Keeping track

We can't believe we have been in Salem for 6 weeks already!  The time has flown by, especially with us keeping busy every day.  Days that I'm not working, we are usually out in or out of town, doing something, going somewhere or exploring a new area.  The past week has been no exception.  After working several days in a row (augh!), we were rewarded with a week off.  We have been enjoying concerts in the park in nearby Monmouth every week.  Parking our chairs on the lawn and finding some food while listening to different music genres and people watching, is a great way to wind down after working.  Last week it was swing music, this week was Zydeco.  Best of all, it's free!
Last week, we explored the Oregon coast some more thanks to Uncle Dan.  Our first stop was to "secret beach", which was beautiful, but cold and windy.  We made our way down to Newport via the coast exploring sand dunes and seeing the "smallest harbor" (it was really small, but quaint).  The drive was beautiful, but it felt better inside the car than out in the wind/fog/cool weather!  In Newport, it was off to Rogue Brewery to taste some of their brews.  Our brew list is growing by 2-3 every week!  For our finale in Newport, we went to Georgie's.....ah, Georgie's!!!  They have the creamiest, chock-full of clams, clam chowder around.  It was definitely good for the soul and good to warm up the body!

We finally were able to meet up with Rosemary and spend some time with her.  She is a busy lady!  We went out for brunch and had the best ultimate french toast!  Cinnamon rolls made into french toast with cream cheese frosting!!!! Oh yeah!  We also took in the local Saturday farmers market, what a spread they've got.  We haven't visited a farmers market yet, but now will be sure to do so....everything looked so tasty.  In and all around the RV resort, we have been dealing with berry vines that have scratched us or we've been avoiding.  Not anymore!  After finding out that these berries are indeed edible and delicious, we are seeking out all the vines we see.  Even when visiting with Rosemary, we picked berries by her house.  For dessert we cooked up our yummy goods from the farmers market and had smashed berries atop grilled peaches, yum!

We have been seeing Mt. Hood from far away, and finally it was time to get up close to it.  We made our way there via the Columbia Gorge.  Uncle Dan gave us a wonderful guide to get in as much as we could on our drive.  We hiked to beautiful waterfalls, stretching our legs and letting Elwood explore and smell around.  We learned some history along the Gorge and found fantastic vantage points for taking it all in. 

Lunch was in Hood River, sitting at the river front park watching the kite-surfers.  There was a competition going on, but have heard that there are always a lot of wind-riders around.  Hood River is a place that I want to go back to and explore some more.  With the dog and the kids, we made a quick b-line to our final destination, Mt. Hood.  Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry that we didn't stop at all the great fruit farms and wineries along the way.  I guess another trip is in the makings!  At Mt.Hood we stopped in at Timberline Lodge, with it being Sunday, it was packed!  There were still snowboarders enjoying the mountain, as well as hikers taking in the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Ta-da!  Snow in July!

Timberline Lodge patio door!

Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson in the background

Beautiful views of the far off Mt. Jefferson and maybe 3 sisters(?) mountains could be seen.  We hopped on a hiking trail and found some snow for Elwood to enjoy.  The weather was perfect!  We spent the night in Government Camp, which is at the base of Mt. Hood.  It is a really small town with not a lot to do except enjoy the outdoor activities.  The next day was spent watching the boys bungee jump, zip-line, rock-climb, race cars, trampoline jump, tube slide, alpine slide and become human hamsters in a ball.  The adventure park offered so much for our adrenaline junkee boys!  After 5 hours, we were done and so were they (thank goodness!).

Bungee!!! They both did it twice!

They thought it would be more fun to roll down a hill, than just in a pool of water!

After resting up for a couple of days, we were off for a hike to Silver Falls.  We have been here before, but were unable to hike to all the waterfalls due to the dog not allowed on the trails.  So, sans the dog, we set out.  After hiking for 5+ hours and probably 10 miles, we traversed all the trails and double- treked to all the waterfalls.  It was a tiring day, but it was nice that the boys are big enough to endure and entire day of hiking, and then to our surprise stayed up on the ride home and still had enough energy to swim in the pool and soak in the hot tub.

