We're Home!

We made it back to our house by 1:30 on Saturday. Dogs immediately went into the pool, of course. Then into their beloved crates.






We found lots of ripe cherry tomatoes.
















And our Naked Lady lily bloomed! First time in several years.










I learned something about our blog--if you click on a photo, it will get bigger so you can see more detail. Try it on Mt. St. Helens. You'll be able to see the smoke/ash clearly.
It is good to be home, even if it is a bit on the hot side. RV is almost ready to put away for the winter and the laundry is going for Gary's next fishing trip.

Almost Home

Tonight we are at a nice RV park in Redding called Mountain Gate RV Park. Gary is enjoying the hot tub they installed a week ago.

Tom, you will be happy to know they let us bring our dahlia bouquet into California. In fact, the inspector asked if we were going to the Dahlia Show--I guess a lot of flowers had passed thru today.

The only clouds we saw all day were as we came over the Siskyou Pass. Beautiful drive, but we sure aren't ready for this heat.














Mount Shasta looks totally different than in June when it was completely snow covered.














Lake Shasta was full in June and look how low it is now.













I accomplished a real feat today--for my feet. I finished my black socks. I will never knit with black yarn again! Can't see the stitches so no fun. Tomorrow I'll start on a fun yarn for a new pair of socks as we wend our way home.

Busy time at Mom's

We got to Mom's on Sunday night. Monday it was lab work in Bellevue. Tuesday was errands and company for dinner. Wednesday was a doctor appt in Bellevue. She will have one more surgery, this time for a parathyroid tumor, in Sept. We learned that the neighbor two houses from her had a break in and they beat him severely when he told them he didn't have any cash at home. Gary installed a peep hole in her door and we are now working on talking her into getting a dog. Preferably one that barks. The neighbors are all worried they will start going house to house since the police haven't caught them.

Last night our nephew, Stephen cooked dinner at his house for us. His view is fantastic--Bellevue in the foreground and the Cascades in the background, as you can see.















The Mountain was out all day (that is a weather report in the Seattle area and refers to being able to see Mt. Rainier). The drive home from Stephen's over the Floating bridge was gorgeous--you can see Lake Washington on the right and the Olympic Mts. ahead of us. Don't worry--I wasn't driving--this was taken from the backseat of Mom's van with Gary driving.















This morning, while I cleaned up Mom's house, Gary decided to hook up the car by himself and as he drove the RV around Mom's backyard he hit a bump. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to bungie cord the dish cupboard. Had a bit of a mess to clean up that set us back a bit in departure time. Only a few dishes were broken--looked worse than it was.















Our timing was still not too bad and we met Norm and Barb in Tacoma (Fife, actually) for a quick visit and lunch at a cute little spot with great food.















They brought us these beautiful flowers from their yard. Harbor Freight is across the street from our RV park, so we bought a bucket to carry them home. They had been sitting in our shower in a dish pan as we left Tacoma and we really wanted to be able to see them, not to mention reclaiming our shower for its usual use.














We were delighted to see Mt. St.Helens as we drove toward Portland. If you look closely you can see a little tuft of smoke (ash?) on the top right of the mountain. It was a great trip for seeing mountains. Only had a few drops of rain as we left Astoria, then cool sunny weather the rest of the trip.



We're back at Hee Hee Ilahee in Salem tonight. Yreka or Redding tomorrow with any luck.

Astoria Regatta

Our weekend in Astoria was fantastic and busy. We had a great time watching the parade.

Astoria's float won first prize in the Portland Rose Parade.














Love the name of this band--they were pretty good, too.














There were three different bagpipe bands--all wonderful. And this sweet poodle got a dye job just for watching the parade.









We had just enough time to rush home to the RV, walk the dogs and change clothes for the Mayor's Ball Cruise. It was very nice and LOTS of Gary's relatives were there. As we waited to board, this Coast Guard helicopter arrived and demonstrated how they lower someone into the water for a rescue and then showed us how they pull him back up. You can see him dangling just above the water. Fascinating!













