Mother's Day 2008 - Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

For Mother's Day this year, Mick wanted to have an outdoor adventure. With the weather not looking great for a picnic at a park - we decided on Burgerville for lunch. With a location just three blocks from church, it was an easy decision as we all love Burgerville. For those of you not living in the the SW WA / NW OR or Portland Metro area - you just might be out of luck. The farthest east location is in The Dalles, and the farthest north is Centralia, the farthest south would be Albany.... You just don't know what you are missing!

After lunch - we headed home to change into outdoor gear. It wasn't really raining, but it was wet. Our destination was the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge (TRNWR).





The TRNWR has been open officially for about a year. We live only four miles away, and had not come to visit yet.



The area before settlers arrived back in the early 1800s had been a wetlands. The Oregon Trail arrivals managed to drain the wetlands and turn the area into farmland and farmed for over 100 years. In 1992, restoration of the area was started.

We started with a visit to the vistor's center. Tegan found 'write in the rain' notebooks in the gift shop - and both kids wanted to get one to record our visit. They filled pages with the things we saw...like this dead tree in the floodplain.

The rain managed to hold off - and we had a great walk around one of the trails. We are sure to return another day and explore this gem so close to home!

Interesting to know - since this refuge is within an urban area - it leads to interesting things to see. One border of the refuge is a 'you pull it' junkyard.

Yard Work 2008 #8

It was needed last week - but we were packing for camping at South Beach State Park in Newport. So - cut number eight waited a few days until we returned from camping today - May 27th.

I've got lots more interesting things to post - like our trip last weekend to the Columbia River Gorge with Mick's Uncle Earl and Aunt Sue, our Mother's Day adventure to the wildlife refuge less than five miles away from our house, Connor's last soccer practice/game, and our Memorial Day camping trip to Newport.

Soon, soon, soon....

Washing Dishes Again

Our church, Temple Baptist Church, in NE Portland - has a wonderful kitchen and dining room. Wednesday nights, before the kids activities and choir practice, there is dinner served up. With dinner comes dishes and someone need to do that cleanup.

Larry Johnson, a steady volunteer, was going on vacation for a few weeks and was looking for help. I had not washed dishes in a large kitchen type setting since 1990 - when I had a 3 week job at TGI Friday's in Roseville, Minnesota.

That summer I was very close to getting an lab chemistry intern-type job at 3M in St. Paul - but it fell through. I had already committed to living in Bethel housing over the summer with 5 roomates - so I needed to find another job. I couldn't find anything that I wanted to do - involving chemistry. So - I grabbed the first job I could find - as a dishwasher. I had done dishwashing, busing, and hosting at Bosacki's Boathouse restaurant in Minocqua, Wisconsin for the previous 5 summers - and I really wanted to get away from the restaurant business.

After my first night at Friday's - I realized I really didn't want to do that all summer. So - after two days - I put in my two week's notice. My boss thought it funny, but appreciated the notice. Those two weeks gave me enough money to cover my apartment for the summer (amazing how cheap you can live with 5 guys in a two bedroom, college housing apartment). A week or two later I did get to work in the Bethel Chemistry Department, cleaning up and preparing the labs for the coming fall semester. It didn't pay quite what 3M paid - but I had fun.

Anyway - back to the present. Larry needed someone to fill in for him while he was on vacation - so I came in last week so he could show me the ropes. All the skills came right back (I do most of the dishes in our family still....) and I just needed to learn where to put things away, and the flow of things in the Temple kitchen.

Larry shows me the ropes

Last night, I worked with Gordon - and we just flew through the dishes, silverware, pots and pans - and even nursery toys.

So - everyone had clean dishes, good fun, and great conversation. A great success!

Yard Work 2008 #7

Short and simple. It is going to be in the 80s tomorrow, and up to 95° on Friday. So - since the lawn needed a cut again - #7 of the year was completed today, May 14th. Ten days since the last cut - this was actually a 3 bagger....the Oregon rain does wonders for the growth rate.

Now - with a nice stretch of warm and sunny days - we'll see how it does with no rain.

Stay tuned - same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.

Yard Work 2008 #6

Rain delayed cutting the grass for the sixth time this year. Just a short seven days after the last cut on April 25 - May 2nd - I should have cut it. But the rain postponed the date...until Sunday May 4th. Saturday was rainy - and Sunday was beautiful. And the grass really grew in those 9 days - the back yard was almost a two-bagger. I just about made it - and had to empty the bagger before the front yard.

Now - Monday was a perfect summer day and Tuesday it didn't rain. But tonight it will - so the grass will continue with the spring growing rate for the forseeable future.

OK - back to your normal, exciting lives. I've got to go watch some grass grow...

What to do in Portland (5 of 10?) - The Vista House

Once again - I am amazed at how long it has been since we've visited one of these great Oregon treasures! I was looking in our digital photo directory of some fun Vista House photos and discovered that I don't have any. We must not have visited the Vista House since before 2005. I know I have lots of photos - all the scenic ones you can see on many websites, and even fun ones of our family. But since we moved to Tualatin over six years ago - we haven't been up to the Vista House very much. When we lived in NE Portland, we could get there in less than 30 minutes. Now - coming from Tualatin - it would take 30 minutes just to get out to Troutdale.

Anyway - I didn't want to steal someone else's photo - so I searched the 'net and found an old, Web 1.0 Tripod website I had setup so long ago. I had scanned a set of old Columbia River Gorge postcards we found at an antique store, and posted those on our site. The site was broken - but I remembered the login and got this image. Someday I'll have to see if I can network our old Power Computing Power Center 150Mhz Macintosh clone, and rescue all the old scans I created so long ago....in the 28.8 modem days....


So - you must come visit us so we can have an excuse to go see the Vista House again. It has been restored in the past 10 years. It has been around for over 90 years, and the wild weather in the Columbia River Gorge had taken a toll on the building. So - The Friends of the Vista House raised money and got the building back in shape.

Come and see! Maybe I'll have some photos to post when we go up to Hood River for a training day for our Tour de Cure event that is coming soon...

What to do in Portland (4 of 10?) - Mount Hood

Mount Hood is visible from Portland on one of the clear days we do get (closer to a 90% chance in July/August vs. a 5-10% chance in December/January). Mt. Hood is a dormant volcano. The last time Mt. Hood erupted was probably in the years just before the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the area in 1805-1806. When the passed through, they gave the name Sandy River to one of the tributaries of the Columbia River. This river was most likely very sandy at the mouth where is meets the Columbia at this time due to the runoff from the last eruption. Today - sometimes steam and volcanic gases can still be seen escaping from fumaroles on the mountain, though not from Portland.




To get to Mt. Hood from Portland is just a quick drive east on US Hwy 26. Each year after Thanksgiving, one of our family traditions has been to go Christmas tree hunting up on Lolo Pass Road (which is not exactly on Mt. Hood, but still at 1,500-3,000' elevation.) In the 10+ years we have been doing this, we have had warm rainy days, cold rainy days, snow storming days, and this year - cold and sunny with lots of snow.

If you are a skier, Mt. Hood has plenty of ski resorts - I can't really help you there because I have only been skiing once - probably 12 years ago at Mt. Hood Meadows. We have also gone up to Timberline Lodge - built in the 1930s as a WPA project. You best bet for skiing information is a website like the Mt. Hood Guide.

Of course - Mt. Hood is also the starting point for many of the Tour de Cure courses.

My sledding hill is bigger than your sledding hill!