We are finding our grooves living in close quarters, and knowing when to take a walk!  The boys homeschooling supplies have come and we are now looking for any extra storage space that we can squeeze out of our already packed COW.  We are going to have family visit next week, so that should be interesting, especially since I'll be sleeping during the day, working at night :(  At least we have plenty of outings under our belts that we can keep everyone busy!

Ore-gun is fun!

McManamin's, Oregon Hotel - McMinnville, Or

Golden Valley Brewery, McMinnville

We have enjoyed many fun-filled days in Oregon.  The boys enjoyed "summer camp" last week, working on their climbing, knot-tying, and swimming skills.  The Kroc community center has an amazing program with many wonderful camps, staff members, AND they are taking our kiddos to a baseball game for free!  The kids are signed up for a local baseball game next Friday which includes transportation, supervision, food and swag-gear for the kids.  We are again, ALL very excited for this night to come, especially since I don't have to work! 
Jason and I decided to take in some wineries last week since we were sans kids.  We made it to two, and we are in Pinot country (our favorite wine)! I guess our taste buds are more interested in all the local breweries.  We have, as of today, made it to 15 breweries (sorry FB friends for all the posts).  Some of the more interesting have been part of the McManamin's chain of restaurants.  The beers are ok, tater tots are good (thanks Janet!), but the building and decorations are a trip in themselves.  Many of the beers at the breweries have been good, some we can forget as soon as we taste them and others we won't ever try again (sour beer---yuk!).  

Willamette Winery

Uncle Dan showed us around Corvallis on bike as well as taking us to a very scenic Willamette Winery.  We then took a picnic to the local concert in the park.  The music was good, but more than that was the enjoyable evening experience of the community.  Our Wednesday nights are booked for the next 6-8 weeks with more concerts in the park!
It is getting hard to remember everything that we have done.  Every day that I'm not working we are out exploring and enjoying Oregon.  Days that I am working the boys are staying busy with skate-parks, mountain biking, golfing, and swimming.  I'm keeping a calendar so we can remember what we did on what day, as well as keeping this blog, which is becoming more of a diary for me, since no one else is contributing to it.

On a recent day off, we explored more of Portland with Uncle Dan and Aunt Janet, who took us to all the great spots!  We began with food and a brew at Saturday market, with musical and fountain entertainment.  We took a stroll down the riverfront, then downtown to enjoy a concert in the park.  We then hopped in the truck to explore the Rose garden and a mansion with amazing views.  It was then off to get some yummy ice-cream at a local business that was featured on Oprah.  The line was out the door at Salt & Straw, but well worth the 30 minute wait. (Uncle Dan and Jason took off to a restaurant for a pint).  The day was filled with a lot of history about Portland as well as filled our minds with the many possibilities of future trips.

Yum! Salt & Straw ice-cream!

We recently went back to Portland to experience the Jet Boat tours up the Willamette.  FUN FUN FUN!!!  Oh my gosh, I didn't know boats could "drift" (as I put it).  Everyone got wet....., ok, soaked!, but it was all in good fun.  We saw so many beautiful homes along the river and found out a lot of history along the river and Portland.  I was able to keep my phone dry to take pictures, but I had to keep moving it to different pockets that were dry. (I got a cool app, to take cool photos--otherwise, I'd have my touristy camera!)

Before it got wet

Today, my phone decided to test the "waters".  We went to Alsea falls, which we had heard from Uncle Dan was a primo spot for a picnic and scenery.  Hiking down the trail was great, but short, so we decided to make it interesting by rock-hopping our way back up through the river to the falls.  We all were doing great, except for Alex, whose shoes are more for basketball and running, than hiking and gripping wet rocks.  Needless to say, he fell in the river.  Scaling over fallen trees left me gripping wood instead of my phone, which decided to test the water as well.  It was down at the bottom for about a minute before I got my footing to reach in and grab it.  I thought, so much for all the photos I took.  To my surprise, it still works great, and took many more photos of our day (thank goodness!!!).  After a short while of keeping our soles dry, we realized it was more fun in the water than trying to stay out of it. Elwood was there hopping and swimming by our sides.  It was such an enjoyable and memorable experience.

