Trip to the Midwest

August found us on a plane to go back to my homeland.
After landing late Tuesday night/Wed. morning, we hop in the rental car and head for Six Flags Great America! I hadn't gotten there since college, and with how much Steve loves roller coasters, this was a "must stop".
Knowing that the week we were there was the first week they cut their hours down to close at 7:00, we were hopeful it was because the crowds started to thin out as kids went back to school.
We were right! From the minute we got there, we pretty much walked on to almost every roller coaster we wanted to get on. By 11:30 we had ridden all of the major roller coasters already, so, we went around for another lap on all of our favorites and picking up some of the non coaster rides. In the end, we almost all of them twice and Raging Bull three times!With no lines, we wrapped up our day early and left after 5:00.
Having some time to kill until my parents could get to Chicago to pick us up, we went in search of food. Not finding anything good off the freeway, we take the exit for O'hare and end up driving towards Des Plaines. After finally getting out of hotel/chain food territory, we find a pub. Perfect! Beer and burgers to top off our day! The place is packed! Turns out it's $1.00 domestic pint night-no wonder it's packed! Out back, we see a sand volleyball court and what we thought was horseshoes. Turns out it's the latest thing sweeping the midwest-bean bag toss! Really! Stay tuned for more on that. After having a couple of pints, by accident, (we ordered another water and the waitress brought us more beer. Oh well!), some burgers and pizza nuggets (yum), we're on our way to drop off the car, meet my parents and head back towards Madison. On the drive back-we get our first thunderstorm. Hooray!
Thursday-wake up SICK! Pretty much sick all day. We won't count it. Did eat some good Wisconsin bratwursts though. Yum!
Friday-get a start in the afternoon to head down to central Illinois to see the relatives. Plan to stop on the way and get a little hike in at Starved Rock State Park. Well, there had been a lot of rain in the midwest the few weeks before we were there. Our first indication of trouble is that the first entrance to the park is closed and everyone is sent to the other entrance. Once we get there, we take a little hike, and make our way to the lower parking lot. Hmm... turns out there's a little water there.

Should have taken out the trash before the flood!




Up to the roof of the picnic shelter>




All of the trails we planned to take were under water, leaving only one hike up to "Starved Rock". Gives us a great view of all of the flooding of the Illinois River.
Then, after a picnic lunch, we head down to Charleston to find a room for the night.
In the morning, head out to Grandma and Grandpa's new (to me) house for a visit. Joining us there was my Aunt Jane, Uncle Pat and their kids.

Mom, Jane and Grandma//Jane, cousin Jenna and her bf Rory











Jane, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa

Steve and Lovee

After enjoying a delicious lunch, letting Grandma and Jane watch the wedding video, all too soon it was time to start the 5 1/2 hour drive home.
There is a LOT of corn in central Illinois. and some soybean fields as well. I don't think Steve had ever seen so much corn. The rest stop captured it well:


Even though we'd spent hours in the car, we took a side trip on the way home to swing by Monroe to see my High School friend, Heidi and her family. I
It was a very brief visit because it was such a long day already. But, I got to meet Ms. Kortney and see how big Kyle had gotten! (Only the pic of Kortney came out)

After recovering from the drive, we spent Sunday making pizza and visiting with Josh, Dawn and my nieces and nephew. Unfortunately, between pizza making and window installing in the shop, I never managed to capture any photos.

Monday was supposed to be a day at Noah's Ark water park, but. after waking up to thunderstorms that continued all morning, that got scratch and instead, we headed down to New Glarus for a brewery tour. After purchasing some samples to take home and taste, and touring the town, we headed back to Cottage Grove.

Already, it was Tuesday and time to head back to Oregon. After rounding up some last minute Wisconsin delicacies like cheese curds, we headed out for the airport. A blessedly uneventful flight home and we were back in Portland! Seasha was VERY happy to have us home!

Portland Challenge-for the challenged

5th annual Portland Challenge
August 19, 2007

Jacki, Pete, Ryan, Malea, Coop, Bryan, Amber, Heather

This event met our wacky guidelines. Start at bar. Go to river. Get across river. Shower in fountain. Go back to bar and party. And, the bar was the Slammer! Doesn't get much better than that. Excpet we wanted to kick it up a notch, by starting at Mt. Tabor and ending at Council Crest. Details were worked out, everything was ready to go. Until it rained. Not wanting to swim the Willamette with CSO (yum... Sewage), we went with hastily drafted Plan B. Everything but the swim (and the bar).


