This month's calendar                         Archives                            Our Google Calendar                   

September 1, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

This is a little late this week because of our schedule, but at least it's still Friday! Next week, it will probably be Saturday before I get the journal posted.

Lara and Greg and the girls were down last week and stayed through the weekend. They used our place for a base while they took trips to the beach and other adventures. They did get to do some crabbing too. They took Jadyn out in the outboard while we watched Jaysa. They came back with three and we had crab and salmon for dinner that night! They stayed at our place through Monday and Lara took care of my birds and plants after we left. We were able to get out in the Captain Bell for a cruise while they were here. That was fun, although Jaysa thought we had gone far enough when we were halfway into our cruise! So we cut it short and came back to the dock. Still, it was nice to know that we can just go out for a ride in the boat with no problems!

We left on Sunday to meet up with Leslie, Jason and their two girls, Ashtin and Paige for a week of camping on the other side of Mt. Hood at the Kah-nee-ta Resort on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. That's the same place Dave & I went to in June (see June 23rd Journal), only this time we took the motorhome instead of staying at the lodge. The kids had their 5th Wheel trailer and we decided to travel together. It was a good thing; we didn't even get out of Hillsboro, when we had a tire blow out on our motorhome. So we parked at the closest parking lot, which was near a Red Robin and made Dave wait for someone to come and fix it. The rest of us headed into the Red Robin for lunch! I did bring back something for Dave to eat and after the tire was changed we were on our way! This is the second time we've had to use our road hazard insurance for a tire problem, and we're sure glad we have it. Even the guys that show up with a tow truck and all the tools have a hard time changing those big tires. I guess we could do it if we had to, but it's a lot easier to call the road hazard hotline and have someone else do it!

It took about five hours from the Coast to get to Kah-nee-ta and the temperature was over 100 when we got there. So after we set up our camp, we all headed for the outdoor pool at the Village. Our reservations included swimming passes. It felt wonderful and the girls enjoyed the "little" slide and the adults had fun on the "big" slide. Instead of sitting up going down the water slide, I was talked into lying on my back because you can go faster, but when I hit the water, I swam like a torpedo! I think I drank the pool dry! I decided that wasn't the way for me to go. It was relaxing to sit out by the pool in the sun, and since the Labor Day crowds hadn't shown up yet, it was nice in the pool too! The pool is heated by natural hot springs and is almost like bath water, so it was almost like a spa.

Tuesday was Ashtin's seventh birthday, so after she opened her presents, her parents took her for a horseback ride on the trail around the village. We took Paige - who is four and too young to be able to ride on the horses - to the miniature golf course and then ice cream later. She was happy about that. Later that afternoon, we drove into the nearby town of Madras. Well, it's an hour away from Kah-nee-ta, but in that part of the world, that's like next door. Anyway, some friends of Leslie and Jason live there and they had invited us over for a bar-b-que. We also had a few errands to do like buying a new tire, picking up a few things at the grocery store and getting my glasses fixed. One of the little nose mounts had broken off and the glasses were very uncomfortable.

By Wednesday, the weather had done a complete turnaround from 100 sweltering degrees to 70 windy degrees. It was almost too cold to go swimming. That night it was really cold and we had to turn the heat on in the morning when we got up to warm us up. That seemed strange turning on the heat in August. Also the wind stirs up my allergies and I was miserable. There is something in that dry Eastern Oregon air (I think it is the Juniper) that really affects my sinuses. Once I get back on the West side of Mt. Hood, I am fine again.

On our way home, we stopped for lunch and had the new tire that we bought in Madras mounted on the motorhome. We weren't having any more tire problems, but we wanted to have the new tire instead of the spare on the rig.

It felt good to be back home again. There was a lot to do and my garden had been busy. I had to pick green beans, tomatoes and a cucumber. I will get my watering done today. We were able to get a good night's sleep last night as the highway crews have moved on to some other location while we were gone. They'll be back again, I just hope that it's while we're away.

We will be home just for a couple of days as we are planning on leaving on Monday for Ashland and the Shakespeare Festival and will be gone all week.

Sorry if this week's entry was hard to read, but there were just so many pictures I wanted to get posted! I just hope there was enough room for the words in between!