Portland is Beautiful — CAMERON ASA

After driving up the beautiful west coast, I made my way inland to Portland, Oregon, where I have some amazing friends. You may remember, if you've been following my blog since the beginning, a couple of my friends name Westie and Amanda Magnuson from Reno. Well, they recently moved to Portland while I was traveling around California!

I am so unbelievably excited to be hanging with them. In addition to those Magnusons, their grandparents, Westie's brother and his wife, and some of my dear friends Dan and Leah Bookless all live here as well!!! This has made for SUCH a rich visit and I'm only halfway into my stay here.

Ever since my stays in Houston, Texas, where I made the video posted below for InSPIRE Rock Gym, I've had a growing desire to learn to climb. Well unbeknownst to me, my friend Dan has been getting pretty seriously into climbing the past few months and was excited to take me out and teach me! This has been one of the highlights of my trip! I went from never climbing outside in my life, to lead climbing, cleaning a route and even repelled back down barefooted haha. I cannot thank Dan enough for his patience, passion and fun-loving spirit for making my first outdoor climbing experiences the best they possibly could be.

I didn't take my real camera, because the more I attempt new activities, the more I learn the joy of just experiencing them, even without hauling around a giant bag of gear to document the adventures. With that said, iPhone photography will have to suffice for some of my trip :)

This was interesting. All of us ended up on that same ledge at one point, and then individually repelled down.

This is me climbing in Washington! The names of these routes were actually Lord of the Rings themed... soooooooo, I was basically climbing in Mordor. I. WAS. STOKED.

Above is the video that I shot while in Houston for InSPIRE Rock Climbing Gym.