So the motley crew starts our at Mt. Tabor. After eventually finding Pete, we're off.

First stop-giant Salmon. Since we're running down Salmon St. we may as well have an ode to a Salmon!

We've made it to the river. We thought we would all hang out with former mayor Vera Katz for a while. Some of us refined:Some people jumped her into their gang.

And of course, on a long run, you've got to stop and refill your water bottle sometime. However, we tried to warn Malea against drinking out of this "special" fountain.

After all of that, we finally reached our destination, Council Crest. Oh, there were some porta -potty stops along the way, but, we spared you those and instead, the view from the top!

Some kind folks were generous enough to take a picture of the Portland Challenged, now much sweatier and smellier than a few hours previous.

And of course, what could be more challenging than finding our way back to Mt. Tabor (harder than it should have been!) and finding a place to enjoy some drinks outside at Dingo's Taco Bar.
While enjoying tasty libations, Ryan tried to convince the server to marry him, but as it turned out, I had a much better chance of marrying her than he did. Maybe next time Ryan!
Special thanks to Jacki for organizing this and to Bryan's awesome Inspector Gadget-esque camera for the photos along the way!

a little absence

I promised myself I wouldn't be that person again. The one who starts a blog and doesn't keep up with it. What can I say, dial up at home and the computer in the basement not working for me. But now, I have so much to share. I hardly know where to start. So, here go several rapid fire entries to catch up!
Hopefully, I can make Picasa work for me so I don't have to keep embedding all these photos directly intot he blog and take up so much room...

X-Country skiing at Teacup

An AMAZING Sunday in Oregon. One week before Christmas and new powder made for a picture perfect day Cross-Country skiing. Ryan tried out his new skis and Jacki went off trail and we couldn't stop smiling! Days like this make you glad to live in Oregon.

I can't put the labels on the pictures they way I want to, so here's your guide to them:
Pic 4-7 are the result of Jacki telling me, "I have a plan, and I think it involves me falling." She executed her plan perfectly and managed to not end up in the creek! I think this is what they mean by "ass end over teacup"

Pics 8-10. Jacki is oh so kindly going to just move the trees out of the way for the picture.
Turns out they don't move that easily, so instead she dangles from them, but keeps them out of the way. If you look closely in pic 10, there are arrows on the trees on either side of Ryan. One tells him go left, one tells him, go right. He's very perplexed. It is very hard to notice these arrows with Jacki dangling from the trees though.

We wrap it up with pictures in front of Hood on a gorgeous day.

We had no idea that about 30 minutes after those photos were taken they would find the snow cave of the missing climbers and the sad ending.







I jumped off something THIS BIG!













You go this way, I'll go that way

December Birthday Party!

Three birthdays within a week (or about a week) seems like a reason to celebrate. Coop, Jim and Jacki let us celebrate with them with Christmas cookies and quiches. And presents.

Tanya, Don showing us some Peace, Lisa, Jim looking for food (?), and Steve pondering Don's hippie beatnik statement.

Birthday girl with the special birthday hat opening a present

Birthday Girl Jacki, Sherpa with the special hat, and Jenny

Jacki's special present as decorated by Coop

Tanya throwing caution to the wind and showing off her dairy filled treats

Cutting the Christmas Tree

12-3
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
1.5 hours

Time to get the Christmas Tree!
Steve and I and the dogs loaded up the van after the Patriots beat the Lions-so, it's a late start.
Stop in Stevenson for the $5.00 permit.
After driving up HWY 30 a while, we find a place to pull over opposite a side road. Snowshoe up the side road. And up. And up. And up. Snow is alternately deep and rock hard ice. Find a few trees that might work. It's getting dark. We decide to go up just a little more, and there it is. The tree! It's not too tall, it's not too wide, it's got decent foliage. So, we cut it down-see the pics. below.
Steve concocts a system to drag it down behind him, and we truck back down the mountain. Just in time-it's getting pretty dark. But, there's a full moon out-or nearly full, casting some light on our path. We leave the tree at the side of the road along with some extra branches that we can decorate with later. Go get the car to pick up the tree. Not enough straps to tie it to the car. So, it goes IN the van. The van now has that pine tree fresh scent without having to tie one of those little things to the rearview mirror.
The dogs were good sports about it. Ellie shared the backseat with the tree and Seasha was forced to the front for her sleep on the way home. We should have gotten a picture of that.
Once it's decorated, we'll get sme of those pics. up here too.

