey Price, was playing for the Tri-City Americans of the WHL. (The Americans are based in Kennewick, Wash.)
That's funny, I thought—two years ago I shot the Americans playing against the Winter Hawks. So I looked in my files and, sure enough, there was a guy named Price between the pipes for Tri-City.
I'm happy to have CHL hockey here in Portland, but I haven't had the opportunity to shoot—or even see—the Winter Hawks since this game. I guess I'm not missing much, though: with a record of 11-58-2-1, they were easily the worst team in the league. Maybe next year they'll be worth watching.
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