Everyday has been something new to explore and that is the whole point of this adventure we are on.  We have found a home-schooling program for the boys which we will begin in late August.  We are hoping to incorporate a lot of their studies with hands-on experiences.  So, here comes another new chapter in our lives. 

Excursions

Finally time to start work, augh!  The first week was spent in orientation, so not bad, but I'm not a desk job type person, so it was rough sitting for 8 hours a day.  While I was occupied, the boys kept themselves busy.  Jason and the boys have scouted out all the nearest skate parks, some are definitely better than others, but it means the boys are learning the evolution of skate parks here in Oregon (see, learning opportunities!).  Andre spotted a bald eagle while hiking in/around Lincoln City with Uncle Dan, he was so excited.  While it was rainy, drizzly at the coast, here in Salem it was blue skies.  We came to these neck of the woods to experience the beautiful summer weather.  So far we have run the gamut of weather; rainy, hot and humid, windy.  Thank goodness for a pool here at the resort!  The weather has been HOT lately.  The boys are swimming daily.  Well, I don't know how much swimming, more like horse-playing.  We have been keeping our eyes out for any events going on in the area, or surrounding areas.  We have taken in the World Festival in Salem in which many nationalities/cultures were on display.  Jason was there for the food!  It was really interesting, but also HOT (have I said that already?).  It was off to Corvallis afterward, to maybe float the river.  Well, the float didn't happen, but we did happen upon a few breweries. (yay for us!).  The boys are liking the ginger ales or rootbeers that are also produced by the breweries.  We then decided to explore a little bit of Portland, taking in Voodoo donuts, Saturday market, and numerous breweries.  There will be many more trips to Portland in our future!  I'm on a diet, eat really good, so I can drink my calories at the breweries.  We are going to up our activities so we can keep enjoying the varieties of beers that are around.

Enjoying Voodoo donuts

It was really nice to experience a true Main Street parade in "middle-America", aka Independence, OR on the Fourth of July.  The street route was lined with chairs.  The boys sat on the curb to catch candy that was thrown their way.  Jason and I found a wine bar/brew bar and had a pint while watching the parade from inside (fans!).  We have decided this was the best of both worlds, the boys had fun and we were comfortable.  We caught a great fireworks display from atop our COW.  Birds-eye view!
A spur of the moment plan had us traveling to Bend, OR, about 2 hours away over the Cascades, for the weekend.  We arrived to find that it was event night!  Woohoo!  Most of the downtown businesses stayed open late and were having music, food, drinks all around.  Deschutes brewery had us following their alley music.  After much walking and taking in the downtown area, we were entranced.  Bend seemed to be a mix of Mammoth Mtn and San Luis Obispo.  The whole town is geared toward outdoor enthusiasts and is very dog-friendly, which made Elwood happy!  Determined to take in as much as we could, we headed out the next morning to the Lava Beds, hiking around a cinder cone volcano, taking in falls created by the lava rocks in the Deschutes river, and walking over the lava beds.  We also went to the Lava tunnel that extended almost a mile, in a dark, cold, drippy environment.  Next we floated down the river into town.  The water was COLD!  It looked like everyone was out there on the river.  Our day wasn't complete without taking in another pint (or two) from another brewery.  Before leaving Bend, we traveled to Mt. Bachelor ski area, and visited one of the many Cascade lakes in the area.  Mt. Bachelor is 14 miles from Bend, and the only way back to the highway is going back through Bend.  On the way we happened upon Deschutes brewery.  We didn't stay for a tour, but did take some free samples :).

Alex on top of a 150 ft crater

Andre feeling muscular by picking up a lava rock

Squirrels???

Mt. Bachelor (left) and 3 Sisters (right)

Andre seeing his breath by flashlight in the lava tube

We have many plans on our agenda, in between working.  Tillamook cheese factory, the Oregon Coast, the Rogue River, Mt. Hood and if we get a chunk of time, Seattle and Vancouver.  Don't know if we will get to all of it, but we will do our best!