The Perfect Tree- Steve starts cutting.

The Saw is magically suspended while Seasha watches.

How about here for a cut?

Ellie isn't impressed.

T-I-M-B-E-R... Seasha will catch it.

Victorious!

First Snowshoe of the season

11/26/06
Koshko Snowpark to ???? to Snowfoot Trail to Oldman Pass and back to Koshko
3.5 hours
distance?
Me, Pete, Jacki, Jessi, Ted, Laura
Ellie, Seasha, Blaze, Bodhi,Yzerman

Enough snow has piled up over Thanksgiving week that the we could start our snowshoe season in November. Three cars headed out and by Cascade Locks there was snow on the ground. More snow as we headed up. Parking lot full of snow in Stabler. Went to buy a sno-park pass there, couldn't. I guess the county wanted the stores to buy the passes up front and then turn around and sell them and they didn't like that plan, so no one in the county bought them. So, don't try to buy a sno-park pass in Skamania county.
Anyway...
I guess becasue of the low snow level, they hadn't had a chance to plow 30 up to Oldman pass. there were ruts, but you definitely needed 4WD and high clearance-lots of snow-very exciting.
Finally get to Koshko and have the whole place to ourself. Not even a car at Oldman either. Get dressed and adventure out the way we normally go. Deep snow abounds and that makes us happy-especially for the first snowshoe of the season in Washington. (lower elevation).
Then it's snowing, which is great. But it keeps snowing and is turning into a heavier, wetter snow. And after it keeps up, before long, we're all pretty wet. We're still happy to be out snowshoeing though.
After a while on the trail, we kind of realize we aren't exactly where we thought we are. Following the trail, we come out on HWY 30. Checking a map in another snowpark, we figure out which direction we need to go, and then see another trail. After a while of checking it out, we find a better map that tells us exactly where we are-at the Snowfoot Trail. Sign says 1.6 miles to Oldman Pass. We figure a little over a mile will get us to Koshko. So, we trudge out. The snow is now heavy and breaking trail takes a lot of work, so, we're taking turns breaking trail until the person in the lead can hardly pick up their leg anymore. Trying to keep three of us in front of Ellie and Yzerman to pack down the snow, So we keep walking, and before long it's 45 minutes and we still haven't gotten a mile. and we keep walking, and nothing looks familiar. We're starting to wonder if we should turn around, or head to the right or keep going. We're wet, tired, the snow is heavy, it's getting darker and Jessi still has to work tonight.
After a brief conference, Pete decides it looks familiar, we're going to keep going, the trail is cutting to the right which is where the road is. So, we keep going and lo and behold, a sign. Road. But, it's Oldman Pass. Somehow we missed the Koshko trail, but, we're back at civilization and we can get back to our car!! Yeah! So, we take the road back to Koshko-a quick .5 mile, no need for snowshoes. Great need to stop and grab the dogs every time a car passes though. Now that we're not working as hard, it's getting cold. Get back, load the dogs in the cars and start them because it's so cold. Try to have a tailgate, but, we're just too cold. Shovel in some puppy chow, huckleberry muffins, cheese, crackers, hot chocolate and red wine. But, it's too cold to slice cheese, and it's really hard to eat with gloves on. So, after a very brief tailgate, we pack snacks for the car, sit in our respective warm cars to finish our snacks, warm up and head out. At this point, my hands are so cold, that I can't actually go anywhere because I can't grab the steering wheel. Puppies are curled up and crashed out. Much easier drive down because the rain has melted all the lower elevation snow.
Now, on to pizza night.


Laura running away as Bodhi attacks Jacki


Seasha, Ellie, Yzerman

Pete, Ted, Blaze, Yzerman, Bodhi, Jessi, Jacki