Later in the cruise we looked outside to see this Pilot boat (they pilot the huge ships over the Columbia River bar) going around in circles, basically doing a boat version of "wheelies".


To finish off the evening the Regatta sponsored fireworks over the water--spectacular!






This house is typical of an ordinary Astoria house, except for the color. Many of the houses are this vintage. It is a darling town with a relaxing atmosphere and very nice sleeping weather.



Today we went to the Astoria Farmer's Market and got a few items, then headed out to Seattle. A huge traffic jam made the usual 4 hour trip into a 6 hour trip. The dogs were so happy to get to Grandma's big yard and so were we. This is their favorite part of the trip.

An Education in Blackberries

I'm not talking about the cell phone kind. I'm talking about the kind you eat. Today we drove out to Youngs River Falls--what a wonderful sight!











As we hiked down the hill to the falls we saw all three kinds of blackberries we know. The kind we can buy in California are Himalayan. Up here the weather has been so cold they aren't ripe yet (I found three ripe ones in a huge patch this morning). These are Himalayan leaves.









The larger berry in the red dish is Himalayan. The smaller berries are wild blackberries.














Another kind is Evergreen--they have spikier leaves and a slighty smaller berry, but taste very similar to Himalayan. We only saw green ones today.















The best ones and hardest to find are the tiny wild blackberries. They are a joy to eat and almost impossible to find, even where they used to be prolific. To find two black ones on our hike was so exciting! They hold a burst of flavor in that tiny berry. What a wonderful trip back down Memory Lane.














We also saw Blackcaps that weren't ripe yet. They are similar to raspberries in the way you pick them. We are just missing out on some great berries by being too early.














Red Huckleberries are the "real" huckleberries of the Pacific NW. This bush was out of reach or I would have had a ball picking them. These are also hard to find nowadays. If you squint you can see the red berries in this photo.











We got back in time to go to the Portland Rosarian's Knighting and Rose Planting Ceremony at the Flavel House garden. It was quite grand and very interesting and COLD! I sat there thinking how nice it was to be chilly (a high of 66 degrees and sunny) rather than sweating like we would be at home.

Then it was rush back to change for the Admiral's reception for 800 people at the Maritime Museum where we saw a lot of relatives, some Gary had never met, but they knew his folks. As we stood in line outside we heard the most amazing group of kids playing marimbas. They were from little Knappa, OR and could they ever play! Awesome! It was such a fun day.



One tidbit that was announced today was the Astoria Little League team is in the Little League World Series this week! This small town does great things!

A New Route

We began our day getting to know the family traveling in this rig. They are a couple just a little younger than us who have adopted 8 kids ranging in age from 2 years to high school. All the kids are at least part Indian. They are taking 7 of them on a fantastic trip that began in Anchorage, where they live. They flew down to Salem and rented this rig, two trucks and a whole slew of bikes. They will travel the West Coast, but no Disneyland for them--they will see historic sites and geographical wonders. The kids were so polite and well-behaved except the 3 year old who is the cutest Dennis the Menace look alike you've even seen--and he behaves like Dennis, as well. It was fun and inspiring to get to know them.

Then we headed out on the days travels. It has been a long time since we have driven the Portland route to Astoria. After we left Beaverton and as we drove thru all the farmland and berry fields, Gary said he's been wanting to take an alternate route to Astoria, so I said, "why not? Today is the day we have plenty of time."

So we turned off toward Vernonia. We drove thru Vernonia, Mist (never could find the town of Mist), Berkefeld and














Olney.














There is an Elk Preserve outside Olney and we were lucky to see a herd of Elk even though it was the middle of the afternoon. They usually only come out of the woods at dusk.














We drove around lots of S curves and saw a gazillion lumber trucks. It was a beautiful drive.