We have signed the boys up for "summer camp" for a couple of weeks during the summer, at the local community center/water park.  They should have a blast and it will give Jason a much needed break.  Their first camp starts tomorrow and they will be swimming, playing sports, learning to tie knots, enduring a climbing wall and playing with kids!  We are ALL looking forward to it! 

Beaches, forest and falls

Let the outings begin!  Yahoo!  Uncle Dan had  a wonderful coastal loop to show us on our first taste of Salem/Oregon scenery.  Aunt Sally,  Uncle Ed and Rosemary joined us.  Our first stop was toward the coast to stop for picnic fixings in Lincoln City.  Of course wouldn't you know (well we do now!), that it started raining.  I guess you can't complain of all the rain when you like to see all the greenery.  Our first picnic stop was rained out.  Aunt Sally put on her sunglasses to give us some much needed hope that the sun would break through and it worked.  Our picnic stop was at the mouth of the Salmon River.

The crew

Ok, maybe more like tailgate party, but the ground was wet!  We wern't  here too long.  It was time to move on to Neskowin Beach and see the remains of the "ghost forest".  Tree stumps that remain long after they should on the beach, just sticking up.  Very weird, anyone say global warming?

Jason and Uncle Dan "stumped".

There is a really cool rock in the middle of the beach which involves lots of questions of how it got there.  We tried to walk around it, but wound up climbing part of it.  Most of what we were stepping on (6-8 feet up from the beach) were shells, that made me think I don't want to be here during high tide.  We gave up climbing with the tide inching its way up, but found some cool caves.

posing on the rock

Everyone is a little too tall for the cave

Uncle Ed the explorer

It stayed dry for the remainder of the day, so we drove on to Cape Kiwanda and it's 200 ft. sand dune.  Race anyone?  The boys ran up ahead of us, and then ran up and down another time...oh to not need Motrin in the morning!  The views were amazing from the top.  Our shoes carried away a portion of the dune.  We all had a good time climbing the dune and earned ourselves a pint at the brewhouse at the bottom.

just a breather! Alex on trip #2

looking up the coast

Oregon has amazing colors

Andre showing of his many talents

That was it for the first day of the coastal route.  The next day we took the inland route to see Aunt Janet at work in Eugene, then off to the covered bridges and the McKenzie river.  The weather was not cooperating with our plans as we chased a storm cell the entire way!  We found a spot for a picnic... under umbrellas.  The weather was not going to let up.  We have some great photos of our picnic area and now understand why moss grows everywhere!  We are planning another attempt of the bridges at a later date, sunshine hopefully.

Whose the kids now?

After taking a break for a day and catching up of daily living, we found our day filled with warm temperatures and sunshine, yay!  It was off to Silver Falls, to view 10 falls on a scenic hike.  On our first fall to view, the sign of no dogs allowed plunged our spirits of a great day.  We brought Elwood figuring to give him some exercise and the park not mentioning no dogs allowed on the trails.  There was a rim trail that dogs are allowed on, so off we went.  We were able to see 3 falls and take Elwood down to one of them (no signs posted not to!).  It turned out to be the perfect amount of hiking for the day and got us into the hiking groove again.  We made a 6 mile loop in all, and the boys slept the entire way home!  We are making plans to visit all of the falls at a later time, and without the dog.  On our drives, it's been cool to see the fields of grass seed, christmas trees and vineyards which make up some of Oregon's industry.

Our first week in Oregon was wonderful!  We got to see family and go explore.  Next week work begins for me :(, but I can't wait to see where we go on our next outings.  

South falls, the boys and Jason ran down to it

Oh boys!

Twin Falls, reminded me of Last of the Mohicans,with it's overhang-under rock-behind-waterfall trail.  

North Falls, Elwood got to play in this one, it was REALLY cold!

We made it!

