Scrabble at Hellroaring Viewpoint on Mt. Adams, August 2025

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My five great joys in life are music, nature, learning, food, and companionship. Lemme write a little about my hobbies: playing music, hiking and camping outdoors, Chinese Garden guide, travel, and cooking.

MUSIC

I started playing trombone in the sixth grade and picked up the guitar after my freshman year of college. Today, I like to sing and play guitar (and occasionally trombone) and have written a few songs. I have a couple of friends I get together with every week to sing and play for a few hours – popular music from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, but also occasionally some of my original songs, like Wichita Mountain Stomp, about my days in Oklahoma.

OUTDOORS

I love to hike and camp. I’ve been leading public hikes for 20 years and have led over 200 hikes, currently through the Portland Hiking Meetup Group. I like to talk about the history, ecology, and geology of the land, and identify trees and flowers. I’ve hiked all 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon in the second edition of William Sullivan’s book of that name, and dozens of others as well. My favorite places, all best done as overnights but I’ve done as day hikes, are Jefferson Park on Mt. Jefferson (16 mi. r/t, 3,176′ gain), Yocum Ridge on Mt. Hood (19 mi. r/t, 4,423′ gain), and Hellroaring Viewpoint on Mt. Adams (11 mi. r/t, 2,014′ gain). As I say on my Meetup profile there, I savor wilderness hikes: old growth trees, great views, beautiful flowers, and the lightest of touch by humans. The journey is the destination, and the companionship is the point.

LAN SU PORTLAND CHINESE GARDEN

A tremendous combination of beauty and meaningful intention, Lan Su is the most beautiful place in Portland to me, an enrapturing trip of 6,000 miles west and three centuries into the past. I’ve been a member there for 20 years. Two years ago I was invited to get trained as a docent. I accepted, and learned how intensely purposeful every cubic inch is, with legends evoked at every turn. I have been a volunteer tour guide there one or two days a month for the last two years. If I’m in town with time to kill, I just hang out and dig the vibe.

TRAVEL

I’ve been to every county in Oregon and every state in the United States. I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Japan, and Italy. I took a four month trip around the world to Britain, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, India, and Thailand. I love travel for the history, the nature, the food, the music, and the variety of life! I love visiting different places, the more different the better. Having done all that, I’ve spent most of my life in Oregon because it’s my favorite place.

COOKING

I love the slow build of flavors mixing and cooking, filling the house with delicious fragrances for hours before and after a delicious meal. One of my favorite recipes is this family teriyaki recipe from my half-Japanese grandmother, who despite her heritage got this from a 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook she used as a Home Economics teacher in Hawai’i.

½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sake
2 Tb sugar
3-4 scallions, chopped
1 Tb vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
¾ tsp grated ginger
½ cup vegetable oil

Make the sauce, marinate two pounds of thin cut round steak overnight, then broil or grill the meat.