The past few weeks....

I'm looking through my calendar to see what all we have done since the last blog post.  Thank goodness that I'm writing everything down, I can't seem to remember what happened yesterday! (well, now thinking about it, I can remember, but last week....ah??)  The main reason for writing it all down is so that in a year or 5 years time, we can look back and see where we have been and what we have accomplished.  Oh,.... the places we have yet to see!!!
The past few weeks have been very fast-paced with family visiting (x2), home-schooling and a trip.  And now, figuring out where we go next and where I'll be working.  Our first family visit was from Uncle Tracy and Ted, who were with us for 5 days.  We took them to our favorite spot for waterfalls, Silver Springs.  Taking a little hike to see more than one waterfall was well worth the trip, especially the last one where we brought a picnic, wine included!

 On our way back home, we stopped by Bauman Farms, for some tasty produce.  Their hanging baskets of flowers are enormous!  I guess with the weather in Oregon, everything grows nicely and hugely.  Although, the weather at this present time was 85-90, HOT!!! Jason was the tour guide the next day taking them to Corvallis, seeing the sights of the college town.  Tracy and Ted took the train to Portland to visit with friends the following day, which left Jason to himself, sans me (sleeping for work that night) and the boys (in day camp all week long).  I bet he enjoyed the quietness!  We rounded out their visit with a picnic at Willamette Winery, taking home a few (or 12!) of their finest Pinot's to enjoy at home.
 The very next day we picked up Suzi/Vicki at the airport in Portland and had a quick lunch before Tracy and Ted's plane left.  Since we were in Portland, we took her to visit Saturday market, enjoying the many craft stalls and thinking about Christmas gifts!  And ice cream, we had to have some ice cream!  During her visit we went to Tillamook Cheese factory, about 1.5 hours away, but worth the time!  We tasted yummy cheeses, lunch specials and (more) ice cream!  There wasn't a tour going on, or them even making anything, but the place was so busy, almost like an amusement park, but it was Sunday, so I guess everyone else had the same idea.  We took our time heading home touring the coast.  After spending a quiet day around town, we headed out to .....you guessed it, Silver Falls!  This place NEVER gets old.  A quick hike, then a picnic lunch was the plan. 

After 8 days of visitors, we thought everything went pretty smoothly.  Everyone had a place to sleep (I didn't hear any complaints), the main showers at the RV park worked nicely, and everyone got to pick their own blackberries!  Even Elwood got in on eating the blackberries and convincing Ted that it was time for another walk!
After all the excitement of family, we needed to hunker down and get our schedule straightened out for home-schooling.  Jason got organized (and I stayed out of his way).  The boys schooling started 1 1/2 weeks ago, and everyone is still alive!  Jason had done a great job organizing everything and figuring out what a lesson plan is.  The boys are realizing the dad is no push-over and an "F", is an "F" in the books.  The boys haven't learned yet what the teacher likes, apples or chocolate chip cookies.  Actually, they know chocolate chip cookies, but have yet to make any for him yet! (hint, hint).
We recently took a trip to the Emerald City, Seattle.  We had been wanting to go to Vancouver, BC, but it was a bit too far, and our schedule couldn't accommodate it.  Seattle, it was.  Renting a (small) car was the way to go, especially for trying to manuver down one way streets and for street parking.  We laughed when we thought about our huge F450 dually going down some roads, we would have had to go on top of the cars or at least taken off their side mirrors!  Our first day was spent exploring the sites of Pikes Place (super busy on a Sunday, beautiful flowers, yummy food and the original Starbucks),

Pioneer Square (saw what the underground city was all about), the waterfront (ferry depot and ferris wheel, with lots of good smelling seafood), City Center (Space Needle, museums, and park)

and the Queen Anne district (quaint eateries and cute homes).  Our hotel was a couple of blocks from the space needle, so we always knew which direction to head if we ever got lost---with one way streets, that was a lot!  The next day we took a Seattle Duck Tour via amphibious vehicles from the war.  They first gave us a tour of the city, then by water. 

On board the Duck

It was fun to tour this way, but now that we've done it (for the sake of the boys), we don't have to do it again.  The one thing that I wanted to do on this trip that I thought the boys would enjoy was to drive our car onto the ferry, so we did.  We went to Bremerton, an hour ride away,  which had old Navy boats, but mostly we went, then turned around and came back. 

Map of the Puget Sound and surrounding islands and waterways

Blurry, but this is where we are heading.  

Seattle from our ferry

The quiet Puget Sound

Alex would like to thank his mom and dad for this award

One of the fountains at Fountain Park in Bremerton

The fountains explode with water

The views of the Puget Sound from the boat were great.  The boys had a good time running on the boat and scheming up disasters with the cars.  It was then off to see the Troll in the Fremont district, the Ballard Locks and the sights of Seattle from Kerry Park. 

Fremont Troll squishing a 1963 VW bug in its hand

This is the fish ladder next to the Ballard Locks

views from Kerry Park

We never did go up the space needle, but got the same if not better views from all the places around town.  The boys thought it, the Space Needle, was bigger.
On our way home, we stopped at the Mt. St. Helen's visitors center.  I don't know if we were cranky or cheap, but we did not pay the $5/person entrance fee to view the exhibit (about 40 feet long) and see a 10 minute movie.  We paid for Alex to go,... and got all the info from him, then went home and watched Dante's Peak and got the Hollywood version of volcano explosions.  It seems ridiculous when 85% of the people who visited the center, turned and walked out when they saw the fee.  Good 'ol government...and I pay taxes too!
So here we are today.  Currently we are counting down the days here in Salem, as my assignment is done 9/21.  We are looking at Austin, TX as our next adventure stop. I'm still waiting to see what Austin has available for work and if we can find an RV park that has space, and can accommodate our large size.  We have one more course of visitors coming in 1 1/2 weeks, but nothing else on the horizon.  Salem has been a great central location for all of our outings, but we still haven't seen all that's out there in Oregon.  We might just have to make a pit stop back through here down the road to finish our site-seeing.

Our bribes for doing well in school this week!

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!