Oregon is Beautiful - Mid May

Monday - it's my birthday today and we have the day off!  (That has happened rarely in my 39++ years) We decided to venture out and see more new areas.  We drove north on Hwy 35 to Hood River, a town on the Columbia River and I-84.  From Hwy 26, north on Hwy 35 to Hood River, is known as part of the Hood River Valley Fruit Loop.  From June - September, local farms have their fruit stands, with strawberries, cherries, peaches, pears and other goodies available for purchase.  Today was too early for that, but we spotted many of the stands we will come back to when the fruit is ready.  Hood River is a river town with many houses built up on the hills, looking down on the river and many homes can also see Mt. Hood or Mt. Adams.  We stopped at Panorama Point just south of the city - fabulous pictures, you can see for miles.  (All these pictures are from Panorama Point - clicking on any of the pictures will make them bigger)

Mt. Hood and Hood River Valley

Birthday girl

Mt. Adams to the north

The rhododendrons are vivid

We drove on in to town and came upon the Full Sail Brewery, known for their Full Sail and Session beers.  We arrived just before the 1:00 tour, so decided to learn more.  We had a great guide and she let us smell the hops and different malts used in the process.  They are primarily a bottling distributor, so they do not sell a large amount on tap.  We finished the tour and then stopped by their restaurant, tasting a few and having some great sandwiches.  We then drove through the historic downtown area and stopped by The Naked Winery - interesting name.  They have some good wines as well and a lot of theme related clothing and gift ideas.  We drove down to the river front and saw the places where they have windsurfing competitions and trainings.  We stopped at the Visitor's Center there and picked up more information on the region.  Heading home, we drove by the Lavender Farm, they have a festival in June.  The lavender was not ready, but we could see some color.  Of course, the views of Mt. Hood on our return journey were fabulous, first we were seeing the back side of the mountain and then came around to the front, closer to home.  We drove down to Trillium Lake, the road was open today, and found the day use area where we can put our boat in.  Snow was still on parts of the road and the campground road was still closed - we could see the snow drift over the road there yet.  There were a lot of people out enjoying the beautiful day.  It was late afternoon, so the cool breeze made it necessary for me to put my jacket on.  There is a flat trail around the lake too, we will have to walk that some time.  Back home, we started a fire and grilled hotdogs for supper. (We have not grilled dogs for at least 8 years - wow!)  A wonderful way to spend my birthday!

At the brewery

The lavender fields

The back of Mt. Hood as we headed home

From the hiking path at Trillium Lake

Zoom shot of Mt. Hood's lower ridges - you can see where avalanches are possible. You can also see the chair lift and warming hut.

 Tuesday - Today was so nice and everything was dried from the rainy weekend, so we wanted to finish the park mowing - even though it was our day off.  The ranger has been teasing Gary about the "mohawk cut" he left on the ball field, so he wanted to get that evened up.  I went around with the cart and checked for branches, raked some rough areas, and then walked the road perimeters, picking up big branches before he mowed them as well.  It got to 85 today and was a little humid.  A good workout and walking for me.  Before supper, we went over and loaded up our car full of Linda's things that needed to be hauled to the Goodwill store.  Then grilled burgers for supper and enjoyed our campfire.

Wednesday - Time to visit a dentist in Oregon - have to share my funds across the nation, I guess.  I went in to get an evaluation on whether I need another crown, I have to keep pursuing this while I have insurance.  They saw a need, so are submitting the claim for approval.  We will know more next month.  Then I took Linda's things in to town to the Goodwill store, picked up groceries and filled the car up with gas.  Back home again, we had lunch and then got ready to go boating!  93 degrees - a perfect day.  We went to Trillium Lake and parked in the day use area we had explored before.  Five other boats, canoes and kayaks were out already and an inflatable raft was just launching.  We blew up the kayak, put on our lifejackets and went out on the water.  Beautiful!  We could see Mt. Hood today from there.  This is a bigger lake than Mirror Lake and we found out it is man-made.  There were many people swimming - yes, swimming!  The water was cool, but not freezing.  Other groups were grilling and picnicking around the lake.  There is a two mile, flat, trail around the lake as well, we saw some hikers walking that.
We rowed and floated around the lake, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.  We paddled up to the top of the lake, intending to float all the way back down.  Then, my astute Captain, realized we were losing air in the floor of our ship - we headed back to shore!  Upon landing, we found the intake valve for the floor of the kayak was leaking air.  We are hoping vaseline on the seal may solve the situation for the next time.  We dried off the ship and loaded up, heading home safely for the day.  I made spaghetti for supper and we went for an evening walk around the park.