We completed the day by going to the Regatta Queen coronation in the old Liberty Theater that has been beautifully restored. There was amazing entertainment and we were impressed by how exacting the expectations are for the Regatta Royal Court. Being a Rodeo Princess was a lot easier. We spent some time with Mike and Julie and both their kids, Lisa and Nick. It was a real treat to see them.

Yum and Yuck

The yucky part first--as I was happily walking the dogs this morning in Medford, I felt a "plop" right in the middle of my scalp. Looked up and there was a bird sitting on a phone line that obviously thought I'd be a great subject for target practice. Gary got the worst of it out with a paper towel, but the next thing I am doing is washing my hair now that we have arrived in Salem for the night.

Once again, we couldn't resist staying at this RV Park. The name is such fun to say and the address is Astoria Street. It just seems so appropriate on our way to Astoria.



















California has actually finished some fabulous roadwork from about Red Bluff to the border! These smooth lanes were a treat for the RV and us.














The Yum part of this blog is blackberries. I found a huge patch and while the dogs waited patiently for the rest of their walk, I picked enough berries for a pie when we get to Mom's. Her favorite snack is berry pie--any kind of berries.

Tomorrow we are off to Astoria for the 200th anniversary celebration of Astoria as a city--oldest city west of the Mississippi!

Home Safe and Sound

It was a long day, but we are home and the RV is empty and Tule has already been in the pool. Elsie's priority was to crawl into her crate. Even dogs have their preferences.

The drive today was so interesting with all the amazing cloud formations to see--and no rain.



















Lake Shasta was the greenest I've ever seen it.






















We drove past what we call the "Lollipop Truck Store". They have every color of truck you can imagine, except plain black or white. The royal blue and lime green ones didn't make it into the photo, but they were there!


















One last interesting tidbit had to wait until we got home. In Fred Meyer in Roseburg, OR we saw the biggest marshmallows we had ever seen. Had to buy a bag. On the left is a typical California Marshmallow. On the right is the Oregon gigantaur Marshmallow. Neither of these is a mini-marshmallow, honest.


Now begins the reality of dealing with the insurance regarding the break in. Sigh.

Yarn Country

Southern Oregon has to be yarn country. We passed a zillion sheep today plus at least 2 dozen alpaca. It was a knitter's dream seeing all that potential yarn scattered along the freeway. The white dots in the field are sheep.

Gary has a quote for you--"Good old Oregon--lowest price of gas on the West Coast and they pump it for you."

Last night we fell asleep to the soothing patter of raindrops on the roof of the RV. Today we drove in and out of rain the whole way to Yreka. The clouds were amazing to see. They were super dark as we approached the Siskyous, then nice and white after we went over the summit. No rain here in Yreka.



































Tonight's entertainment was a rousing game of Cribbage where Gary beat me.


Tomorrow--home sweet home.

Finally heading home

It took awhile to get going this morning. I got up early and made Mom her favorite cinnamon rolls. Then we needed to go to a bank to try to solve a puzzle. We finally got on the road about 1 p.m.

The drive was beautiful, even though we had a bit of rain as we loaded the RV. Mt. St.Helens was out in her full glory as we drove south.

















We decided to stay in Salem and I found an RV park on Astoria St. Had to be good if it was on a street named after Gary's hometown. As you can see by the sign it is the Hee Hee Ilahee RV Park-and they are very fussy. It is new and no RV can stay if more than 10 years old.


































Turns out it has a very nice hot tub so Gary had a nice soak after his long day of driving.


Another two days and we'll be home, ready to hit the ground running on cleaning the rest of the way up after the break in.

Last night at Mom's

Today was a gorgeous day--mountains were out in both directions--Olympics and Cascades.

We went to church this morning with Mom, then shopped to fill her frig.

Her neighbor, Johnnie, came over for dinner.






















Elsie is feeling better so she spent much of the day down by the barn looking at the goat and the horse. Tule had a ball running back and forth keeping tabs on everybody.



It has been a good trip. Mom is doing very well and has a good prognosis. I am pooped and ready to head home where we'll pick up where we left off dealing with our break in.