Our last day of traveling to Salem was filled with going up and down mountains and looking at green forested areas before coming out into the Willamette valley.  It was a beautiful drive with white puffy clouds above and dark grey clouds ahead.  We took the back way to the RV resort to avoid the downtown traffic of Salem, going through Corvallis (looks like a town to explore!).  Our RV resort is just beautiful with walking trails all around it, plenty of things for the boys to do and green grass!  After the past couple of RV resorts, we've landed at the best one yet.  We have a super site, which is two RV sites in one, this allows us a parking pad and patio area, we totally scored!  There are movies every night (boys already told us which ones we are going to), daily activities and more to do on the weekends.  And did I mention that there are wineries all around us? 

Green grass and bushes all around us

We don't have to mow it!

Our Super site (2 sites in 1)

It was nice to spread ourselves out of the trailer again and set up house.  Elwood seemed to enjoy the nice weather we had yesterday and just being out of the trailer.  I think he's going to sleep away the next couple of days, the road trip wore him out.

Do my eyes look tired? I need my hair done!

We have plans today to do some exploring with the Wojcik/Heidelbach side of the family.  We can't wait to get out there! 
Months of planning and anticipation of our goal, have finally been achieved!

Rollin' down the highway

We began our journey to Salem just outside of Valencia, where the trailer was stored for 2 days while visiting with family in LA.  It was nice to have a house to relax in, washer and dryer at our finger tips and Elwood to have a yard to play in without being leashed.
Traveling up the I-5 to Sacramento was a bumpy one!  We had put Elwood in the trailer so he wouldn't be too hot in the back of the truck.  While in the trailer, he got stuck in our bedroom.  With the bumpy road, it must have been like Mr. Toads wild ride - there was slobber all over our pillows and things shoved to the floor.  I wish we had a baby-cam to have seen what he was going through.  Though it was bumpy, nothing broke in the trailer.  I was having visions of our 4 wine glasses in a million pieces.  Things had shifted inside cabinets and it made us realize some modifications that need to be made and to carefully open the doors after traveling.
While traveling, I was thinking about how my focus of important things have changed.  My focus now is where's the next bathroom, where are the smooth highways, is that truck too close to us and making sure Jason has everything he needs so he doesn't lose focus of the road (peanut M&M's, please!).  I'm sure I'm freaking out more than Jason likes, but he is keeping his mouth shut :).  The boys are catching up on their sleep, getting use out of their ipad and itouch, eating every snack in sight and wondering how much longer.  They are really good travelers and are taking an interest in where we are going and what's around us.  So day 1 took us to West Sacramento, the boys couldn't wait to get their swim trunks on and get to the pool.  Elwood loved the dog area and getting out of the trailer!  We went into old town Sacramento by the river for Father's Day dinner.  Jason found his Guiness and corned beef tacos...he was a happy guy!  We all went to bed tired.
Day 2 took us from Sacramento to Medford, Oregon.  We were traveling in new territory for us up the I-5.  First thing we realized is the road is MUCH nicer north of Sacramento!  We drove through YOLO county, which made us laugh because that's been our saying for the past few weeks. (you only live once).  We passed many sunflower fields with their yellow faces turned toward the morning sun.  It was Mt. Shasta that got us to ooh and ahh at it's lake with many fingers and its snow-covered peak.  Traveling through  the pines was truly refreshing and reminded us of Lake Tahoe or Mammoth.  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect driving day!  One little town we passed is called Weed.  Andre read the population sign and announced "there are 3000 happy people living in this town".  The jokes were flowing for a few miles after that town.

Sunflower fields, you've gotta smile at them

Mt. Shasta

We are now in Medford/Gold Hill for the night.  Gold Hill is a smallish mountain-like town that we explored a little. We took a quick jaunt down to the Rogue River, it was really cold, but Elwood loved the water.  The boys found a skate park which made their day and the trip worth it to them.  Oregon is SO green compared to the brown scenery we've been seeing.  The weather is holding up so far, but may rain tomorrow.  The trailer needs a good rinse from all the highway driving! We will endure another long day of travel getting to Salem, but enjoy the new scenery.  It will also be nice to set up our home again.  There will be a few days to enjoy our new surroundings and get our bearings before work begins for me next week. 

Jason &Alex

Alex and Elwood in the Rogue River, or rather attempting it!