Kayaking on Trillium Lake

Thursday - back to work.  We had a staff safety meeting at 9:00, then went with our boss to the other two nearby areas that we have to maintain this summer.  Sandy Ridge is just four miles away - this is becoming a very well known mountain bike park, they are holding competitions there often.  There are mostly trails to ride on, but hikers are allowed as well.  We have two bathrooms there to maintain and responsible for emptying the garbage cans.  Then we went a little further to Barlow Trail Wayside, a small hiking area with one bathroom to maintain.  We hiked the trails a little and will need to come back for more, a very pretty area.  Back at the park, Gary got on the mower again and mowed the other areas that had grown back, I worked on RVillage accounts at home.  While sitting outside before supper, I looked up and had three visitors on the path just down from our campsite.  Three deer strolling by - they stopped and looked as I talked to them and got pictures.  Then they left when a bike rider on one of the other trails spooked them.

Supper visitor

Friday - we worked in the park today - using the weed trimmer and pull behind blower.  This blower hooks on to the back of the golf cart and off we go.  Slick!  I was working at cleaning the dried clippings off of the paved trails - had to use the rake and broom to loosen it so we could blow it off the path.  After lunch, Gary went with Brian back to Sandy Ridge to let the workers in for the park improvements.  I went for a aerobic walk around the park.  We are supposed to get rain again late Saturday and then Sunday, so have to get out when I can.  Fixed supper and then went to do our water testing assignment.  The park checks the chlorine level in the water spigots at the park every day.  We have three stations we have to test the water at and then write down the readings for the ranger to review.  My mad scientist likes wearing the lab coat - not mandatory!  We went to the river viewing station when we were done, to look at the eel our co-workers had heard about from park visitors.  There he/she was, moving rocks frantically - we think to make a nest for laying eggs.  It was grabbing small rocks by suction with its mouth and moving them.  Cool!  (We since found out that it is a lamprey - Lampreys (sometimes also called lamprey eels are an order of jawless fish, the adult of which is characterized by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth.)  For our Friday evening, we met Anne & Dick at the office to play cards.  They showed us how to play Hand and Foot - there is quite a lot to keep track of in that game.  Of course, the girls won and we had a great time visiting too.  We will teach them our Progressive Rummy game the next time.

Captain weed trimmer

Mad scientist

Lamprey

Saturday - Anne and Dick wanted to switch days today - they have company coming to the area for a week on Sunday and wanted to have Tuesday off to spend time with them.  So our days this week were Thursday-Sunday, now we will work Tuesday and then back on for our four days on Thursday for the Memorial Day weekend.  We slept in and then I had to step up - to do my first barbering job for Gary.  It did not turn out too bad, thank goodness.  I had several coachings from our dear friend Jan, who cut his hair the last two times in Arizona.  Early afternoon we went back to hike the Barlow Trail Wayside park.  We hiked on the main trail and the Falls Trail.  Gosh it was pretty.  A good hike for us too.  Then we drove west, following the Barlow Trail road, which took us up over the Devil's Backbone ridge, just like the travelers did in their wagons.  Some fantastic views and the flowers and plants were so lush.  The road ended up in Sandy, so we picked up the groceries we needed while we were there.  We took the main highway back home and put the groceries away.  Since it was still so nice out, we drove over to Brightwood, a very small burg not far from us (we are between Brightwood and Welches on Hwy 26) and had a beverage at the tavern. visiting with some of the locals there and checked out the convenience store.  We sat outside when we were back, took late day pictures and grilled a sweet onion and a pork loin roast.  We had a nice fire and a walk at dusk.

Stream crossing on Falls Trail

Five + types of greenery - I love the large clover & ivy

On the Barlow Trail wayside hike

Late day beauty at our park

The late day sun lights everything up

Sunday - went to Mass at 8:00 at St. John's again.  It was supposed to rain all day - it started early morning.  After breakfast, we headed up to the office to put in our work hours.  We did laundry while we cleaned and went out and checked the park.  We had a nice visit with Leslie & Chris, who were also working today.  At home, we did another window shade restringing - the string on the window at my side of the bed broke on Friday.  The accordion type shade lets go and falls crookedly without the two sides of tension.  It is one of the small windows and we are getting pretty good at doing it, so it did not take long.  The rain let up for a little while, so we did another drive around check of the park and picked up more firewood.  By then it started raining again, so we stayed home until we closed the gate for the night.